Lullabies of Armenia

With its rhythmic, light melody and simple, repeated phrases, the lullaby is both a gateway to sleep and an introduction to language itself. Listening quietly to an Armenian lullaby, one begins to discern the cadence of a word: oror, oror (rock, rock). Chanted over and over in almost every lullaby, the oror mimics the sound of the thing it represents, the to and fro of the cradle endlessly rocking.

Regional variations

In Armenia there are hundreds of lullabies in the oral tradition, born in countless towns and villages across the Armenian high plateau. Historically these lullabies varied subtly between villages, towns, and regions. There are melodic and phrasing differences between lullabies from Van and Moush (in eastern Anatolia, traditionally the heart of the Armenian homeland) to Talish (near Yerevan) to Kessab (near the Mediterranean Sea, now in Syria) to Trebizond (on the coast of the Black Sea).

The word for "lullaby", or "rocking", can change from oror into heyroor in some regions, and in other regions, into nannik, loorik, nenni, roorik, or nana. Near Yerevan, in the Ararat plains, one can hear all of these versions, a hint at the speaker’s region of origin and social status.

Themes

Most Armenian lullabies are traditional village lullabies, created and sung and passed down by village women. Addressed to an infant in a cradle who likely doesn’t yet understand what is being said, the content of many of the lullabies gives them the quality of a soliloquy, sung by women to themselves — domestic asides that reveal much about Armenian folklore and daily life. Many Armenian lullabies burst with yearning, disappointment, longing for a former lover or a husband who has emigrated, or the desire for revenge, whether for personal or historical wrongs, which are inculcated in the sleeping child.

In Armenian manuscripts, the nativity scene depicts Mary lying in a cave next to a wooden box holding the Christ child. Many believed an angel stood at the foot of the cradle, protecting the child from evil forces. Armenian lullabies are riddled with invocations to God, the Holy Mother and cross, Saint Sargis, Saint Karapet, and others. In the lullaby Taroni Oror (Lullaby of Taron; Taron is a region in eastern Anatolia including the towns of Moush and Sassoun), the mother sings "I tie a charm to your neck", likely part of a ritual protecting the infant from demons.

Examples

Also remarkable are three lullabies from vastly different regions — Talish, Van, and Sassoun — in which the mother describes her child as being suckled by a deer:

With small leaves I will cover you

The wild deer will give you milk

But she has no heart

And will give you little milk

The sun is your father

The moon is your mother

And the tree is your cradle.

(From Talishi Oror (Lullaby of Talish), Armenian Lullabies, Hasmik Harutyunyan.)

The Armenian lullaby envelops shards of the folktale, of myth. Scattered and dreamlike, these lullabies expand to create a mythical world and origin for the child. They are filled with natural elements personified — stars, the sun and moon as playmates and parents, and the wind rocking the child:

The south wind rocks you back and forth

Let the stars converse with you

And the sun and moon calm you

The wild deer will offer its milk

Sleep, sleep.

(From Nani Bala (Sleep, My Child), Armenian Lullabies, Hasmik Harutyunyan.)

Armenian lullabies of the modern era, from the Urban Folk genre, include Ari, Im Sokhak (Come, My Nightingale), Anush Knik (Sweet Sleep), and Nazei Oror (Lullaby of Naze), the latter telling of the horrors of the Armenian Genocide:

The caravan passed

With a burden of tears

And in the black desert

Fell to its knees

Exhausted

Ah, with the pain of the world

Don’t cry

I have already shed many tears

My milk has frozen

On your lifeless lips

I know it is bitter

My child

And you don’t want it

Ah, my milk has become

The taste of my grief

Don’t cry

I have already shed many tears.

External links

References

S.H. Hooke. 1963. Middle Eastern Mythology. Penguin Books, Baltimore.
M. Tumajan. 2005. Armenian Songs and Sayings. Academy of Sciences, Armenia.
Komitas. 1998. The Complete Works. Academy of Sciences, Armenia.
M. Prudyan. 2004. Armenian Folk Music Creations. Amrots Printing, Yerevan.