In steppe epic, a steed and a sister are your trustiest, most intelligent and indefatigable aid: the hero doesn’t have to be heroic, but these do.

If I laid a wager on which was to panic first, a block of granite or Jamuqa, I’d go the granite.

Our children aren’t here to fix our mistakes, but to have lives, lives we can’t guess at.

The Mongols have been twenty years without a khan. Now is he your warm coat against the winter; unwrap him not. Now is he your neck-scarf of fur; discard him not.

And what did Bo'orchu answer? "Kids For Nokods." After that they ran away.

If I laid a wager on which was to panic first, a block of granite or Jamuqa, I'd go the granite.

A howl, neither human nor animal but from a creature not invented yet, punctuated their departure. It was Jochi's battlecry, that he had worked on for years.

Our children aren't here to fix our mistakes, but to have lives, lives we can't guess at.

Hoelun stepped into her tent with thyme in her coatskirts that were hitched up in her belt, and leeks in her hat, that was off. The blue spire of bark she had worn as Yesugei's wife never left her, but often did more than perch on her head.

It wasn't that Yesugei was harsh, but people found a sad eye from him very hard to stand.