Daredevils of Sassoun, sometimes spelled Sasun (Armenian: Սասնա ծռեր; Sasna tsrer) is an Armenian Epic Poem. Many modern printings title it David of Sasun (Armenian: Սասունցի Դավիթ; Sasuntsi Davit), renaming it after its most popular character.
As an oral tale, it dates to the 10th century, and was for centuries rehearsed by village bards. It wasn't put in written form until Garegin Srvantdziantz in 1873, and was published the following year.
The story chronicles warriors from Sasun (a historical Armenian province, west of Lake Van) struggling against Egyptian rule in the 8th to 10th centuries. Egypt has never actually conquered Sasun or Armenia, but the poem was composed during a time when Islamic empires were growing in the region. The Egyptians were originally stand-ins for the Arabs, who were known to tax non-Muslims to ridiculous extremes when they ruled Armenia. One reason for the poem's continued popularity through the centuries was it's applicability given Turkish dominance of Western Armenia for most of the last millennium.
The work consists of four cycles, correlating to four generations of a family. When told, normally at least one of the four cycles would be left out, but David's — the most popular — almost never was.
- Sanasar and Baghdasar
- Great Mher, also known as Lion Mher
- David
- Little Mher
Adaptions
- Poet Hovhannes Tumanian's wrote a rhymed version of the third cycle, now in the Public Domain, which can be read here.
- In 2010, after ten years of Development Hell, an Animated Adaptation was produced in Armenia directed by Arman Manaryan called Sasna Tsrer, covering the first three cycles.
Daredevils of Sassoun contains examples of:
- Elemental Weapon: Lion Mher had a sword that shoots bolts of lightning, and David eventually finds it and uses it against Melik.
- Nepharious Pharaoh: The Big Bad is Melik, Egyptian king and Evil Overlord. He was probably based in part on the pharaoh from Book of Exodus. Given the fact that Egypt has never actually conquered Armenia, he's also probably a sort of No Celebrities Were Harmed Expy of the Arab caliphs or Turkish sultans.
- History Repeats: Lion Mher and David both find themselves the Chosen Conception Partner of villainous women.
- Mystical Pregnancy: Tsovinar conceivers her twin sons, Sanasar and Baghdasar, by drinking from a sacred spring.
- Dirty Coward: Melik, instead of fighting David, at first traps him in a deep pit and closes the top of the pit with a boulder.
- Evil Uncle/ Wicked Stepmother: Ohan's wife is really the evil one, Ohan is just too much of a push-over to stand up to her.
- The Herald: The old hag sets the hero David on his adventure by revealing to him his true parentage.
- Super-Scream: Big-Voiced Ohan. He's meek and cowardly throughout most of the story, but he has the hidden superpower of a voice loud enough to shatter stone. He does this to free David from Melik's trap.
- Super-Strength: David was able to walk in iron boots, among other feats of strength.
- Chaste Separating Sword: When Gohar does a Lysistrata Gambit, she lays a sword between them in bed at night.
- Lysistrata Gambit: Little Mher and Gohar get married, and Gohar refuses to have sex with her new husband until he puts an end to the unfair taxation of the Armenians by the King of the West. So Mher leads a battle against the king, wins, then comes home and has sex with his wife.