Swans and cranes in the folklore of Kalmyks and other Mongolian-speaking peoples and Asian peoples

Abstract

The subject of the article is fabulous and epic texts containing the motif of the girls-swans and the role of these characters in the story. The author considers Kalmyk, Tuvan, Buryat, Dolgan, Yakut, Ket, Khanty, Mansi, Evenki, Even, Oroch, Nanai, Yukagir and Chukchi texts containing the motif of swans turning into girls, one of which a young man steals plumage, and the girl cannot regain the appearance of a bird. Usually this motif is associated with the extraction of a wife by a hero or one of the brothers. Searches for a swan-girl who flew away as a hero-boy are carried out in different areas of the narrative space: in a system of three worlds common to peoples whose traditions are considered in work, in the Middle World – the world of people and in the world with new realities, in the city (Khanty and Mansi). We were able to find out an approximate chronology of the evolution of the motif and its inclusion in various stories: stories about a smart and stupid brother in combination with the motif of swan girls from the Tungus are a local innovation. The idea of the totemic origin of the motif of girls‑swans and their connection with the world of deities remains relevant, the endings of the narratives are diverse and show the constructive potential of the motif. Dolgans and a number of other peoples have cranes in their motif instead of swans, but for most peoples cranes do not show any connection with girls turning into birds. The motifs of people (women and men) turning into birds in connection with a change in the compositional concept of a point of view are extremely interesting, partially pointing to the genesis of the plots and stimulating the search for other plots that show a change of point of view in the narratives when comparing motifs in different texts and in different traditions.

Acknowledgments: The study was carried out as part of a state subsidy – the project “Oral and written heritage of the Mongolian peoples of Russia, Mongolia and China: cross-border traditions and interactions” (registration number AAAA-A19-119011490036-1).

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