Sodnom U Pigg

Writer's Story

I grew up in a big family that valued education. I had four sisters and six brothers in the Mongolian capital city, Ulaanbaatar . My grandparents lived ten miles way from us in a traditional Mongolian home called a Ger, which was a two bedroom winter house. They had a large picket fence with chickens, horses, goats and cows.

My immediate family and I lived in a two bedroom apartment; one of the rooms held 5 twin beds, the other room had 2 twin beds. My parents slept in the living room on a folding sofa bed.

Later on in life after I finished school, I worked for the Mongolian Agriculture Ministry of Mongolia; this ministry had office space which was being rented out for a new company named Mongol-Amicale for their Representative office. My friend who worked for this company recommended me for a position that was open. I accepted the job, seeing it as a good opportunity. At the time, my future husband was working for Amicale’s “Woonsocket Spinning Company” in Charlotte, N.C. He came to Mongolia in the 1990’s and became the Factory and Production Director.

My father’s name was Baldan Sodnom, professor, scholar and prolific author, he was one of the first Mongolian’s to study in Europe starting in 1926.

My father inspired me to write poetry and different articles and as a result of that I now have two blogs. One of my blogs is www.mongolmom.blogspot.com. My work is written in both English and Mongolian, my husband and daughters often help edit my English writings.

The twin stallion story came to literature from the old Mongolian language, when it was a spoken language rather than written. They would share stories from generation to generation, the story changing and growing each time. This story developed around the 13th century, the twin stallions also have numerous songs dedicated to them.

The Great Genghis Khan shared a deep love and appreciation for his horses due to how they helped him in battles across Asia and even the Middle East. Before 1918 a printed version of the old Mongolian language, “Uygar script”, came out. A 1935 printed version came out in the Russian language, translated by B. Sodnom and L. Puchkovsky in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Just as he translated back then I am now translating this story in English with my daughter Catherine Pigg.

This story is a gift to my father Baldan Sodnom for his 110th birthday.

My youngest daughter Catherine, who did most of the editing studies at the University of North Carolina at Asheville currently.

While working as a consultant for Discovery Place in Charlotte, N.C. for their Genghis Khan Exhibit it inspired me to bring this book of my father’s from my childhood and translate it into English for a new audience.