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Kartvelian languages. --- South Caucasian languages --- Caucasian languages --- Kartvelian languages

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The Nart sagas are to the Caucasus what Greek mythology is to Western civilization. This book presents, for the first time in the West, a wide selection of these fascinating myths preserved among four related peoples whose ancient cultures today survive by a thread. In ninety-two straightforward tales populated by extraordinary characters and exploits, by giants who humble haughty Narts, by horses and sorceresses, Nart Sagas from the Caucasus brings these cultures to life in a powerful epos. In these colorful tales, women, not least the beautiful temptress Satanaya, the mother of all Narts, are not only fertility figures but also pillars of authority and wisdom. In one variation on a recurring theme, a shepherd, overcome with passion on observing Satanaya bathing alone, shoots a "bolt of lust" that strikes a rock--a rock that gives birth to the Achilles-like Sawseruquo, or Sosruquo. With steely skin but tender knees, Sawseruquo is a man the Narts come to love and hate. Despite a tragic history, the Circassians, Abazas, Abkhaz, and Ubykhs have retained the Nart sagas as a living tradition. The memory of their elaborate warrior culture, so richly expressed by these tales, helped them resist Tsarist imperialism in the nineteenth century, Stalinist suppression in the twentieth, and has bolstered their ongoing cultural journey into the post-Soviet future. Because these peoples were at the crossroads of Eurasia for millennia, their myths exhibit striking parallels with the lore of ancient India, classical Greece, and pagan Scandinavia. The Nart sagas may also have formed a crucial component of the Arthurian cycle. Notes after each tale reveal these parallels; an appendix offers extensive linguistic commentary. With this book, no longer will the analysis of ancient Eurasian myth be possible without a close look at the Nart sagas. And no longer will the lover of myth be satisfied without the pleasure of having read them. Excerpts from the Nart sagas ? "The Narts were a tribe of heroes. They were huge, tall people, and their horses were also exuberant Alyps or Durduls. They were wealthy, and they also had a state. That is how the Narts lived their lives. . . ." "The Narts were courageous, energetic, bold, and good-hearted. Thus they lived until God sent down a small swallow. . . ." "The Narts were very cruel to one another. They were envious of one another. They disputed among themselves over who was the most courageous. But most of all they hated Sosruquo. . . . A rock gave birth to him. He is the son of a rock, illegally born a mere shepherd's son. . . ."

Abkhazo-Adyghian languages. --- Ubykhs --- Abkhazians --- Circassians --- Mythology, Caucasian. --- Tales --- Caucasian mythology --- Adyge --- Adyghe --- Adygy --- Cherkess --- Ethnology --- Abkhasians --- Abkhaz --- Oubykhs --- Ubykhians --- Northwest Caucasian languages --- Caucasian languages

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Semitic languages --- Indo-European languages --- Caucasian languages --- Sumerian language --- Burushaski language --- Langues indo-européennes --- Phonology --- Phonologie --- Asia --- Africa --- Languages --- Phonology. --- Langues indo-européennes --- Eastern Hemisphere --- Asian and Pacific Council countries --- Eurasia --- Asia - Languages - Phonology --- Africa - Languages - Phonology

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"Georgian literary sources for Late Antiquity are commonly held to be later productions devoid of historical value. As a result, scholarship outside the Republic of Georgia has privileged Graeco-Roman and even Armenian narratives. However, when investigated within the dual contexts of a regional literary canon and the active participation of Caucasia's diverse peoples in the Iranian Commonwealth, early Georgian texts emerge as a rich repository of Late Antique attitudes and outlooks. Georgian hagiographical and historiographical compositions open a unique window onto a northern part of the Sasanian world that, while sharing striking affinities with the Iranian heartland, was home to vibrant, cosmopolitan cultures that developed along their own trajectories. In these sources, precise and accurate information about the core of the Sasanian Empire--and before it, Parthia and Achaemenid Persia--is sparse; yet the thorough structuring of wider Caucasian society along Iranian and especially hybrid Iranic lines is altogether evident. Scrutiny of these texts reveals, inter alia, that the Old Georgian language is saturated with words drawn from Parthian and Middle Persian, a trait shared with Classical Armenian; that Caucasian society, like its Iranian counterpart, was dominated by powerful aristocratic houses, many of whose origins can be traced to Iran itself; and that the conception of kingship in the eastern Georgian realm of K'art'li (Iberia), even centuries after the royal family's Christianisation in the 320s and 330s, was closely aligned with Arsacid and especially Sasanian models. There is also a literary dimension to the Irano-Caucasian nexus, aspects of which this volume exposes for the first time. The oldest surviving specimens of Georgian historiography exhibit intriguing parallels to the lost Sasanian Xwadāy-nāmag, The Book of Kings, one of the precursors to Ferdowsī's Shāhnāma. As tangible products of the dense cross-cultural web drawing the region together, early Georgian narratives sharpen our understanding of the diversity of the Iranian Commonwealth and demonstrate the persistence of Iranian and Iranic modes well into the medieval epoch"--From publisher's website.

Sassanids --- Georgian literature --- Hagiography --- Georgian language --- Caucasian languages --- Kartvelian languages --- Hagiology --- Saints --- Sasanians --- Sassanians --- Historiography. --- History --- History and criticism. --- Iran --- Georgia (Republic) --- Caucasus --- Caucasia --- Caucasus Mountains --- Caucasus Region --- Kavkaz --- Republic of Georgia --- Sakʻartʻvelo (Republic) --- Sakʻartʻvelos Respublika --- Gruzyah (Republic) --- Cheorchia (Republic) --- Xorxa (Republic) --- Jorjia (Republic) --- Gürcüstan (Republic) --- Gruzie (Republic) --- Gruzínská republika --- Georgien (Republic) --- República de Georgia --- Kartvelio (Republic) --- Gruzio (Republic) --- Gruusia (Republic) --- Georgian tasavalta --- Lýðveldið Georgia --- Géorgie (Republic) --- Geörgje (Republic) --- An tSeoirsia --- tSeoirsia (Republic) --- Xeorxia (Republic) --- Republik Georgia --- Gruzija (Republic) --- Grúzia (Republic) --- Pow Grousi --- Gruzijas Republika --- Gruzja (Republic) --- Giorgia (Republic) --- Gruzínsko (Republic) --- Republika Gruzija --- Đurđija (Republic) --- Gürcistan (Republic) --- Georgän (Republic) --- Gjeorgjia (Republic) --- Грузия (Republic) --- Gruzii︠a︡ (Republic) --- Грузија (Republic) --- Грузія (Republic) --- Hruzii︠a︡ (Republic) --- Республіка Грузія --- Respublika Hruzii︠a︡ --- Γεωργία (Republic) --- Gu̇rzhīstan (Republic) --- Georgija (Republic) --- Georgian S.S.R. --- República Islâmica do Irã --- Irã --- Persia --- Northern Tier --- Islamic Republic of Iran --- Jumhūrī-i Islāmī-i Īrān --- I-lang --- Paras-Iran --- Paras --- Persia-Iran --- I.R.A. --- Islamische Republik Iran --- Islamskai︠a︡ Respublika Iran --- I.R.I. --- IRI --- ايران --- جمهورى اسلامى ايران --- Êran --- Komarî Îslamî Êran --- Kings and rulers