Split serpents and bitter blades: Reconstructing details of the PIE dragon-combat

In this paper I present evidence for a formula associated with the Indo-European dragon-slaying myth, Proto-Indo-European [PIE] *bheid- {h3 egwhim, kwr mi-} ???split serpent / worm???. This formula is derived via an examination of the verbal collocations which frequently occur in the context of the Vedic dragon-combat; these involve not only p han- ???slay???, but also the semantically more specific verbs p bhid- ???split???, p vra??sc- ???tear, cut, split???, and p ruj- ???break???. Not only are these latter three verbs employed in describing the dragon-slaying itself, but they also often appear describing actions linked to the dragon-combat (e.g. the releasing of the wpaters/cows), and in both cases co-occur with forms of han-. Vedic is found to provide robust evidence for the reconstruction of PIE *bheid- {h3 egwhim, kwr mi-}, which is supported by data from Iranian and Germanic. Though not as widely distributed as PIE *gwhen- h3 egwhi- ???slay serpent??? (attested for instance in Vedic ahann ahim ???(he) slew the serpent???)???a formula discussed in great detail by Watkins (1987, 1995)???*bheid- {h3 egwhim, kwr mi-} ???split serpent/worm??? is semantically more specific, and therefore more distinctive, than *gwhen- h3 egwhim, thus lending additional support for Watkins??? thesis that there exists a distinctively Indo-European dragon-slaying myth, and serving to further characterise the nature of that myth.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe