Review of The Book of Dede Korkut by Anonymous

I like to collect rare and unusual Penguin Classics. This was one of my favorite I’ve come across.

A strange and inconsistent series of tales from Medieval Turkey. The 13 tales, combined with the copious notes and introduction (which almost constitutes a 14th tale’s worth of material since it details how the manuscripts were reconciled and how the tales came into being, containing as much speculation as fact) -these were a joy to read. My favorite might have been the tale of Goggle-Eye, which was ripped wholesale from the Odyssey. Originating from an oral tradition, the tales survived in two manuscripts into the 14th century, from which they were translated here into English.
The incomparable richness of ancient and medieval oral traditions never ceases to titillate me, and this is a good example of the evolution of stories over centuries. When compared with things like the Arabian Nights or the Mahabharata, you might pick out some similarities. A lot of these tales were passed around like a game of telephone, with each teller interpolating changes. Someone bastardized the manuscripts with tons of Islamic references, when actually, the originals were not as concerned with the tenets of Islam or even minutely related to its agenda. But would the work have survived through the centuries if it did not at least kowtow to the religious demands of its region?
Like the aforementioned comparisons, they are interwoven tales, semi-religious in pointed messaging, with quite a bit of violence and cultural ritual. They are a mixture of prose and poetry and the poetry is of the chanting, repetitive type. You will find strange epithets here and charming practices. Women wrestling each other, and lots of animal cruelty – or sacrifice to appease Allah, however you might consider it. People trading heads like Pokemon cards, and countless horses camels and sheep wandering around just wondering what the hell these people are doing.
You get a strong sense of the nomadic lifestyle, living out of tents, being in tune with the vast plains, enveloped by a thundering silence. An immense beauty descends over the work itself, as of the weight of aeons pressing down, distorting the recognizable facets of human life into mawkish, dreamlike scenarios. I was at times entranced by the spectral presence of dreams, the Viking-esque feasting and challenges, and the machinations of mystical warlords.