David of Sassoun: Cycle 1
Sanasar and Baghdasar


Cycle 1, part 1. Battle against the Khalif of Baghdad (pp. 3-107)

1.2 The Khalif of Baghdad (=Nineveh in earlier oral tradition) invades Armenia and lays siege to the capital city, Gaboud Berd, forcing its aged king, Cakig, to become his vassal. The Khalif sends tax collectors to Gaboud Berd to collect tribute, but at the gate of the palace they encounter Cakig's only daughter, Dzovinar Khanoum ("noble sea-born lady"), and, dazzled by her bright beauty, they depart quietly, returning to Baghdad with a report of her beauty. The Khalif sends word to Cakig to send his daughter to him, but he refuses (pp. 5-7).
Dzovinar: "sea-born." In classical Armenian mythology, Dzovinar was the godess of rain and lakes. Khanoum: noble, nobly born; Armenian loan-word from Turkish. Dzovinar's beauty, out-shining the sun: hyperbole, or exaggerated description, is a stylistic feature of the Sassoun epic. However, the themes of the beauty of a woman outshining the sun and more beautiful than the moon are common in Mideastern love poetry and in medieval romance, appearing often, for example, in the contes of Chrestien de Troyes. There may be some residue of Dzovinar's mythological status as a goddess in the detail of the two Arab tax collectors struck dumb in her presence who depart Sassoun without conveying their message demanding tribute. The character of Dzovinar, then, combines elements of Mideastern love lyric and classical mythology.

1.3 The Khalif leads an army against Gaboud Bard and defeats the Armenians. King Cakig summons his council to debate whether to continue fighting or give up Dzovinar. The debate ends when Dzovinar proposes a settlement: she will marry the Khalif if he will build her a separate palace in Baghdad and refrain from touching her for a year. The Khalif promises to leave her alone for seven years (pp. 7-11).
Council scene--debate about whether Dzovinar should be given in marriage to the Khalif. Council scenes are a well-established convention in epic, especially when the possibility of war is under debate. In the Babylonian Epic of Creation, Tablet VI, Marduk calls a council of the gods before sacrificing Qingu and using his blood to create humankind. In Atrahasis, each of Ellil's attempts to wipe out humankind is preceded by a council of the gods. In Anzu, the gods deliberate in council after the Anzu-bird made off with the Tablet of Destinies. Council scenes are important in the Iliad, in Beowulf (the Danes meet in council go deliberate what to do stop Grendel's nightly raids on Heorot), in the Chanson de Roland, and in the oral epics of Serbia and Croatia.
Royal marriage as a means of avoiding war: In historical practice, marriages between the royal houses of two nations often was used to sustain alliances and to strengthen the dynastic position of both families involved. It was not unusual for a bride marrying into a neighboring dynasty to bring her retinue and her religious practices with her, as is agreed to in Dzovinar's case. In the Old Testament, the practice of intermarriage leading to idolatry is noted in Judges 3:5-6 and 1 Kings 11 (where Solomon's many foreign wives lead the king's being distracted by idolatrous practices).

1.4 Before the wedding, on Ascension Day, Dzovinar goes on an outing with her companions, and they come to Gaboud Dzov ("Blue Sea" = Lake Van), where she craves a drink of water. The water is too salty to drink, but in response to her prayer for water, God parts the water of the lake and exposes a spring of sweet water, surrounded by a pool fed by water gushing from a rock. No one reach the spring without disrobing and swimming to it. Dzovinar disrobes, swims in the pool, reaches the spring and drinks from it. (One handful of water makes her pregnant with Sanasar; a second half-handful makes her pregnant with Baghdasar.) Dzovinar then travels to Baghdad where she is married to the Khalif and then confined to her palace, locked behind seven doors (pp. 11-13).
Summer palace of King Cakig: Royal and aristocratic families from ancient times maintained a summer house and a winter house, referred to in Amos 3:14-16.
Gaboud Dzov (Lake Van): Click here for modern information and photography of Lake Van in eastern Turkey.
Gatnou Aghbiur ("Milky Fountain"); also, a compound form of the same name, Gatnaghbiur, when David and Jelaly stop there at 3.5.11 (p. 267) and the water gives David strength and heals Jelaly's broken ribs. The animist mythology of sacred springs is widespread in ancient and medieval Mideast and Europe. Sir James Fraser, in The Golden Bough, collects many examples of sacred springs in folklore.
Seven doors: After Mesz Mher's death, Tzenov Hovan hides the colt Kourkig Jelaly behind seven doors in a secret stable (3.1.6, p. 159). "Seven doors" is an ancient mythological theme. In the Ugaritic and Canaanite epic of Baal and Anath, the senior god, El, hides behind seven doors to protect himself from Anath, the dangerous goddess of love and war.

1.5 The Khalif learns that Dzovinar is pregnant and determines to have her beheaded. She appeals for time to let her child be born first, and after nine months she gives birth to twins, Sanasar and Baghdasar. Again the Khalif sends the "headsman" to execute Dzovinar, but she appeals for time to nurse the twins, and is granted ten years. By the time the twins were five years old, their prodigious strength made them dangerous playmates for other children. When they were seven, Sanazar slapped the vizier's son and broke his neck (pp. 13-17).
Sanasar: eponynmous founder of Sassoun. The biblical form of the name is "Sharezar": in 1 Kings 19:35-36, Sennacharib king of Assyria is killed by two of his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezar, who escape to the land of Ararat (=Armenia). The name "Sharezar" is Assyrian "Sarrusur," "save the king," and probably is shortened from a compound like "Sinsharrusur" ("Sin [moon-god] save the king").
Baghdasar; variant form Baldasar. The bibilical form of the name is Belshazzar, from Assyrian Belsharrusur, "Bel save the king" ("Bel" = Assyrian form of Canaanite Baal, corresponding to Marduk in Babylonian mythology.
Sanasar and Baghdasar as enfants terribles: Sanasar and Baghdasar injure other children in play; Sanasar slaps the vizier's son and breaks the neck. These incidents exemplify the convention of the enfant terrible in epic, a theme recurring in the cases of Medz Mher, David, and Pokr Mher. Examples of the child-hero injuring playmates or others around him are found in the Infancy Gospels of Jesus, and in some medieval versions of the legend of Alexander the Great, such as the Middle English Alexander.

1.6 Other boys scoff at the twins, calling them bastards, and they ask Dzovinar about their parentage. Dzovinar takes them on an outing at a riverbank and reveals to them their miraculous conception from a spring of sweet water (pp. 17-18).

1.7 Ten years pass, and Dzovinar warns the twins that the Khalif has ordered them to be beheaded. When the headsman comes, they resist. Sanasar slaps the Khalif, and the blow is so strong that the headsman's head flies off. The Khalif sends soldiers after the twins, but the twins kill half of them and the other half flee. From this incident the Khalif concludes that Dzovinar is innocent of infidelity, and he acknowledges the twins as his sons (pp. 18-21).

1.8 The Khalif mobilizes his army to collect tribute from Armenia, ignoring his marriage pact. The also ignores an ominous dream that Dzovinar reports to him, an omen of defeat for the Arabs. The army lays siege to Gaboud Berd, causing widespread starvation. King Cakig contrives an ambush at night, as a result of which the Arabs, confused, attack and kill each other. The Khalif flees, praying for help from his idols, and to his Great Idol he vows to sacrifice Sanasar and Baghdasar if he can return home alive (pp. 21-25).

1.9 In a dream, St. Garabed (= John the Baptist) reveals to Dzovinar that the Khalif has pledged to sacrifice her sons. She warns them to flee to Armenia. The Khalif returns. An evil spirit inhabits the Great Idol and speaks to the Khalif, demanding sacrifice, and the Khalif comes to Dzovinar's palace, searching for the twins (pp. 25-28).

1.10 Sanasar and Baghdasar, riding in a strange land, discover a stream that they recognize as a "hero's stream": whoever finds its source and drinks from it will be mighty and brave and will conceive heroic sons. They follow the stream to its source, a spring hidden in a remote mountain. For seven days, Sanasar gathers stones to build a fortress there, while Baghdasar hunts wild birds for food (pp. 28-30).

1.11 After many days, Sanasar realizes that his brother Baghdasar is exhausted from the rigors of hunting and inadequate meals. He counsels that they "roam the world" in search of a better life. They visit King Moushegh in Moush, and then the Amir of Arzroum, who both send them away, fearing the wrath of the Khalif (pp. 30-32).

1.12 The twins come to the fortress of Mantzkert, where, concealing their identities, they are admitted to the service of King Tevatoros, who makes Sanasar his steward and Baghdasar his cupbearer. After a year, King Tevatoros holds a tournament in order to test the twins. The twins defeat all his soldiers and put them to shame; the vizier advises the king to exile them from the city. That same day, the city's cattle are stolen by a band of brigands, but the twins overcome them and rescue the cattle. Next morning, the twins enter into a "shield-game" and knock down all the other players, causing people to complain to the king about their rough play. The king identivies them as "aznavour," noble giants, and makes them promise to refrain from games; but later, at a wedding celebration, the king allows them to enter a cudgel-tournament. Sanasar plays gently, but Baghdasar hits hard and breaks some men's limbs, so the twins withdraw from the game. The parents of the injured players complaint King Tevatoros about their rough play (pp. 32-36).

1.13 One of their companions warns the twins that the king would like them to leave Mantzkert. They decide to return to their unfinished fortress in the mountains. King Tevatoros sends them off with provisions and with forty poor families to establish a settlement. Sanasar and Baghdasar build homes for the forty families (it takes them only one day to dig the foundations for ten homes); then they complete the fortress, which is build with huge stones that Sanasar moves into place by hand (pp. 36-40).

1.14 Sansar and Baghdasar commission an elderly man in the region to name the fortress. He calls it "Sassoun" (a dialectal word meaning "awesome, enormous") (pp. 40-44).

1.15 Over Baghdasar's objections, Sanasar goes into the lake, which becomes to him like an underwater country, with a garden, a pool, and a palace located on the lake floor. There he finds a horse, Kourkig Jelaly ("Colt 'Majestic'") equipped with a saddle and a sword called Lightning Sword. He falls asleep, and the Virgin Mary appears to him in a dream, telling him that the house and sword are his to keep, and that in a trunk nearby are his armor and shield and other knightly equipment. Sanasar returns to land riding Jelaly and dressed in armor. He encounters Baghdasar weeping (Baghdasar believes that his brother had drowned in the lake), and reveals himself (pp. 44-49).

1.16 Baghdasar is troubled by a recurring dream of the Great Idol who comes to him in the form of a goat. He and Sanasar determine to go to Baghdad to face the Khalif. The Khalif prepares to sacrifice them before a great crowd of people, but Sanasar and Baghdasar and Jalaly fight instead, killing many people. Sanasar takes the Khalif captive and ties him to a post in his mother's palace (pp. 49-54).

1.17 King Cakig sends a letter to Sanasar asking him to visit him in Armenia. During Sanasar's absence, the Khalif is set free by a handmaiden, and he invites Baghdasar to a wine-drinking feast at Akhmakh Mountain. He gets Baghdasar drunk on sour wine (= dry wine), and his people try to kill Baghdasar by throwing maces at him. Back in Armenia, Sanasar sees that his brother's star in the sky had dimmed. He returns to Baghdad, where Dzovinar directs him to Akhmakh Mountain. There, Sanasar slays the Khalif and his retinue, and he and Baghdasar return to Baghdad (pp. 54-58).

1.18 Sanasar, Baghdasar and Dzovinar return to Armenia, where Sanasar, as ruler at Sassoun, builds fortifications and maintains justice. Many Armenians relocate there so they can live in peace, and Sassoun grows into an important city (pp. 58-61).

2. The Marriages of Sansar and Baghdasar (pp. 63-107)

2.2 The fame of Sanasarbaghdasar (a dvandva compound applied to the twins) reaches Katcher (a land of magicians), where one of the king's two daughters, Deghtzoun Dzam ("Goldilocks of Forty Braids") determines to court him. Sanasar dreams of her one night and falls in love with her. She send him a love letter, along with a picture of herself and two jugs, one empty and one filled with water. These are brought to Sassoun by two serving maids, who fly there in the form of doves, but they mistakenly leave the letter and the jugs in Baghdasar's chamber instead of Sanasar's (pp. 65-67).

2.3 Baghdasar reads Deghtzoun Dzam's love letter and becomes jealous and angry that Sanasar had courted a woman in secret. Sanasar denies this, but Baghdasar doesn't believe him (pp. 67-71).

2.4 Sanasar takes Baghdasar on an outing, hoping that time spent together wrestling and horse-racing will placate him. Instead the twins fight all day, and Baghdasar is in such a rage that their fighting causes the earth to quake. At the end of the day, Sanasar hits Baghdasar with a mace, unhorsing him. Sanasar thinks Baghdasar is dead, and carries him home, where their mother, Dzovinar, realizes that he is still alive. They revive him by massaging his heart and navel. When Baghdasar regains consciousness, Sanasar offers to give up his claim to Deghtzoun Dzam, but Baghdasar insists that Sanasar go to Katcher to fetch the lady (pp. 71-75).

2.5 Sanasar journeys to the land of Katcher. (Armenian katcher means "spirits.") On the way, he meets an old man and asks directions. The old man points out three roads: one leading to kingship, one to the riches of a merchant, and one to misfortune in Katcher. Sanasar determines to take the road to Katcher. The old man advises him to greet everything he meets on the way--every rock, bush, and animal--in order to prevail against the magic spells in Katcher. Sanasar reaches Katcher and meets the King's Shepherd, who tests his strength by challenging him to drink a trough of milk. When Sanasar proves himself by drinking the milk, the Shepherd wishes him well. At last Sanasar reaches the city of B'gh'ntzeh Kaghak (Copper City). Just outside the city, he is met by forty old, bearded men, who identify themselves as Deghtzoun Dzam's former suitors, recently young. Deghtzoun Dzam used magic to turn them into old, bearded men when the failed in their suit (pp. 75-79). Heeding this warning, Sanasar decides to enter the city secretly at night.

2.6 Instead of entering B'gh'ntzeh Kaghak through the city gate, Sanasar enters mounted on Jalaly who leaps over the wall. He stays in an inn owned by an Armenian, who points out Deghtzoun Dzam's pavilian and tower, and explains to him the secrets of her magical powers. On the roof of the tower stands a mace and a golden apple; the spell can be broken by a man who can seize the golden apple, put it in his chest pocket, then mount his horse again and put the apple back in its place. He also must seize the mace and hurl it away, and he must snatch a gem from the mouth of a dragon in the sea, and while in possession of this gem he must see Deghtzoun Dzam naked at dawn, and he must fight the king like a warrior. That night, Sanasar, mounted on Jalaly, snatches the golden apple and puts it in his chest pocket; he seizes the mace and hurls it away; and snatches the gem from the mouth of a dragon in the sea, and at dawn, he sees Deghtzoun Dzam nude through her palace window, thus breaking her magic spell (pp. 79-83).

2.7 The king of B'gh'ntzeh Kachak orders town criers to arrest the man who took the dragon's gem and the golden apple. After searching for two hours, they come to the inn. Sanasar shows them the golden apple, and tells them to inform the king that he wishes to do battle with him. Sanasar and the town criers go before the king, who presents Sanasar with three tests which he must pass in order to win Deghtzoun Dzam: (1) he must return the golden apple to its place on the pinnacle of the palace--which he does with one leap of his horse Jalaly; (2) he must return the mace that he had hurled--he finds it and flings it back to its place, but at its blow, the palace tower collapese; (3) he must fight the king's sixty pahlevans. Sanasar asks permission to fight the sixty pahlevans all at once--not out of false pride, but because three days have almost elapsed and Baghdasar will conclude that he is in danger and some searching for him. After slaying forty pahlevans, Sanasar's hands grow numb and he cannot fight effectively (pp. 83-88).

2.8 Back in Sassoun, Baghdasar notices that Sanasar's ring has tarnished. Baghdasar hastens to B'gh'ntze Kaghak, drinks the trough of milk required by the Shepherd, encounters the forty old bearded men who warn him of danger. He breaks down the city wall with his mace and enters the city, finds the battlefield, and slays the twenty remaining pahlevans. Sanasar and Baghdasar then appear before the king, who tells them to go to Ganatch Kaghak (Green City) for their fourth test (pp. 88-91).

2.9 At Ganatch Kaghak (Green City), the twins learn that a dragon is guarding the hilltop spring that the city depends on for water. Each week they must sacrifice a virgin to the dragon in exchange for water. Sanasar and Baghdasar accompany this week's maiden to the hilltop, and kill the dragon with two great oil-press stones, which they then set back into place for their owners. For their reward, the maiden is betrothed to Baghdasar (pp. 92-97).

2.10 The twins return to B'gh'ntzek Kaghak, where they are told that Deghtzoun is in her castle outside the city, guarded by a dev (an evil spirit). In a diabolical "porter scene," Sanasar lets the dev squeeze his hand through the gate--it seems to him like a block of wood--and the dev in turn lets Sanasar squeeze his hand--he squeezes the blood out of it. The dev then flee, while Deghtzoun opens the gate. She rides off toward Sassoun with Sanasar and Baghdasar, but they are pursued by an army of horsemen, whom Sanasar cuts to pieces with Lightning Sword, while Baghdasar slaughters Arabs in the rearguard. During the fray, Sanasar accidentally wounds Baghdasar. The King of Katcher appears on the battlefield and ends the fighting by promising his daughter to Sanasar (pp. 98-103).

2.11 At Sanasar's insistence, Deghtzoun through sorcery restores the forty suitors to their youthfulness. Sanasar offers to fight them if they want to continue their courtship of Deghtzoun, but they decline and return to their own lands. Sanasar offers to give Deghtzoun to Baghdasar if he wants to marry her, but he refuses to take his brother's betrothed, saying that he wishes to marry the maiden whom they had rescued from the dragon at Green City. (In fact he ends up marrying Deghtzoun's sister instead.) Riding further, the three (Sanasar, Baghdasar, and Deghtzoun) are challenged by a horseman in blue. Baghdasar unhorses this "Blue Knight," who reveals herself to be a woman. She identifies herself as Deghtzoun's sister, who had run away seven years earlier because of Deghtzoun's evil sorcery. Now that Sanasar had broken her magic spells, they call all live a normal life. Back home in Sassoun, Sanasar married Dechtzoun, and Baghdasar married her sister. Baghdasar and his wife make their home in Baghdad, where they have no sons. Sanasar and Dehtzoun have three sons: Vergo, Tzenov Hovan (Hovan of the great voice), and Mher. Of these the oldest, Vergo, is unremarkable; Tzenov Hovan is noted for his supernaturally loud voice; Mher is the hero who continues the pahlevan tradition of the family (pp. 104-7).

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