E-mail: bashfolk@yandex.ru Tel.: +7 (347) 272-85-22
DSc in Philology, Chair, Folklore Department, Institute of History, Language and Literature, Ufa Federal Research Center, Russian Academy of Sciences
This article examines the image of the hero of the Bashkir folk tale. M. H. Mingazhetdinov and N. T. Zaripov touched on this topic in their research on fairy tales in the 1970s but there have been no articles dedicated to it, although since then new sources have appeared. This study examines the hero of the Bashkir folk tale from different angles, starting with the semantics of the word “hero,” which turns out to be extensive. It then considers the hero’s path to victory and achieving his goals. The analysis is based on the book of Bashkir heroic tales published in 1990. Almost all of the tales had been translated into Russian and were published in the series “Bashkir Folk Art. Heroic tales” in 1988.
The author notes the closeness of bogatyr tales to the heroic epic, which is manifested in commonplaces, the strength of the bogatyr and his heroic deeds, as well as in his struggle with mythical creatures such as dev (serpent) and azhdaha (dragon). The central character of heroic tales are “batyrs,” who cannot be distinguished from one another; as a rule, they are the same type as in all fairy tales. The batyr’s biography begins with a miraculous birth, a characteristic of ancient fairytale heroes. The most common type is immaculate conception; less often, a childless couple begs for child by sacrificing to Allah, a motif that became widespread in epics and fairy tales of Islamic Turkic-–speaking peoples. A comparison of miraculous conception in Bashkir fairy tales with those identified by V. J. Propp reveals their close similarity. In Bashkir fairy tales the following differences are noted: a hero may be born from a stone; made of dough; or granted to a childless couple after they alternate carrying a hen’s egg for a year and then each eat half of it. Further, the Bashkir tale recounts the hero’s childhood; acquisition of a horse and weapons; fighting mythical creatures; and achieving success. The article also touches on heroic maidens who occasionally appear, as well as heroic giants like Tau-batyr (Bogatyr-Gora) and Imyan-batyr (Dub-Batyr). The hero of Bashkir heroic tales manifests national specificity via a particular mode of artistic expression
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