Hero

From Classic Encyclopedia 1911

HERO (Gr. i t I l ion), a term specially applied to warriors of extraordinary strength and

courage, and generally to all who were distinguished from their fellows by superior

moral, physical or intellectual qualities. No satisfactory derivation of the word has been

suggested.

Ancient Greek Heroes. In ancient Greece, the heroes were the object of a special cult,

and as such were intimately connected with its religious life. Various theories have been

put forward as to the nature of these heroes. According to some authorities, they were

idealized historical personages; according to others, symbolical representations of the

forces of nature. The view most commonly held is that they were degraded or "

depotentiated " gods, occupying a position intermediate between gods and men.

According to E. Rohde (in Psyche) they are souls of the dead, which after separation

from the body enter upon a higher, eternal existence. But it is only a select minority

who attain to the rank of heroes after death, only the distinguished men of the past. The

worship of these heroes is in reality an ancestor worship, which existed in pre-Homeric

times, and was preserved in local cults. Instances no doubt occur of gods being

degraded to the ranks of heroes, but these are not the real heroes, the heroes who are the

object of a cult. The cult-heroes were all persons who had lived the life of man on earth,

and it was necessary for the degraded gods to pass through this stage. They did not at

once become cult-heroes, but only after they had undergone death like other mortals.

Only one who has been a man can become a hero. The heroes are spirits of the dead, not

demi-gods; their position is not intermediate between gods and men, but by the side of

these they exist as a separate class.

In Homer the term is applied especially to warrior princes, to kings and kings' sons,

even to distinguished persons of lower rank, and free men generally. In Hesiod it is

chiefly confined to those who fought before Troy and Thebes; in view of their supposed

divine origin, he calls them demi-gods (LOot). This name is also given them in an interpolated passage in the Iliad (xii. 23), which is quite at variance with the general

Homeric idea of the heroes, who are no more than men, even if of divine origin and of

superior strength and prowess. But neither in Homer nor in Hesiod is there any trace of

the idea that the heroes after death had any power for good or evil over the lives of those

who survived them; and consequently, no cult. Nevertheless, traces of an earlier

ancestor worship appear, e.g. in funeral games in honour of Patroclus and other heroes,

while the Hesiodic account of the five ages of man is a reminiscence of the belief in the

continued existence of souls in a higher life. This pre-historic worship and belief, for a

time obscured, were subsequently revived. According to Porphyry (De abstinentia, iv.

22), Draco ordered the inhabitants of Attica to honour the gods and heroes of their

country "in accordance with the usage of their fathers " with offerings of first fruits and

sacrificial cakes every year, thereby clearly pointing to a custom of high antiquity.

Solon also ordered that the tombs of the heroes should be treated with the greatest

respect, and Cleisthenes sought to create a pan-Athenian enthusiasm by calling his new

tribes after Attic heroes and setting up their statues in the Agora. Heroic honours were at

first bestowed upon the founders of a colony or city, and the ancestors of families; if

their name was not known, one was adopted from legend. In many cases these heroes

were purely fictitious; such were the supposed ancestors of the noble and priestly

families of Attica and elsewhere (Butadae at Athens, Branchidae at Miletus Ceryces at

Eleusis), of the eponymi of the tribes and demes. Again, side by side with gods of

superior rank, certain heroes were worshipped as protecting spirits of the country or

state; such were the Aeacidae amongst the Aeginetans, Ajax son of Oileus amongst the

Epizephyrian Locrians and Hector at Thebes. Neglect of the worship of these heroes

was held to be responsible for pestilence, bad crops and other misfortunes, while, on the

other hand, if duly honoured, their influence was equally beneficent. This belief was

supported by the Delphic oracle, which was largely instrumental in promoting hero-

worship and keeping alive its due observance. Special importance was attached to the

grave of the hero and to his bodily remains, with which the spirit of the departed was

inseparably connected. The grave was regarded as his place of abode, from which he

could only be absent for a brief period; hence his bones were fetched from abroad (e.g.

Cimon brought those of Theseus from Scyros), or if they could not be procured, at least

a cenotaph was erected in his honour. Their relics also were carefully preserved: the

house of Cadmus at Thebes, the hut of Orestes at Tegea, the stone on which Telamon

had sat at Salamis (in Cyprus). Special shrines (ijpcia) were also erected in their honour,

usually over their graves. In these shrines a complete set of armour was kept, in

accordance with the idea that the hero was essentially a warrior, who on occasion came

forth from his grave and fought at the head of his countrymen, putting the enemy to

flight as during his lifetime. Like the gods, the cult heroes were supposed to exercise an

influence on human affairs, though not to the same extent, their sphere of action being

confined to their own localities. Amongst the earliest known historical examples of the

elevation of the dead to the rank of heroes are Timesius the founder of Abdera,

Miltiades, son of Cypselus, Harmodius and Aristogiton and Brasidas, the victor of

Amphipolis, who ousted the local Athenian hero Hagnon. In course of time admission

to the rank of a hero became far more common, and was even accorded to the living,

such as Lysimachus in Samothrace and the tyrant Nicias of Cos. Antiochus of

Commagene instituted an order of priests to celebrate the anniversary of his birth and

coronation in a special sanctuary, and the kings of Pergamum claimed divine honours

for themselves and their wives during their lifetime. The birthday of Eumenes was

regularly kept, and every month sacrifice was offered to him and games held in his

honour. In addition to persons of high rank, poets, legendary and others (Linus,

Orpheus, Homer, Aeschylus and Sophocles), legislators and physicians (Lycurgus,

Hippocrates), the patrons of various trades or handicrafts (artists, cooks, bakers,

potters), the heads of philosophical schools (Plato, Democritus, Epicurus) received the

honours of a cult. At Teos incense was offered before the statue of a flute-player during

his lifetime. In some countries the honour became so general that every man after death

was described as a hero in his epitaph - in Thessaly even slaves.

The cult of the heroes exhibits points of resemblance with that of the chthonian

divinities and of the dead, but differs from that of the ordinary gods, a further indication

that they were not " depotentiated " gods. Thus, sacrifice was offered to them at night or

in the evening; not on a high, but on a low altar (Eo b.pa), surrounded by a trench to

receive the blood of the victim, which was supposed to make its way through the

ground to the occupant of the grave; the victims were black male animals, whose heads

were turned downwards, not upwards; their blood was allowed to trickle on the ground

to appease the departed (aiarcovpLa); the body was entirely consumed by fire and no

mortal was allowed to eat of it; the technical expression for the sacrifice was not ba y

but Eva-y1. -ECV (less commonly EvrEvEtv). The chthonian aspect of the hero is

further shown by his attribute the snake, and in many cases he appears under that form

himself. On special occasions a sacrificial meal of cooked food was set out for the

heroes, of which they were solemnly invited to partake. The fullest description of such a

festival is the account given by Plutarch (Aristides, 21) of the festival celebrated by the

Plataeans in honour of their countrymen who had fallen at the battle of Plataea. On the

16th of the month Maimacterion, a long procession, headed by a trumpeter playing a

warlike air, set out for the graves; wagons decked with myrtle and garlands of flowers

followed, young men (who must be of free birth) carried jars of wine, milk, oil and

perfumes; next came the black bull destined for the sacrifice, the rear being brought up

by the archon, who wore the purple robe of the general, a naked sword in one hand, in

the other an urn. When he came near the tombs, he drew some water with which he

washed the gravestones, afterwards anointing them with perfume; he then sacrificed the

bull on the altar calling upon Zeus Chthonios and Hermes Psychopompos, and inviting

them in company with the heroes to the festival of blood. Finally, he poured a libation

of wine with the words: " I drink to those who died for the freedom of the Hellenes."

See especially E. Rohde, Psyche (1905) and in Rheinisches Museum, li. (1895), 28; P.

Stengel, Die griechischen Kultusaltertumer (Munich, 1898), p. 124; G. F. Schomann,

Griechische Altertumer, ii. (1897), 159; J. Wassner, De heroum aped Graecos cultu

(Kiel, 1883); article by F. Deneken in Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie, in which a

large amount of material is accumulated; J. A. Hild, Etude sur les demons (1881) and

article in Daremberg and Saglio's Dictionnaire des antiquites. Teutonic Legend. Many

of the chief characteristics of the ancient Greek heroes are reproduced in those of the

Teutonic North, the parallel being in some cases very striking; Siegfried, for instance,

like Achilles, is vulnerable only in one spot, and Wayland Smith, like Hephaestus, is

lame. Superhuman qualities and powers, too, are commonly ascribed to both, an

important difference, however, being that whatever worship may have been paid to the

Teutonic heroes never crystallized into a cult. This applies equally to those who have a

recognized historical origin and to those who are regarded as purely mythical. Of the

latter the number has tended to diminish in the light of modern scholarship. The fashion

during the 19th century set strongly in the other direction, and the " degraded gods "

theory was applied not only to such conspicuous heroes as Siegfried, Dietrich and

Beowulf, but to a host of minor characters, such as the good marquis Rudeger of the

Nibelungenlied and our own Robin Hood (both identified with Woden Hruodperaht).

The reaction from one extreme has, indeed, tended to lead to another, until not only the

heroes, but the very gods themselves, are being traced to very human, not to say

commonplace, origins. Thus M. Henri de Tourville, in his Histoire de la formation

particulariste (1903), basing his argument on the Ynglinga Saga, interpreted in the light

of " Social Science," reveals Odin, " the traveller," as a great " caravan-leader " and

warrior, who, driven f rem Asgard - a trading city on the borders of the steppes east of

the Don - by " the blows that Pompey aimed at Mithridates," brought to the north the

arts and industries of the East. The argument is developed with convincing ingenuity,

but it may be doubted whether it has permanently " rescued Odin from the misty

dreamland of mythology and restored him to history." It is now, however, admitted that,

whatever influence the one may have from time to time exercised on the other, Teutonic

myth and Teutonic heroic legend were developed on independent lines. The Teutonic

heroes are, in the main, historical personages, never gods; though, like the Greek heroes,

they are sometimes endowed with semi-divine attributes or interpreted as symbolical

representations of natural forces.

The origin of Teutonic heroic saga, which may be regarded as including that of the

Germans, Goths, Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians, is to be looked for in the period of

the so-called migration of nations (A.D. 350-650). It consequently rests upon a distinct

basis of fact, the saga (in the older and wider sense of any story said or sung) being

indeed the oldest form of historical tradition; though this of course does not exclude the

probability of the accretion of mythical elements round persons and episodes from the

very first. As to the origin of the heroic sagas as we now have them, Tacitus tells us that

the deeds of Arminius were still celebrated in song a hundred years after his death

(Annals, ii. 88) and in the Germania he speaks of " old songs " as the only kind of "

annals " which the ancient Germans possessed; but, whatever relics of the old songs

may be embedded in the Teutonic sagas, they have left no recognizable mark on the

heroic poetry of the German peoples. The attempt to identify Arminius with Siegfried is

now generally abandoned. Teutonic heroic saga, properly so-called, consists of the

traditions connected with the migration period, the earliest traces of which are found in

the works of historical writers such as Ammianus Marcellinus and Cassiodorus.

According to Jordanes (the epitomator of Cassiodorus's History of the Goths) at the

funeral of Attila his vassals, as they rode round the corpse, sang of his glorious deeds.

The next step in the development of epic narrative was the single lay of an episodic

character, sung by a single individual, who was frequently a member of a distinguished

family, not merely a professional minstrel. Then, as different stories grew up round the

person of a particular hero, they formed a connected cycle of legend, the centre of

which was the person of the hero (e.g. Dietrich of Bern). The most important figures of

these cycles are the following.

(1) Beowulf, king of the Geatas (Jutland), whose story in its present form was probably

brought from the continent by the Angles. It is an amalgamation of the myth tof Beowa,

the slayer of the water-demon and the dragon, with the historical legend of Beowulf,

nephew and successor of Hygelac (Chochilaicus), king of the Geatas, who was defeated

and slain (c. 520) while ravaging the Frisian coast. The water-demon Grendel and the

dragon (probably), by whom Beowulf is mortally wounded, have been supposed to

represent the powers of autumn and darkness, the floods which at certain seasons

overflow the low-lying countries on the coast of the North Sea and sweep away all

human habitations; Beowulf is the hero of spring and light who, after overcoming the

spirit of the raging waters, finally succumbs to the dragon of approaching winter. Others

regard him as a wind-hero, who disperses the pestilential vapours of the fens. Beowulf

is also a culture-hero. His father SceafScyld (i.e. Scyld Scefing," the protector with the

sheaf ") lands on the Anglian or Scandinavian coast when a child, in a rudderless ship,

asleep on a sheaf of grain, symbolical of the means whereby his kingdom shall become

great; the son indicates the blessings of a fixed habitation, secured against the attacks of

the sea. (2) Hildebrand, the hero of the oldest German epic. A loyal supporter of

Theodoric, he follows his master, when threatened by Odoacer, to the court of Attila.

After thirty years' absence, he returns to his home in Italy; his son Hadubrand, believing

his father to be dead, suspects treachery and refuses to accept presents offered by the

father in token of good-will. A fight takes place, in which the son is slain by the father.

In a later version, recognition and reconciliation take place. Well-known parallels are

Odysseus and Telegonis, Rustem and Sohrab. (3) Ermanaric, the king of the East Goths,

who according to Ammianus Marcellinus slew himself (c. 375) in terror at the invasion

of the Huns. With him is connected the old German Dioscuri myth of the Harlungen.

(4)Dietrich of Bern (Verona), the legendary name of Theodoric the Great. Contrary to

historical tradition, Italy is supposed to have been his ancestral inheritance, of which he

has been deprived by Odoacer, or by Ermanaric, who in his altered character of a typical

tyrant appears as his uncle and contemporary. He takes refuge in Hungary with Etzel

(Attila), by whose aid he finally recovers his kingdom. In the later middle ages he is

represented as fighting with giants, dragons and dwarfs, and finally disappears on a

black horse. Some attempts have been made to identify him as a kind of Donar or god

of thunder. (5) Siegfried (M.H. Ger. Sivrit), the hero of the Niebelungenlied, the Sigurd

of the related northern sagas, is usually regarded as a purely mythical figure, a hero of

light who is ultimately overcome by the powers of darkness, the mist-people

(Niebelungen). He is, however, closely associated with historical characters and events,

e.g. with the Burgundian king Gundahari (Gunther, Gunnar) and the overthrow of his

house and nation by the Huns; the scholars have exercised considerable ingenuity in

attempting to identify him with various historical figures. Theodor Abeling (Das

Nibelungenlied, Leipzig, 1907) traces the Nibelung sagas to three groups of Burgundian

legends, each based on fact: the Frankish-Burgundian tradition of the murder of Segeric,

son of the Burgundian king Sigimund, who was slain by his father at the instigation of

his stepmother; the Frankish-Burgundian story, as told by Gregory of Tours (iii. 11), of

the defeat of the Burgundian kings Sigimund and Godomar, and the captivity and

murder of Sigimund, by the sons of Clovis, at the instigation of their mother

Chrothildis, in revenge for the murder of her father Chilperich and of her mother, by

Godomar; the RhenishBurgundian story of the ruin of Gundahari's kingdom by Attila's

Huns. Herr Abeling identifies Siegfried (Sigurd) with Segeric, while - according to him

- the heroine of the Nibelung sagas, Kriemhild (Gudrun), represents a conf.usion of two

historical persons: Chrothildis, the wife of Clovis, and Ildico (Hilde), the wife of Attila.

(See also the articles Kriemhild, Nibelun Genlied) .

(6)Hugdietrich, Wolfdietrich and Ortnit, whose legend, like that of Siegfried, is of

Frankish origin. It is preserved in four versions, the best of which is the oldest, and has

an historical foundation. Hugdietrich is the " Frankish Dietrich " (= Hugo Theodoric),

king of Austrasia (d. 534), who like his son and successor Theodebert, was illegitimate;

both had to fight for their inheritance with relatives. The transference of the scene to

Constantinople is a reminiscence of the events of the Crusades and Theodebert's

projected campaign against that city. The version in which Hugdietrich gains access to

his future wife by disguising himself as a woman has also a foundation in fact. As the

myth of the Harlungen is connected with Ermanaric, so another Dioscuri myth (of the

Hartungen) is combined with the Ortnit-Wolfdietrich legend. The Hartungen are

probably identical with the divine youths (mentioned in Tacitus as worshipped by the

Vandal Naharvali or Nahanarvali), from whom the Vandal royal family, the Asdingi,

claimed descent. Asdingi ("Ao-T yyoi) would be represented in Gothic by Hazdiggos, "

men with women's hair " (cf. muliebri ornate in Tacitus), and in middle high German by

Hartungen. (7)Rother, king of Lombardy. Desiring to wed the daughter of Constantine,

king of Constantinople, he sends twelve envoys to ask her in marriage. They are

arrested and thrown into prison by the king. Rother, who appears under the name of

Dietrich, sets out with an army, liberates the envoys and carries off the princess. One

version places the scene in the land of the Huns. The character of Constantine in many

respects resembles that of Alexius Comnenus; the slaying of a tame lion by one of the

gigantic followers of Rother is founded on an incident which actually took place at the

court of Alexius during the crusade of i ioi under duke Well of Bavaria, when King

Rother was composed about 1160 by a Rhenish minstrel. Rother may be the Lombard

king Rothari (636-650), transferred to the period of the Crusades. (8)Walther of

Aquitaine, chiefly known from the Latin poem Waltharius, written by Ekkehard of St

Gall at the beginning of the 10th century, and fragments of an 8th-century Anglo-Saxon

Epic Waldere. Walther is not an historical figure, although the legend undoubtedly

represents typical occurrences of the migration period, such as the detention and flight

of hostages of noble family from the court of the Huns, and the rescue of captive

maidens by abduction. (9)Wieland (Volundr), Wayland the Smith, the only Teutonic

hero (his original home was lower Saxony) who firmly established himself in England.

There is absolutely no historical background for his legend. He is a firespirit, who is

pressed into man's service, and typifies the advance from the stone age to a higher stage

of civilization (working in metals). As the lame smith he reminds us of Hephaestus, and

in his flight with wings of Daedalus escaping from Minos. (10) HOgni (Hagen) and

Hedin (Hetel), whose personalities are overshadowed by the heroines Hilde and Gudrun

(Kudrun, Kutrun). In one version occurs the incident of the never-ending battle between

the forces of Hagen and Hedin. Every night Hilde revives the fallen, and " so will it

continue till the twilight of the gods." The battle represents the eternal conflict between

light and darkness, the alternation of day and night. Hilde here figures as a typical

Valkyr delighting in battle and bloodshed, who frustrates a reconciliation. Hedin had

sent a necklace as a peace-offering to Hagen, but Hilde persuades her father that it is

only a ruse. This necklace occurs in the story of the goddess Freya (Frigg), who is said

to have caused the battle to conciliate the wrath of Odin at her infidelity, the price paid

by her for the possession of the necklace Brisnigamen; again, the light god Heimdal is

said to have fought with Loki for the necklace (the sun) stolen by the latter. Hence the

battle has been explained as the necklace myth in epic form. The historical background

is the raids of the Teutonic maritime tribes on the coasts of England and Ireland.

Famous heroes who are specially connected with England are Alfred the Great, Richard

Cceur-de-Lion, King Horn, Havelok the Dane, Guy of Warwick, Sir Bevis of Hampton

(or Southampton), Robin Hood and his companions.

Celtic Heroes. The Celtic heroic saga in the British islands may be divided into the two

principal groups of Gaelic (Irish) and Brython (Welsh), the first, excluding the purely

mythological, into the Ultonian (connected with Ulster) and the Ossianic. The

Ultonianis grouped round the names of King Conchobar and the heroCuchulainn, " the

Irish Achilles," the defender of Ulster against all Ireland, regarded by some as a solar

hero. The second cycle contains the epics of Finn (Fionn, Fingal) mac Cumhail, and his

son Oisin (Ossian), the bard and warrior, chiefly known from the supposed Ossianic

poems of Macpherson. (See Celt, sec. Celtic Literature.) Of Brython origin is the cycle

of King Arthur (Artus), the adopted national hero of the mixed nationalities of whom

the " English " people was composed. Here he appears as a chiefly mythical personality,

who slays monsters, such as the giant of St Michel, the boar Troit, the demon cat, and

goes down to the underworld. The original Welsh legend was spread by British refugees

in Brittany, and was thus celebrated by both English and French Celts. From a literary

point of view, however, it is chiefly French and forms " the matter of Brittany. " Arthur,

the leader (comes Britanniae, dux bellorum) of the Siluri or Dumnonii against the

Saxons, flourished at the beginning of the 6th century. He is first spoken of in Nennius's

History of the Britons (9th century), and at greater length in Geoffrey of Monmouth's

History of the Kings of Britain (12th century), at the end of which the French Breton

cycle attained its fullest development in the poems of Chretien de Troyes and others.

Speaking generally, the Celtic heroes are differentiated from the Teutonic by the

extreme exaggeration of their superhuman, or rather extra-human, qualities. Teutonic

legend does not lightly exaggerate, and what to us seems incredible in it may be easily

conceived as credible to those by whom and for whom the tales were told; that Sigmund

and his son Sinfiotli turned themselves into wolves would be but a sign of exceptional

powers to those who believed in werewolves; Fafnir assuming the form of a serpent

would be no more incredible to the barbarous Teuton than the similar transformation of

Proteus to the Greek. But in the characterization of their heroes the Celtic imagination

runs riot, and the quality of their persons and their acts becomes exaggerated beyond the

bounds of any conceivable probability. Take, for instance, the description of some of

Arthur's knights in the Welsh tale of Kilhwch and Olwen (in the Mabinogion). Along

with Kai and Bedwyr (Bedivere), Peredur (Perceval), Gwalchmai (Gawain), and many

others, we have such figures as Sgilti Yscandroed, whose way through the wood lay

along the tops of the trees, and whose tread was so light that no blade of grass bent

beneath his weight; Sol, who could stand all day upon one leg; Sugyn the son of

Sugnedydd, who was "broad-chested" to such a degree that he could suck up the sea on

which were three hundred ships and leave nothing but dry land; Gweyyl, the son of

Gwestad, who when he was sad would let one of his lips drop beneath his waist and turn

up the other like a cap over his head; and Uchtry Varyf Draws, who spread his red

untrimmed beard over the eight-and-forty rafters of Arthur's hall. Such figures as these

make no human impression, and criticism has busied itself in tracing them to one or

other of the shadowy divinities of the Celtic pantheon. However this may be, remnants

of their primitive superhuman qualities cling to the Celtic heroes long after they have

been transfigured, under the influence of Christianity and chivalry, into the heroes of the

medieval Arthurian romance, types - for the most part - of the knightly virtues as these

were conceived by the middle ages; while shadowy memories of early myths live on,

strangely disguised, in certain of the episodes repeated uncritically by the medieval

poets. So Merlin preserves his diabolic origin; Arthur his mystic coming and his mystic

passing; while Gawain, and after him Lancelot, journey across the river, as the Irish

hero Bran had done before them to the island of fair women - the Celtic vision of the

realm of death.

The chief heroes of the medieval Arthurian romances are the following. Arthur himself,

who tends however to become completely overshadowed by his knights, who make his

court the starting-point of their adventures. Merlin (Myrddin), the famous wizard, bard

and warrior, perhaps an historical figure, first introduced by Geoffrey of Monmouth,

originally called Ambrose from the British leader Ambrosius Aurelianus, under whom

he is said to have first served. Perceval (Parzival, Parsifal), the Welsh Peredur, " the

seeker of the basin," the most intimately connected with the quest of the Grail (q.v.).

Tristan (Tristram), the ideal lover of the middle ages, whose name is inseparably

associated with that of Iseult. Lancelot, son of Ban king of Brittany, a creation of

chivalrous romance, who only appears in Arthurian literature under French influence,

known chiefly from his amour with Guinevere, perhaps in imitation of the story of

Tristan and Iseult. Gawain (Welwain, Welsh Gwalchmai), Arthur's nephew, who in

medieval romance remains the type of knightly courage and chivalry, until his character

is degraded in order to exalt that of Lancelot. Among less important, but still

conspicuous, figures may be mentioned Kay (the Kai of the Mabinogion), Arthur's

foster-brother and sensechal, the type of the bluff and boastful warrior, and Bedivere

(Bedwyr), the type of brave knight and faithful retainer, who alone is with Arthur at his

passing, and afterwards becomes " a hermit and a holy man." (See Arthur, Merlin,

Perceval, Tristan, Lancelot, Gawain.) Heroes of Romance. Another series of heroes,

forming the central figures of stories variously derived but developed in Europe by the

Latin-speaking peoples, may be conveniently grouped under the heading of " romance."

Of these the most important are Alexander of Macedon and Charlemagne, while

alongside of them Priam and other heroes of the Trojan war appear during the middle

ages in strangely altered guise. Of all heroes of romance Alexander has been the most

widely celebrated. His name, in the form of Iskander, is familiar in legend and story all

over the East to this day; to the West he was introduced through a Latin translation of

the original Greek romance (by the pseudo-Callisthenes) to which the innumerable

Oriental versions are likewise traceable (see Alexander Iii., King Of Macedon; sec. The

Romance of Alexander). More important in the West, however, was the cycle of legends

gathering round the figure of Charlemagne, forming what was known as " the matter of

France." The romances of this cycle, of Germanic (Frankish) origin and developed

probably in the north of France by the French (probably in the north of France) contain

reminiscences of the heroes of the Merovingian period, and in their later development

were influenced by the Arthurian cycle. Just as Arthur was eclipsed by his companions,

so Charlemagne's vassal nobles, except in the Chanson de Roland, are exalted at the

expense of the emperor, probably the result of the changed relations between the later

emperors and their barons. The character of Charlemagne himself undergoes a change;

in the Chanson de Roland he is a venerable figure, mild and dignified, while later he

appears as a cruel and typical tyrant (as is also the case with Ermanaric). The basis of

his legend is mainly historical, although the story of his journey to Constantinople and

the East is mythical, and incidents have been transferred from the reign of Charles

Martel to his. Charlemagne is chiefly venerated as the champion of Christianity against

the heathen and the Saracens. (See Charlemagne, ad fin. " The Charlemagne Legends.")

The most famous heroes who are associated with him are Roland, praefect of the

marches of Brittany, the Orlando of Ariosto, slain at Roncevaux (Roncevalles) in the

Pyrenees, and his friend and rival Oliver (Olivier); Ogier the Dane, the Holger Danske

of Hans Andersen, and Huon of Bordeaux, probably both introduced from the Arthurian

cycle; Renaud (Rinaldo) of Montauban, one of the four sons of Aymon, to whom the

wonderful horse Bayard was presented by Charlemagne; the traitor Doon of Mayence;

Ganelon, responsible for the treachery that led to the death of Roland; Archbishop

Turpin, a typical specimen of muscular Christianity; William Fierabras, William au

court nez, William of Toulouse, and William of Orange (all probably identical), and

Vivien, the nephew of the latter and the hero of Aliscans. The late Charlemagne

romances originated the legends, in English form, of Sowdone of Babylone, Sir Otnel,

Sir Fieumbras and Huon of Bordeaux (in which Oberon, the king of the fairies, the son

of Julius Caesar and Morgan the Fay, was first made known to England).

The chief remains of the Spanish heroic epic are some poems on the Cid, on the seven

Infantes of Lara, and on Fernn Gonzalez, count of Castile. The legend of Charlemagne

as told in the CrOnica general of Alfonso X. created the desire for a national hero

distinguished for his exploits against the Moors, and Roland was thus supplanted by

Bernardo del Carpio. Another famous hero and centre of a 14th-century cycle of

romance was Amadis of Gaul; its earliest form is Spanish, although the Portuguese have

claimed it as a translation from their own language. There is no trace of a French

original.

[edit]

Slavonic Heroes

The Slavonic heroic saga of Russia centres round Vladimir of Kiev (980-1015), the first

Christian ruler of that country, whose personality is eclipsed by that of Ilya (Elias) of

Mourom, the son of a peasant, who was said to have saved the empire from the Tatars at

the urgent request of his emperor. It is not known whether he was an historical

personage; many of the achievements attributed to him border on the miraculous. A

much-discussed work is the Tale of Igor, the oldest of the Russian medieval epics. Igor

was the leader of a raid against the heathen Polovtsi in 1185; at first successful, he was

afterwards defeated and taken prisoner, but finally managed to escape. Although the

Finns are not Sla y s, on topographical grounds mention may here be made of

Wainamoinen, the great magician and hero of the Finnish epic Kalevala (" land of

heroes "). The popular hero of the Servians and Bulgarians is Marko Kralyevich, son of

Vukashin, characterized by Goethe as a counterpart of the Greek Heracles and the

Persian Rustem. For the Persian, Indian, &c., heroes see the articles on the literature and

religions of the various countries.

[edit]

Authorities

- On the subject generally, see J. G. T. Grasse, Die grossen Sagenkreise des Mittelalters

(Dresden, 1842), forming part of his Lehrbuch einer Literargeschichte der

beriihmtesten Volker des Mittelalters; W. P. Ker, Epic and Romance (2nd ed., 1908).

Teutonic. - B. Symons, " Germanische Heldensage " in H. Paul's Grundris der

germanischen Philologie, iii. (Strassburg, 1900), 2nd revised edition, separately printed

(ib., 1905); W. Grimm, Die deutsche Heldensage (1829, 3rd ed., 1889), still one of the

most important works; W. Miller, Mythologie der deutschen Heldensage (Heilbronn,

1886) and supplement, Zur Mythologic der griechischen and deutschen Heldensage (ib.,

1889); O. L. Jiriczek, Deutsche Ileldensagen, i. (Strassburg, 1898) and Die deutsche

Heldensage (3rd revised edition, Leipzig, 1906); Chantepie de la Saussaye, The

Religion of the Teutons (Eng. tr., Boston, U.S.A., 1902); J. G. Robertson, History of

German Literature (1902). See also HELDENBUCIi.

Celtic. - M. H. d'Arbois de Jubainville, Cours de literature celtique (12 vols., 1883-

1902), one vol. trans. into English by R. I. Best, The Irish Mythological Cycle and

Celtic Mythology (1903); L. Petit de Julleville, Hist. de la langue et de la litt. francaise,

i. Moyen age (1896); C. Squire, The Mythology of the British Isles: an Introduction to

Celtic Myth and Romance (1905); J. Rhys, Celtic Britain (3rd ed., 1904). Slavonic. - A.

N. Rambaud, La Russie epique (1876); W. Wollner, Untersuchungen fiber die Volksepik

der Grossrussen (1879); W. R. Morfill, Slavonic Literature (1883).

>

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