The Story Archive

Jangar

Oirat oral epic · c. 1600 CE · Poem · Mongolian · Renaissance

An orphan whose people have been scattered grows into the ruler of Bumba, a country with no winter and no old age where nobody passes twenty-five, and gathers twelve champions and six thousand knights to hold it. Each canto sends one of them out against a khan or a monster with designs on the pastures, and each has its own tune, its own singer and its own night. Kalmyk, Oirat and Xinjiang Mongol performers have carried it since at least the fifteenth century, and it is the Mongol epic that never stopped being sung.

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Attributes

Genre
EpicFantasyAdventure
Theme
FellowshipFame & GloryDuty & HonorHopeWar & Violence
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
Ruler / KingHeroAlly / CompanionVillain / Tyrant
Plot structure
EpisodicSiege / Last StandThe QuestOvercoming the Monster
Symbol / motif
The HorizonThe FeastThe SwordThe Sun
Conflict
vs Personvs Supernatural
Mode / tone
EpicMythicAdventure
Culture / tradition
Mongolian

Closest analogues