The motifs of similarly-named olonkhos “Nyurgun Bootur the Swift”: stability, variability and improvisation

The paper compares the plot motifs of the similarly-named Yakut heroic epics “Nyurgun Bootur the Swift” of olonkhosuts (narrators) K. G. Orosin, N. Ya. Tatarinov, G. E. Slobodchikov, and N. N. Shestakov so as to reveal stable, variable and creative motifs and define their functions in creating the new variants of olonkho with the same name. Thus, the author pays special attention to this problem. The olonkho variants by K. G. Orosin, G. E. Slobodchikov, and N. Ya. Tatarinov were investigated. As a result, the following motifs were found to be the most stable: settling the hero in the Middle World by celestials, description of the hero’s homeland, the kidnapping of the women aiyy by the abaasys as the beginning of a conflict, the fight of the aiyy heroes and abaasys in the three worlds, the victory over the abaasys, and the hero’s marriage. Due to these “traditional and typical” motifs, the olonkho plot becomes consistent, logically clear, and complete. Stable motifs compose the plot line and the frame of all variants of the olonkho “Nyurgun Bootur the Swift.” Keeping these stable motives, olonkhosuts make minor changes. Quite common for the epic tradition, the motifs of a horse, bathing of the hero, mutual aid of the relatives can be found in different variants. Thus, some motifs are supplemented and modified, with new motif variations created.

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