Book of Dede Korkut/Legend 3
from the Collection “The Book of Dede Korkut”
Short summary
The steppes of the medieval Oghuz Turks, legendary times. Two Oghuz lords prayed for children, and their newborn son and daughter were betrothed in the cradle. At fifteen, the boy saved merchants from infidels and was named Bamsi Beyrek.
Out hunting, he beat his betrothed, Banu Chichek, at racing, archery and wrestling, and gave her his ring.
On their wedding night, infidels captured Beyrek and his warriors. Sixteen years later, Yaltajuk showed a bloody shirt as proof of Beyrek's death and arranged to marry the bride.
Freed by the castle lord's daughter, Beyrek came to the wedding disguised as a mad minstrel. Seeing his ring on the bride's hand, he reminded her:
Did I not afterwards beat you in wrestling? Did I not kiss you three times and then bite you once? And did I not then put the ring on your finger? Am I then Bamsi Beyrek, the man you once loved?
Banu Chichek knew him at once. Beyrek forgave Yaltajuk, took the infidel castle, freed his comrades and married the castle lord's daughter as promised. A forty-day wedding feast followed.
Detailed summary
Division into sections is editorial.
A son is promised, and a cradle betrothal is arranged
Bayindir Khan gathered the Oghuz princes in his splendid tent.
Among them, Bay Büre Bey wept when he saw other lords' sons serving their ruler.
Salur Kazan, the ruler's son-in-law, asked what troubled him.
The childless lord feared that his family and inheritance would disappear after his death.
I have neither son nor brother. Allah the Almighty must have cursed me. I lament for my crown and throne, for if I should some day fall and die, my family would come to an end.
The princes prayed for him to have a son; Bay Bichen Bey then asked them to pray for a daughter.
He pledged his future daughter to the other lord's son. Both children were born, and the boy's father sent merchants to Istanbul to buy him gifts.
The young hero rescues the merchants and receives the name Bamsi Beyrek
By fifteen, Bay Büre's son Bamsi Beyrek had become a bold young hunter, but he had not yet earned a warrior's name by shedding blood.
The returning merchants were attacked by five hundred enemies near a mountain pass. Some escaped and asked the youth for help. He rode out with forty companions, defeated the raiders, and recovered the captives and goods. Offered a reward, he chose a gray stallion, a bow, and a six-part club, but learned that these were gifts for his father's son. He left without revealing himself, preferring to receive them from his father.
At home, the merchants kissed the boy's hand before his father's and explained how he had saved them. Bay Büre invited the princes to celebrate his son's achievement and summoned Dede Korkut.
The elder named him Bamsi Beyrek with the Gray Horse and prayed for his long life and protection in danger:
When he has to cross those snow-covered mountains lying yonder, May Allah help him cross them. When he has to ride through bloody rivers, May Allah grant him safe passage.
Beyrek meets Banu Chichek and proves himself in three contests
During a hunt, Beyrek chased a deer to a red tent and killed it nearby. The tent belonged to Banu Chichek, Bay Bichen's daughter and his promised bride.
She sent a nurse to ask for meat, and he gave her the whole deer. Suspecting that the veiled stranger was her intended husband, she called him back. She hid her identity, claimed to be the girl's nurse, and proposed three contests to test whether he could match her mistress. They raced their horses, and Beyrek won. His arrow also flew farther than hers. They then wrestled fiercely, and he struggled to overcome her. Afraid of the shame of losing, he gathered his strength, upset her balance, and threw her to the ground.
She then revealed that she was Banu Chichek herself. Beyrek kissed her three times, bit her once, and placed his gold ring on her finger as a sign of their engagement. She sent him home, where his father asked whether he should arrange a marriage for him. Beyrek agreed, but insisted on a wife who could equal him in action:
Father, get me a girl who can move before I can, who can mount my black stallion before I can, and who can bring me my enemy’s head before I reach him. This is the kind of girl I want,
Bay Büre understood that he wanted Banu Chichek. He warned that her violent brother killed anyone who asked for her hand, so they called the Oghuz princes together to decide how to proceed.
Dede Korkut overcomes Delü Karchar's rage and impossible bride-price
Dede Korkut volunteered to ask Delü Karchar, Banu Chichek's feared brother, to approve the marriage.
He took two fast horses from Bayindir Khan's stables, riding one and leading the other. When he delivered his request, Delü Karchar armed himself and chased him. The elder changed horses as he fled, but his pursuer finally caught him and raised a sword. Dede Korkut prayed to Allah and cursed the hand lifted against him. The warrior's arm froze in the air. Terrified, he promised his sister to Beyrek if the elder released him. After he repented, Dede Korkut prayed again, and his arm recovered.
Delü Karchar then demanded a thousand male camels, a thousand stallions, and a thousand rams, all kept away from females. He also required a thousand dogs without ears or tails and a thousand fleas, threatening death if the demands were not met. Bay Büre provided the herds, while Dede Korkut found the dogs and fleas. The elder delivered everything, and the brother admired the animals and laughed at the dogs. When he asked about the fleas, Dede Korkut invited him to inspect them:
My son, Karchar, they are as big as cattle flies—real monsters. They are all huddled together. Let us go and see them so that you choose the fat ones and leave the lean ones.
He made Delü Karchar undress and locked him in the flea-filled sheepfold. Covered in bites, the warrior begged for mercy. Dede Korkut let him out and told him to jump into running water. The fleas washed away, and Delü Karchar began preparing the wedding.
The wedding night ends in captivity, and a false report brings new mourning
Beyrek shot an arrow and raised his wedding tent where it landed. He wore a red gown sent by Banu Chichek and promised that his forty companions could each wear it in turn. While they drank together, an enemy spy reported the wedding to the commander of Bayburt Castle, who claimed the bride had been promised to him.
Seven hundred attackers struck while Beyrek slept. His deputy died defending him, and Beyrek and his thirty-nine surviving warriors were captured. At dawn, his parents found the ruined tent and the deputy's body. His mother, father, and seven sisters wept, tore their clothes, and put on mourning. The Oghuz princes mourned too, while Banu Chichek lamented her lost bridegroom:
Oh, the owner of my red trousseau! Oh, the promise of my forehead! Oh, my fine young hero, my handsome man! My young khan, whose face I have not yet gazed upon enough. Where have you gone, leaving me alone?
Sixteen years passed without news. Delü Karchar offered gold for proof that Beyrek lived, but his sister's hand for proof of death. Yaltajuk, the son of an Oghuz man, set out to claim that reward.
He stained a shirt Beyrek had once given him with blood and presented it as evidence of murder. Bayindir Khan sent it to Banu Chichek, who recognized it as Beyrek's. Mourning began again, and Yaltajuk arranged his wedding. Bay Büre nevertheless sent two merchants to search for his missing son.
Beyrek sings to the merchants and escapes from Bayburt Castle
The merchants reached Bayburt Castle during a religious feast. Beyrek was brought out to play the kopuz, a stringed instrument, for his captors. Seeing the merchants below him, he asked through song about the Oghuz leaders, his parents, his sisters, and Banu Chichek. They replied that his family still mourned him and that his bride was about to marry Yaltajuk. Beyrek returned to his imprisoned companions and told them the news, and they all wept.
The castle commander's daughter, who visited Beyrek daily and loved him, noticed his sorrow and asked what had happened.
He explained his long separation from home and the threatened loss of his bride. She offered to lower him down the wall with a rope if he would return and take her as his lawful wife. Beyrek swore a binding oath:
If I do not return and marry you, may I be chopped apart with my own sword, pierced with my own arrow, broken up like clods of earth, and scattered about like dust.
She lowered him safely to the ground, and he thanked Allah for his escape. In the enemy's horse pasture he found his own gray stallion, which recognized him and came forward neighing. Mounted again, he rode to the castle gate and called out to his captors. He left his thirty-nine warriors in their keeping and threatened revenge if any were harmed. Forty horsemen pursued him, but his stallion carried him beyond their reach into Oghuz territory.
Disguised as a minstrel, Beyrek returns to a household in mourning
On the road, Beyrek met a minstrel traveling to Yaltajuk's wedding. He exchanged the use of his horse for the man's kopuz and continued toward his father's camp on foot.
He found shepherds piling stones beside the road. They explained that they meant to stone Yaltajuk rather than let him take their missing master's bride. Beyrek blessed their loyalty and went on. At the family spring, he met his youngest sister drawing water and crying for him. He questioned her about the household in song, and she described how everything had stood unused since her brother vanished.
She asked whether he had seen Beyrek anywhere, then sent the supposed musician to the wedding. His older sisters fed him and gave him one of his own old coats as charity. It fitted him perfectly, and the eldest noticed his familiar eyes, walk, and bearing despite his beard and changed appearance. Fearing recognition before he could discover who remained his friend, he threw back the coat and scolded them for talking endlessly about their brother.
He cut a hole in an old camel sack, pulled it over his head, and went to the wedding pretending to be mad.
At Yaltajuk's wedding, the mad minstrel reveals himself to Banu Chichek
At the wedding, Beyrek praised the princes' archery but cursed Yaltajuk's shots. Challenged to draw the groom's bow, he broke it. Given his own old bow instead, he shot apart the ring used as a target. Salur Kazan called him over and offered him gifts. Beyrek asked only to eat at the feast, and Kazan gave the mad minstrel his authority for the day.
After eating, Beyrek overturned the cooking pots and scattered the food. Kazan refused to stop him and allowed him into the women's quarters. There he drove off the musicians and demanded that the bride dance while he played. Two women tried to impersonate her, but he exposed each through mocking songs about her private life. Finally Banu Chichek came forward in her red bridal dress, keeping her hands hidden inside her sleeves.
Beyrek sang that the khan's daughter must have lost her fingers to frost while carrying water. Angered by his taunt, she showed her hands and revealed his gold ring. He asked whether she had truly mourned her missing lover and demanded the ring back if she meant to marry another man. She refused, saying that it held memories he would have to explain before she could believe his claim.
He recalled bringing the deer, racing her horse, winning their shooting and wrestling contests, kissing her three times, biting her once, and giving her the ring. Banu Chichek recognized him and fell at his feet. After he received fresh clothes, she rode to his parents with the news that their son had returned.
Beyrek's identity is confirmed, and Yaltajuk is forgiven
His parents promised Banu Chichek their lands, herds, wealth, and household if the news proved true. The princes brought Beyrek home, but Bay Büre, blinded by years of weeping, demanded a test. He rubbed his eyes with a cloth soaked in blood from Beyrek's little finger. With Allah's help, his sight returned, and both parents embraced their son in tears.
Yaltajuk fled into a marsh to escape punishment. Beyrek followed and set the reeds on fire. Driven out, the deceiver fell at his feet and passed beneath his sword in submission. Beyrek forgave him rather than taking his life.
The Oghuz take Bayburt, free the captives, and celebrate the weddings
Beyrek refused to celebrate until his companions were free. Salur Kazan led the Oghuz against Bayburt. After prayer, they defeated the enemy, killed seven hostile princes, and took the castle. Beyrek found all thirty-nine warriors alive. The victors destroyed the church, killed its priest, and built a mosque. They sent valuable goods and captives to Bayindir Khan.
Beyrek married the commander's daughter as promised and returned home for his wedding celebrations with Banu Chichek. His companions also received brides, and forty tents were raised for feasts lasting forty days and nights. Dede Korkut played the kopuz, recounted their adventures, and prayed for the ruler and his people.