Table Of ContentTHE MEDIEVAL HERO
A Comparative Study in Indo-European Tradition
3rd Edition
CONNELL MONETTE
SIRIUS ACADEMIC PRESS
28203 SW 110th Ave
Wilsonville, Oregon 97070 USA
siriusacademic.com
© Copyright by Connell Monette (2013)
This book is a revised and corrected edition of an earlier version
published in 2011 with Runa-Raven, and originally published in 2008
with Verlag Dr Müller as The Medieval Hero: Christian and Muslim
Traditions, itself based on the author’s doctoral dissertation at the
Centre for Medieval Studies at University of Toronto.
First edition: 2008.
Second edition: 2011.
ISBN: 978-0-9847767-4-0
Cover design by Connell Monette and Waldo Thompson
Images of the Sassanid plate (front cover) and Sassanid shield boss
(back cover) are copyright of Wikimedia Commons
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be copied or reproduced
in any way without the expression written permission of the author(s)
and the publisher.
ii
FOREWORD
Á te, pitar Marutām, sumnám etu / má nah súryasya samdŕśo yuyothāh.
Abhí no vīró árvati kşameta / prá jāyemahi, Rudara, prajábhih.
‘Be kind, O Father of Maruts, do not cut us off from the sunlight.
Oh Rudra, may the Hero not harm [us], may our children be many.’
– The Rigveda, 14th century BCE.
The epic hero of the ancient and medieval world is a problematic
character: he simultaneously embodies the bright dream of a protective
and courageous aristocrat, and the brutal fact of a violent man with a
talent for killing. This dichotomy is often found in the characters of
Indo-European heroes, who are at once both responsible for the
protection of their society/state and its stability, yet by virtue of their
capacity for violence, are bound to exist on the margins of society –
they are never fully accepted as trusted members of their community.
The hero has several complex functions within epic literature: he
serves as a mediator between the mundane and supernatural worlds;
he serves to protect his society, but is sometimes the bringer of social
chaos; he supports the monarch, yet often this relationship is fraught
with tension.
Curiously, the biographies of the medieval Irish and Persian
heroes Cúchulainn and Rostam demonstrate a number of analogous
episodes. This study examines these heroes’ genesis episodes,
boyhood deeds, filicide episodes, heroic duels, Otherworld raids, and
death tales; in addition, it finds significant thematic parallels between
Old English Beowulf and the Persian Haftkhān-i-Rostam from the epic
Shahnameh. These analogous episodes are used as a framework to see
how Irish, Persian, and Old English literature deal with such concepts
as loyalty, honor, fame, uncontrolled rage, the Otherworld – and the
above all – the heroic code. This study then considers the potential
modes of narrative transmission (oral and literary) that would explain
the occurrence of these analogues, and questions whether the
analogues are evidence of a common Indo-European heroic tradition,
and/or of early contact between supposedly distant members of the
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(Indo-European) Celtic and Iranian tribes. This second edition of The
Medieval Hero includes a new final chapter examines the rise (or
remanifestation) of the Monstrous Hero in contemporary literature
and media, and new concluding remarks to the study.
iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Deepest thanks are due to Professors Ann Dooley, Maria Subtelny,
and Andy Orchard of University of Toronto, for their time, guidance,
and patience, and to Professor Dean Miller for his many helpful
comments on this research. Thanks are also due to good friends and
colleagues at University of Toronto (Canada) and Al Akhawayn
University in Ifrane (Morocco), and especially to my family for their
continuing love and support. Special thanks are due to Waldo
Thompson for suggesting this third edition, and for his efforts in
preparing the manuscript for publication.
*******
For my wife Fatiha and daughter Miriam,
with all my love.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright ii
Foreword iii
Acknowledgements v
Abbreviations vii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1. The Genesis of the Hero 29
Chapter 2. Epic Boyhood Deeds and Totemic Aspects 55
Chapter 3. The Filicide Episodes in the Shahnameh and
Aided Óenfir Aífe: the Hero as Social Disruptor 94
Chapter 4. Overwhelming Rage 123
Chapter 5. The Hero as Otherworld Mediator 139
Chapter 6. Mortality and Immortal Fame 198
Chapter 7. Analogue and Source 226
Chapter 8. The Monstrous Hero (or Monster-As-Hero) 239
Concluding Remarks 254
Bibliography 256
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ABBREVIATIONS
CCC Compert Con Culainn
DIL Dictionary of the Irish Language
IE Indo-European
LL The Book of Leinster
LL TBC Táin Bó Cúailgne from the Book of Leinster
LU Lebor na hUidre
MU Mesca Ulad
S Shahnameh
S TBC The Stowe Verson of Táin Bó Cúailgne
TBC Táin Bó Cúailgne
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viii
INTRODUCTION
Violence is deeply rooted in the human psyche, and the evidence of
this is all around us. Through international networks like CNN, BBC,
and Al Jazeera, we are confronted daily by the gruesome reminder of
humanity’s instinct to maim, kill, and destroy. Further, the instinct for
violence is not merely a part of global politics, but the basis for much
of contemporary entertainment. Movies, television series, and
electronic media are frequently driven by simulated or actual violence,
and the ways in which violence is depicted or enacted is shown with
realism that is improving at an alarming rate. Even the sports industry
has shown a sharp increase in blood or combat sports over the last
decade, with competitions that recall the gladiator games of ancient
Rome. As we move further into the twenty-first century, our sense of
equity, tolerance, and political correctness may continue to improve,
but our fascination with violence is no less powerful than in the
centuries prior. Yet this does not mean that violence is without rules.
Sports have been called (correctly) a form of ritualized warfare, and
even modern combat has its conventions or rules of engagement. Yet
significantly, a fascination with violence does not necessarily mean a
desire to see mass slaughter. In fact, as long as humanity has been
capable of violence, it appears to have been equally capable of
codifying how that violence could occur. Certainly in ancient and
medieval times, most civilizations developed a warrior code which
dictated how, when, and where violence should occur, and by whom
it was to be inflicted. This is especially true of the group of cultures
that are related culturally and linguistically by the term ‘Indo-
European’.
In The Epic Hero, Dean Miller states that ‘behind the potently
projected dream of an aristocratic dominance lurks the brutal, material
fact of the superior force of the weapon wielder and war maker, the
warrior; while before him – the aristocrat – is projected the image of
the hero, the warrior ideal, encased in the special epic description of
his adventures and his fate, known, feared, and admired in so many
guises and so many cultures.’1 The passage is a useful entry to my
entire discussion since it points out the stark contrast between the
bright dream of a protective and courageous aristocrat, and the brutal
1
fact of a violent man with a talent for killing. This dichotomy is often
found in the characters of Indo-European heroes, who are at once
both responsible for the protection of their society/state and its
stability, yet by virtue of their capacity for violence, are bound to exist
on the margins of society – they are never fully accepted as trusted
members of their community. In this group we might place heroes
such as Achilles, Beowulf, Hadingus, Il’ja, and Hercules; certainly so in
the case of the Irish and Iranian heroes Cúchulainn and Rostam, for
reasons which will be discussed below.2 It seems a paradox, that the
very attributes which empower the hero to defend his home and
people are the same attributes which – if unmoderated – make that
same hero a menace to society; but perhaps it is the very purpose of
the warrior which is itself the threat to society. This study will focus
on the functions of the epic hero, followed by the attributes which are
identified with this enigmatic figure.3 For several reasons, I will be
limiting this study specifically to address the champions of the Irish
and Iranian traditions, but the model produced by this process of
comparison may demonstrate parallels with other traditions, such as
Anglo-Saxon, Greek, and Welsh.4
The question may be asked: why a study of specifically Irish
and Iranian champions, when such a wide range of characters from
other Indo-European epics is available? The answer is two-fold. First,
the national epics of both Ireland (the Táin Bó Cúailnge) and Iran (the
Shahnameh) share several important features: the earliest copies of each
text have been dated to within 200 years of each other; the composer(s)
of the epics claim the tale is ancient and that the written form is simply
a redaction.5 There is strong evidence that the epics’ composer(s) were
familiar with the classical epic literature in the Greek tradition and
perhaps other countries – and for socio-political reasons were
endeavouring to write a national epic for their own states (in fact, the
author of the Shahnameh tells us this much); and the composers of the
two epics are writing several centuries after the national conversion to
a new religion (Christianity, in the case of Ireland, and Islam in the case
of Iran).6 The second reason is that, in recent years, the analogues
between medieval Iranian and Celtic literature have become the subject
of considerable interest, yet no serious study has been undertaken to
examine their inherent parallels.7 This being the case, and since most
2
