Fairytale Motifs in the Image of an Epic Hero: a Case Study of Kalmyk Historical-Heroic Tales of Mazan Baatar

Abstract

The aim of this work is to study the relationship of Kalmyk bogatyr tales and historical and heroic traditions, since these genres of oral lore have a similar structure and principles of ideological and artistic organization. Common to them are the central image of the hero-defender, the traditional motives associated with it, ideological and aesthetic content and socio-historical determination. The main attention of the work is concentrated on traditional fairy-tale motifs that were used in the depiction of the epic hero of historical traditions. In this work, we rely on the fact that the motive is a typical, indecomposable unit of folklore. The following fabulous motifs were analyzed: the motive of the “low” hero, the motive of maturity and heroism, the motive of matchmaking and the ransom of the bride, the motive of miraculous healing. Comparing the motives, the author of the work comes to the following conclusion: the motives characteristic of the bogatyr tales are preserved in the traditions. However, since the content of the legend is accepted by the listener and the narrator as a real historical event, some motives undergo a certain transformation due to the genre specificity of the work.

Keywords

• kalmyk folklore
• historical and heroic traditions
• epic hero
• bogatyr
• fairytale motives
• plot