The Three Worlds in the Heroic Epic of Jangar and Kalmyk Fairy-Tale Tradition (a Case Study of Recordings Contained in the Archive of the Kalmyk Scientific Center of the RAS)
https://doi.org/10.22162/2500-1523-2018-14-140-155
Abstract
The article considers the motif of the Three Worlds within the Kalmyk heroic epic of Jangar, The Tale of Mani Vadr Khan (recorded from the taleteller N. Nadvidov), and Kalmyk folk tales contained in the Research Archive of of the Kalmyk Scientific Center of the RAS. The conducted comparative analysis of the mentioned texts reveals that those have retained their respective mythological bases. The paper examines mythological representations of the Kalmyks about nature, such as emergence of the luminaries, birth of primal forefarthers, etc.; religious worldview based on beliefs in supernatural creatures and phenomena, including philosophical aspects constituting a system of representations and knowledge about the world and the human, and relations between the latter. All the investigated genres of Kalmyk folklore basically cluster with respective world folklore genres in terms of typological properties. Quite a number of archaic mythological plots had been mutually borrowed from folklore traditions of other Turko-Mongols. The epic of Jangar and folk tales contain vast materials for further studies of mythological representations of the Kalmyks about the Three Worlds that actually date back centuries.
About the Author
I. Boldyreva
Kalmyk Scientific Center of the RAS (8, Ilishkin Str., Elista, 358000, Russian Federation)
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Research Associate, Department of Mongolian Philology
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Review
For citations:
Boldyreva I. The Three Worlds in the Heroic Epic of Jangar and Kalmyk Fairy-Tale Tradition (a Case Study of Recordings Contained in the Archive of the Kalmyk Scientific Center of the RAS). Mongolian Studies. 2018;10(3):140-155. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22162/2500-1523-2018-14-140-155
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