Armenian Literature
SPECIAL INTRODUCTION The literature of ancient Armenia that is still extant is meagre in quantity and to a large extent ecclesiastical in tone. To realize its oriental color one must resort entirely to that portion which deals with the home life of the people, with their fasts and festivals, their emotions, manners, and traditions. The ecclesiastical character of much of the early Armenian literature is accounted for by the fact that Christianity was preached there in the first century after Christ, by the apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew, and that the Armenian Church is the oldest national Christian Church in the world. It is no doubt owing to the conversion of the entire Armenian nation under the passionate preaching of Gregory the Illuminator that most of the literary products, of primitive Armenia--the mythological legends and chants of heroic deeds sung by bards--are lost. The Church would have none of them. Gregory not only destroyed the pagan temples, but he sought to stamp out the pagan literature--the poetry and recorded traditions that celebrated the deeds of gods and goddesses and of national heroes. He would have succeeded, too, had not the romantic spirit of the race clung fondly to their ballads and folk-lore.
"So I anticipated," I answered, lighting up.
He started and looked surprised. "Why, what made you guess it?" he
inquired.
I smiled the calm smile of superior age--I was some eight years or so
his senior. "My dear fellow," I murmured, "what else could prevent you
from proposing to Daphne--when you are so undeniably in love with her?"
"A great deal," he answered. "For example, the sense of my own utter
unworthiness."
"One's own unworthiness," I replied, "though doubtless real--p'f,
p'f--is a barrier that most of us can readily get over when our
admiration for a particular lady waxes strong enough. So THIS is the
prior attachment!" I took the portrait down and scanned it.
"Unfortunately, yes. What do you think of her?"
I scrutinised the features. "Seems a nice enough little thing," I
answered. It was an innocent face, I admit; very frank and girlish.
He leaned forward eagerly. "That's just it. A nice enough little thing!
Nothing in the world to be said against her. While Daphne--Miss Tepping,
I mean--" His silence was ecstatic.
SPECIAL INTRODUCTION The literature of ancient Armenia that is still extant is meagre in quantity and to a large extent ecclesiastical in tone. To realize its oriental color one must resort entirely to that portion which deals with the home life of the people, with their fasts and festivals, their emotions, manners, and traditions. The ecclesiastical character of much of the early Armenian literature is accounted for by the fact that Christianity was preached there in the first century after Christ, by the apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew, and that the Armenian Church is the oldest national Christian Church in the world. It is no doubt owing to the conversion of the entire Armenian nation under the passionate preaching of Gregory the Illuminator that most of the literary products, of primitive Armenia--the mythological legends and chants of heroic deeds sung by bards--are lost. The Church would have none of them. Gregory not only destroyed the pagan temples, but he sought to stamp out the pagan literature--the poetry and recorded traditions that celebrated the deeds of gods and goddesses and of national heroes. He would have succeeded, too, had not the romantic spirit of the race clung fondly to their ballads and folk-lore.