OT/OOC

I have a theory that I don't know how to prove, but I may well do research into it. I know there are people who have done research into "archetypeal" stories and folk lore, so I probably can just read what others have thought on the subject.

But if ever there was a place that was long ago and far away, where marrying the princess could get you the half the kingdom, it was in the land of Armenia, which does sound foreign to our modern Western ears. I like to think that the French who travelled through this exotic land, heavily influenced by their Persian, Mongolian, and Byzantine neighbors and yet a Christian kingdom, took these tales home with them and started Fairy Tales as we would recognize. Armenian folklore is very much a cross between the Brothers Grimm and Arabian Nights.

Modern Armenia is overshadowed by the horrors inflicted by Turkey. I would be remiss if I did not mention that. Most of Armenians by religion and culture are now spread to the four winds, yet they still have some of their homeland preserved. I wish them well, but I admit, it is their deeper history that fascinates me, from 300ish to 1500 AD. Around 405, they invented their own alphabet, and taught everyone in the land to read and write the language- even the poor, even the women. And the women could inherit and hold property in their own name, that early on. The Armenians are wonderful people.

Stories mutate over time. We tell them again and again, from a fresh perspective, or with a new moral, or with a new twist, such as including a love story or different ideas of magic/science. There are still new stories to be told- but the old stories we have read time and time again still cling to us, and we still want happy endings.  ¶ 8:11 AM