David of Sassoun (Sasna Tsrer, or The Daredevils of Sassoun) is the main Armenian heroic epic. It has a history of more than a thousand years, but was first written down by the philologist, ethnographer, and religious figure Garegin Srvandzyan in 1873. Since Srvandzyan preserved on paper a version dictated to him by a storyteller named Krpo from Taron (now the territory of Turkey; formerly the region of Greater Armenia: Sassoun was considered its citadel for centuries), scholars have collected about a hundred versions of the epic. In oral form, the work was formed in the 8th-12th centuries and reflected the history of the struggle of the Armenian people against the Arab Caliphate (which began with the capture of the then Armenian capital of Dvin by the Arabs in 640) and, later, the Egyptian rulers of the Ayyubid dynasty. According to the law of genre, the historical core gained additional elements: myths, pagan epic tales, heroic tales, biblical stories, references to later events in the history of the Middle East and Europe.

The plot of David of Sassoun, which dedicates itself to the history of the birth, life, and exploits of four generations of Sassoun heroes, divides into four parts — the so-called branches. The first of them — Sanasar and Baghdasar — tells us about the founders of Sassoun itself, the twin sons of the Armenian princess Tsovinar, who gave birth to them not from an earthly man, but from the foaming sea. The second one — Mher the Elder — talks about the deeds of Sanasar’s son, Mher the Lion-like. The third, central branch of the epic — David of Sassoun — is dedicated to Mher’s son David, who finally freed his native land from Arab oppression. The final one — Mher the Younger — is dedicated to the most tragic hero of the entire epic, David’s son Mher, cursed by his own father and doomed to immortality and childlessness. The epic ends with Mher the Younger’s departure into a rock, in which he hid until the world collapses and is rebuilt. Although Mher’s departure means the end of the Sassoun heroic dynasty, his branch has not dried up or fallen — ancient forces continue to slumber in it, which will yet reveal themselves to the world.

Taron and Sassoun are historical regions in which forming the Armenian people took place at the turn of the 1st and 2nd millennia BC. Later, it was the Sassoun Principality, in the harsh, inaccessible mountains, that preserved significant independence and elements of statehood in the most desperate times for the Armenians. The people of Sassoun did not submit to the Akhlatshahs, or Shamseddin, or Tamerlane, or the Ottomans, or the Kurdish emirs — until the start of the 20th century, their lands remained the center of resistance and the national struggle for their own land. The Armenians lost Sassoun during the First World War and the Genocide carried out by the Young Turks. However, the people of Sassoun did not give up the fight even then — during the last self-defense (1915), they fought literally to the last bullet and a handful of gunpowder: the Turkish troops, which greatly outnumbered them, were able to take the region only when the residents ran out of ammunition and food. Having broken the resistance of Sassoun, the Turks slaughtered most of the Armenian population. Today, the Sassoun lands are part of the Turkish province of Batman — but they do not cease to be a symbol of Armenian resilience and fortitude.

David of Sassoun is a work that very accurately reflects the national character and cultural code of the Armenian people, since its characters not only defend and fight, but also create, restore and build incessantly. In this sense, the thousand-year-old architectural monuments of Armenia, scattered throughout the lands where there have been no Armenians for a long time, resemble the giant heroes of Sassoun, determined to withstand and survive in any circumstances — both in those where history is made by heroes, and in those where history itself creates heroes.

Ksenia Drugoveyko