"In a strange region he scales steep slopes
Far from his friends he cuts a lonely figure…
So momentous are his travels among the mountains
To tell just a tenth would be a tall order"
These lines from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight could also be used to describe the way of the shaman, because he/she lives a life apart from other too, and has difficulty in conveying in words just what it is that he/she experiences when journeying into other realities. Perhaps this is why the accounts of such journeys were often turned into folktales, as it was the only way to make them both understandable and acceptable to people not familiar with the landscapes to be found and experiences to be had in such worlds. And it is the folktales/legends from the Caucasus, and the inner journeys these can take us on, that form the basis of this book.
