The Tragedy of Sorhab and Rostam

The Tragedy of Sorhab and Rostam is a thoroughly engaging tale told in the epic style. Its dates of origin are indeterminate but we know that it is just one episode in a much larger story of the Iranian national epic commonly referred to as the Shahname. The Tragedy of Sorhab and Rostam, boiled down to its most elemental state, is the story of a great warrior father who meets his equally great warrior son in battle and, after a fierce engagement of arms father mortally wounds son. The two combatants do not come to know of one another's true identities until it is too late, and the son reveals his name and heritage to the father shortly before he passes over to the other side. The actual story is, of course, more detailed and despite the prose form of this particular translation the story is nonetheless beautiful. I would really like to find a good verse translation to see how differently it might read.

My favorite part of this tale is that it so closely resembles the tale of Cuchulain and Conlaoch, an ancient Celtic myth chronicling the same tragedy of a father and son who meet in battle and, after long drawn out confrontation father triumphs over son. Go to http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/cuch/lgc21.htm for the full story of Cuchulain and Conlaoch. If I had the time I would research the connections between these two myths and the larger epics in which they reside. It would also be interesting to see how many other cultures have a similar tragedy as part of their lore.