Daredevils of Sasun: Poetics of an Epic (review)

Armenian epic and its outstanding representative Daredevils of Sasun do not enjoy much scholarly attention outside Armenian studies. The translation into a widely accessible language of this important study by a leading scholar from Armenia is therefore to be welcomed. Published in 1999, the original quickly established itself as an authoritative introduction to the study of the many aspects of the still immensely popular millennium-old epic. It places a variety of elements of Armenian epic in the wider context of, for example, European medieval epics, Russian bylinas, and the Manas epic and also provides a useful bibliography, which, like the text, is adapted for the English version.

The historic anchoring of Daredevils of Sasun, which was gestated between the eighth and twelfth century CE, lies in the period of Arab domination over Armenia. It relates the vicissitudes of four generations of the giant heroes of the House of Sasun, and yet, while some of its narrative is rooted in historical events shot through with much more ancient mythic layers, it also inhabits a timeless world that allows constant actualization. The first of the four branches reaches back far beyond this period to Sanasar and Baghdasar, twins miraculously born after Tsovinar drank one and a half handfuls of water. They came to Armenia from Assyria and founded the house of Sasun. The last branch is devoted to Little Mher and is even more steeped in mythical material. Lion Mher—who is one representation of the Iranian deity Mihr or Mithra, his grandson Little Mher being another—is the hero of the second branch. He kills a lion that is causing famine in Sasun and thereby lays the basis for its prosperity in the third branch relating the exploits of Davit', whose name Sasunts'i Davit' often is shorthand for the whole epic. Little Mher is doomed to slay his father Davit' in single combat and because of his perceived limitless might is cursed to childlessness and deathlessness. He retires to a cave where he sits on his talking horse, armed with his lightning sword, until the end of the world.

The epic has been orally transmitted by a multitude of tradents in three main groups coinciding with geographical areas: those of Mokk', Mush, and Tarōn. Yeghiazaryan adduces differences between these groups throughout his study to account for innovations and archaisms perceived in the epic.

The introduction critically surveys the scholarship from the 1870s, when the epic was first transcribed, to the present time. Positing the primacy of the work as a product of art, Yeghiazaryan rejects the extremes of the historical school that sought to establish direct correspondences between epic narration, names, events, and Armenian historical reality. Similarly, its mythical dimensions have to be seen in the context of its character as a medieval epic, as they function in an indirect way only. Davit' in particular represents a turn away from the archaic.

In a section on earlier Armenian folkloric traditions, Yeghiazaryan addresses the contested point of the existence of older epics based on the few extant fragments, which were built into a conjectured sequence of epics relating Armenian pre- and early history by Abeghyan, the paradigm-setting scholar of Armenian literature up to World War II. Yeghiazaryan achieves an elegant balance between showing respect for previous scholarship and advancing his own approach, which rejects several of the tenets of this scholarly tradition. He concludes the chapter by helpfully providing an overview of the epic's reception in modern Armenian literature.

The four themes treated in the introduction are taken up in relevant sections of each of the three chapters that form the central part of the work. The first chapter offers a many-sided approach to the phenomenon of the epic hero. Yeghiazaryan emphasizes how a hero's individuality is shaped by his position in society and how that individuality embodies its norms. Davit"s immense strength is seen as representing that...