Edige: A Karakalpak Oral Epic. Edited by Karl Reichel. 2007.
Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica/Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia. 498
pages. ISBN: 978-951-41-1012-2 (hard cover), 978-951-41-1013-9 (soft
cover).

Reviewed by Jonathan Ready, Indiana University

"The epic here edited and translated was recorded from a Karakalpak
epic singer, Jumabay-jïraw Bazarov, in Shomanay in Karakalpakistan
in 1993. Karakalpakistan is a province in Uzbekistan" (15). Thus
begins Karl Reichl's masterful presentation of Edige and his
important contribution to the ever-increasing number of modern-day
oral epics textualized by Western scholars for Western audiences in
accordance with the most rigorous and up-to-date criteria for such a
project. This book should become a standard point of reference for
all investigators of oral epic, not only those who focus on Central
Asia. I here summarize Reichl's initial explanatory "essay."

In this first half, Reichl thoroughly contextualizes the material he
collected. After an introductory chapter 1 in which Reichl defends
classifying the prosemetric Edige as an oral and heroic epic, chapter
2 presents the tale's historical background. We are introduced to the
Golden Horde, one of the four "successor realms," as it were, to
Genghis Khan's empire, and to Edige himself. Although an emir and not
a khan, Edige was the de facto leader of the Golden Horde from
1395-1419 and even today is considered the founder of the Noghay
Horde, "one of the various realms and khanates into which the Golden
Horde dissolved in the fifteenth century" (29). Chapter 3 surveys the
epics about Edige in four other Turkic languages: Noghay, Kazakh,
Tatar, and Bashkir. In each case, Reichl provides a synopsis of at
least one previously textualized version of the epic and notes the
continuity and diversity in the story line of texts in the same
language. Such a survey allows one to extrapolate a story line common
to the versions of Edige in all four traditions. Chapter 4 focuses on
versions of Edige in Karakalpak. Reichl first catalogues the eleven
other known manuscripts of the epic in Karakalpak and introduces us
to the singer Jumabay-jïraw Bazarov before providing a detailed
synopsis of both the recorded text transcribed and translated in this
volume and another Karakalpak version of the poem written down in
1903. Such collation reveals prominent similarities between the two
poems (a degree of rigidity characteristic of the other Karakalpak
versions as well) and suggests "a fairly rigorous manner of
transmission" (72).

Chapter 5 looks more closely at the question of transmission. Reichl
first queries the impact of the performances of Edige by so-called
qissa-xan who use a text as (at the very least) a prompt in
performance. A comparison of Karakalpak and Uzbek qissa with the
purely orally-transmitted renditions of the poem (regardless of
language) demonstrates that "in the case of Edige the influence of a
written or written/oral tradition like that of the xalfa and
qissa-xan on the oral epic tradition is slight if not nil" (80).
Reichl then suggests that the continuity in some Karakalpak versions
of Edige stems from "the fact that professional singers acquired
their repertoire in the course of an intensive training period with a
master singer" (82). Focusing on five singers (including
Jumabay-jïraw) who could claim descent from the same master singer,
Reichl delineates the similarities in their handling of three
different moments in the epic. The scenes reveal a variable but
marked rigidity. Of particular interest is the recognition scene
between Edige and his son Nuradin: one cannot attribute the rigidity
of the scene to its being a type-scene (it is not a type-scene) but
rather to its being learned by a singer as a unique and required part
of the epic. Reichl closes the chapter by stressing the importance to
the Karakalpak singer of "memory and exact verbal recall" (96);
indeed, "typical scenes. . .are present in the epic, but they are
on the whole in the minority" (93).

Chapter 6 attempts to discern elements in the story of Edige that
might pre-date those found only in Karakalpak texts, that is,
narrative components of the story that existed "when the various
clans and tribes making up the composition of the Karakalpaks were
still part of the Golden Horde and the Noghay Horde, in other words
the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries" (103). In all Turkic language
versions of the epic one finds Baba Tükli, an ancestral figure who
helps the hero, and Sïpïra-jïraw, an aged singer who advises the
khan in a speech that might be "one of the oldest parts of the epic,
perhaps even one of the core elements of the narrative" (111). The
persistence of these two figures reflects an interest in origins that
itself clarifies the project of this national epic. Chapter 7 first
explores the accretion of mythic and folkloric tropes and motifs onto
the "undeniable roots of the epic in history" (117). For instance,
the lawsuits that Edige resolves conform to classic folktale patterns
as does his encounter with a giant; more generally, Edige has
numerous attributes of the hero found in tales told the world over.
Next, after commenting on the uneven length of different episodes in
the poem, Reichl turns to the differences between the prose passages
and the verse passages. The sung verse passages for the most part
contain "speeches and dialogues, uttered in the course of a
confrontation between two protagonists" (129); the spoken "prose
passages either act as narrative links between the verse passages or
as narrative units in their own right, filling in background
information and introducing a new move in the story" (130). The verse
passages evince a combination of "traditional lines, even
repetitions, and singular words and phrases" (133). The next section
of the chapter, contending that "[i]n the case of oral poetry it must
therefore seem problematic to focus exclusively on the words of a
poem" (136), discusses the syllabic meter that the singer uses, the
"four performance modes of verse in the epic" (136), and the
alliteration, assonance, and rhyme that characterize the verse
passages.

Chapter 8 confronts directly the challenges of creating a performance
edition. Reichl thoroughly defends his decisions to present the
original language text in standard Karakalpak orthography and to
document in the edition only some of the most salient paralinguistic
features of the performance. The reader is thus told not only what
tune the poet was playing at a particular moment, but also when he
switched from singing to recitation or when he stopped for a sip of
tea. (The accompanying CD gives a better sense of what the
performance sounded and looked like.) Chapter 9 examines the music of
the performance in further detail. The singer uses "five performance
modes: narrating, declaiming, narrating-declaiming, singing, and
singing in a recitative" and "four distinct tunes" (166). Reichl then
explains each of the four melodies and lists where they appear in the
text. The chapter closes with a salutary reminder of the importance
of music to such a performance: "texts destined for oral delivery
must not only be read but must also be heard" (177). This
"introduction," then, provides nearly all the information one could
want about this poem and its poet. A slightly thicker description of
what transpired during the actual recording would have been
desirable, as would have clarification of the assertion that a
supplement in which Reichl provides the ending of a version of the
poem recorded from the same singer in 1986 makes for "a more complete
text" (57).

The remainder of the book presents the original language text of the
poem and then the English translation. The poem is a great yarn:
first we follow Edige and then his son Nuradin as they grow up and
accomplish a variety of trying tasks; the final third of the poem
tells of how the reunited pair takes vengeance on their tormentors
and eventually becomes the ruling house of the Noghay. A giant, a 360
year-old bard, conniving courtiers -- all make for an enjoyable tale.
Helpfully, the translation contains all of the same information
regarding, e.g., performance mode, melody, and tea drinking that is
found in the original language text. Black and white pictures of the
bard as he performed are scattered here and there throughout this
part of the book. Two final sections provide additional notes cued to
particular concerns in the text and translation. The accompanying CD
presents several audio extracts from different parts of the
performance and one extended video extract.