"Sakko of Loree" is one of Toumanian’s first poems; he worked on it intermittently for many years. In 1889 he wrote the first version of the poem. Toumanian wrote about the vital fact and prototype that served as the basis for poem’s idea in his "The explanation of some of my writings" post: "Matos of Ramaz and Sakko of Loree". Toumanian confirmed the same in his autobiographical notes written in the end of 1910s: "Matos's madness – Sakko of Loree. I was in Jalaloghli or in Tiflis for that period".

In 1891 Tigran Pirumyan, one of Toumanian's contemporaries, reported some data among other things also about the idea of the poem and the circumstances of its publication, based on the poet's stories: "Sakko of Loree was Toumanian's servant and Alek was a well-known bandit from Dsegh village. Levon Melik-Adamyan was the first person who suggested to the author to publish his writings, he accidentally found "Sako" on his window - read, marveled, browsed his other writings as well and urged him to publish them by all means".

Based on these different and sometimes contradictory testimonies, we can conclude that "Sakko of Loree" was planned from the beginning not as a unique case, but as a literary reflection of one of the characteristic phenomena of the patriarchal world: the tragic consequences of superstition. Of course, none of the real prototypes of the poem entered into the work identically, but were transformed by the principles of artistic imagination and generalization. After several revisions the poet brought "Sakko of Loree" to perfection which is presented to us as a comprehensive poem about the influence of mysterious and unknown forces of nature on man.

At the beginning of the century, probably in 1902, when Toumanian prepared a new collection of his poems, he once again reworked "Sakko of Loree". The third version of the poem has been created in that period.

However, as the preserved materials show, even after 1903 Toumanian thought about reworking and completing the poem.

THERE lies the Valley of Loree, where the crags

On either side, with deeply knitted brows,

Stand unruffled face to face,

With steadfast and unblinking gaze.

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