Images of stone and mountain people in the Khakas heroic tales

Abstract

The article examines images of stone and mountain people in heroic epic of the Khakas, who were assigned the role of protectors and patrons. These include characters such as: “mountain people” and a cursed old man living in a black cave. The images of stone and mountain people in the heroic tales under consideration, probably, originated based on the mythology and cult of mountains. The purpose of this article is to determine the functional role of the images of stone and mountain people. The novelty of the work is in the fact that the images of stone and mountain people are most fully embodied specifically in Khakas epic, while the Altaians and Buryats’ epic only mentions the connection of a hero with a mountain. But in epic of these peoples there are no characters called “a stone man”, “mountain people”, whose images are developed and endowed with certain functions, as in the Khakas heroic epic. We must assume that the images of “stone people” in the Khakas’ heroic tales, probably, arose due to mythological ideas about the world around and the cult of mountains existed among the ancient ethnic group and received further artistic development. In the Khakas heroic tales, along with stone people there is a presentation of the images of “mountain people”, they are mentioned seldom and do not affect the course of events, but they are correlated genetically with the mythology and beliefs of the people.

Unpublished heroic tales Akh sarattyg Akh khan (recorded by A. G. Kyzlasova from storyteller K. A. Bastaev February 16–21, 1949), Khara torattyg Khara Khan (recorded by A. T. Kyzlasova from storyteller K. A. Bastaev in 1949), Khaskha Khara attyg Khan Kharakhchyl (recorded by M. I. Dobrova from storyteller M. K. Dobrov in 1948) were material for the study. In the heroic tales under consideration we distinguished the following images: 1) “stone people”. These images were of a sacred nature, they were assigned the role of a protector, a patron; 2) images of “mountain people” and a cursed by deities old man living in a black cave. The image of an old man is of interest, it carries a certain instructive charge – for bad deeds you have to pay.

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