The sacral world of a Yakut storyteller

The article highlights the cultural aspect of Yakut storytelling. The author raises facts from lives of olonkhosuts, who remained in people's memory as great improvising singers. Though the subject of storytelling is well-studied, the sacral aspect of olonkho remains largely unexplored, it is almost missing in olonkho studies. The coverage of this issue requires the accumulation of information from the epic traditions of the world. Why do these legends constantly repeat that storytelling is a sacred art, not accessible to everyone, and if a man is destined to become a great storyteller, he must bring a toluk-sacrifice in return for this heavenly gift? The fact that Yakut storytelling exists itself proves the existence of the taboos and beliefs associated with the religious beliefs of the people. The article attempts to look into the sacral world of the olonkhosut, reflected in the Yakut folklore. Addressing to the subject of the sacral in storytelling, the author aims to bring new information to the interpretation of folklore data within a particular ethnic culture. In comparative terms, the article contains previously unknown facts about olonkhosuts, including restrictions common for olonkhosuts and Altai narrators. These are, for example: the epic should not be performed fully in the daytime; olonkhosut, as well as kaichi, should not change the text deliberately, he is obliged to transmit the original meaning of the text; he should follow certain rules of storytelling, for example, he must include distractive utterances which are not directly related to the text of the epic at the beginning and the end of the performance. Also there are facts that during two centuries against the background of hundreds of known olonkhosuts-men, only a few female narrators earned nation-wide recognition. This situation may be an echo of the previously existing taboos that found real grounds in the struggle for survival in the north life conditions, when a woman could not be distracted from her household and engage in storytelling for a long time unlike a man who could freely dispose of his time. It is known that traditions will live long if they are based on the needs of the ethnic group, and there is a real need in their implementation. It was revealed that similarity between the Yakut traditions is manifested at different levels: researchers found isolated cases of a complete connection of shamanic and storyteller functions to one person, or the distortion of texts is forbidden if it is recognized by the storyteller. Thus, it is argued that the sacral aspect of epic storytelling comes from the needs of transmission and preservation of important information. The sacral aspect of Yakut storytelling is inseparable from understanding the general nature of epic works. Mainly because of this circumstance, the basic ideas and artistic and aesthetic originality of the Yakut heroic epic-olonkho remain unchanged.

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