The plot situation of “drawing a bow that no one can draw”: variants in the folklore of the peoples of the world

The paper explores the semantics and pragmatics of the plot situation of “drawing a bow that no one can draw.” Various versions of the narratives with this plot situation are most common among the Turkic-speaking peoples of Siberia and Central Asia, in the Caucasus and many areas of Indochina. Although the episode is readily recognizable in various versions due to the stable combination of its elements, it is only the action of drawing the bow by the hero-shooter that remains invariant. The most common element of the plot situation (besides the invariant) is a violation of the hero’s rights, which may result in his being mutilated, exiled, killed, deprived of his bride or wife. Relatively common elements of the plot situation include the hero’s attributes (the hero’s mutilation and/or his being not recognized), patients (killed by the hero), recognition of the hero by relatives, and also the place of the event - the native (father’s, mother’s) home. About half of the variants known to us contain no episode of the hero’s wedding, the rest of them do have it. The absence of this episode indicates the destruction of the mythological basis of the plot situation, its departure from the original symbolic understanding (the connection of the bow with the wedding). Especially rare is the outcome of the plot situation in which the hero does not restore his violated rights but goes beyond the system of relations that he was part of. Like the absence of a wedding episode, such an outcome shows the destruction of the mythological basis of the plot situation.

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