Arunachal Pradesh is a cultural diverse state where festivals play a central role in preserving indigenous traditions. This study examines the early myths and ritual practices associated with Losar, the New Year festival of the Monpa community of Tawang district. Losar is not only a calendar tradition but also a deeply rooted social -religious event that reinforces Buddhist philosophical community. Using a qualitative research approach, primary data were collected through interviews with monks and local residencies, while secondary data were sources from books, article and archival materials available in local libraries and monasteries. The findings reveal that Losar practices in Tawang are shaped by Buddhist cosmology, local myths and symbolic rituals such as Derka offerings, hosting prayer flags and Monlam prayers. The legendary origin of Losar is links with the victory of Lord Buddha in philosophical debates, commemorated through extended rituals from 8th to the 15th day. Additionally, traditional games, food, practices and communal activities reflect the harmonious relationship between religious, nature and social life. The study highlighted Losar as a vital culture that sustains Monpa identity and transmits spiritual values across generations.

The article is devoted to establishing the nature of the evolution of the epic and its relationship to lyrical poetry in the Adyghe (Circassian) folklore. The relevance of the topic is due to the scientific significance of determining the nature of the interaction between the folk epic and lyrical poetry. To date, this issue has not been the subject of a special study based on the folklore of the Adyghe people, which makes this work scientifically significant and innovative. The purpose of the study is to identify the patterns of transformations that occur in heroic songs and tales during the evolution of the genre. The main objectives are to study the actual material in a diachronic perspective, to establish specific changes and their nature as a result of the interaction between the attributes of epic and lyric poetry, and to identify the general trend of development in the light of the history of verbal art. The main method of study is historical and comparative, with the use of structural-semantic analysis and statistical research. The object of analysis is the authentic recordings of samples of the archaic epic about the Nart heroes and the cycles of songs and legends of the historical and heroic epic. The analysis of the texts reveals that the third-person narrative, which is the main principle of storytelling in epic works, can be interspersed with fragments of a meditative, emotional, and evaluative nature, even in the most ancient examples. This suggests that lyrical motifs may have been present in epic poetry from the beginning. When comparing works belonging to the oldest tales with songs and legends of later origin, it is established that as the genre evolves, attention to the inner world of the hero, to the individual perception of reality, and interest in individual characteristics of perception and psychological motivation of actions increase. As a result, songs with a dominant lyrical content appear within the poetics of the heroic epic. Further evolution contributes to the progressive advancement of meditative, love, philosophical, and everyday lyrics to the center of the genre system of folklore. The canons of traditional song existence are transformed, including the form of performance, the structure of the poetic text, vocabulary, and melodies. These observations help to establish the main stages of the evolution of verbal and musical art in the folklore of the Adyghe people, from its origins to the emergence of artistically developed genres, types, and styles.

Wara Liang is a shoreline rockshelter on Lembata island, Indonesia, where excavation in 2017 revealed a deep stratigraphy preserving evidence of forager habitation from ca. 1200 years ago. At around 600 BP, the nature of the occupation changes with a range of new zooarchaeological remains appearing, including domesticated animals as well as a substantial assemblage of earthenware pottery with some exotic tradeware. The deposition of the Wara Liang pottery at this time seemingly represents a strikingly late arrival of pottery technology at this site. Here we discuss the Wara Liang ceramics assemblage and consider a range of scenarios that may account for this apparent late technology transfer. The historical context of the time and the intensification of exogenous contact and influence in Nusa Tenggara Timor, along with the essential environmental nature of the region with its history of natural disasters and displacement of populations, are discussed in terms of effects on local communities. We also highlight the oral history and origin legend of Lamalera, a village close by the Wara Liang rockshelter and famous for its tradition of hunting whales. This origin legend intriguingly sheds light on the first use of pottery in the Wara Liang locale and provides information that credibly supplements the pottery record.

A Study analyzes affective transformations present within the sequential structure of ‘moving-stopping’ in the Korean geomorphological origin legend of the ‘Island That Floated In and Stopped,’ employing a new materialist perspective. Twelve transmitted legends exhibit contrasting affects: some versions express awe and wonder towards the vitality and dynamism of nature, whereas others reflect negative affects regarding women’s actions that halt the islands or the islands’ eventual locations. Previous studies predominantly interpret these negative affects as outcomes of patriarchal transformations negatively impacting female deities. This research further highlights the affective transformations and narrative complexities arising from human recognition and responses to natural vitality. Drawing on new materialism, the study identifies affective transformations as affects emerging from interconnected vitality shared by humans and nature (matter). When islands’ movements are controlled by human intention, negative affects emerge through the narrative logic of ‘taboo-disclosure.’ Conversely, positive affects develop through ‘response-interaction,’ which emphasizes respect, naming, and mutual responsiveness with nature. This narrative approach is argued to represent an animistic imagination, exploring coexistence possibilities beyond anthropocentric worldviews. Ultimately, the legend offers narrative principles supporting affective coexistence between humans and nature, advocating the overcoming of anthropocentrism and the establishment of symbiotic human-nature relationships in response to contemporary ecological crises.

Origin legends in early medieval Western Europe. Edited by Lindy Brady and Patrick Wadden. (Reading Medieval Sources, 6.) Pp. xii + 474 incl. 19 colour and black- and-white ills. Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2023. €198. 978 90 04 40036 8; 2589 2509 - Volume 76 Issue 2

This study is a deconstruction of the History of Iyale from 1700 -1900. Geographically, Iyale which is a chiefdom under the Igala Kingdom is strategically located on the eastern flank of the Rivers Niger and Benue confluence. In temporal terms, the research starts from 1700 because it marked the establishment of Iyale and terminates in 1900 because it was the beginning of European incursion, subjugation, conquest and exploitation, which eventually metamorphosed into colonialism in Iyale area. The study adopts the political economy perspective. This research is built on the understanding that the development of any society, be it centralized or decentralized, represents a transformation or change in the social, political and economic system over time. This transformation is generally complex, involving both peaceful and non-peaceful means of integrating into society. Using primary sources, the study has shown that the ‘almost’ distorted tradition of origin of the people of Iyale was as a result of its historical experience and has established that the aboriginals of Iyale had existed in the Iyale area as early as the 15th century. We further discussed here the various versions of the tradition of origin of the people bearing in mind the contradictions in the interpretation of legends of origin; and the examination of the possible earliest centers associated with their development based on the materials available. This research has proved from available evidence that they were settlers already in Iyale before the establishment of the Attah dynasty at Idah and before the Igala-Jukun crises which other traditions have put forward as the exodus of the ‘heroic four brothers’ who left Idah to establish a new place of abode called Iyale.

:<i>The Origin Legends of Early Medieval Britain and Ireland</i>

The Awá is one of the fourteen indigenous nationalities that currently live in Ecuadorian territory. Their myths, legends, language and more cultural manifestations, as well as their lifestyle, strongly connect these people to the jungle, the place where they live, from where they get their food and the place that they protect. This document study attempted to determine the themes and ranges of previous research about the cultural features and language of the Awá Nationality in Ecuador. The reviewed works corresponded to publications between 2001 up to 2023. The accounts evidenced that the information published describe, analyze and discuss the situation of the Awá Nationality in Ecuador in aspects like their origin, the region where they live, how they are organized and their culture, including the myth of their origin legends and the language which is in endangered.

The Legend score synthesizes Wells, PERC, Geneva, D-dimer and predicts acute pulmonary embolism prior to imaging tests.

This paper examines legends on the origins (aetiologies) of places and placenames in Benjamin of Tudela’s travel account. Origin stories are prevalent in medieval travelogues, but Hebrew travel accounts employ a unique form that is embedded in placenames. Midrash Shem (מדרש שם), as this form is known in Jewish tradition, is the homiletical interpretation of names, typically characterized in some measure by wordplay. I suggest that these legends and placenames serve Hebrew travel literature both as an evidential tool and as an artistic means of expression, contributing to the construction of “known” and “foreign” lands and peoples, and consequently to the formulation of group identities. En route to the foreign and unknown, yet “own”, holy Eretz Yisrael, Benjamin of Tudela encounters Jewish communities and records a variety of aetiologies throughout the Middle East. In retelling the origins of the travelled landscape, he transmits local mythical, theological and historical content as well as particular Jewish-diasporic socio-political realities. Diversely told origins of Roman architecture, scattered across most of Benjamin’s account, show how these local traditions varied. Some aetiologies fuse traditional with foreign content to affirm a sense of belonging under foreign rule, while others actively undermine established non-Jewish narratives or even oppose competing Jewish narratives.

Origin Legends in Early Medieval Western Europe by Lindy Brady and Patrick Wadden (review)

As displayed by several myths and legends, water is a powerful means of destruction and reconfiguration of natural and human landscapes. This is especially evident when a flood is sent by god(s) or supernatural beings to punish sinful people and corrupt cities. Generally, this kind of catastrophe brings about the disappearance of a whole human community and the resulting transformation of a certain place. However, it may also happen that one or few persons, because of their piety or righteousness, are spared by the divine anger, sometimes along with their houses or something else. The present work starts from a discovery on the field of a local legend concerning Lake Varano, a coastal body of water in the Gargano peninsula (Apulia, Italy). According to this legend, Lake Varano would be the outcome of an ancient flood, sent by God to punish a prosperous and corrupt city, Uria, once flourishing in the place of the lake. Just like other more famous floods, this local flood is meant to mark a transition between an evil past, embodied by the sunken Uria, and a good present, embodied by a little church, formerly the house of the only survivor, Nunzia, a pious woman. As part of the broader corpus of flood narratives, this legend and the other ones here considered distinguish themselves as featuring a lake, which physically and symbolically shapes and connotes the religious, historical and geographical identity of a local community. Starting from Lake Varano’s origin legend, a structural and thematic analysis is conducted on a number of similar legends, in order to identify, classify and understand a particular category of narrative folklore, characterized by a significant interplay between water (flood- and lake-lore), history (ancient cities vanished), religious beliefs (retributive gods) and moral principles (evil and good). Eventually, such a comparative work will lead back to Lake Varano’s legend, because of the peculiarity of its heroine; unlike all the other survivors, who are passively rescued from a flood, Nunzia plays indeed an active part in the drama, thus resulting a co-author, with the flood, of a local place-making, that is the main concern of these legends.

During the Ancient Greek and Roman periods, the myth of Ganymede, a beautiful Trojan boy who was abducted by Zeus on Mount Ida to be his immortal cupbearer, became the legendary origin and symbol of the aristocratic practice of pederasty. Resultingly, the various retellings of the myth reflect changes in societal perceptions of pederasty and display the unique relationship between myth, humanity, and culture. In the 21st century, artificial intelligence has similarly shone a new light on the relationship between human creativity and technology which will evolve over time as its place in society and academia is found. This paper has a two-fold goal: first to analyze the changes of which story elements are emphasized, the authors’ attitudes towards Ganymede and Zeus’ relationship, and the parallels between Ganymede’s character and eromenoi in twenty-four literary references to Ganymede across approximately 1300 years of Antiquity, and secondly, to compare those findings to the AI program ChatGPT, given the same prompt and data.

The Origin Legends of Early Medieval Britain and Ireland by Lindy Brady (review)

<i>The Origin Legends of Early Medieval Britain and Ireland</i>, by Lindy Brady

The deer motif is an extremely important figure in the folklore of the Turk and Iranian peoples. In the origin story of the Hungarians, the Miracle Stag sent by the Celestials shows the way to the new homeland. The conquering Hungarians believed that the deities appeared in the form of different animals, such as the Turul bird in addition to the deer, and conveyed important information to them. In the case of the fraternal Turk people, the similarity is not surprising. Monuments reflecting Urartu’s sense of identity are unexplored from this point of view: depictions of deer are common in the north and south, in the Caucasus and Anatolia, but such relics are rare in Urartu’s territory. This study, using the method of literary source analysis, draws attention to the phenomenon itself and its possible causes by researching the roots of the Hungarian origin legend that can be traced back to the border of Urartu.

This article reassesses the sources pertaining to Heremod (Hermóðr) in order to explore the nature of his relationship with Óðinn. In Beowulf, Heremod is presented as a Danish tyrant without any overt connection to Óðinn, whereas in Old Norse sources, Hermóðr is consistently presented as a mortal favourite or divine offspring of Óðinn. Closer scrutiny of the Beowulf passages in light of their analogues suggests that the disagreement results from the Beowulf poet’s obfuscation of a prior relationship between Heremod and Óðinn. An ancient connection between the god and his favourite appears to antedate Beowulf and persist into late sources concerning not only Hermóðr, but also Lotherus and Olo, recognized analogues to Heremod whose legends are believed to have absorbed aspects of the earlier Heremod tradition. An original legend, in which Óðinn patronized, sabotaged, and elicited transgressive deeds from Heremod, appears to have constituted the core tradition around which numerous variants emerged in subsequent centuries.

The paper treats the issue on the reconstruction of the image of Tsar Samuel from the perspective of the Ohrid Archbishopric. The snapshots from the sources starting from Basil II’s sigillia and other official acts, reveals that the representation of Samuel was largely shaped in accordance with the ideological concept of the Ohrid Archbishopric. Depending on the political constellation and the momentary aims of the ideological propaganda, Samuel was either recognized as the fundamental ruler and inseparable part of the traditions of the Ohrid Archbishopric, or was completely excluded within the constructed theories about the origin оf the Archbishopric. The leading people in the Ohrid Archbishopric constantly modified and constructed the ecclesiastical traditions for the purpose of reinforcing the position and the status of the Archbishopric, in which the Christian saints were also exploited. This tendency also found reflection in the alteration of the original legend about Vladimir and Kosara, that served Archbishopric’s pretensions for obtaining the leading role among the Orthodox Christians in the Balkans. Hence, from the reading of the official works composed for or from the Ohrid Archbishopric we can notice the tendency for adapting, constructing and manipulating the traditions emerging from Samuel’s political and ideological program, that involved the cults and legends originating in Prespa and Ohrid, wherefrom we receive opposed and distorted images of Samuel. Their deconstruction is the main goal of this paper.

Various studies have been conducted on memory. One of the most striking of these is the theory of “cultural memory” put forward by J. Assmann. According to this theory, memory is divided into two. Communicative memory includes memories that an individual shares whit contemporaries. This memory is formed in the present moment and continues to exist only as long as its bearers live. Cultural memory, on the other hand, is based on a long time ago. This memory contains the legendary origin history of the society and striking points of the past. The Alawi community, as a community that has created their own cultural World and gathered around a belief, has a deeply embedded cultural memory. In the framework of caliphate discussions after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, Ali and his sons lived in the memory of the Alawi community as painful memories. The battle of Karbala has a special place in Alawi culture. Karbala has become a symbol of pain, grief, injustice in the Alawi culture, and all the figures and motifs associated with Karbala have taken a deep place in cultural memory of Alawi community. These often come to the surface of memory with various remembering figures, causing the past to be relived and reconstructed. One of the most precious folkloric products that can trace the cultural memory of the Alawi community is the poems of Pir Sultan. In this study, traces of cultural memory were traced in Pir Sultan’s poems, and the figures of remembrance, which are of great importance for the Alawi society, were examined. The aim of the study to to determine how and trough which sources the cultural memory of Alawi community is reflected in Pir Sultan’s poetry, and how this affects Pir Sultan as a poet. In this direction as a result of research is determined that Pir Sultan’s memory is shape by the folklore of Alawi community and the remembrance figures which reflect to the poems are separated positively and negatively from the point of Pir Sultan’s view. Keywords: Culture of Alawi, Pir Sultan, Cultural Memory, Kerbelâ.

The art collection of István Marczibányi (1752–1810), remembered as the benefactor of the Hungarian nation, who devoted a great part of his fortune to religious, educational, scientific and social goals, is generally known as a collection of ‘national Antiquities’ of Hungary. This opinion was already widespread in Hungarian publicity at the beginning of the 19th century, when Marczibányi pledged that he would enrich the collection of the prospective Hungarian national Museum with his artworks. But the description of his collection in Pál Wallaszky’s book Conspectus reipublicae litterariae in Hungaria published in 1808 testifies to the diversity and international character of the collection. In the Marczibányi “treasury”, divided into fourteen units, in addition to a rich cabinet for coins and medals there were mosaics, sculptures, drinking vessels, filigree-adorned goldsmiths’ works, weapons, Chinese art objects, gemstones and objects carved from them (buttons, cameos, caskets and vases), diverse marble monuments and copper engravings. Picking, for example, the set of sculptures, we find ancient Egyptian, Greek and Ro man pieces as well as mediaeval and modern masterpieces arranged by materials.After the collector’s death, his younger brother Imre Marczibányi (1755–1826) and his nephews Márton (1784–1834), János (1786–1830), and Antal (1793–1872) jointly inherited the collection housed in a palace in dísz tér (Parade Square) in Buda. In 1811, acting on the promise of the deceased, the family donated a selection of artworks to the national Museum: 276 cut gems, 9 Roman and Byzantine imperial gold coins, 35 silver coins and more than fifty antiquities and rarities including 17th and 18th-century goldsmiths’ works, Chinese soap-stone statuettes, ivory carvings, weapons and a South Italian red-figure vase, too. However, this donation did not remain intact as one entity. With the emergence of various specialized museums in the last third of the 19th century, a lot of artworks had been transferred to the new institutions, where the original provenance fell mostly into oblivion.In the research more than a third of the artworks now in the Hungarian national Museum, the Museum of Applied Arts and the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest could be identified, relying on the first printed catalogue of the Hungarian national Museum (1825) titled Cimeliotheca Musei Nationalis Hungarici, and the handwritten acquisition registers. The entries have revealed that fictitious provenances were attached to several items, since the alleged or real association with prominent historical figures played an important role in the acquisition strategies of private collectors and museums alike at the time. For example, an ivory carving interpreted in the Cimeliotheca as the reliquary of St Margaret of Hungary could be identified with an object in the Metalwork Collection of the Museum of Applied Arts (inv. no. 18843), whose stylistic analogies and parallels invalidate the legendary origin: the bone plates subsequently assembled as a front of a casket were presumably made in a Venetian workshop at the end of the 14th century.There are merely sporadic data about the network of István Marczibányi’s connections as a collector, and about the history of his former collection remaining in the possession of his heirs. It is known that collector Miklós Jankovich (1772–1846) purchased painted and carved marble portraits around 1816 from the Marczi bányi collection, together with goldsmiths’ works including a coconut cup newly identified in the Metalwork Collection of the Museum of Applied Arts (inv. no. 19041). The group of exquisite Italian Cinquecento bronze statuettes published by art historian Géza Entz (1913–1993), was last owned as a whole by Antal Marczibányi (nephew of István) who died in 1872. These collection of small bronzes could have also been collected by István Marczibányi, then it got scattered through inheritance, and certain pieces of it landed in north American and European museums as of the second third of the 20th century. Although according to Entz’s hypothesis the small bronzes were purchased by István’s brother Imre through the mediation of sculptor and art collector István Ferenczy (1792–1956) studying in Rome, there is no written data to verify it. By contrast, it is known that the posthumous estate of István Marczibányi included a large but not detailed collection of classical Roman statues in 1811, which the heirs did not donate to the national Museum. It may be presumed that some of the renaissance small bronzes of mythological themes following classical prototypes were believed to be classical antiquities at the beginning of the 19th century. Further research will hopefully reveal more information about the circumstances of their acquisition.