"he left it dead, and with its head/ he went galumphing back" allusion?

Question

ok so this poem is from jabberwocky by lewis carroll in through the looking glass, and i'd like to know what mythical allusion is this line describing

...i remember something similar in ancient greek mythology..but i dont quite remember..

Answer 1

Hey,

It gives me an image similar to one in Beowulf. Makes me think of a hero sleighing a monster. Hope this helps :)

xxxx

Answer 2

Maybe you are thinking of Perseus, who carried Medusa the gorgon's head on his shield to petrify enemies?

Answer 3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabberwocky

For some fascinating reading on all things Jabberwocky, on Carroll's given infuences for the poem, and on other people's ideas on what Carroll alluded to in it...

...like Roger L. Green writing first in 1957 and then again in his The Lewis Carroll Handbook, in 1962, that much of the poem alludes to an old German ballad called The Shepherd of Giant Mountains, in which a 'young shepherd slays a Griffin'...

...and much more like that, please use the link above.