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- Who Giv (گیو) is — name meaning in Farsi, lineage, and role in Shahnameh
- His greatest feat: seven years alone in Turan searching for Kay Khosrow
- His family — father Godarz, son Bizhan, and connection to Rostam’s daughter
- Farsi vocabulary from the Giv stories — words still used in Persian today
- His mysterious disappearance and what it means in the epic’s symbolism
- His appearance in Zoroastrian texts and historical sources
Giv in Shahnameh — The Hero Who Spent Seven Years in Turan
Giv (گیو) is one of the great heroes of the Shahnameh — Ferdowsi’s 60,000-couplet Persian national epic. He is not the strongest warrior (that is Rostam), not the wisest king (that is Kay Khosrow), and not the most tragic figure (that is Sohrab). What makes Giv unique is his loyalty — a loyalty so absolute that he spent seven years alone in the enemy land of Turan, searching for the hidden prince Kay Khosrow, without abandoning his mission or his king.
What does the name Giv (گیو) mean? In Old Iranian, the name Giv (also spelled Gēw or Gev) likely derives from a root meaning “force,” “power,” or “vigour” — referring to physical strength and military power. Some scholars also connect it to the Avestan word gaēv, meaning “body” or “physical being.” In modern Persian, گیو remains a recognized classical name, carried by the character across 2,500 years of Iranian literary tradition.
Giv’s Family — The House of Godarz
Giv belongs to one of the great warrior clans of the Shahnameh — the House of Godarz (خاندان گودرز), a family that rivals even Rostam’s House of Nariman in heroic stature. Understanding his family is essential to understanding his story.
One of the senior generals of the Iranian kings. Father of 78 sons according to the Shahnameh — Giv being the most celebrated. Godarz is the patriarch whose wisdom and military command defines the House of Godarz.
The hero of this article. Giv bridges two generations of the Godarz clan — loyal servant of Kay Ka’us and then Kay Khosrow, father of Bizhan (whose own story is one of Shahnameh’s most romantic episodes).
Giv’s son — and the subject of one of Shahnameh’s most beloved stories: Bizhan and Manijeh. Bizhan falls in love with Manijeh (daughter of Afrasiab, king of Turan) and is imprisoned in a pit — rescued ultimately by Rostam in disguise.
Daughter of Rostam — the greatest warrior in the Shahnameh. In the Banu Goshasp-nama (a companion text to the Shahnameh), Giv marries Rostam’s daughter, creating a bond between the House of Godarz and the House of Nariman.
The Seven-Year Mission — Giv’s Greatest Deed
The story of Giv’s search for Kay Khosrow is one of the most powerful episodes in all of the Persian literary tradition. It is a story about loyalty tested to its absolute limit.
After the murder of Siyavash (سیاوش) — the noble Iranian prince who had taken refuge in Turan and been unjustly killed by Afrasiab — Kay Khosrow, the son born of that tragic union, grew up hidden in Turan. He was the rightful heir to the Iranian throne, but he was a secret — a child in the land of the enemy, the son of a murdered father.
King Kay Ka’us had a dream in which Sorush (the divine messenger) told him that Giv — and only Giv — could find the hidden prince and bring him home. So Giv set out alone into Turan.
گیو سرگردان بُد و دلش پُر از کین
Giv sargardān bod o delash por az kin
For seven years, Giv roamed Turan — the enemy kingdom — alone. He searched villages, crossed mountains, endured cold, hunger, and the constant threat of capture. He found and lost trails. He survived on nothing but the certainty that Kay Khosrow was there somewhere, and that his king had sent him to find the prince.
When he finally found Kay Khosrow — a young man tending sheep, unaware of his own royal destiny — Giv had to protect them both on a dangerous journey back across the Oxus River into Iran, pursued by Afrasiab’s forces. As a reward for this extraordinary feat, Kay Khosrow gave Giv the invincible mail coat of Siyavash — the armour of his murdered father. It was the highest honour the new king could give.
Key Farsi Vocabulary From the Giv Stories
The episodes involving Giv contain some of the most important vocabulary in classical Persian. For anyone learning Farsi through the Shahnameh, these words appear constantly across the epic.
| Farsi | Persian | Romanisation | Meaning & Context in the Story |
|---|---|---|---|
| وفاداری | وفاداری | vafādāri | Loyalty / faithfulness — the defining quality of Giv’s character. Still the everyday Farsi word for loyalty. |
| سرگردان | سرگردان | sargardān | Wandering / lost / confused — the word Ferdowsi uses for Giv’s seven-year search. Still widely used in modern Farsi to mean “wandering” or “directionless.” |
| توران | توران | turān | Turan — the mythological enemy kingdom across the Oxus River (modern Central Asia). The great adversary of Iran throughout the Shahnameh. |
| زره | زره | zereh | Armour / coat of mail — the reward Kay Khosrow gives Giv: the invincible mail coat (زره) of Siyavash. |
| جوان | جوان | javān | Young man / youth — Kay Khosrow when Giv finds him. Still the common Farsi word for “young man.” |
| کین | کین | kin | Vengeance / grief / fury — what fills Giv’s heart during his seven years. A classical Farsi word for deep grief combined with desire for justice. |
| خاندان | خاندان | khāndān | Family / dynasty / clan — خاندان گودرز (the House of Godarz). Still the standard Farsi word for a family lineage or dynasty. |
| پهلوان | پهلوان | pahlavān | Hero / champion / warrior — the title given to Giv and all the great warriors of the Shahnameh. The root of “Pahlavi” (the Parthian-era language and script). |
| فرّ | فرّ | farr | Divine glory / royal aura — the Farr-e Izadi that Giv lacks at his disappearance, allowing the snow to swallow him. The divine mandate of kingship in Iranian tradition. |
Giv’s Son Bizhan — A Story Within a Story
One of the most beloved episodes in the entire Shahnameh is the story of Bizhan and Manijeh (بیژن و منیژه) — and it begins with Giv’s son. Bizhan, sent to deal with wild boars on the Iranian-Turani border, meets Manijeh, the beautiful daughter of Afrasiab (the enemy king of Turan). They fall in love. When Afrasiab discovers them, he has Bizhan thrown into a deep pit in chains — left to die.
Manijeh, disgraced and expelled from the palace, keeps Bizhan alive by begging food and secretly passing it to him. Eventually, Rostam — disguised as a merchant — comes to rescue Bizhan in a celebrated night mission. Giv, watching his son imprisoned in the enemy’s land, mirrors his own seven-year ordeal — the Shahnameh’s pattern of Iran’s heroes suffering in Turan and being brought home through extraordinary effort. See our guide to all Shahnameh characters for the full family connections across the epic.
Giv’s Disappearance — The End of a Hero
Giv’s end is one of the strangest and most beautiful in the Shahnameh. When King Kay Khosrow — the very prince Giv spent seven years finding — decides to leave the mortal world (choosing to ascend rather than face a prophesied downfall), he leads a procession of his greatest heroes into the mountains.
A blizzard descends. One by one, the heroes fall behind — overcome by cold and sleep. Those who lack the Farr-e Izadi (فرّ ایزدی) — the divine royal glory — cannot follow Kay Khosrow further. Giv is among those swallowed by the snow. He simply disappears, as do Tus and others. Their bodies are never found.
In the symbolism of the Shahnameh, this is not a tragedy but a transformation — the heroes who have exhausted their mortal purpose do not die in battle but dissolve into the mythic landscape they spent their lives defending. Giv, who wandered for seven years to bring a king into the world, disappears when that king leaves it. The symmetry is complete.
Giv in Zoroastrian Tradition
Beyond the Shahnameh, Giv appears in Zoroastrian religious texts — specifically the Bundahishn, a Middle Persian cosmological text. Here he is known as Beirazd the Wrestler (بیرزد پهلوان) and is listed among the immortals who are preserved until the final renovation of the world (Frashokereti) — when they will aid the eschatological saviour Saoshyant in the final battle against evil.
This gives Giv a rare distinction: he appears not only in epic literature but in religious cosmology. The Shahnameh character and the Zoroastrian figure are almost certainly derived from the same ancient Iranian tradition, predating Ferdowsi’s composition of the epic by centuries.
Read the Shahnameh in the Original Farsi With a Native Tutor
The Shahnameh was written in a Persian deliberately chosen to be as pure as possible — Ferdowsi famously said he used almost no Arabic words. Reading it in the original Farsi is one of the most powerful ways to build vocabulary, cultural knowledge, and a feel for classical Persian that no translation can give you. At Danaa School, our native tutors guide you through Ferdowsi’s text word by word.
Frequently Asked Questions
Giv (گیو) is one of the principal heroes of the Shahnameh — Ferdowsi’s Persian national epic. He is the son of the general Godarz and the father of Bizhan. His most celebrated deed is a seven-year solo mission in the enemy land of Turan, searching for the hidden prince Kay Khosrow and eventually bringing him back to Iran to take the throne. Giv embodies the Shahnameh’s ideal of absolute loyalty — the warrior who serves his mission beyond all personal cost.
In Old Iranian, Giv (also spelled Gēw or Gev) derives from a root meaning “force,” “power,” or “vigour” — referring to physical strength and martial energy. Some scholars connect it to the Avestan gaēv, meaning “body” or “physical being.” The name appears in historical records of the Parthian (Ashkani) period, suggesting it was a real name used by Iranian nobility long before Ferdowsi composed the Shahnameh.
Giv’s son is Bizhan (بیژن) — the hero of the famous “Bizhan and Manijeh” episode in the Shahnameh. Bizhan falls in love with Manijeh, the daughter of Afrasiab (king of Turan), and is imprisoned in a pit by order of Afrasiab. He is eventually rescued by Rostam in disguise. The story is considered one of the most romantic and dramatic episodes in all of Persian literature.
Giv spent seven years (هفت سال) alone in Turan searching for the hidden prince Kay Khosrow. During this time he survived in enemy territory without support, following rumours and signs across the landscape of Turan. When he finally found Kay Khosrow — living as a shepherd’s ward — he then had to protect both of them on the dangerous journey back across the Oxus River into Iran while pursued by Afrasiab’s forces.
Giv does not die in battle — he disappears in a blizzard. When King Kay Khosrow chooses to leave the mortal world and leads his heroes into the mountains, a snowstorm descends. Those who lack the Farr-e Izadi (divine royal glory) cannot follow further and are swallowed by the snow. Giv is among them. His body is never found. In the symbolism of the Shahnameh, this dissolution into the landscape is a poetic ending — the hero who wandered for seven years to bring a king into the world disappears when that king leaves it.
Giv is primarily a mythological figure from Persian epic tradition. However, some scholars suggest he may have historical roots in the Parthian (Ashkani) period — with some texts suggesting a connection to the historical Parthian line. The name Giv also appears in the Bundahishn (a Zoroastrian cosmological text) as “Beirazd the wrestler,” one of the immortals preserved for the end of time. Whether this reflects a single historical figure or a shared mythological archetype is debated.
