The Heroic Age, Issue 2, Autumn/Winter 1999

Notes

1. Wu Tzu-hsü is fleeing from a cruel king who has ordered the execution of his innocent father and brother. The hero offers his precious sword to a boatman who agrees to help him cross a river. When the boatman refuses his gift, Wu Tzu-hsü throws it into the river.

2. I am preparing a supplement to this article which will demonstrate even more forcefully the connections between proto-Iranian ritual specialists and the earliest identifiable Sinitic groups.

3. See also the symposium issue of The Journal of Indo-European Studies 23/3-4 (Fall/Winter 1995), which focuses on the Bronze Age Caucasoid mummies of the Tarim Basin and surrounding areas of Central Asia.

4. Littleton has extensive research experience in Japan; I suspect that he has much more of value to say on the subject of tightly linked parallels between Japanese and Indo-European lore.

References

The Journal of Indo-European Studies. 1995. Vol. 23/3-4 (Fall/Winter).

Littleton, C. Scott. 1981. "Susa-nöuml;-wo Versus Yamata nö Woröti: An Indo-European Theme in Japanese Mythology," History of Religions 20:269-280.

Littleton, C. Scott. 1983. "Some Possible Arthurian Themes in Japanese Mythology and Folklore," Journal of Folklore Research 20:67-82.

Littleton, C. Scott, and Linda A. Malcor. 2000. From Scythia to Camelot: A Radical Reassessment of the Legends of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, and the Holy Grail. Revised edition. New York and London: Garland.

Mair, Victor H., tr. and annot. 1983. Tun-huang popular narratives Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Mair, Victor H. 1990. "Old Sinitic *myag, Old Persian maguš, and English 'Magician,'" Early China 15:27-47

Mair, Victor H. 1995. "Mummies of the Tarim Basin," Archaeology 48/2:28-35.