Nart saga
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The Nart sagas are a series of tales originating from the Caucasus Mountains. They form the basic mythology of the tribes in the area; some are simply stories, but some have value as creation myths and ancient theology.
The Abkhaz, Circassians, Ossetians and the Ubykh all have versions of the Nart sagas.
The Narts themselves are a race of giants. Some of the characters who feature prominently in the sagas are:
- Sosruko (Ubykh and Abkhaz ', Ossetian soslan' and Russian sasrykva), a trickster figure;
- Satanaya (Ubykh ', Adyghe ', Ossetian satana), the mother of the Narts, a fertility figure and matriarch;
- Tlepsh (Abaza '), a blacksmith;
- Baoutch (Adyghe ').
Some motifs in the Nart sagas are shared by Greek mythology. The story of Prometheus chained 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 or Abkhazia.
See also:
External links
- A site explaining some of the basics behind each of the most prominent of the Narts (http://www.nartimus.com/nusite.html)
- Nart sagas told by Elena Kournikova-Tskhuyrbaty. (http://alania.faithweb.com/nart.html)
- Three Nart cycles in the Bzedugh dialect of Adyghe (http://lacito.archivage.vjf.cnrs.fr/servlet/myxsl?XML=http%3A%2F%2Flacito.archivage.vjf.cnrs.fr%2Farchives%2FAll%2Fmetadata.xml&XSL=http%3A%2F%2Flacito.archivage.vjf.cnrs.fr%2Farchives%2Fstyles%2FlistRsc.xsl&keyword=&lg=Bjedough&lg_sil_code=&title=&description=&contributors=&coverage=&formatage=&valid=validate)
- Ossetic texts of Nartic Legends with English translation (http://titus.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/etcs/iran/niran/oss/nart/nart.htm)