Nart sagas

The Nart sagas ( Abkhaz: Нарҭаа ражәабжьқәа; ''Nartaa raƶuabƶkua''; ady, Нарт тхыдэжъхэр, translit=Nart txıdəĵxər; os, Нарты кадджытæ; ''Narty kaddžytæ''; ''Nartı kadjıtæ'') are a series of tales originating from the North Caucasus. They form much of the basic mythology of the ethnic groups in the area, including Abazin, Abkhaz, Circassian, Ossetian, Karachay-Balkar, and to some extent Chechen- Ingush folklore.

Etymology

The term ''nart'' comes from the Ossetian ''Nartæ'', which is ''plurale tantum'' of ''nar''. The derivation of the root ''nar'' is of Iranian origin, from Proto-Iranian ''*nar'' for 'hero, man', descended from Proto-Indo-European '' *h₂nḗr''. In Ingush and Chechen, the word ''nart'' means 'giant'.

Characters

Some of the characters who feature prominently in the sagas are:

* Sosruko ( Ubykh, Abkhaz and Adyghe: ''sawsərəqʷa'' (Саусырыкъо); Ossetian: ''Soslan'' (Сослан)) – a hero who sometimes also appears as a trickster
* Batraz (Ossetian: Батырадз) – the leader and greatest warrior of the Narts
* Satanaya (Ubykh: ''satanaja''; Adyghe: ''Setenej'' (Сэтэнай); Ossetian: ''Satana'' (Сатана)) – the mother of the Narts, a fertility figure and matriarch
* Tlepsh (Adyghe and Abaza: '; Ossetian: ''K^wyrdalægon'' (Куырдалæгон)) – a blacksmith deity
* Syrdon (Ossetian: Сырдон) – a trickster figure compared by Georges Dumezil to the Norse god Loki (see :ru:Сырдон)
* Pkharmat ( Chechen: ''Pẋarmat'' (Пхьармат)) – in the Nakh peoples' Vainakh epos, a blacksmith figure who steals fire from the gods for the mortals
* Dzerassae (Ossetian: Дзерассæ) – daughter of the sea-god Donbettyr, and mother of many Nart heroes

Study and significance

The first Westerner to take note of the Nart stories was the German scholar Julius von Klaproth, who traveled to the Caucasus during the first decade of the 19th century. The earliest written account of the material is attributed to the Kabardian author Shora Begmurzin Nogma, who wrote in Russian in 1835–1843, published posthumously in 1861. A German translation by Adolf Berge was published in 1866 . The stories exist in the form of prose tales as well as epic songs.

It is generally known that all of the Nart corpora have an ancient Iranian core, inherited from the Scythians, Sarmatians, and Alans (the latter being the ancestors of the Ossetians). However, they also contain abundant local North Caucasian accretions of great antiquity, which sometimes reflect an even more archaic past.

The Ossetes consider the Nart epic to be a central feature of their national identity. Based especially on the Ossetian versions, the Nart stories have been valued by scholars as a window towards the world of the Iranian-speaking cultures of antiquity, and as an important source for comparative Indo-European mythology. For example, the philologist Georges Dumézil used the Ossetian division of the Narts into three clans to support his ''Trifunctional Hypothesis'' that the Proto-Indo-Europeans were similarly divided into three castes—warriors, priests, and commoners.

The Northwest Caucasian ( Circassian, Abkhaz-Abasin and Ubykh) versions are also highly valuable because they contain more archaic accretions and preserve "all the odd details constituting the detritus of earlier traditions and beliefs", as opposed to the Ossetian ones, which have been "reworked to form a smooth narrative".

Connections to other mythology

Some motifs in the Nart sagas are shared by Greek mythology. The story of Prometheus chained to Mount Kazbek or to Mount Elbrus in particular is similar to an element in the Nart sagas. These shared motifs are seen by some as indicative of an earlier proximity of the Caucasian peoples to the ancient Greeks, also shown in the myth of the Golden Fleece, in which Colchis is generally accepted to have been part of modern-day Georgia.

In the book ''From Scythia to Camelot'', authors C. Scott Littleton and Linda A. Malcor speculate that many aspects of the Arthurian legends are derived from the Nart sagas. The proposed vector of transmission is the Alans, some of whom migrated into northern France at around the time the Arthurian legends were forming. As expected, these parallels are most evident in the Ossetian versions, according to researcher John Colarusso. For more details, see " Historicity of King Arthur – Lucius Artorius Castus and the Sarmatian connection."

Differences between Nart legends

There are some differences between the various versions of the Nart legends. For example, the Ossetian versions depict the Nartic tribe as composed of three distinct clans that sometimes rival one another: the brave Æxsærtægkatæ (to whom the most prominent Narts belong), the rich Borætæ, and the wise Alægatæ; the Circassian versions do not depict such a division. The Abkhaz versions are unique in describing the Narts as a single nuclear family composed of Satanaya's one hundred sons. All of these versions describe the Narts as a single coherent group of (mostly) "good" heroes.

Some Nakh ( Chechen- Ingush) legends include a group called the ''Nart-Orxustxoi'', which includes the most prominent Narts known from the other versions (e.g. Seska-Solsa corresponding to Sosruko/Soslan, Khamtsha-Patarish corresponding to Batraz/Batradz, etc.) In contrast to the Ossetian and Abkhaz versions, the Nakh legends depict the Narts as warlike bandits who fight against local good heroes such as Koloi-Kant and Qinda-Shoa (with Qinda-Shoa corresponding to Sawway/Shawey).

Shayan Javadi, the Persian translator of "Nart" by matching the Ossetian, Abkhaz, Abaza, Circassian, and Ubykh versions, has been able to identify the lineage of some characters who have only been named. For instance, by recreating a character named "Qânzezâd (Abaza: Qanzhoquo)," he believes that he is the son of Azaukhan in the Ossetian version.

See also

* Chechen-Ingush mythology
* Epic poetry
* Norse Saga
* Ossetian mythology
* Scythian mythology
* ''The Magic Pipe'' (film)
* Uastyrdzhi
* Kurdalægon
* Bogatyr

References

Sources

*
*
**Also published as , with an introduction by Adrienne Mayor
*
*

Further reading

Circassian Nart sagas

* , English translations
* , Russian translations
*Articles:
**
**
**

Ossetian Nart sagas

*
*, three collections of legends (Dzhanayev, Gutiev and Skodtayev/Kibirov, the latter from the Digor dialect area). The first collection (the 1946 Dzhanayev edition) is also available in the form o
older
an
newer
audio recordings
*: a translation, with slight modifications, of the Dzhanayev edition at the previous link
* (legends collected from the Digor dialect area, edited by M. Gardanti)

Abkhaz Nart sagas

*

Karachay-Balkar Nart sagas

*
* , detailed set of tales
*Russian translations from
** , (part 1)
** , (part 2)

Chechen-Ingush Nart sagas

*
*Accounts of Chechen and Ingush beliefs by Ch.E.Akhriev
**
**
*

Miscellaneous

* , Causcasian folklore articles
*
* Дувакин Евгений Николаевич. "Кельто-кавказские фольклорные параллели и возможные сценарии их происхождения" OLKLORE PARALLELS BETWEEN CELTIC AND CAUCASIAN TRADITIONS: THE EURASIAN CONTEXT AND POSSIBLE SCENARIOS OF THE ORIGIN Индоевропейское языкознание и классическая филология, no. 23-1, 2019, pp. 295-307. URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/kelto-kavkazskie-folklornye-paralleli-i-vozmozhnye-stsenarii-ih-proishozhdeniya (дата обращения: 29.09.2021). (In Russian)

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nart Saga
Epic poems
European folklore
North Caucasus
Ossetian mythology
Abkhaz literature
Ubykh language
Circassian mythology
Sagas