I’m currently reading Muraski Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji—or the first volume of it, at least, which I think is probably where I’ll stop for the time being, considering the burgeoning height of my TBR stack.

For those unfamiliar with it, The Tale of Genji is often cited as the world’s first novel, written in the 11th century by a Japanese noblewoman. Its main value for modern historians is its depiction of court life during the Heian period of Japan, as the events in the book are thought to have been based very closely on Murasaki’s real-life experiences as a lady-in-waiting.

While it’s called the first novel, The Tale of Genji doesn’t completely hold to what modern readers would expect from the form. It does have characters who recur throughout, and the primary protagonist (Hikaru Genji, son of Emperor Kiritsubo) does age, grow, and change over the course of the plot. I’m using the term “plot” loosely here, though, because the book doesn’t have the tight cause-and-effect type of forward momentum we expect from novels today. Instead, it has more the feel of an episodic TV show—there are threads that run across multiple chapters, but the arc is more a series of humps than an overarching narrative. Other essential features of storytelling today are used, but in a way that modern novelists (and readers) would look askance at, like its cast of roughly 400 characters. Comparing it to modern novels is an intriguing study in how the form has developed over the centuries.

Researching the historical context of The Tale of Genji sent me down a rabbit hole of other old texts, so I figured I’d share some of the things I learned in my research in case any other folks out there want to get a glimpse of storytelling past.

What are the oldest extant stories?

Before I answer this, I’ll give the caveat that we have no way of really knowing what stories are the oldest. Many early storytelling traditions were oral, and the first one of those to be told may have disappeared before it could be written down. It’s also possible some stories attributed to later dates could well be older than we think, if they were carried along in oral storytelling traditions for a while before getting written down.

All that said, the world’s oldest known literature comes from the Sumerian civilization, which first developed its cuneiform script around 3400BCE. The earliest literature consisted primarily of essays and religious texts, including things that could arguably be called creative writing, like hymns, myths, and poems. The oldest of these is the Kesh Temple Hymn, an ode to the goddess Ninhursag which dates to around 2600BCE.

The first fictional story isn’t known to have been written down until around 2100BCE: The Epic of Gilgamesh, which first existed as a collection of tales and poems. These were compiled into the version known today around 1200BCE. Similar to The Tale of Genji, Gilgamesh introduces many storytelling features that underpin literature as we know it today (I did a worldbuilding analysis of Gilgamesh on the blog a while back if you’re curious about the lessons it has to teach modern writers).

Other civilizations in Africa, Asia, and Mesopotamia were developing literature around this same time, as well, including extant manuscripts like:

• The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor (Middle Kingdom Egypt, 2040-1782BCE) – Adventure story, set in the frame of a servant telling his master a story from when he worked as a sailor. Considered the oldest surviving story from Egypt.
• The Book of Job (ancient Levant, 2000-700BCE) – There is some contention about exactly which book of the Bible was the oldest and exactly when the book of Job was written. Some say it’s the oldest Bible book, written as early as 2000BCE. Others say Genesis is the oldest, written by Moses around 1450BCE, and that while Job is set around 2000BCE it was actually written around 700. In any case, they’re both old stories, if not necessarily the oldest stories.
• The Book of the Dead (Egypt, 1650-50BCE) – The full text now known as the Book of the Dead (or the Book of Going Forth by Day) was written gradually over the course of 1,000 years, starting at the end of the Middle Kingdom, though likely inspired by much older writings or oral traditions. It’s not narrative like the two texts above, instead intended as a guide for dead souls traveling to the afterlife.
• The Vedas (ancient India, 1500-500BCE) – Another entry in the non-narrative category, The Vedas are the oldest Hindu texts and contain a mix of hymns, rituals, spells, poems, and myths. The specific date of their writing isn’t known, and like the Book of the Dead they were likely based on ideas and oral traditions that dated back much further.

Compared to these, works from ancient Greece like The Odyssey and The Iliad are just babies, dating to around 720BCE and 750BCE, respectively.

The oldest stories from the Americas

Sites like Caral-Supe in Peru show that the eponymous civilization was building cities as early as 3000BCE, making them contemporaries of ancient Egypt. They were also believed to have a system for recording language in the form of quipu, which were knotted colored strings used to convey information, so it is definitely possible that they had, not just a storytelling tradition, but a written one that could be rediscovered.

Unfortunately, textiles don’t have the same longevity as carved stone tablets. A few quipu have been found at the Caral-Supe site but archeologists haven’t yet learned how to decipher them fully, so it’s not yet known what they say. No visual art has survived, either. There is some evidence of deity symbols which could mean they also had myths to accompany them, but if so no evidence of them still exists.

The next contender for potential storytellers would be the Olmec, who lived along the Gulf of Mexico (modern day Tabasco and Veracruz) starting in around 1500BCE. Unlike the Caral-Supe, they did leave behind a good bit of art, as well as a system of hieroglyphics that some scholars believe was a writing system.

Since archaeologists can’t even agree whether these hieroglyphs are a language, I suppose it goes without saying they haven’t translated it. As of yet, there is no extant record of direct storytelling from the Olmec, only hints in the form of carvings and artifacts found at their sites.

Which brings us to the Maya. Examples of Maya hieroglyphs have been found dating back to 300BCE, but the oldest surviving book from the Americas is the Códice Maya de México (formerly known as the Grolier Codex), which has been dated to the oddly specific yet broad range of 1021-1154. The similar Dresden Codex dates to the 11th century, though it’s believed to be a copy of text dating back as far as the 5th century. Neither of these can really be called a story, though—they’re mostly astronomical tables and dates, and while there are images of deities they don’t record the myths around them.

This makes the strongest contender for oldest known story in the Americas the Popol Vuh, the sacred text of the Quiché Maya. While it wasn’t officially written until the 1550s, as an oral tradition it dates back much further, and the stories it contains may well have been recorded in one of the many codices destroyed by the Spanish during their conquest. These include the Maya creation myth and the adventures of Hero Twins Hunahpú and Xbalanqué.

The oldest story from Oceania

A theme has come up across this research. Many of these oldest stories likely date back much further than their official record because they started as oral storytelling traditions. The problem is, in most cases, putting a date on when someone first told a story is impossible.

We know that the oral storytelling traditions of the Aboriginal people of Australia go back a very, very long time. And, unlike the civilizations of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, they have managed to maintain a contiguous culture, without significant outside influence, for thousands of years. This makes it a bit more feasible to put a starting date on some of their legends.

In 2015, new research that “cross-checked” Indigenous legends showed that 21 cultures across Australia have parallel stories of the sea level rising, something that actually happened around 5000BCE. If these stories really have been passed down for more than 7,000 years, they’re already the oldest on the list by far.

But wait, there’s more! Research published in 2020 suggests some of their stories are even older. One in particular, the story of Budj Bim, tells the origin story of a volcano, formed when four giant beings arrived in the area. Three wandered off but one crouched down and started spewing lava. Geologists have dated the formation of the Budj Bim volcano to around 37,000 years ago, so if the tale is a preserved memory of seeing it form, that is by far the oldest known human story still being told (at least, that we know of).

What’s the takeaway from all this?

For me, one of the biggest ones is to realize that humans have probably been telling stories since we learned how to communicate. The earliest ones were tales that aimed to explain why things were the way they were, or instructed the reader on how to navigate the world as they understood it.

I think that’s a helpful thing for writers today to keep in mind because, at its core, storytelling hasn’t changed that much. Writers are still trying to make sense of the world, and the fiction that resonates most with readers often doesn’t just tell an entertaining story, but also helps them to better navigate or understand reality and their place in it.

(Or your takeaway could be you should write an origin story for a volcano if you really want your words to have some staying power).

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