Georgian Mythical Heroes

I was looking for a good illustration for a Georgian fairy tale I'm working on and was lucky enough to find this book at a local bookstore in Tbilisi.

It is written for children but as an adult I enjoyed it tremendously. The book is available in both Kartuli (Georgian) and English. I couldn't find the Georgian version in that particular store as apparently it sells out pretty quickly, but I will be on a lookout for it.

The book features 20 mythical heroes and heroines from Svanetian, Megrelian, Khevsurian, Kakhetian, Tushetian regional myths and commonly shared Georgian national myths.

Some of the characters are human, some are demigods, and some are magical beings or spirits who can be either male or female, or sometimes not gender-specific at all (Kartvelian languages -- Kartuli, Megrelian-Laz, and Svan -- have no gender category), and can be either evil or good.

Each chapter is devoted to one particular character. The chapter describes the character in general terms, their abilities and achievements, their place in Georgian mythology, and provides a vignette or a whole story of their most heroic deed.

The most remarkable feature of this book is beautiful illustrations by Varlam Jmukhadze, an extremely talented Georgian artist who managed to render the spirit and long tradition of Georgian myths in this collection. You can check out more of his works on his Facebook page.

For example, here is an illustration for Dali, the goddess of hunting in Svanetian mythology, who controlled the destiny of animals and humans. The beautiful goddess lived in impregnable cliffs from which her golden hair flowed down like mountain rivers, and she "enjoyed love affairs with the hunters of her choice and assisted them in hunting so long as the hunter kept their relationship secret." Needless to say, Dali had many children who were demigods and one of them -- Amirani -- is featured in the book as well.

Here is another great illustration. This one is of a Devi, a large Ogre-like hairy being of extraordinary strength that can have three, nine or even a hundred horned heads (the more the heads, the more power a Devi has) that can be regrown if severed. Devi can be either helpers or obstacles in human quests, but on their own they are excellent cattle and grain farmers and blacksmiths.

This shape-shifting character intrigued me the most. It is a Kudiani, an ugly evil human-hunting hunchback with large teeth and extraordinarily long unkempt and unwashed hair. It is called a Kudiani ("a tailed being" in Georgian) because it hides a tail. But once the tail is revealed the Kudiani loses its power. It's worth noting that Kudianis used to be humans who got turned into these creatures because they were plotting and practicing dark magic against humans.

Overall, I absolutely loved this book and highly recommend it for anyone. It gives you a good entry point into the Georgian mythology and will leave you craving for more. It will also serve you long as the Georgian publisher Artanuji printed it as an exceptionally high quality hardcover with glossy colorful pages that would make you want to flip through it again and again.

My overall rating: 10/10. The book is available on Amazon: