The Nart sagas (; ; ) are a series of tales originating from the

North Caucasus The North Caucasus, or Ciscaucasia, is a subregion in Eastern Europe governed by Russia. It constitutes the northern part of the wider Caucasus region, which separates Europe and Asia. The North Caucasus is bordered by the Sea of Azov and the B ...

. They form much of the basic

mythology Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

of the ethnic groups in the area, including

Abazin The Abazin, Abazinians or Abaza ( Abaza and Abkhaz: Абаза; Circassian: Абазэхэр; ; ; ) are an ethnic group of the Northwest Caucasus, closely related to the Abkhaz and Circassian peoples. Today, as a result of atrocities committ ...

, Abkhaz, Circassian, Ossetian,

Karachay The Karachays or Karachais ( or ) are a North Caucasian- Turkic ethnic group primarily located in their ancestral lands in Karachay–Cherkess Republic, a republic of Russia in the North Caucasus. They and the Balkars share a common origi ...

Balkar Balkars ( or аланла, romanized: alanla or таулула, , 'mountaineers') are a Turkic ethnic group in the North Caucasus region, one of the titular populations of Kabardino-Balkaria. Their Karachay-Balkar language is of the Ponto ...

, and to some extent Chechen-

Ingush Ingush may refer to: * Ingush language, Northeast Caucasian language * Ingush people, an ethnic group of the North Caucasus See also *Ingushetia (disambiguation) Ingushetia is a federal republic and subject of Russia. Ingushetia may also refer ...

folklore.

Etymology

The term ''nart'' comes from the Ossetian , which is ''

plurale tantum A ; ) is a noun that appears only in the plural form and does not have a singular variant for referring to a single object. In a less strict usage of the term, it can also refer to nouns whose singular form is rarely used. In English, are oft ...

'' of . The derivation of the

root In vascular plants, the roots are the plant organ, organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often bel ...

''nar'' is of

Iranian Iranian () may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Iran ** Iranian diaspora, Iranians living outside Iran ** Iranian architecture, architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia ** Iranian cuisine, cooking traditions and practic ...

origin, from

Proto-Iranian Proto-Iranian or Proto-Iranic is the reconstructed proto-language of the Iranian languages branch of Indo-European language family and thus the ancestor of the Iranian languages such as Persian, Pashto, Sogdian, Zazaki, Ossetian, Mazandara ...

''*nar'' for 'hero, man', descended from

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...

'' *h₂nḗr'' (the name of the Roman emperor

Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68) was a Roman emperor and the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 until his ...

also derives from this same root). In

and Chechen, the word ''nart'' means 'giant'.

Characters

Some of the characters who feature prominently in the sagas are: * Sosruko or Soslan (

Ubykh Ubykh may refer to: * Ubykh language * Ubykh people * Ubykhia, a historical land of Ubykhs {{disambig Language and nationality disambiguation pages ...

, Abkhaz and Adyghe: ''sawsərəqʷa'' (Саусырыкъо); ) – a hero who sometimes also appears as a

trickster In mythology and the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story (god, goddess, spirit, human or anthropomorphisation) who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherw ...

Batraz Batraz, Batradz, Batyradz, or Pataraz ( Ossetian: ) is a central character in the North Caucasian myths known as the Nart sagas. The Narts were the central figures of the folklore of peoples of the North Caucasus. Myth Batraz in the Ossetian N ...

() – the leader and greatest warrior of the Narts *

Satanaya Satanaya ( ; ; Ubykh ; ''Satana'') is a mythological figure who appears in many cycles of the Nart sagas of the North Caucasus. Satanaya is the mother of the Narts, a fertility figure who is also an authority over her children. Satanaya is o ...

(; ; ) – the mother of the Narts, a

fertility Fertility in colloquial terms refers the ability to have offspring. In demographic contexts, fertility refers to the actual production of offspring, rather than the physical capability to reproduce, which is termed fecundity. The fertility rate ...

figure and matriarch *

Tlepsh Tlepsh ( Adyghe Лъэпш ) is a mythological figure who appears (as a blacksmith and also a powerful leader) in some cycles of the Nart sagas of the Caucasus, in which his Ossetian counterpart is the smith Kurdalægon. Tlepsh's name is a borrowi ...

(Adyghe and Abaza: ; ) – a blacksmith deity * () – a trickster figure compared by

Georges Dumezil Georges may refer to: Places *Georges River, New South Wales, Australia * Georges Quay (Dublin) *Georges Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania Other uses * Georges (name) * ''Georges'' (novel), a novel by Alexandre Dumas * "Georges" (song), a 19 ...

to the Norse god

Loki Loki is a Æsir, god in Norse mythology. He is the son of Fárbauti (a jötunn) and Laufey (mythology), Laufey (a goddess), and the brother of Helblindi and Býleistr. Loki is married to the goddess Sigyn and they have two sons, Narfi (son of Lo ...

Pkharmat Pkharmat () is a legendary hero of the Nakh peoples, Vainakh people who Theft of fire, stole fire for mankind, thus allowing them to forge metal, cook food, and light their homes, and uniting the people into a nation.Lecha Ilyasov. ''The Diversity ...

() – in the

Nakh peoples The Nakh peoples are a group of North Caucasian languages, North Caucasian peoples identified by their use of the Nakh languages and other cultural similarities. These are chiefly the ethnic Chechen people, Chechen, Ingush people, Ingush and Ba ...

' Vainakh epos, a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

figure who steals fire from the gods for the mortals * Akhsar and Akhsartag () are

twin brothers Twin Brothers is a Navajo Sandstone mountain in Zion National Park in Washington County, Utah, United States. Description Twin Brothers is situated immediately north of The East Temple, and immediately south of Mountain of the Sun, toweri ...

who are heroes in

Ossetian mythology Ossetian mythology or Alan mythology () is the collective term for the beliefs and practices of the Ossetian people of the Caucasus region, which contains several gods and supernatural beings. The religion itself is believed to be of Scythian ori ...

and sons of Warhag. Akhsartag is also the father of the narts

Uryzmaeg Uryzmaeg is the hero of the Nart saga of the peoples of the Caucasus, son of Akhshar and Akhsartag, Akhsartag and Dzerassae. In the Nart saga Birth of Uryzmaeg and Haemyts Akhshar and Akhsartag, Akhsartag descended to the bottom of the sea ...

and

Haemyts Haemyts or Khamits (Ossetian language, Ossetian: ''Хæмыц,'' Adyghe language, Adyghe: ''Хъымыщ,'' Kabardian language, Kabardian: ''Хъымыщ,'' Chechen language, Chechen: ''Хамчи,'' Ingush language, Ingush: ''Хамча,'' Abkhaz ...

. *

Dzerassae Dzerassæ () is a figure in Ossetian mythology best known as the daughter of the List of water deities, water deity Donbettyr and the mother of several Nart saga heroes. She was the wife of Akhshar and Akhsartag, Akhsartag. With him, she was the mo ...

() – daughter of the sea-god Donbettyr, and mother of many Nart heroes. *

(; ; , Chechen: Орзми,

: ''Урузман,'' Abkhazian, Abaza: ''Уазырмас'', ) is the hero of the Nart saga, son of Akhsartag and

. *

(, , , , , , , ) is the hero of the, son of Akhsartag and

, the father of the hero

and the twin brother of Uruzmaeg, with whom they often went on conquest campaigns together.

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 Adolf Pyetrovich Berzhe (also spelled Bergé; rus, Адо́льф Петро́вич Берже́, p=ɐdəlʲf pʲɪtrəvʲɪd͡ʑ bʲɪrˈʐɛ; – ) was an Imperial Russian bureaucrat and an Orientalist historian, with principal interests ...

was published in 1866 . The stories exist in the form of prose tales as well as epic songs. It is generally known that some of the Nart corpora have an ancient Iranian core, inherited from the

Scythians The Scythians ( or ) or Scyths (, but note Scytho- () in composition) and sometimes also referred to as the Pontic Scythians, were an Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian peoples, Iranian Eurasian noma ...

Sarmatians The Sarmatians (; ; Latin: ) were a large confederation of Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Iranian Eurasian nomads, equestrian nomadic peoples who dominated the Pontic–Caspian steppe, Pontic steppe from about the 5th century BCE to the 4t ...

, and

Alans The Alans () were an ancient and medieval Iranian peoples, Iranic Eurasian nomads, nomadic pastoral people who migrated to what is today North Caucasus – while some continued on to Europe and later North Africa. They are generally regarded ...

(the latter being the ancestors of the

Ossetians The Ossetians ( or ; ),Merriam-Webster (2021), s.v"Ossete" also known as Ossetes ( ), Ossets ( ), and Alans ( ), are an Iranian peoples, Iranian ethnic group who are indigenous to Ossetia, a region situated across the northern and southern side ...

). 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

-speaking cultures of antiquity, and as an important source for comparative Indo-European mythology. For example, the philologist

Georges Dumézil Georges Edmond Raoul Dumézil (4 March 189811 October 1986) was a French Philology, philologist, Linguistics, linguist, and religious studies scholar who specialized in comparative linguistics and comparative mythology, mythology. He was a prof ...

used the Ossetian division of the Narts into three

clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, a clan may claim descent from a founding member or apical ancestor who serves as a symbol of the clan's unity. Many societie ...

s to support his ''

Trifunctional Hypothesis The trifunctional hypothesis of prehistoric Proto-Indo-European society postulates a tripartite ideology ("''idéologie tripartite''") reflected in the existence of three social classes or castes—clergy, priests, warriors, and commoners (farme ...

'' that the

Proto-Indo-Europeans The Proto-Indo-Europeans are a hypothetical prehistoric ethnolinguistic group of Eurasia who spoke Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Knowledge of them comes chiefly from t ...

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 In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning "forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titans, Titan. He is best known for defying the Olympian gods by taking theft of fire, fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technol ...

chained to

Mount Kazbek Mount Kazbek or Mount Kazbegi, , romanized: ''q'azbegi''; ; ; ; is a dormant stratovolcano and one of the major mountains of the Caucasus Mountains, Caucasus, located in Georgia (country), Georgia, just south of the border with Russia. Lying ...

or to

Mount Elbrus Mount Elbrus; ; is the highest mountain in Russia and Europe. It is a dormant stratovolcano rising above sea level, and is the highest volcano in Eurasia, as well as the tenth-most prominent peak in the world. It is situated in the south ...

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 Caucasian may refer to: Common meanings *Anything from the Caucasus region or related to it ** Ethnic groups in the Caucasus ** ''Caucasian Exarchate'' (1917–1920), an ecclesiastical exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Caucasus re ...

peoples to the ancient Greeks, also shown in the myth of the Golden Fleece, in which

Colchis In classical antiquity and Greco-Roman geography, Colchis (; ) was an exonym for the Georgian polity of Egrisi ( ka, ეგრისი) located on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, centered in present-day western Georgia. Its population, the ...

is generally accepted to have been part of modern-day

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. In the book ''From Scythia to Camelot'', authors C. Scott Littleton and Linda A. Malcor speculate that many aspects of the

Arthurian legends The Matter of Britain (; ; ; ) is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. The 12th-century writer Geoffr ...

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 John Colarusso is a linguist specializing in Caucasian languages. Since 1976, he has taught at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Colarusso has published more than sixty-five articles on linguistics, myths, politics, and the Caucasus; he ...

. 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 A nuclear family (also known as an elementary family, atomic family, or conjugal family) is a term for a family group consisting of parents and their children (one or more), typically living in one home residence. It is in contrast to a single ...

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-

) 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.

References

Sources

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

Adrienne Mayor Adrienne Mayor (born ) is a historian of ancient science and a classical folklorist. Mayor specializes in ancient history and the study of " folk science", or how pre-scientific cultures interpreted data about the natural world, and how these int ...

* *

External links

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

Etymology

Characters

Study and significance

Connections to other mythology

Differences between Nart legends

See also

References

Sources

Further reading

Circassian Nart sagas

Ossetian Nart sagas

Abkhaz Nart sagas

Karachay-Balkar Nart sagas

Chechen-Ingush Nart sagas

Miscellaneous

External links