Folk Epic Research Articles

Similarities and Differences of Kyrgyz and Kara-Kalpak Epics

The article provides a comparative historical analysis of the similarities and differences of the epics of the Kyrgyz and Kara-Kalpak peoples, which have not been forgotten and preserved for centuries. After all, in the epics of both peoples, the way of life, spiritual and moral knowledge in the upbringing of youth, historical events, philosophical views that make up the formation of personality were formed in accordance with the awareness of the national mentality. If we consider the issue in this form, then today epics are not given such attention. Therefore, our goal, firstly, is to reveal that in the past centuries the potential of the population in continuing teaching and training was very high thanks to the best methodologies of spiritual and moral education of young people through folk epics. Secondly, in order to popularize and preserve folk epics in modern society, it is necessary to organize special courses and classes on their teaching. After all, epics contain history, ethnography, philosophy, traditional knowledge folklore of the whole people.

THE IMAGE OF FLOWER AND NIGHTINGALE IN UZBEK FOLKLORE

Folklore is a mirror that shows the oral literature of a certain nation. In this mirror, folklore shows itself with different genres. Epics, fairy tales, songs, askiyas, proverbs, riddles and parables are among them. One of the most used images in these genres is a flower and a nightingale. In this article, we will analyze the fact that these images are used sufficiently in many genres of folklore. In particular, their role in folk epics (Alpomish and Kuntug'mish), songs, proverbs, riddles, askiya and fairy tales has been studied.

EXHIBITION OF THE ARMENIAN EPIC POEM AT THE MUSEUM OF ARMENIAN ETHNOGRAPHY

The epic poem ―The Daredevils Sasun‖ is an important part of the national intangible cultural heritage which deserves exhibiting in the environment of ethnographic museum as a symbol of national culture, and as an integral part of the ethnographic museum exhibition. Museums in Armenia have repeatedly organized exhibitions related to the epic poem and mirrored issues on poem‘s themes and motifs, but an exhibition of the Armenian epic poem has not yet been organized. The novelty of the work lies in addressing the problems of organizing the exhibition complex of the Armenian epic in the largest ethnographic museum of Armenia. In our country, the issue of organizing an exhibition of the Armenian epic poem in an ethnographic museum has not yet been studied, which is the novelty of the work. The article highlights the methods and principles of organizing an exhibition, the choice of which is determined by the characteristics of the exhibition theme. The proposed methods for organizing the exhibition complex of the Armenian folk epic follow from the goals and objectives set for the exhibition. The preservation of the objective principle of organizing the exhibition and the use of museum objects in the organized exhibition are emphasized. The funds of the Museum of Armenian Ethnography contain museum objects with themes and motifs of the epic, most of which are examples of decorative and applied art. The inclusion of these items in the exhibition of the Armenian folk epic will provide an objective principle for organizing the exhibition. Along with the improvement of new technologies, the requirements for museum exhibitions are also changing. When organizing a demonstration complex of the Armenian folk epic, moderate use of the latest technological means will contribute to the disclosure of the topic. The Armenian folk epic is an integral part of the national intangible culture, so it is very important to refer to the display of folklore in the ethnographic museum, which displays the culture created throughout the history of the people. We sought to emphasize the importance of the exhibition of the Armenian folk epic in the ethnographic museum for awakening and preserving the collective memory of the Armenian society.

DÁSTANLARDA BATİRLAR TUWİLǴANNAN KEYINGI XALİQLİQ TÚSINIKLER

In the article, the author provides information about folk ideas after the birth of heroes in epics. In most Karakalpak folk heroic epics, rituals performed after the birth of a child acquire a vital character. That is, more attention is paid to such rituals as circumcision, circumcision, choice of name, wedding, in order to reveal the image of the future hero. This indicates that the roots of the Karakalpak folk epic are associated with ancient times.

A narrative about the Defense of Muslim Sacred Space in Arab Folklore of the Modern Era

For many centuries, the history of the Levant and Arabia have been marked by the conflicts for control of sacred spaces between representatives of various faiths, and this confrontation continues to this day. One of the most intense periods of this struggle was the era of the Crusades, the study of the memory of which in folklore sources is an important scientific task. Of significant interest in this case is the narrative about the defense of Muslim sacred space, which developed in the socalled Arabic Folk Epics. Although the threat to sacred space in this type of sources often comes not from the Franks (ifranj), but from the Byzantines (rūm), and the action itself in some monuments takes place in pre-Islamic times, the whole complex of stories about the threat to sacred space in Folk Epics can be considered an echo of the Crusades. The Franks and Byzantines in the Epics regularly threaten both Jerusalem and Mecca. It can also be assumed with a high degree of confidence that, thanks to the great popularity of Folk Epics in the Modern Era, the idea of a European threat to Muslim sacred space survived in the collective memory of the Arabs of Egypt and the Levant until the 19th century.

Вечные споры о «Калевале». Рецензия на книгу М. Ниеминена «Моя “Калевала”. Что? Зачем? Откуда? Когда? Чья? Разговоры об эпосе»

The article reviews the book “My Kalevala. What? Why? Where from? When? Whose? Discussions About an Epic” by the Finnish writer, researcher, and public figure Markku Nieminen published in Finland in Finnish in 2023. The book is dedicated to the history of the controversy surrounding the poem “Kalevala” created by Elias Lönnrot. Various interpretations of Kalevala — as a national Finnish epic, a Karelian-Finnish folk epic, and an author’s poem — give rise to endless discussions and determine the relevance of the work under review, which also makes its contribution to the modern debate. The article presents a brief description of the work, identifying pairs of the main participants in the discussion over an almost 200-year period: E. Lönnrot — K.A. Gottlund, A. Ahlquist — J. Krohn, T. Rein — J. Aho, K. Krohn — V. Salminen and I. K. Inha, K. Kron — E.N. Setälä, M. Kuusi — V. Kaukonen, A. Tuomi — A. Mishin, M. Nieminen — T. Kondie. Particular attention is paid to the disputes between Russian participants and M. Nieminen’s response to the controversy in Finland at an online seminar in 2022. M. Nieminen consistently reveals the essence of the Kalevala discussions in which researchers, journalists, and public figures occurred in Finland and Russian Karelia. A structured presentation of such extensive material (dozens and hundreds of publications have been analyzed), in which the author’s broad outlook is felt at every step, certainly deserves the attention of readers.

The Image of the Byzantines (the Rum) and the Franks (the Ifranj) in “The Thousand and One Nights”

The memory of the Crusades in the folk culture of the Levant and Egypt remains an under-researched topic. The stories of “The Thousand and One Nights”, which feature the Rum and the Ifranj, form part of the overall narrative of 12th—15th-century Arabic folk culture about Christian attacks on the Muslim world. In these stories, the Ifranj are portrayed as a more aggressive and principled opponent than the Rum, who, unlike the Ifranj, are also mentioned in neutral and occasionally positive contexts, being portrayed as a more civilised entity. The key patterns in the depiction of the Ifranj and the Rum, such as the in-depth study of Islam by the Christian villains in order to gain the trust of the Muslims, the unanimous gathering of Franks from all lands with the aim of attacking the Muslims, and the desire of the leaders of the Ifranj and the Rum to conquer the entire Islamic world while converting all Muslims to Christianity, coincide with similar images in the Arabic folk epics that emerged during the Crusades. This supports the attribution of the stories to the indicated period and strengthens the arguments of linguistic and anthropological analysis, according to which the stories date from the time of the anti-crusader struggle.

ЭПИЧЕСКОЕ НАСЛЕДИЕ БАШКИР РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ В ЗАПИСЯХ СЕРЕДИНЫ ХХ В.

The article is devoted to the topical issue of studying archival records of epic monuments recorded outside the Republic of Bashkortostan, in particular in Orenburg, Kurgan, Chelyabinsk, Samara, and Saratov regions, some of which have been published, and variants are taken into account in the comments to the volumes. In the first monograph devoted to the Bashkir heroic epic, its author A. N. Kireev noted that expeditions to the regions of the Russian Federation listed above gave a lot of new information about the Bashkir folk epic. This article is aimed at the study of epic material recorded precisely outside the Republic of Bashkortostan. The objectives of the article are to identify texts included in the volumes of the scholarly code “Bashkir folk art” and texts that have not yet been published; possible repeated recordings; determining the area of distribution of this or that epic tale, the age and gender of the informants. To solve the tasks, a statistical method was used to characterize the repertoire; the method of comparative analysis was used as the main one, an element of structural analysis and a comparative-descriptive method was also used in the study of repeated recordings in line with experimental approaches developed by V. M. Gatsak in the field of the theory of the preservation of the epic in time. The methodological basis of the article was the works of Russian, including Bashkir, researchers-predecessors in the field of epic studies: A. N. Kireev, S. A. Galina, M. M. Sagitova, V. M. Gatsak, I. V. Pukhov, etc. The study will allow us to present the content, volume of material, distribution areas of the Bashkir epic in the regions of the Russian Federation where Bashkirs live compactly. When studying archival materials, it turned out that epic works about animals and social and everyday ones were particularly widespread there. In the future, archival texts will be published and put into active scientific circulation. It is a subject for special research, including dissertations, on various genres of folklore of the Bashkirs of the Russian Federation, both from the folkloristic and linguistic point of views (dialects are interesting, both archaisms and Russian words are used, even characters of Russian folklore are found in the texts).

The Values of the “New Man” as Represented in Russian Folk Epics

The Values of the “New Man” as Represented in Russian Folk Epics

RESEARCH OF FOLKLORIST S.RUZIMBAEV IN PARTICULAR OF KHORAZM'S EPIC AND ITS PERFORMERS

In the article, the role of folklore in expressing the aesthetic ideals of a particular nation in world literature is of particular importance, folk epics are an oral creative-artistic complex that reflects the historical and cultural development of mankind, and the arrival of this information over centuries. Necessary information about the contribution of folklorists to the study of its laws is presented. Therefore, it is emphasized that it is appropriate to consider folklore samples as an impartial source that brought the early artistic thinking of humanity to today's development. The gradual improvement of folklore genres, their specific characteristics, and the study of the principles of poetic imagery are among the current scientific problems in the focus of experts' attention. It is their skill that folklore samples created by our people over the centuries and polished due to the positive changes added by the potential of creative performers of each generation, their creative innovations, become the representatives of our national spirituality and traditions performers - thanks to the creativity of the Bakhshis. The achievements of the science of folklore are extremely important in educating the young generation in the spirit of respect and reverence for our traditions and values, instilling our national identity in their hearts. In this article, the author presents analytical thoughts about the singers of Khorezm epics – bakhshis, their genealogy and traditions of bakhshis, based on the researches of folklorist S. Rozimboyev. which epics are most skilfully sung in each school of bakshichik is shown in historical evidence and in practice. In today's era of globalization, understanding the patterns of human artistic thinking is extremely important for the development of world culture.
 Keywords: world artistic thought, first folklorist, museologist, Khorezm epics, bakhshis, traditions of Bakhshis, schools of Bakhshis, genealogy of Bakhshis.

A Ramayana for Our Times: Superheroes, Science Fiction and Myth

Recent retellings of Indian epics draw upon science fiction. This article discusses an Indian superhero comic based on the Ramayana in which Rama, the central figure in the epic, is portrayed as the superhero Nagraj. The story uses the figure of the avatara (reincarnated one) to align the world of the epics with the contemporary world by incorporating science-fiction elements into their stories. It may seem that these retellings are drawing on strategies within science fiction to update the epics for the present so as to make mythic figures equivalent to superheroes. However, these strategies are not new. Parallel compositional techniques within folk epics prefigure these science-fictional strategies. This is borne out by the fact that Nagraj is an avatara of Rama, said to be reborn in the dark Kali age to fulfil unfulfilled desires from the past. In other words, instead of being for the sake of the present, superheroes are in the present to complete a quest from another time, drawing the present within the ambit of the mythic. There is a juxtaposition of a cyclical view of time associated with myth with the eventful linear time of superheroes, reorganising assumptions about chronicity in both superhero comics and epics.

The Memoirs of Peasants, or the First Polish Folk Epic

In the 1930s, Ludwik Krzywicki, one of the founding fathers of Polish sociology and a continuator of scientific research based on the biographical method, led to the organization of three groundbreaking memoir competitions. These were competitions for memoirs aimed at the unemployed, emigrants and peasants. The last one, announced in 1933, was so popular among the peasant communities that it was decided to publish the memoirs in two volumes in 1935 and 1936. A year after the publication, the jury of the editorial office of Wiadomości Literackie decided to recognize it as a book of the year. This article aims to analyze the memoirs published in the collection as examples of the first emancipation statement of the peasant class made on such a large scale. Memoirs of Peasants are the only testimonials written down from the heart of the peasant class experience by the generation born in the second half of the 19th century, who often remembered the times of serfdom, years of partitions, fought on the fronts of World War I and suffered from the economic collapse of the Great Depression. The article demonstrates that the popularity of this competition contributed to the development of the phenomenon of Polish competition memoirs, which are estimated today at as many as 1500 organized competitions and about a million submitted memoirs.

LINGUOPOETIC CHARACTERISTICS OF ONOMASTIC UNITS IN KASHKADARYA FOLK EPISTLES

This article is dedicated to highlighting the linguopoetic features of onomastic units used in the text of Kashkadarya folk epics, nouns in the epics form the text as an alleutic unit in addition to the nominative function and provide intertextuality, create a comic effect, and express a negative or positive assessment, it is proved by examples from folklore works that it fulfills the functions of expressing strong emotions, clarifying the image as part of a rhetorical figure, and expressing appeals with different meanings.

Genealogical Basis of Epos as the Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Folk

The Kazakh folk epic talks about the heroic deeds and life of nomadic tribes, being the historical and cultural heritage of the nation, which has been passed from mouth to mouth for centuries, thereby preserving national memory and contributing to the maintenance of patriotic feelings. The purpose of this article is not only to consider the Kazakh epic in the traditional vein of narrating about the historical past, but also to emphasize its ethnographic and genealogical value. By analyzing epic poetry, folk songs and folklore in general, as well as examining fragments of individual works, the authors recreate a holistic picture of the genealogical basis of the folk epic. The article compares the differences in the traditions of the Kazakh epic poetry of the 16th-18th and 19th centuries, which are observed, first of all, in the compositional structure, the subject of the story, the worldview in general. According to the results of the study, it was determined that the genealogical basis of the Kazakh folk epic lies in a certain archetype of a hero, the only son born to become a defender of the honor and dignity of the nation. At the same time, special attention is paid to describing its origin through a poetic description of its family tree. From this follows the complex genre of the epic chronicle, which has artistic and historical value and is an example of spiritual heritage. This study is of practical use for specialists in the field of history, literature, ethnography and genealogy.

Analysis of Folklore Note Sources as a Method for Transforming the Modern Performance of Cossack Songs

The purpose of the article is to analyse the signifi cant aspects of folklore note sources that reveal their musical and semantic essence to performers of Cossack songs. Features of the singing and performing modifi cation of vocal works are associated with the modern performing interpretation of Cossack folk songs. In the present, singers highlight the deep content of the original source, plunging into the methodological problem of musicological analysis. To popularise the vocal material, performers add personal interpretation of the Kuban Cossack songs, using the processed, adapted musical resources of the folk epic.

Vanquishers of the Crusaders: Mujāhidūn Characters in Arabic Folk Epics

Although the militant jihād remains one of the most popular topics in modern Islamic studies, most of the works focus on ideologies and actions, leaving out the popular perception of this phenomenon. Our study of the storylines about confronting the Franks (ifranj) in the Arabic folk epics, inspired by the Crusades, shows that the protagonists of the epics are presented in the narratives precisely as the holy warriors, i.e., mujāhidūn, whose key attributes are the power of faith, which often goes through tests in the fights against the infidels, as well as the divine support and readiness for martyrdom on the path of jihād. The widespread jihād and anti-Frankish rhetorics in the epics make them a valuable source for the study of the Crusades’ memory in the Medieval Arab culture.

AXIOLOGICAL DOMINANTS IN RUSSIAN EPIC HEROES’ VALUE SYSTEM

Value categories are not directly manifested in Russian bylinas, being established obliquely through an artistic rendering of the consequences (whether positive or negative) that are raised by the hero’s axiologically motivated act. Therefore, it is possible, on the one hand, to identify and describe a number of axiological categories reinforced in Russian epic poetry through their permanent relationship with the consequences of the act they caused that are favorable for the hero. Among these categories are the honor of certain “external” — with respect to the hero — realities (i.e., sacred objects and principles), the collective fame of all Russian knights, the so-called “knightly gift” (in Russian, talan-uchast; literally, “talent-fate”) understood as a burden of unselfish service, and the “knightly heart” (serdce bogatyrskoe), treated in terms of its capability to be enraged by certain injustices or iniquities. All these categories coincide with the mindset of the “new man” as it was proclaimed by the Church Fathers (the renouncement of personal honor and personal fame, unselfish service using one’s own talent, and righteous zeal for the sacred objects). Simultaneously, the values depreciated in Russian bylinas, i.e., those connected with the negative consequences of the act they motivated: personal honor and personal fame, the “knightly heart” as a capacity to feel the so-called “heroic anger,” and the “knightly gift” seen as a personal right to wealth and high social status — coincide with the evil passions of the “old man,” which were discredited by the Church Fathers. All this allows us to assert that Russian folk epics should be seen as a phenomenon of Christian culture

EXAMPLES OF AZERBAIJAN VERBAL FOLK LITERATURE IN THE INSTITUTE OF MANUSCRIPTS OF NAS OF AZERBAIJAN REPUBLIC

This article is devoted to the identification and study of extant manuscripts of Azerbaijani verbal folk heritage. Currently, manuscripts of Azerbaijani folklore are stored in the archives and libraries, private collections and museums, both in our country and abroad, and most of these manuscripts of Azerbaijani folk heritage are kept in the book depositories of Iran, Turkey, Russia and European countries. Some of the preserved manuscripts of the Azerbaijani folklore are also kept at the Institute of Manuscripts named after Muhammad Fizuli of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, which is one of the richest book depositories of Muslim-Oriental manuscripts in the World. Until recently, we did not have sufficient information about the topic descriptions. For the first time we compiled the Catalogue of Manuscripts on the Folklore genre of the collection of Institute of Manuscripts of NAS of Azerbaijan Republic, including a paleographic description of 375 manuscripts. This Catalogue of Manuscripts was published in 2007. It should be noted that the manuscripts of Azerbaijani folklore works are kept mainly in the personal archives of prominent Azerbaijani figures who highly appreciated the significance and uniqueness of these works and were engaged in collecting ancient manuscripts with Azerbaijani folklore works. We have studied small samples of written folklore, which were copied books called "emsal" (example), or into the margins of manuscripts on various topics, and in places of lacunae of the text of manuscripts. The Institute of Manuscripts of NAS of Azerbaijan Republic keeps manuscripts of folk epics, dastans, proverbs and other works of Azerbaijani folklore.

NARRATIVE REPERTOIRE AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE EPIC TRADITION

<p><span>In this article, the short story, the short story and their repertoire, as well as its influence on the epic tradition, are discussed in particular. In particular, opinions were expressed about the period of active development of short stories, their development and their importance today. Also, scientific conclusions are given about the fact that short stories in Khorezm entered the stage of growth at the beginning of the XIX century, that Andalib was the creator of this growth, and that he created several works in the style of folk epics mixed with prose and poetry for the first time. After that, the tradition of copying folk epics in the form of short stories was further developed, short stories became popular in the middle of the XIX century, an example of which is the collection of short stories by H.Vamberi with Mulla Ishaq, short story writers worked specially in the Khan's palaces, in the audience of intellectuals. The fact that storytelling has become a tradition is justified with examples.</span></p><p><span><strong>Keywords:</strong> storyteller, short story, repertoire, epic type, epic tradition, folk stories, folk epics.</span></p>

Sentiment Analysis of the Image of the Franks (ifranj) in the Arabic Folk Epic Sīrat Ḏа̄t al-Himma

The method of sentiment analysis opens up great prospects for historical and anthropological research, primarily for studying the problems of the construct of the image of Other. To test this method on the material of the Arabic language, I chose the Arabic Folk Epics as they are a conflux of the cultural memory of Arab population of Levant and Egypt, insufficiently investigated from the point of view of historical anthropology. The narratives of the Arabic Folk Epics combine an ancient Arabian tribal folklore, as well as fabulous and legendary stories of ancient Semitic and Persian origin, in addition to the chronicles from different periods of the history of Islam. The Epic Sīrat Ḏа̄t al-Himma (The Life of Ḏа̄t al-Himma) was taken as an example to analyze the contexts about the Franks in this type of sources, and to conceptualize the patterns of creating the emotive image of the Frank-Crusader. The main patterns of creating the image of the Other in the Epic are the opposition of the followers of the true and heretical faiths, the attribution of deviant and bestial behavior to the Franks, and the depiction of them as carriers of demonic superpowers. The tropes and stylistic devices of metaphor, epithet and hyperbole, used in these cases, are joined to evoke laughter, fear and hatred of the Franks at the same time in the listener of the Folk Epics, making comic relief one of the most recurrently used techniques as it usually involves all abovementioned emotions.