Know your Ossetians
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We here at Language Log know our Ossetians:
"Blue-Green Iranian 'Danube'" (10/26/19)
"Sword out of the stone" (8/9/08)
And we know our Scythians, who are closely linked to the Ossetians, too:
"Of reindeer and Old Sinitic reconstructions" (12/23/18)
"Horses, soma, riddles, magi, and animal style art in southern China" (11/11/19)
"Of armaments and Old Sinitic reconstructions, part 6" (12/23/17)
"Of horse riding and Old Sinitic reconstructions" (4/21/19)
"Of jackal and hide and Old Sinitic reconstruction" (12/16/18)
Now Richard Foltz (a cultural historian specializing in ancient Iranian religion), on his blog, "A Canadian in Ossetia: Life in the central Caucasus", has given us the opportunity to greatly expand our knowledge of Ossetian / Ossete / Ossetic and the Ossetians who speak it with two new, substantial articles:
I.
"Ossetian Popular Religion: Scythian Connections"
Posted by Richard Foltz 2020-02-14 Posted in Alans, Caucasian peoples, Caucasus, Chechens, Circassians, Ingush, Iranian Studies, Kabardians, Mongols, Nart epic, Ossetia, Sarmatians, Scythians, Uastyrdzhi Tags: Alans, Æfsati, Indo-Iranian, kuyvd, Mithraism, Ossetian rituals, Sarmatians, Scythians, South Ossetia, St. George, Uastyrdzhi
II.
"Ossetian Genealogy: From Arya to Alan to Ir"
Posted by Richard Foltz 2020-02-11 Posted in Alans, Caucasian peoples, Caucasus, Chechens, Circassians, Ingush, Iranian Studies, Kabardians, Mongols, Nart epic, Ossetia, Sarmatians, Scythians, Silla kingdom Tags: Alans, Caucasian peoples, Chechens, Circassians, Ingush, Kabardians, King Arthur legends, Nart epic, Ossetia, Sarmatians, Scythians, Silla kingdom
Quotations from these articles below are labeled respectively "I" and "II".
We are on familiar territory when Foltz writes:
Other Ossetian divine names are constructed of combinations. For example, that of Donbettyr, the lord of the waters, is comprised of the Ossetian word for water, don (an ancient Iranian term preserved in the names of many east European rivers including the Don, the Danube, the Dnieper and the Dniester), and bettyr, a corruption of (St.) Peter. {I}
We learn more about the ancient and medieval Iranian groups and their amazing exploits in these paragraphs:
The Sarmatians were a Scythian group who interacted with the Romans, often fighting them but sometimes being coopted as cavalry into the Roman army. A Sarmatian contingent was settled by the Romans in Britain during the first century, and the Arthurian legends have been connected with them. A century later the Sarmatians come to be referred to in Latin sources as Alans, which is a phonetic transformation of the ethnonym “Aryan”, meaning “noble”, by which the diverse Iranic tribes referred to themselves. The Ossetes today call themselves “Ir” (adjectival form iron), and their country Iryston, which is etymologically identical with “Iran”: both mean “Land of the Aryans”. (“Ossetia” derives from the Georgian “Os-eti”, meaning “Land of the As”, the As being one of the Scythian tribes known from antiquity.)
Since the Ossetian language is indisputably Iranic and is descended from the Scythian/Sarmatian branch through medieval Alanic of which a number of written examples exist, claims by contemporary Ingush, Kabardians and others to be the “true” descendants of the Alans would seem to be entirely spurious. The fact that many clearly Iranic cultural elements are preserved in the heroic epic tradition of the Narts, which other Caucasian peoples also claim as their own, adds further weight to Ossetian claims vis-à-vis their non-Iranian (and hence non-Indo-European) neighbours. On the other hand, the Ossetes have not spent the past two thousand years in a vacuum, and they have absorbed many Caucasian influences as well, to say nothing of their DNA. The tradition of families building stone towers (Russ. bashnya) in which they would hole up when under siege by invaders may go back as much as three thousand years, well before steppe-dwelling Aryan horsemen began to settle in the mountainous Caucasus two millennia ago. And the Nart stories, which evolved organically over a long period through oral transmission until they finally began to be collected and written down by folklorists in the 19th century, contain many non-Indo-European layers, showing influences from all the other Caucasian peoples as well as Turks, Mongols, and Greeks. Racial and cultural purity are the chimeras of ignorant fanatics and should be dismissed out of hand by anyone genuinely seeking historical truth.
The Alans’ importance in history is generally underappreciated (except in the Caucasus, where everyone wants to claim them as their own unique ancestral heroes). In fact medieval Europe was greatly shaped by the equestrian culture of the Alans, who settled throughout Britain, France, Italy, Spain, and across North Africa as far as modern Tunisia. Scores of place names attest to their memory—Alainville, Alaincourt, Alençon, possibly even Catalonia (Goth-Alania)—as does the common proper name Alan (Fr. Alain). Ossetes today claim that Alans were everywhere: the Norse were actually Alans, I am frequently told, and there is a popular joke that evidence has recently been found of Alans on the moon. Such notions are not always purely romantic, however. I was astonished during a visit to South Korea in October 2019 when touring the monuments of the famous Silla kingdom (fl. 7th-8th c.) near Gyeongju to see royal burial mounds (kurgans) that exactly resembled those left by the Scythians from Bulgaria to Kazakhstan. The style of construction as well as of the burials themselves—kings laid out amidst their gold jewelry, accompanied by their favourite horse—seemed too close to that of the Scythians to be merely coincidental. On consulting with Korean historians I learned that they generally accept a Central Asian origin to this tradition. {II}
Here Foltz shows three photographs taken in Korea, featuring a Scythian-style kurgan, drinking horn and gold jewelry, Silla kingdom, Korea.
See C. Scott Littleton, "Were Some of the Xinjiang Mummies 'Epi-Scythians'? An Excursus in Trans-Eurasian Folklore and Mythology." In Victor H. Mair, The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Peoples of Eastern Central Asia (Washington D.C. and Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Man and the University of Pennsylvania Museum, 1998), vol. 2, pp. 746-766.
In conclusion, both language and cultural traditions tie the Alans more closely to the Ossetes than to any of the other Caucasian peoples. The Ossetes can be considered as the direct descendants of the Alans, but in concession to the claims of the Kabardians and the Ingush I would note that tribal nomadic confederations are typically quite fluid and multi-ethnic, assembling periodically for reasons that are primarily opportunistic. The best-known example is that of the Mongol horde, in which ethnic Mongols were vastly outnumbered by Turks and others. The Alan armies were also most likely composed of different ethnicities speaking a variety of languages, but within such a mosaic clearly the Iranic element was dominant and it is the Ossetes alone who have preserved this. {II}
For the deep Iranian connections of the Ossetians and the Scythians with ancient Iranian peoples and practices, we may consider as one concrete instance the following:
‘Ares’: The god of war. For the Scythians, whose economy depended heavily on raiding, one would naturally assume that the cult of a martial deity was central. Herodotus confirms this, stating that ‘Ares’ was the only god to whom the Scythians constructed ‘altars’. In fact he is referring to the well-attested Scythian cult of the sword, which would be planted into a pile of stones (or brushwood, according to Herodotus’ account) and then offered the blood of sacrificed enemies–a structure perhaps reflected in the Arthurian legend of the sword in the stone, which was likely brought to Britain by Alan regiments settled there by the Romans during the first century. The sword cult is attested among the Alans as late as the fourth century CE. The modern Uastyrdzhi, who is the most prominent deity for the Ossetians today, presumably descends from this war god, whose Scythian name is unknown to us (perhaps because it was subject to a taboo). An exclusively male figure who is the patron of soldiers and other travellers as well as the guardian of spoken contracts, Uastyrdzhi would seem to be the Ossetian parallel to the Zoroastrian god Mithra (whose name originally meant ‘spoken contract’ or ‘oath’), who was perhaps the principal deity of the pre-Zoroastrian Iranians. {I}
Note that the usual drink offered during rituals is beer, not wine or other types of liquor.
Above all, for my own personal research agenda, Foltz describes:
A type of divination technique using sticks was practiced among the Scythians (Herodotus (4.67) and later by the Alans (Ammianus Marcellinus 31.2.24). During the 1880s the Russian ethnographer S. V. Koviev observed the Ossetes practicing such a technique, which the French scholar of comparative mythology Georges Dumézil later considered likely to have been derived from that of the Scythians. {I}
I have long suspected that the barsom, used in Iranian ritual, was originally such a bundle of sticks used for divination, and I have for decades been tracing such sortilege across Eurasia, from Herodotus' and other classical writers' descriptions of the practices of the Germans to the Chinese use of yarrow stalks (though other types of sticks may also be used) in I ching divination.
Victor Mair said,
February 17, 2020 @ 4:55 pm
From Chris Atwood:
Richard Foltz’s blog is quite interesting.
Three books which you didn’t mention, but are great: Colarusso’s translation of the legends of the Narts, Scott Littleton’s study of Nart legends with King Arthur, and Georges Dumezil’s old classic study.
Jake said,
February 17, 2020 @ 5:09 pm
Also of Nart-related interest is the comic adaptations by Sylvan Migdal : https://www.c.urvy.org/?date=20171028
(Be warned: NSFW , and I'm not kidding about it)
"This first story, which I’ll post over the next few weeks, introduces probably the two most important characters in the Nart cycle: Setenaya (a.k.a. Shatana, Satanay, Seteney, Psatina) the crafty, powerful matriarch of the Nart clan; and her adopted/bastard son Sozruquo (a.k.a. Shoshlan, Sosruko, Sosriqwe), the popular hero who embodies traits of both the noble warrior and outcast trickster figure.
A note on the adaptation: the tales in the Nart cycle are told by speakers of various languages and dialects, none of which are written in the Latin alphabet. Many of the stories, characters, and especially spellings exist in multiple competing versions passed down by different bards.
I’ve chosen a mix-and-match approach, stitching together threads from different sources when I feel it enriches the narrative to do so. I can only beg forgiveness from any readers offended by me splashing a bit of Ossetian myth into their Circassian saga or vice-versa."
Victor Mair said,
February 17, 2020 @ 5:20 pm
As someone who enjoys tracking Iranian languages, peoples, and cultures across the length and breadth of Eurasia, I am a great fan of the book by C. Scott Littleton and Linda A. Malcor entitled From Scythia to Camelot: A Radical Reassessment of the Legends of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, and the Holy Grail (New York and London: Garland, 1994; rev. pb. 2000). In the British journal, Religion, 28.3 (July, 1998), 294-300, I wrote a review in which I pointed out that the celebrated motif of a mighty arm rising up out of the water holding aloft the hero's sword can also be found in a medieval Chinese tale from Dunhuang. That review is available electronically from ScienceDirect, if your library subscribes to it. Otherwise, I think this version on the Web is a fairly faithful copy.
For those who wish to learn more about the Ossetes and their literary traditions, I can warmly recommend the following volume: Nart sagas from the Caucasus: myths and legends from the Circassians, Abazas, Abkhaz, and Ubykhs, assembled, translated, and annotated by John Colarusso with the assistance of B. George Hewitt … [et al.] (Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 2002).
languagehat said,
February 17, 2020 @ 5:40 pm
The etymology from *arya- ‘Aryan’ is erroneous; see Ronald Kim, “On the Historical Phonology of Ossetic: The Origin of the Oblique Case Suffix,” JAOS, Vol. 123 (Jan. – Mar. 2003), pp. 43-72; the relevant discussion is on p. 60, fn. 42. Kim says it may be from a Caucasian language, or it may be descended from PIE *wiro- ‘man.’
Victor Mair said,
February 17, 2020 @ 10:37 pm
From Alexis Manaster Ramer:
i am sorry but the constantly repeated scythian connection is a pure myth. sarmatians yes of course, but scythians is just something that sounds good—like greeks and slavic macedonians each claiming a nonexistent connection to the ancient macedonians. but of course feel free to ignore what i say, everyone else does. so carry on….
Richard Foltz said,
February 17, 2020 @ 11:18 pm
Many thanks, Victor, for circulating my posts. By the way I think your theory about the origin of the barsom makes a lot of sense.
In addition to Colarusso's earlier rendition of the Nart epic based on the Circassian version, Iranologists will be more interested in his more recent publication of the Ossete version (Princeton, 2016) using Walter May's translation from Russian corrected by the Ossete scholar Tamir Salbiev. Of course for those who read French Dumézil's edition is preferable, since he translated directly from Ossetian.
I use the term "Scythian" in a broad, non-specific sense to encompass the range of related ancient Iranian mounted warriors of the steppes. And I did not claim in my blog that the term Ir is linguistically descended from Arya, only that the modern day people who call themselves that are.
Warmest greetings from Tskhinval! My next post will be entitled "South Ossetia is a country".
Victor Mair said,
February 18, 2020 @ 12:40 am
From Alan Kennedy:
How do the Khazars fit in to this melange of ethnic groups?
This year's national census uses "white" as a category for race and ethnicity, whereas in the recent past it was "Caucasian."
I have always been pleased that my parents gave me the name of Alan, and am happy to read in the Log that Alans are getting their due.
My Hungarian parents claim my namesake was Alan Ladd, therefore the spelling. However, the middle name given to me, Edgar, comes from Edgar Allen Poe. Poe was widely read in Europe, and American cowboy movie apparently were popularthere as well.
Scott P. said,
February 18, 2020 @ 1:05 am
Other Ossetian divine names are constructed of combinations. For example, that of Donbettyr, the lord of the waters, is comprised of the Ossetian word for water, don (an ancient Iranian term preserved in the names of many east European rivers including the Don, the Danube, the Dnieper and the Dniester), and bettyr, a corruption of (St.) Peter. {I}
So … the deity names are post-Christian? Doesn't that seem odd?
Richard Foltz said,
February 18, 2020 @ 4:18 am
No, it is not odd at all. Ossetian popular religion (and also the Nart epic) have acquired a Christian overlay over the past one thousand years, but the surviving pre-Christian strata are much stronger than in most other "Christian" societies. For a more detailed discussion see my recent article "Scythian Neo-paganism in the Caucasus". in the Journal for the Study if Religion, Nature and Culture 13/3 (2019): 314-322.
David Marjanović said,
February 18, 2020 @ 6:59 am
That's the etymology of Ir-, not that of Alan. The latter does come from *arya-.
IIRC, what little is known of their language was West Turkic, like that of the Chuvash today and the original Bulgars in the early Middle Ages. Genetically, they've probably left descendants throughout where their empire used to be.
This sense of "Caucasian" comes from the fact that Blumenbach asserted in the 18th century that the "white race" must have originated in the Caucasus, because that's where the most beautiful people live. Trufax.
languagehat said,
February 18, 2020 @ 8:44 am
That's the etymology of Ir-, not that of Alan. The latter does come from *arya-.
Yes, sorry, I should have made that clear.
Ursa Major said,
February 18, 2020 @ 8:45 am
Thanks to Victor's review and online previews I've ordered a copy of From Scythia to Camelot, as it touches on two subjects that interest me. In fact, I chose my screen name as a multilayered series of puns and references and one of the factors was the proposed etymologies that link the name Arthur to words meaning 'bear'.
One minor comment on this quoted sentence: "Racial and cultural purity are the chimeras of ignorant fanatics and should be dismissed out of hand by anyone genuinely seeking historical truth." Aside from the mythological monster, I only know the word chimera as it is used in biological sciences, broadly meaning a single living organism made up from multiple genetically unrelated parts (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera). Metaphorically that seems to be the opposite of what is meant (which I completely agree with), so I had to pause reading to dig through the dictionaries to find there is a meaning of "an unreal creature of the imagination" (to quote the OED).
languagehat said,
February 18, 2020 @ 8:46 am
I did not claim in my blog that the term Ir is linguistically descended from Arya, only that the modern day people who call themselves that are.
With respect, this is what you said:
The Ossetes today call themselves “Ir” (adjectival form iron), and their country Iryston, which is etymologically identical with “Iran”: both mean “Land of the Aryans”.
I don't know how else to interpret "etymologically" other than "linguistically descended."
Peter B. Golden said,
February 18, 2020 @ 11:04 am
On the Khazars: they were the politically dominant state of the region extending from the Pontic – North Caucasian – Volga Steppes to the Middle Volga (where the Volga Bulghars were their vassals) from ca. 630/640s to 965, 968/9, one of the largest political formations in E. Europe and the Western Eurasian steppes of that time. They derived from the Western Türk Qaghanate. A number of Turkic languages were spoken in the Khazar union, these included East Old Turkic and West Old Turkic (surviving today in Chuvash). The remnants of Khazar were studied by P.B. Golden, Khazar Studies (Budapest, 1980) 2 vols. and most recently in the excellent article by Marcel Erdal, Хазарский язык Хазары. Евреи и славяне, т. 16 (Москва-Иерусалим, 2005): 125-139 and in its earlier English version (but published several years later): "The Khazar Language" in P.B. Golden, H. Ben-Shammai and A. Róna-Tas (eds.), The World of the Khazars. New Perspectives (Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2007): 75-108. The discussions regarding the various views on the language(s) of the Khazars continue. New data is needed and this may come from fragments of writing in a variant of the Turkic runiform script found in what were Khazar territories.
For the Alans and the ongoing disputes of claims to their legacy, see Viktor Shnirel'man (Шнирельман), Быть аланами. Интеллектуалы и политика на Северном Кавказе в ХХ веке (Москва: Новое литературное обозрение, 2006). Agustí Alemany's Sources on the Alans. A Critical Compilation (Leiden-Boston-Köln: Brill, 2000) remains a good starting point.
On Alans in the West, Bernard Bachrach's A History of the Alans in the West.From Their First Appearance in the Sources of Classical Antiquity through the Early Middle Ages (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1973) is still useful.
"Beer" in Ossetian is бӕгӕны, ӕлутон, cf. also Pers. bagnî , Khwarâzmian bakanîn, Sogd. βɣ’ny, Khotanese Saka bveysa . It entered Turkic as bägni “beer of wheat, millet or barley” (Kâšɣarî/Dankoff, 1982-1985, I, 327). the Tongdian of Du You (d.812), notes it in the form bo ni匐你 (Pelliot, “Le nom turc du vin dans Odoric de Pordenone” T’oung Pao 15, 448-453, see pp. 450-453, p’o-ni, which Pelliot reconstructs as *b’äk-ni; cf. Schuessler, 2009, Mand. fu/bo ni 112, [5-33m, for Karlgren, 1996, 245-246, 933m *b’i̯ŭk/ b’i̯uk], 125 [7-20a], Middle Chin. bjuk nɨ/bǝk nɨ).
Peter B. Golden said,
February 18, 2020 @ 11:17 am
Khwarâzmian is a typo for Khwārazmian
Scott P. said,
February 22, 2020 @ 9:26 am
No, it is not odd at all. Ossetian popular religion (and also the Nart epic) have acquired a Christian overlay over the past one thousand years, but the surviving pre-Christian strata are much stronger than in most other "Christian" societies.
So "Donbettyr" is not so much a divine name as a divine nickname or epithet.
Philip Anderson said,
February 24, 2020 @ 8:20 am
@Languagehat
I would interpret “etymologically identical” as meaning “cognate”, i.e. having a common ancestor; one need not be a direct descendant of the other.