Image features of epic characters in Tatar and Slavic folklore

Abstract

The ethno-epic heritage of the Russian and Tatar peoples’ traditional culture is based on epic tales, including the heroic epic of the people, the ethnos. The core of traditional culture is the subject’s ideas about the ideals of wisdom, heroism and beauty, about good and evil, about man’s place in the world, as well as religious and mythological views on man’s relationship with supernatural, higher forces as a kind of life of an ethnic group’s world. Our culturological analysis of the main characters from epic tales, including the comparison with Slavic epic characters, allows us to assert that the epic image of a batyr expresses a single complex of national historical concepts and ideas about the ideal man – a warrior in the best manifestation of all his virtues, the one who realizes and implements the age–old aspirations of the people, that is, an objectified view of the world. The image of a batyr, a hero in Tatar and Slavic folklore is of interest due to its complexity and versatility. He is both a fighter against the enemies of his native land and a hero who destroys evil forces; he is an ideal warrior who can make even the khan feel fear; at the same time, he can resort to cunning and deceit at times. Thus, batyrs win not only owing to their best qualities, but also to those that are usually pushed into the shadows when positive characters are described, as if they were non-existent. Perhaps, this is where lies the excessive love and trust of the people for epic works and their heroes.