Sıpıra Jırau (Sypyra the bard) is the venerable, all but deathless singer who stands at the court of Toqtamish in the Edige epic. Said to have lived through the reigns of many khans, he embodies the authority of the epic word and of ancestral memory. He foretells that the child Edige will one day undo the Horde and counsels the khan to slay him, but his prophecy is disregarded and duly fulfilled. As the archetypal yıraw he personifies the Nogai institution of the epic bard who preserves genealogy, praise and warning in song.