Vardan Aygektsi

Vardan Aygektsi 

Dates of birth and death unknown. Armenian preacher and fabulist of the late 12th and early 13th centuries.

Vardan Aygektsi was born in Syria and lived for some time in the cloister of Aygek (Cilicia). In his epistles and sermons he introduced fables and parables, which he later collected. Until the 17th century his followers continued to enrich this collection with new fables, parables, short stories, and anecdotes. Thus arose the Vardan Collections, consisting of more than 500 fables. A part of the manuscript has come down to us under the title The Fox Book. The fables are witty, biting, and laconic, consisting of portraits of the society of that time. The earliest edition of The Fox Book was printed in 1668 in Amsterdam.

WORKS

Zhoghovatsowyk’ arhakats’ Vardana. St. Petersburg, 1894.
Aghvesagirk’. Yerevan, 1955.
In Russian translation:
Basni srednevekovoi Armenii. Translation and the foreword by I. A. Orbeli. Moscow-Leningrad, 1956.