The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #143147   Message #3302471
Posted By: Lighter
05-Feb-12 - 09:19 AM
Thread Name: Outlandish knights we have known
Subject: RE: Outlandish knights we have known
>He also linked it to a 3rd century BC gold plated sword scabbard hanging in the Leningrad museum.

It's always easy and tempting to "link." You say, "Ooo! I see a similarity! Now you prove it's a coincidence!"

I don't know enough about the ballad or the scabbard to say whether Lloyd's "link" is significant, but it's a long, long way from Scythia in the 3rd century BC to Western Europe even in the Middle Ages.

Look at at this way. Whenever there's a showdown on a deserted street in a Western, while the terrified townspeople look on, one could say, "Ooo! It's just like Achilles facing down Hector in the Iliad! A link!"

Well, OK. But the link isn't much. It doesn't show that the story in the Western comes from the Iliad, or from antecedents of the Iliad, or from anywhere else except independent inspiration. The idea of a hero fighting a villain one on one seems pretty basic.

Admittedly, "Lady Isabel" is more complicated, which makes independent inspiration among the various versions look impossible. But we can only guess what story the scene on the scabbard might have illustrated. Since no Scythian literature survives, we're on our own.

Fun to think about, though.