Article

Name: The first record of the Yakut epic in the context of folklore tradition

Authors: Semen S. Makarov

A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russian Federation

In the section Study of folklore

Abstract:

The paper considers the first text of the Yakut heroic epic, recorded by A. Middendorf in the 1840s from an anonymous storyteller, later known as “Eriedel Bergen.” An attempt is made to determine the specific features of the text in terms of its local attribution. The study also provides an opportunity to discuss concrete historical and methodological observations.

For a more comprehensive analysis, the author has used a representative sampling of records of the Yakut epic and other genres of narrative folklore of the peoples of Siberia, including Yakut, Russian, and Evenki fairy tales and mythological stories. The structural and semantic features of the recording were revealed that demonstrate the similarity to the texts of the Central Yakut epic tradition, in particular, to the variants recorded later near the Amginskaya Sloboda, Megino-Kangalassky, and Boturussky uluses of Yakutia. The analysis has identified some locally specific motifs and “common places” of the Yakut heroic epic, with the principles of their differentiation and study tested. It is suggested that the traditional international plot about the swapped bride, present in the text of the olonkho, appears to have originated from Evenk folklore rather than Russian fairy tales. A conclusion is made that the local specificity in Yakut epic tales is primarily evident in the specific motifs of the “exterior” plan while having a minimal effect on the core plot elements that remain broadly consistent across the genre’s various “dialect” versions. It would be considerably valuable in the future to map or catalog them.

Keywords: heroic epic, Yakut folklore, collecting of folklore, Olonkho, peoples of Siberia, Eriedel Bergen, Alexander von Middendorff

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