La Storia del Popolo degli Arcieri di Grigor di Akner: i modi della narrazione

The History of the Archers by Grigor of Akner is a short but interesting chronicle which covers the years 1221-1273 in Greater Armenia and in the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. From a strictly chronological point of view, the outline of the historical events in Armenia and Cilicia in the timespane covered by the History can be reconstructed better with the work of other Armenian historians, such as Vardan Arewelc‘i or Kirakos Ganjakec‘i, but the interest of the work by Grigor Aknerc‘i lies less in historical accuracy, and more in its many collateral episodes, tales, and pictures of everyday life. This is shown by the abstracts presented in the article, that is the colorful description of the first Mongols sighted "in the Highland" (i.e. Armenia), the merciless treatment of an innocent abbot by an unjust Mongol chief, and the almost legendary defeat of a Mongol wrestler at the hands of an Armenian champion. The value of the History of the Archers is therefore to disclose the reader's eyes over a wide fresco representing the immediate historical, political and social aftermath of the Mongol invasions of the XIII century, after the shock of the first contact, and on the edge of a period, the late XIII century, when the East and the West, probably, became closer than ever.