battle, the army of the Iranians grows so large that the "noise of the caravan of the country of Iran went up to heavens and the noise of the moving swords went up to hell." Wishtasp's chief-minister, Jamasp (< Av. Jamaspa), whom the poem praises as infinitely wise and able to foretell the future, predicts that the Zoroastrians will win the battle, but also that many will die in it, including many of Wishtasp's clan/family. As predicted, many of the king's clansmen are killed in the fight, among them Wishtasp's brother Zarer, who is slain by Bidarafsh/Widrafsh, the wicked sorcerer (the epithet is 'jadu', implying a practitioner of black magic) of Arjasp's court. Zarer's 7-year-old son, Bastwar/Bestoor (< Av. Bastauuairi) goes to the battlefield to recover his father's body. Enraged and grieving, Bastwar wows to take revenge. Although initially forbidden to engage in battle due to his youth, Bastwar engages with the Khyaonas, killing many of them, and revenging his father by shooting an arrow through Widrafsh's heart. Meanwhile, Bastwar's cousin Spandyad (< Av. Spentodata) has captured Arjasp, who is then mutilated and humiliated by being sent away on a donkey without a tail. Bastwar is subsequently appointed his father's successor as commander-in-chief and given the hand of Wishtasp's daughter, Homai, in marriage. Shahnameh Ferdowsi's 11th century Shahnameh ("Book of Kings") retells the mythical and to some extent the historical past of the Persian Empire from the creation of the world until the Muslim conquest in the 7th century. It is one of the world's longest epic poems created by a single poet, and the national epic of Greater Iran. Ferdowsi is celebrated as one of the most influential figures of Persian literature and one of the greatest in the history of literature. The Shahnameh also contains many works of war poetry. According to New Formalist poet and professor Dick Davis, who has translated Ferdowsi's whole epic into English, the lament over the Muslim conquest by the former court poet of Yazdegerd III, the last Zoroastrian King of Kings, remains an iconic poem within Iranian literature and culture and is still quoted as a criticism of political leaders who are considered to be governing the Iranian people badly. The Wars between the Welsh and the Saxons King Arthur Thomas Gwynn Jones' hugely influential awdl Ymadawiad Arthur ("The Passing of Arthur") portrays King Arthur's last hours with his companion Bedwyr from