Yeghegnuhi – Summary
A king has an only son. When the prince comes of age, the king urges him to marry.
However, the prince refuses to marry any ordinary girl—he declares he will only wed
someone who was not born of a mother or a father. Though puzzled, the king sets out on a quest
to find such a miraculous bride.
After a long and fruitless search, a wise old man tells the king of a sacred reedbed by the
riverbank. If the king cuts the most beautiful reed with a blade untouched by blood and casts it
into the river, it will transform into a girl. The king follows the instructions, and the reed
becomes an astonishingly beautiful maiden, whom he names Yeghegnuhi—"the reed girl."
While she waits in the water, too modest to come out unclothed, a dark-skinned, nomadic Bosha
girl (a racialized Roma-like figure) discovers her, deceives her into coming ashore, drowns her,
and takes her place. When the royal attendants arrive, they are suspicious of her altered
appearance, but the impostor claims the sun darkened her and promises her beauty will return in
time. She is brought to the palace and hidden away in a silk chamber.
The prince, repulsed by the false bride, finds solace in walking by the river. There, he catches
a magical fish with silver scales and golden fins. Enchanted, he keeps it in his garden pool,
feeling drawn to it. The impostor learns of the fish and, realizing it must be Yeghegnuhi
transformed, convinces the court to kill and feed it to her, claiming it will restore her beauty. The
fish is slain, but she remains as unattractive and deceitful as before.
The fish’s bones are thrown away, but one thorn escapes, lands in a poor old woman’s home, and
grows into a miraculous tree that bears pearl-like fruit and fills the air with fragrance. Once
again, the prince is captivated by it. The impostor demands the tree be cut down too. During the
felling, a single wood chip lands in the old woman’s home. She uses it to cover a pot, and the
next day, it transforms into Yeghegnuhi once more, now clothed and radiant.
Yeghegnuhi stays hidden in the old woman’s home, doing masterful embroidery and
needlework. Word of her exquisite craft reaches the palace. The prince demands to meet the girl
behind the handiwork. She agrees—on the condition that he, the king, queen, and the false bride
all come as guests.
At the gathering, Yeghegnuhi tells her life story in the form of a fable, accompanied by two
enchanted objects: a raw partridge and a dry vine branch. As she speaks, the partridge roasts
itself without fire and the dry branch blooms and bears grapes—proving her story true.
The deception exposed, the king has the impostor punished severely—dragged to death behind a
horse. Yeghegnuhi marries the prince, the old woman becomes her mother, and goodness is
restored.
