_-_First_Ancient_Greek_.jpg)
Уӕ бон хорз
There is a great mobile app available in the Google PlayStore, called 'ирон чиныг', that allows you to listen and read in Ossetian! They also have content on Youtube and Instagram, including some of the stories here, either way, it is worth checking out!!
The Nart Sagas are ubiquitous in the Caucasus and each culture in the region has their own iteration, these stories have been shared since ancient times. Princeton University Press states that the Nart Sagas "is to the Caucasus what Greek mythology is to Western Civilization.". The word Nart comes from the Proto-Iranian word 'Nar' meaning hero/man, in Chechen Nart means 'giant'. In Ossetian (Иронау), the noun only has the plural form, making нарт a 'plurale tantum'.
One thing I enjoy about reading these sagas is some of the more obscure or archaic usages you find. In the first paragraph, for example, you can find the term Бонвæрноны, which is the star seen in the morning around sunrise, aka. Venus. Older texts like this also give us insight into how a language changes overtime, indeed many of the words you'll find from the outset are now considered archaic. The style and substance of the story shares many similarities with other Indo-European sagas, an easy example is the appearance of a wolf as central figure and creator/sustainer of life; Remus and Romulus are suckled by a wolf, but Axcap and aexcaertaeg are directly birthed by one. The name of the wolf is also another archaic usage, Uaerkhaeg is a name but also means wolf, and has been supplanted by Biraegh. Uaerkhaeg is the same etymology as in the word 'warg/varg' as seen in media such as Lord of the Rings and others, even though warg/varg from these sources comes from Old-Germanic/Old Norse.