Heroes

I, I will be king

And you, you will be queen

Though nothing will drive them away

We can be heroes, just for one day

(David Bowie)

Whilst researching potential force compositions for my Achaean army, I have gone back to the Iliad for inspiration; it goes without saying that the Iliad will be the principle source for this project. Whether Homeric warfare reflects Bronze Age warfare or is actually more representative of warfare at the time the poems were written down is a controversial and oft debated subject; that said it's the only source we have so it will have to do. Anyway it's such a damned good story that it would be a shame not to use it; so the Iliad it is then. Reading the battle accounts therein, I was struck by the emphasis on heroes, both Greek and Trojan. Take the following passage for example:

He had two sons, Phegeus and Idaios, both of them skilled in all the arts of war. These two came forward from the main body of Trojans, and set upon Diomedes, he being on foot, while they fought from their chariot. When they were close up to one another, Phegeus took aim first, but his spear went over Diomedes' left shoulder without hitting him. Diomedes then threw, and his spear sped not in vain, for it hit Phegeus on the breast near the nipple, and he fell from his chariot. Idaios did not dare to bestride his brother's body, but sprang from the chariot and took to flight, or he would have shared his brother's fate; whereon Hephaistos saved him by wrapping him in a cloud of darkness, that his old father might not be utterly overwhelmed with grief; but the son of Tydeus drove off with the horses, and bade his followers take them to the ships.

The passage was chosen at random but is a typical example of many such instances. The quoted section largely focusses on the exploits of Diomedes; in fact the whole chapter centres upon Diomedes' actions, in which he appears to be a one man army as he wreaks havoc and destruction upon the Trojans. With page after page of such accounts, one could be forgiven for assuming that all the fighting is attributable to the named heroes alone. However, my completely untutored view is that this is just an example of ‘heroic’ poetry as sung by bards from time immemorial. 

To me the emphasis on the principal heroic characters does not seem that unusual; this is nicely typified by the 9th century Historia Brittonum in which we find:

‘The twelfth battle was on Mount Badon in which there fell in one day 960 men from one charge by Arthur; and no one struck them down except Arthur himself’.

Oh yeah, 960 men all by himself? He might be a legendary king but that’s going some!

Or how about Y Gododdin, in which the exploits of many British heroes are described, each with their own dedicated verse?

Never was made a hall so mighty.

There was never a warrior braver

Than kind-hearted Cynon, jewel-decked lord.

He was seated at the table's head.

The man he struck was not struck again.

Very sharp his spears,

White shield rent, he ripped armies.

Very swift his steeds, racing in front,

On the day of wrath his blades were death

When Cynon charged in the green of dawn.

We might expect this of these ancient British Celtic types; after all they’re descended from Trojans anyway – if you ascribe to that tosh. However, leaving the more mythical and legendary stuff behind and moving forward in time to more firmly historical events we can still see heroic versions of fairly well attested events. Take the Battle of Brunanburh (937 AD), for instance:

King Athelstan, the lord of warriors,

Patron of heroes, and his brother too,

Prince Edmund, won themselves eternal glory

In battle with the edges of their swords

Round Brunanburh; they broke the wall of shields,

The sons of Edward with their well-forged swords

Slashed at the linden-shields; such was their nature

From boyhood that in battle they had often

Fought for their land, its treasures and its homes,

Against all enemies.

Or the Battle of Maldon (991 AD):

Bows were busily at work, shields received spears.

Fierce was that onslaught. Warriors fell in battle

on either side, young men lay slain.

Wounded was Wulfmaer, meeting death on the battlefield,

Byrhtnoth's kinsman: he with sword was,

his sister's son, cruelly hewn down.

There were the Vikings given requital:

I hear that Eadweard smote one

fiercely with his sword, withholding not in his blow,

so that at his feet fell a doomed warrior;

for this he of his people gave thanks for,

this chamber-thane, when the opportunity arose.

The Brunanburh account reads as if Athelstan, Edmund and sons did all the fighting themselves, yet the enemy are implicitly numerous in their wall of shields. In the same vein, the Maldon poem gives prominence to Byrhtnoth, along with his kinsmen and retainers but, in this case, they are explicitly part of a larger force.

The example of Brunanburh is interesting as one of the Norse sagas, Egil’s Saga, is thought to contain an account of the battle.

Then Thorolf became so furious that he cast his shield on his back, and, grasping his halberd with both hands, bounded forward dealing cut and thrust on either side. Men sprang away from him both ways, but he slew many. Thus he cleared the way forward to earl Hring’s standard, and then nothing could stop him. He slew the man who bore the earl’s standard, and cut down the standard-pole. After that he lunged with his halberd at the earl’s breast, driving it right through mail-coat and body, so that it came out at the shoulders; and he lifted him up on the halberd over his head, and planted the butt-end in the ground. There on the weapon the earl breathed out his life in sight of all, both friends and foes. Then Thorolf drew his sword and dealt blows on either side, his men also charging. Many Britons and Scots fell, but some turned and fled.

This saga shares many parallels with the Iliad; both were put down in written form hundreds of years after the event (1240 AD in the case of Egil’s Saga). It has been claimed that the Iliad contains material that is later than the Bronze Age in which it is set. This also seems to be the case with Egil’s Saga; halberds in the 10^th century sound unlikely, unless of course this is just a vagary of the translation. In both cases we see the emphasis on ‘the hero’ with attendant heroic actions involving feats of great strength; Homer’s heroes throw large boulders whilst the Norse heroes lift bodies on the end of halberds!

What seems clear is that the heroic poems and sagas emphasise the role of the heroes but it seems more than likely these were battles involving masses of troops fighting. And so it is with the Iliad; our heroes have the greatest prominence yet if we look close enough I suspect we will find the unnamed masses fighting and dying alongside their lords and masters. But that is for another post.

So what have we learned from this little exercise? Well, it suggests to me that if we are to capture the feel of Homeric warfare then our chosen rules will need to emphasise the ‘heroes’. To my mind that suggests a variant of the Lardies’ rules, with their emphasis on ‘Big Men’. At the moment, I reckon, a Dux Britanniarum variant is the front runner and current favourite.