The heroes of the old tales survived by their wits.
As an older child, I loved reading the Icelandic sagas and was impressed by the episode in Egils Saga where the hero Egil escaped execution by King Erik Bloodaxe by composing in a single night a lengthy poem to his praises; the poem itself (titled "Höfuðlausn"), grisly as it is, is a remarkable composition. I liked how he escaped his enemy by putting his mind to work.