Table Of ContentGEORGIAN
HUNTING
MYTHS
AND
POETRY
by
E.VIRSALADZE
Translated by
D.G.Hunt
1
EDITORS
MARY KHUKHUNAISHVILI-TSIKLAURI
ELENE ABASHIDZE
Lay-our by
MARINE TURASHVILI
Cover by
RUSUDAN TSINTSADZE
ISBN
© Georgian Natinal Academy of Sciences, 2017
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“Georgian Hunting Myths and Poetry” is a key work of the eminent Georgian
folklorist Elene Virsaladze (1911-1977) and dedicated to the problems of history and
culture of hunting.
Being one of the most ancient forms of organized work, hunting played a significant
role in the formation of the human collective and social institutions. Hunting together with
agriculture, fishing and animal husbandry for a long time preserved importance not only in
the economic, but in ideological and cultural life, too. In the modern society hunting is still
popular though hunting lore is on the verge of disappearance, which makes the book more
valuable.
The work consists of two parts. In the first part Elene Virsaladze presented a study of
the Georgian (Caucasus) hunting epos that preserves hunting myths, hunting beliefs and
customs. On the basis of investigation of the hunting epos its organic link with other
genres of the Georgian folklore is revealed: such as, labour and wedding songs, ritual
songs of celebration of the birth of a child, heroic songs, laments, proverbs and riddles.
The second part of the book is a reader of the archaic texts of the Georgian hunting poetry
with notes making it attractive not only for the specialists but for the ordinary readers as
well.
The book brings into the light almost unknown in the West the treasure of the rich oral
tradition of the country. The British scholar David Hunt (1930-2016) translated it into the
English Language. In the 90s of the past century he made friends with the Georgian
folklorists of Shota Rustaveli Institute of Georgian Literature and started working on
the Georgian-Caucasian folklore. He published numerous papers on the subject, translated
and published Georgian Folktales, Georgian Folk Traditions and Legends, Legends of
the Caucasus. David hunt was the winner of the McDowell Prize and a member of the
British Folklore Society for more than forty years. He was known for his charity, too. In
2012 David Hunt donated considerable funds to the seed bank of the Georgian
National Botanical Garden for saving extinct species of plants in the country.
Mary Khukhunaishvili-Tsiklauri
Member of the British Folklore Society
Elene Abashidze
Art historian
Editors of the English edition of the “Georgian Hunting Myths and Poetry”
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The translator would like to thank both Mary
Khukhunaishvili-Tsiklauri and Anna Pilkington for
their help in the translation of this book; and Manana
Khidasheli for kindly providing a copy of the text.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Biography of Elene Virsaladze . . . . . . 7
Introduction . . . . . . . . 9
I. Towards the history of the question . . . . . 20
II. The folk traditions of hunting in Georgia . . . . 28
III. The cycle of songs and traditions about the slain hunter . . 43
IV. The wonderful gifts . . . . . . . 64
V. The hunting epos and “The legend of Amirani” . . . 83
VI. An attempt at the typological and comparative analysis
of the tale subject of the slain hunter . . . . 101
VII. Ideas about the masters of the beasts in the Christian epoch
and their representation in the hunting epos . . . . 119
VIII. The artistic images of the Georgian hunting epos . . . 134
IX. Hunting ballads . . . . . . . 143
X. Traditions of hunting poetry in the genres of Georgian folklore:
Georgian hunting poetry in work songs . . . . 159
The Georgian hunting epos and ritual poetry . . . 161
The Georgian heroic song and hunting poetry . . . 166
XI. Performance traditions of the hunting epos . . . . 173
TEXTS
I. HUNTING (1-70) . . . . . . . 186
II. HUNTERS (1-13) . . . . . . . 195
III. MYTHOLOGICAL SONGS AND TRADITIONS
1. Dali is giving birth in the crags (a-g) . . . . . 196
2. Hunter Gakhuta . . . . . . . 199
3. Betkil (a-i) . . . . . . . . 199
4. White Mangur . . . . . . . 206
5. Hunter Chorla (a,b) . . . . . . . 206
6. Kala . . . . . . . . . 209
7. Ucha . . . . . . . . . 210
8. Dalis . . . . . . . . 210
9. Gegi Margiani and Dali . . . . . . 210
10. Dali and hunter Gau . . . . . . 211
11. Kazbek Gelovani . . . . . . . 211
12. The day of Betken . . . . . . . 211
13. Betken and Dali . . . . . . . 212
14. Balkheti Meadow . . . . . . . 212
15. Dali and Devi . . . . . . . 213
16. Dali and the hunter’s wife . . . . . . 213
17. Dali and Amirani (a,b) . . . . . . 213
18. A certain woman was called Shroshani (a-j) . . . . 216
19. Kursha (a-m) . . . . . . . 219
20. The hunter on the crag (a-f) . . . . . . 225
21. Jarji . . . . . . . . . 226
22. The sister and the brother, masters of the beasts . . . 226
23. The mistress of the beasts . . . . . . 226
24. The origin of the Mesebi . . . . . . 226
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25. The revenge of Tkashi-Mapa . . . . . 228
26. The mistress of the animals and her foster-child . . . 229
27. The forest woman . . . . . . . 229
28. The Alis’ round dance . . . . . . 231
29. The hunters and Dali (a,b) . . . . . . 231
30. The battle of the veshapis . . . . . . 232
31. The living chain mail . . . . . . 232
32. The legend of Karakh the Hunter . . . . . 233
33. Khechecha . . . . . . . . 236
34. Ochokochi . . . . . . . . 237
35. Jamagidze’s spring . . . . . . . 238
36. The hunter, Ochokochi and the devs (a,b) . . . . 238
37. Bekan Gulbani and Dali . . . . . . 239
38. The hunter at the wedding of the devs (a,b) . . . . 239
39. I killed a deer . . . . . . . 240
40. The prayer before a hunt . . . . . . 240
41. Customs before a hunt . . . . . . 240
42. The stuffed wolf . . . . . . . 241
43. A blessing on the hunt . . . . . . 241
44. Incantation for the hunter’s good return . . . . 241
45. Dali’s revenge . . . . . . . 241
IV. BALLADS
1. Tabi Goshteliani . . . . . . . 242
2. When on that mountain, on the snowy… (a-g) . . . . 242
3. The young man and the leopard (a-f) . . . . . 244
4. Avtandil went hunting (a-c) . . . . . . 247
5. The Tvareli brothers (a,b) . . . . . . 248
6. Creator, do not kill . . . . . . . 249
7. Batsaligo (a-c) . . . . . . . 249
8. Jarji (a-i) . . . . . . . . 250
9. They did not recognise me . . . . . . 252
10. The hunter Sindaurisdze . . . . . . 252
11. I am a lad called Badurashvili . . . . . 252
12. Sesia and Turia . . . . . . . 252
Notes to the texts . . . . . . . 254
Bibliography . . . . . . . . 270
Glossary . . . . . . . . 279
List of geographical names . . . . . . 280
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Biography of Elene Virsaladze
Elene Virsaladze (1911-1977) was a figure of major importance for folklore studies
and folklore collecting activities of the 20th century in Georgia. Despite the Soviet
repressions that touched her and her family she lived and worked with dignity all her life.
Her parents Bagrat Virsaladze (economist) and Elene Muskhelishvili (botanist) were
educated in Europe, married in France and returned to Georgia at the beginning of the
last century to help the country in its European development. They had three children:
Tina, professor of the history of art of the middle ages, Soliko well-known artist,
especially of theatre sets and Elene. In 1921 Georgia was occupied by the Red Army,
the first democratic government was forced to flee, the country lost its independence
and Georgia became a part of the Soviet Union. Bagrat Virsaladze rejected the new
system and did not work. He wanted to return to Europe with his family but the wife was
against it, she insisted that their children must live in Georgia. During some years the
family lived on the income of Bagrat’s wife’s earnings from the private lessons of English
and French. After finishing school Elene Virsaladze continued education at Ivane
Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, where her tutor was Vakhtang Kotetishvili, the
eminent Georgian Folklorist. Taking his advice she chose to work in folklore. In 1931 she
married Shalva Khidasheli, who later became a well-known scholar of Georgian
Philosophy. The couple went to Saint Petersburg for post graduate studies.Elene
Virsaladze’s tutors there were the famous scholars Mark Azadovski and Yuri Sokolov. In
1935 she defended her thesis on “The Genesis of Georgian Folktales”. In 1936 she
returned to Tbilisi and began work at Tbilisi State University teaching two subjects:
Russian Folklore and Folklore of the Peoples of the World. Georgian Folklore was taught
by Vakhtang Kotetishvili. In 1937 her father Bagrat Virsaladze was executed, the same
fate was shared by Vakhtang Kotetishvili , Elene was sent into exile to the Far East.
Her daughter Manana was then a year old. Some eminent scholars on the initiative of
the academician Simon Janashia campaigned for her release and she eventually returned
in 1943 by their help. She was sent to work in Gori, Stalin’s birthplace. In 1948 she was
allowed to work in Tbilisi, at Shota Rustaveli Institute of Georgian Literature, where
she defended her doctorate on the Georgian hunting epos. Soon she was elected as a
professor of Tbilisi State University and later became the Head of the Folklore
Department of the University.
Elene Virsaladze is the author of more than a hundred scientific works in Georgian,
Russian, English, French and German.Among them are: “Georgian Hunting Myths and
Poetry”, “Folklore of Georgian Mountain People (Mtiuleti and Gudamakari)”,
“Georgian Folk Poetic Literature”, “Georgian Spring Round-Dance Poetry”, “A
Short Bibliography with Annotation of Georgian Folklore (1829-1901)”. She collected
scattered folklore texts, classified and edited them with scientific explanations and
commentaries. Examples are her anthology of the “Georgian Traditions and Legends” and
“Georgian Folktales”. She was an active field-worker, regularly taking part in folklore
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expeditions all over Georgia, recording valuable materials from the professional narrators.
In the folklore archive of Shota Rustaveli Institute of Georgian Literature there is kept a
rich collection of manuscripts and audio recordings of her expeditions.
Elene Virsaladze was a member of the International Narrative Folklore Society,
took part in international folklore conferences, including those at Budapest, Prague, Tokyo,
Chicago and Helsinki. She was a public figure, too, being the Head of the Women’s
Committee in Tbilisi Mtatsminda District, she gave much help to women.
Elene’s only daughter Manana Khidasheli is a professor of the cultural history of the
ancient world and Georgia, the author of the famous work “The world Image in Archaic
Georgia”. The dramatic collapse of the Soviet Empire touched her family, too. Her son
Levan Abashidze, a popular film star was killed in 1992 in the Abkhazian War
defending the territorial integrity of Georgia. Manana’s second son Erekle is a historian
and works on the old historical annals of Georgia. Erekle has three children – Elene, Luka
and Mariam. His elder daughter Elene Abashidze graduated with MA from Goldsmith’s
college, University of London, she is an art historian and works on the aspects of
European Art.
David Hunt
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INTRODUCTION
The diverse folk-poetic creations of Georgia, its polyphonic folk songs, and its dazzling
choreographic art testify to the ancient character of the national culture and to the artistic taste
of the people, polished by the centuries.
The geographical situation of Georgia, the trade routes connecting it with other lands, the
wide historical-cultural and literary links, the mature centuries-old national literature: all this,
at the same time as migrations going on within the country, present undoubted interest for the
study of inter- and intra-ethnic folklore links.
The peculiarity of the geographical conditions have united, in the single comparatively
small territory of Georgia, the eternal snows of the Caucasus summits and alpine meadows
(where the mountain people work at hunting and raising livestock), the subtropical culture of
the region of the coastal strip, and the fruit gardens, vineyards and fields of the river valleys of
the Alazani, Mtqvari and Rioni. The various geographical conditions, giving rise to the
diverse types of economic activities, caused also the peculiarities of development of the
diverse parts of Georgia, conditionally called by us regions.
Separated from each other by the high mountain passes, these regions in the past were
living a special exclusive life for a long time. For that reason, while studying the folklore of
the separate regions of Georgia, we have to deal in each case with the folklore of separate
ethnic groups. These are characterised by their separate territory, peculiarities of speech, of
costume, of customs, and of dwelling, with an individuality that is not genetic, but of
communal social information that has been transmitted from generation to generation. These
peculiarities attach uniqueness to such regions as Kartli, Kakhetia, Imeretia, Khevsuretia,
Ajaria, Guria, Pshavia, Mtiuletia and others.
Comparison of the folklore repertoires and the folklore traditions of these regions bears
irrefutable witness to the genetic unity of their origins, to their close kinship, their community
of language and of the basic categories and expressions of their spiritual and material culture,
to the existence, side by side with the realisation of belonging to a separate ethnic group or
tribe, of a developed and prevailing common-Georgian ethnic consciousness.
The larger or smaller extent of the manifestation of this intra-ethnic consciousness
(understood by us conditionally within the limits of the ethnic group) and its correlation with
national consciousness has been changing historically, being "the product of communal and
historical conditions" [Bromley, pp.53-54].
The periods of feudal fragmentation, the diversity of social structures (for example,
between the free communities of the mountain people and the central regions of the land with
their writing, development of literature, and art) brought about also various degrees of
development of self-awareness.
Thanks to the causes indicated, the most ancient forms of Georgian folklore creations were
preserved for a very long time alongside the latest highly-developed, sometimes refined forms
of poetic art.
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The coexistence in living tradition, in a single ethnic organism, of different degrees of
development of folk creations, sometimes allows us to trace through on the Georgian material
the history of the development of the separate folklore genres, and even of individual folklore
texts.
Each of the ethnic groups introduces its own unique features into the overall national folk
creations. One can say boldly that the character of Georgian folklore would have been
incomplete and significantly impoverished, with the omission of even one of these groups,
whose creative works reflect the peculiarity of their historical fortunes, the diversity of their
way of life and the communal integrity of the country, and the stability of the basic ethnic
manifestations of the people as a whole.
Thus, for example, it is not accidental that in Georgian folklore, generally imbued with a
heroic spirit, the heroic song is presented especially clearly in Khevsuretia, Svanetia, Khevi
and Mtiuletia, which were the former outposts of the land, protecting it from the continual
attacks of its numerous enemies. The heroic songs until recently were the basic and leading
genre in their whole folklore repertoire, occupying a significant place in their living tradition.
The heroic songs were sung with a bowl in the hands during a feast; they predominated in the
round-dance repertoire, when mourning the dead, and at wedding and ritual festivities, where
mythological songs also occupied a significant place.
On the other hand the love lyric, which was presented in an unusually large number of
texts, genres and forms in Kartli, Kakhetia and Pshavia, are much more rarely met in the
traditional repertoire of the Khevsurs, especially of the men. This phenomenon is
convincingly explained by the researchers (D.Gogochuri, G.Arabuli), as stemming
specifically from the historical way of life and disposition of the Khevsurs. The rigorous way
of life of the mountain people living on the borders of the land, their continuous readiness for
war (the mountain man did not take off his weapons, even while working in the field or
haymaking), and the actual life itself forged in that region the ideal of the battle-hardened,
stern warrior, for whom it was formerly shameful even to speak of love. It is interesting that
here it was basically girls who came forward as the authors and performers of love songs, and
the performance of love songs was strictly limited. They were not allowed to be performed as
table songs during male assemblages nor at church feast days. They were performed always
on the quiet, in an intimate or young people's audience.
Among the neighbours of the Khevsurs, the Pshavians, living nearer to the central region,
where the strict customs had been breaking down, love poetry flourished as a luxuriant bloom
and became one of the leading genres of folk creation. Love elegies, odes, ballads, love
debates, love letters in verses, shairi1, and miniatures were presented here in all variety.
In the central regions, Kartli, Kakhetia, Imeretia and Mingrelia, lyric poetry, aphoristic
table songs and historical traditions were especially widely presented. It is very important that
it was precisely here where the tradition of tales has been preserved. This especially applies to
magic tales ("fairy tales"), which are almost absent in the repertoire of the mountain people of
1
shairi − a two-line or four-line rhymed poem or ditty on some topical or humorous theme.
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