Genghis Khan in Folklore Legends of the Mongolian Peoples: Mythological Framework of Memory

Introduction. The article examines the features of ideas about Genghis Khan, embodied in the folklore legends of the Mongolian peoples. It is noteworthy that the plots of oral traditions about Genghis Khan have almost nothing in common with information from written sources about the life of the founder of the Mongol Empire, such as “The Secret History of the Mongols” and other Mongolian, Turkic, Chinese and Persian chronicles known to us. It follows from this that folklore texts about the life and deeds of Genghis Khan are based on certain stable folklore-mythological structures, which in the oral tradition replaced the memory of his real biography. Goals and purposes of the study. The study makes an attempt to identify and classify the folklore and mythological structures underlying the folklore legends of the Mongolian peoples about Genghis Khan. Materials and methods. The research material is based on the texts of Mongolian, Buryat and Kalmyk folklore, recorded in the period from the 19th to the beginning of the 21st century. Comparative-typological and structural-semiotic methods of folkloristics are used as the main research methods. Results. Four main groups of legends about Genghis Khan have been identified, each of which corresponds to a specific plot-motivic structure and a set of mythological ideas: legends about the wonderful biography of Genghis Khan, about Genghis Khan as a cultural hero, toponymic and genealogical legends with the participation of Genghis Khan. Conclusions. It can be concluded that the memory of Genghis Khan in the folklore tradition of the Mongolian peoples was formed on the basis of traditional ideas about the first ancestors-demiurges — cultural heroes, which included the legendary ruler. Living in some “primordial time” and possessing a wonderful, atypical — as befits a mythological hero — biography, he masters, transforms and signifies the world around him, creates important cultural objects, performs actions that will later turn into customs and rituals, gives rise to modern ethnic groups and dynasties, in general — lays the foundations of the existing world order. Most of the real details of Genghis Khan's life were beyond the scope of these mythological ideas, and his folklore image and biography were composed mainly of a set of traits and motives traditionally attributed to heroes of this type.

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