Anonymous (18)

I'm really glad I found this, got it from Scribes book shop with the last of my birthday voucher. I love mythology and ancient epics, but I had no idea this one even existed. These are the stories of the Oghuz Turks, a Muslim Mongol-like culture that were the ancestors of the Ottomans.

The most refreshing aspect of these stories are the powerful women. The women are just as battle-ready as the men, not afraid to stand up for themselves or to rescue their lovers if needed. The men are much as you'd expect from a warrior culture, and tend to be a little more rash and foolish than their female counterparts.

I like to think that some of this foolishness was actually meant to be funny. Like Uruz's first encounter with the monster Goggle-Eye, which seems best rephrased as a role-playing scenario:

Dungeon Master: You see a strange object on the ground. What do you do?
Uruz: I kick it.
DM: Every time you kick it, it gets larger. What now?
Uruz: I call my friends over to kick it too.
DM: Uhh...okay. It keeps growing and eventually explodes. Inside is a monstrous child with a single eye. What do you do?
Uruz: Easy! I adopt it!
DM: You wha...okay, you get it home and give it a wet nurse. The nurse is instantly drained of blood and dies.
Uruz: More wet nurses!
DM: Okay, now all the wet nurses are dead. What now?
Uruz: Guess I'll send the kid out too play.
DM: It bit off all the other kids' eyes and noses. Everyone's mad at you dude.
Uruz: Geez...I guess this isn't working out. Let's send the thing on it's way.

And that's how Goggle-Eye ended up ravaging the country side.

I enjoyed the editor's notes, as a little bit of dry humour and personality shines through them. Yes, I agree, what did happen to the wonderful Lady Chichek?!

If you are a fan of ancient epics then your collection will not be complete until you've read this!… (mais)

When I read this book the most prominent tags associated with it were ( and maybe still are) "Central Asia" and "Turkey" or "Turkish". Isn't that odd just at face value? How can it be from Turkey (a country with territory in continental Europe) and from the MIDDLE of Asia?

Well, it can because The Book of Dede Korkut is essentially the transcription of an oral tradition developed by the Orghuz people as they migrated out of Central Asia (roughly modern day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan) ultimately ending up in Anatolia (modern day Turkey). Now, the Orghuz Turks did go on to conquer all of Anatolia and even toppled the Byzantine Empire replacing it with the Ottoman Empire, but that conquest takes place after the scope of these stories. Toward the end of the stories the city of Trebizond (Modern Trabzon on the Black Sea coast of Turkey) is still "infidel" and lies at the edge of Orghuz territory. This just goes to show that at the time these stories originated their authors had barely begun to establish a foothold in the territory we now call Turkey.

Just because these stories predate a Turkish "Turkey" does not mean the stories don't deserve a "Turkey" designation in the most common tags. The Book of Dede Korkut is essentially the origin story for many of the modern nations primarily speaking Turkic languages, Turkey among them.

So I have no issue with this book being associated with Turkey and Central Asia, but rather with its NOT being associated with Azerbaijan or the Caucasus region in general, most likely the epicenter of most of action. This region represents the halfway point between their starting point in Central Asia and their end point in Anatolia. Indeed, of all the countries that do so, Azerbaijan seems to reverence Dede Korkut most of all today and there seems to be reason to believe that the text itself is most closely related to Azeri Turkish, perhaps suggesting that it was in Azerbaijan that it was first set down in writing.

The fault for the misattribution is probably due to the misleading subtitle "A Turkish Epic". "Turkish" is the demonym for a person from Turkey, but it could also mean any group speaking a Turkic language from a huge swathe of Asia running diagonally from northeastern Russia (the Yakuts) through China (the Uyghurs) and ending in Turkey. Again, these stories form a backdrop for the later conquest of the Byzantine Empire and the rise of the Ottoman Dynasty and its successor modern Turkey, and Turkey IS the most visible representative of that language family on the global stage. However, to say that Turkey's ubiquity earns it the strongest right to claim these stories would be like calling Shakespeare American.

The stories themselves are interesting. They contain the kind of repetitive language common in epic poetry that began in the oral tradition (think of the Odyssey and how often you have to read the words "wine-dark sea") and it's clear that the stories developed over time in that they lack an overarching development. These aren't inherently flaws any more than "there were lots of robots" would be a flaw in a Science Fiction novel; if robots bother you, maybe Science Fiction isn't your thing. Compared to other ancient or medieval literature I've read, I'd call it about average. I'd compare it to The Mabinogion in a lot of ways but a little more fast-paced and a lot less fantastical in content. The titular Dede Korkut is actually interesting as an extremely peripheral character, a kind of bard, who makes very brief appearances in each of the stories.… (mais)