heavy cavalry engaging heavy cavalry

[Alanus]

Don't know if there was a connection or contact between Norsemen & Sarmatians/Alans but I am curious as to how an Old Iranic name got to be so popular in Iceland of all places.... Possibility that Aspar was a name of Sarmatian/Saka diety who protected horses or even a long forgotten Sarmatian/Saka hero. Speculating now. Maybe the origins of word goes back much further to “Indo-European" roots?

Please forgive me for likewise straying from the main topic. Years ago, I discovered that Layamon (a Saxon writer) called the Lady of the Lake by the name, "Argante," or "she who prepares" (young warriors.) In Gothic, we have "arjante," the preparer. Then in the Icelandic Edda, in the Hervar Saga, the name becomes male, Argantar, and he gives the sword Tyrfing to his daughter, Hervar. Tyrfing was also the sword worshiped by the Taifali, the working cavalry of the Tryfingi Goths who adopted the sword-worship ritual. The tribal name means "people of the sword Tyrfing"-- the original Sword in the Stones. How's that for connections unexplainable? At least we find the Taifali as probable heavy cavalry, with the Goths themselves as light cavalry. It doesn't explain how Tyrfing got to Iceland. Perhaps Aspar brought it there. :whistle:

I'm impressed with this thread. We are looking at exactly how aggressive horses could be... and are. If the medieval horse could be trained to bite and trample, then ancient horses had the same capabilities. These are not shy mounts who swerved away from an opponent, as previously assumed.