THE HORSE AS AN EPIC CHARACTER 



digerd is killed by a white horse which comes out of a 

 fountain. 



A number of these supernatural horses are related to 

 one another. In the Norse Saga, Grani is the offspring 

 of Sleipnir, and Sleipnir had as parents the horse 

 SvaS'ilfari and the god Loki. Just as human heroes in 

 the epic, at first in no wise connected with each other, 

 are later made members of the same family, so we have 

 horse families. This is true of the horses in the German 

 Dietrich Saga; and here is an especially good instance 

 from the Russian songs. When Dyuk Stepanovich 

 weeps bitterly because he has rashly wagered that his 

 shaggy pony is swifter than the hero Churilo's horse, 

 the pony says: " Cheer up, pathetic master mine! Not 

 over Mother Dnieper^s flood alone will I leap, but yet 

 three versts upon the other side. If I yield not to my 

 elder brother, much less will I give way before my 

 younger. For my eldest brother is with Ilya of Murom, 

 my second with Dobrynya Nikitich. I am the third, 

 and Churilo's steed is but the fourth. '' 



Another resemblance exists between horse and human 

 heroes. The childhood of the latter frequently gives no 

 promise of their future brilHant careers. Now, the epic 

 has much to say about the appearance of the different 

 horses. Some are splendid creatures. This is the way 

 the daughter of Queen Meve described the steeds of 

 CuchuUin as she, from the sunny parlor over the great 

 door of the fort, watched them approach: "I see two 

 horses of the one size and beauty, the one fierceness 



H7 



