Illustrator Lina Belyarova
Cover designer Lina Belyarova
Authour-compiler Lina Belyarova
© Lina Belyarova, illustrations, 2018
© Lina Belyarova, cover design, 2018
ISBN 978-5-4490-3675-9
Created with Ridero smart publishing system
Dedication
To Alana, Osman and Camila,
my dear grandchildren
“Abkhazia’s wonderful nature couldn’t but become a source of inspiration to invent wonderful legends by its wonderful people”
Abkhazian legend of how God divided up lands among nations
Abkhazia is a land of ancient civilisations, ecological tourism, and intensive subtropical agriculture. The Abkhazians (also called the Abkhaz) refer to their homeland as “Apsny”, meaning according to folk-etymology the “land of the soul”. It is a beautiful and hospitable land. Abkhazia is also the land of myths and legends.
One of the most popular legends goes as follows: “God called on nations from all over the world and began to share out forests, valleys, and meadows among them. An Abkhaz (a messenger from the Abkhazian folk) appeared before God later than the others did that day. God told the Abkhaz that He had already assigned everything except for seas and wildernesses and decided to find out the cause of the Abkhaz’s delay. The Abkhaz replied that he couldn’t come, for he had been entertaining a guest that day and added that a guest was always sacred to his folk. God favoured the hospitable Abkhaz and gifted him a paradise-like land that He had been keeping for himself. God willed that that land of joy to be called Abkhazia in honour of the Abkhaz and that the people of Abkhazia should live and labour on that land”
Ethnogenetic legends
The legends of the Atsans, a race of dwarfs, and of the Narts, mighty heroes, are the best known in Abkhazia. The Narts replaced the Atsans. These two human races are thought to have been the most ancient to have inhabited Abkhazia.
There is also a legend about the wood-dwelling folk (abna-waa). They are portrayed as extremely savage human beings who dwelt in Abkhazia’s thick virgin forests. The Abava Gorge is said to have been such a dwelling place for those wild people, who lived by hunting. According to legend, those wicked and frightful human beings used to wear animal skins, and an axe, always hanging from a chain around their neck, served them as a weapon in their fight against their enemies.
According to another legend, a tribe of mighty giant-ogres dwelt in the Bzyb Gorge in early times. Each of those giants had as many as seven heads over his shoulders and only one eye on his forehead. For a long period they thieved on the land, striking fear into the villagers. Fortunately, the Narts, mighty heroes, came along and succeeded in conquering them.
One of the Nart epic tales describes the campaign of the Narts to the land of the Blackamoors. Later, the Narts returned to their ancestral land together with them. A smaller number of those Blackamoors have remained in Abkhazia.
Abkhazians have preserved to the present day legends dealing also with their origins in Asia Minor or Egypt.
Myth of the Atsan dwarfs
Abkhazians tell of the time when the entire Abkhazian sea-coast was buried under water. People inhabited only the high mountains of the area. The earliest settlers of the mountain-parts of Abkhazia were little human beings, the dwarfish Atsans. The tribal group of Atsan dwarfs lived by hunting wild animals and sheep-breeding. They were notable for their courage and bravery, but gradually came to be very proud, freedom-loving and impious folk. God decided to punish the Atsans because of their wrong-doings aided by the youth whom, as an infant, He had once sent to the Atsans in a golden cradle for them to rear. From the youth God discovered what the Atsans feared most of all in the world.
One day, as the Atsans were sitting by their stone-circles, the 300 year-old father of the Atsans saw a goat standing nearby whose goatee beard was waving because of the wind that God had sent to the land of the Atsans for the very first time… All of a sudden, the sky became overcast and dark clouds obscured the sun from the Atsans… The Earth sensed God’s threatening punishment and decided to rescue the Atsans from imminent danger by forming huge shelters and caves for them. But God became angry with the Earth for that and, in revenge, He pierced her body with a huge dagger. The wounded Earth begged the Atsans to draw the dagger out of her body, but the wilful Atsans ignored her pleas… Soon afterwards, woolly flocks began falling down from the sky that covered the ground like snow. In the end, God sent fire to the Earth and all the cotton flocks together with those impious Atsans were set on fire. Ever since, the Earth is said to have been left with the dagger still in her chest which God had once thrust into her for her desperate attempt to rescue the Atsans.
Legend about how Noah built the ark to save mankind from the flood
In mythology of some cultures the worldwide deluge of the Great Flood is “God’s punishment” set upon mankind and all alive on the Earth. In the Bible, Prophet Noah, his family, and a pair of every animal were saved from the Flood in the ark.
According to the Abkhazian legends, having foreseen a forthcoming flood, Prophet Noah (Paigambar) decided to build an ark (azandal). Noah asked Adau the Giant to fetch some logs from the wood while he himself was cooking mamalyga (porridge) with millet flour. So off Adau went to the wood and there he pulled out trees with the roots. Some trees he stowed away in his waist belt, others he stowed away in his top-boots, and the biggest ones he flung over his shoulders and was ready to carry them away. Suddenly the Devil appeared in front of him pretending to be a well-wisher. The Devil tried to prevent Adau from doing his job assuring the giant that the Prophet was fooling him by cooking such a small cauldron of mamalyga for him that wouldn’t be enough even for a mere man. On hearing this, Adau shrugged off the trees from his shoulders at once and came to Noah to show him his anger accusing the Prophet in cooking little porridge. Nоah put the cauldron in front of the Giant and began treating him.
No matter how much Adau ate, yet the cauldron remained full. In return for treating him with mamalyga Noah asked the Giant to give the remaining trees stowed away in his waist belt and in his top-boots and built the ark to save mankind from destruction by a flood.
The Abkhazian Nart epic family
The way of life, mentality, morals, customs, and religious practices of different ethnic groups of the Caucasus (including the Abkhazians) have found reflection in the ancient Caucasian Nart epic. The background of the Nart epic has been traced to the pre-literate Heroic Age of the Caucasian people. Archaeological evidence confirms the date of the core of the Caucasian Nart epic to be circa 800—700 BC.
The Abkhazian Nart epic family consists of the mother Satanay Gwasha, her 99 sons and an only daughter Gunda the Beautiful, who live in a huge home built of stone and copper. During their campaigns the Narts dwell in caves. In the middle of the Nart house, a huge copper cauldron hangs from the ceiling-beam over the fire in the hearth. The Narts have a long bench capable of accommodating all of them at a single sitting.
Satanay Gwasha is