Baltog

Baltog is the first of the three heroes of the fragmentary Bicolano folk epic Ibalong. Reckoned a member of the invisible 'cloud people' (tawong-lipod) and coming from a distant homeland, he settled the land of Ibalong and taught its people to cultivate the grain linsa. When a colossal wild boar ravaged his field at Tondol, Baltog killed the beast barehanded and hung its huge jawbones on a talisay tree, a feat that won him recognition as chief of the local hunters and drew neighbouring clans to marvel at the carcass. His episode opens the epic's larger narrative of humanity taming the wild land, later continued by Handyong and Bantong.

Domains

• agriculture
• hunting

Powers

• to kill a monstrous beast with his bare hands

Epithets

• Tawong LipodEspinas, Merito B. (1968). Ibalong: The Bikol Folk Epic-Fragment. Unitas 41(3), University of Santo Tomas. (secondary)

Relations

• slayer of: TandayagBaltog chased and killed the giant wild boar Tandayag that had foraged his newly planted linsa patch, strangling it with his bare hands.Espinas, Merito B. (1968). Ibalong: The Bikol Folk Epic-Fragment. Unitas 41(3), University of Santo Tomas. (secondary)
• enemy: TandayagThe marauding boar and the pioneer farmer stand as adversaries in the opening episode of the epic.Espinas, Merito B. (1968). Ibalong: The Bikol Folk Epic-Fragment. Unitas 41(3), University of Santo Tomas. (secondary)

Sources

• Baltog is the founder-hero of the Ibalong epic, first of the Lipod clan to settle Ibalong, who introduced agriculture and slew the giant boar Tandayag.: Espinas, Merito B. (1968). Ibalong: The Bikol Folk Epic-Fragment. Unitas 41(3), University of Santo Tomas (reissued 1996, UST Publishing House). (secondary); Eugenio, Damiana L. (2001). Philippine Folk Literature: The Epics. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press. (secondary)