Debet

Debet, called Altyn Debet or Golden Debet, opens the Karachay-Balkar Nart epic as the first blacksmith and forefather of the heroic race. Sprung from stone and heavenly fire, he drew iron from the mountains and taught its working to men, forging the weapons and tools of the Narts and, in the epic's telling, shaping metal with his bare hands without tongs or bellows. He is father of a great brood of sons, among them the giant Alaugan, through whose line comes the champion Karashauay, so that as smith and progenitor Debet unites the crafts of fire and the founding of the Nart lineage.

Domains

• smithing
• ancestry

Powers

• forges iron and the first weapons
• fathers the race of Narts

Epithets

• Алтын Дебет — Golden Debet«Нарты. Героический эпос балкарцев и карачаевцев». Москва: Наука (ГРВЛ), 1994. (primary)

Sources

• Debet, 'Golden Debet', is the first blacksmith and forefather of the Narts in the Karachay-Balkar epic, born of stone and fire and father of many heroic sons.: «Нарты. Героический эпос балкарцев и карачаевцев». Сост. Р.А.-К. Ортабаева, Т.М. Хаджиева, А.З. Холаев. Москва: Наука (ГРВЛ), 1994. (primary); Джуртубаев М.Ч. «Древние верования балкарцев и карачаевцев». Нальчик: Эльбрус, 1991. (secondary)