The horse image in Georgian fairytales and epic narratives in context of comparative mythology

Abstract

Georgian folktales and epic narratives contain a large number of fairy-tale motifs widespread in the Middle East and Europe. The magic horse appears in different types of Georgian folktales, especially in types ATU 314 Goldener, ATU 530 The princess on the glass mountain, and ATU 531 The clever horse. The horse as a wonderful helper is found in fairy tales and epic narratives of the world. The goal of the paper is research of folk narratives containing common mythological motifs of a magic horse to bring together the materials interesting for folktale and epic studies. The results obtained by examination of the mythological image of a horse will reveal typological and semantic similarity of the fairy-tale figures with mythological deities in oral narratives.

The research is oriented towards a comparative study of the folkloric plots. In terms of methodology, the approaches for this paper are particularly the folklore theories as follows: structural analysis and comparative typological method. It is important, to compare the diachronic elements of the oral narratives with certain transformations of epics and fairytales. In some cases, when folktales show the archaic nature, there is used the methodology by V. Ya. Propp. A juxtaposition of Propp’s both works Morphology of the Fairytale and Historical Roots of Fairytale is, therefore, of considerable value in the solution of the problems of mythological poetics. Cultural-historical and ethnological researches are used to uncover the essential units of the contents.

 In contrast to the literary epic, the oral tale still retained a distant connection with the mythological ideas about the beast as a wonderful helper of man, based on ancient totemistic beliefs. The mythological roots of the fairy-tale horse, first of all, comes to life in its possession of the four elements, manifested in its fiery and winged nature, connected with the earth and the water world. The magic horses of the folktale completely represent all the details of its mythical origin.

The symbolism of the horse in its mythological aspect is well-known for folklorists. However, the examination of the horse symbolism in different genres of folklore on the example of Georgian folkloric material clarifies the interaction of fairy-tale, epic and mythological motifs in an interdisciplinary perspective.

The fairy-tale plots of epic narratives suggest wide field for researchers for textual analysis of both Georgian folk prose and those cultural characteristics that relate to the relationship of the Caucasian epic tradition with the world folklore.

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