Читать бесплатно онлайн книгу Abkhazia in legends
Abkhazia in legends
Fonts by «ParaType»
Illustrator Lina Belyarova
Cover designer Lina Belyarova
Authour-compiler Lina Belyarova
© Lina Belyarova, illustrations, 2018
© Lina Belyarova, cover design, 2018
The book “Abkhazia in Legends” represents selected epic tales, myths and legends, including also those of Greek origin, connected with Abkhazia in which mythological conceptions, nature, history, religious beliefs, cults, mentality, morals, customs and the way of life of the Abkhaz people have been reflected. The front book-cover shows the drawing of Medea — the daughter of King Aeetes of Colchis.
The book is intended for all those who are interested in Abkhazia and its folklore.
ISBN 978-5-4490-3675-9
Created with Ridero smart publishing system
Contents
- Abkhazia in legends
- Abkhazian legend of how God divided up lands among nations
- Ethnogenetic legends
- Myth of the Atsan dwarfs
- Legend about how Noah built the ark to save mankind from the flood
- The Abkhazian Nart epic family
- About the Apswara and religion
- Legend of Satanay Gwasha’s spindle
- Legend about Gunda the Beautiful
- How Sasryqwa the Nart hero captured earth’s fire for the Narts
- Legend of how the Narts acquired fruits
- Legends of drinks of the Nart heroes
- Winemaking traditions in Abkhazia
- Legend of Anana Gunda
- Abryskil, the Prometheus of Abkhazia
- The legend of the birth of Abryskil
- Why Abryskil chopped grapevines
- About mythical Colchis
- The myth of the Golden Fleece
- The background of the Greek legend
- A sacred tree on which the Golden Fleece was hung
- Hecate’s magic herb garden in Colchis
- Prometheus’s flower plant
- Colchicum – Medea’s magic potion
- About inebriating rhododendron honey
- Dioscurias – the Atlantis of the Black Sea
- Abkhazian legend about a Sea spirit
- Legends about the Great Wall of Abkhazia
- Legend about Lake Ritsa
- Legend about Abaata Fortress
- Legend about Pitsunda
- Legend about Gudauta
- Legend about hospitality
- Legend about good neighbourliness
- Legend of the children of the Land of Apsny
- Legend of the origin of the Akhymaa
- Legend of the Acharpyn reed pipe
- Source Index
- About the author
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”
Lina Belyarova
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 imminen
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