LITMIR.BIZ

       Welcome ritual for a Sakha bride and groom

      However, the heroine most often tests the hero by treacherously making him face the Abaahy mighty heroes. While doing this, she not only tests the mighty hero, her fiancé, but also defeats the creature with her hands before the marriage, because in Olonkho it is impossible to live a happy life without defeating evil creatures. The hero in Olonkho gets weaker after marriage and is not capable of defending his family from Abaahy; in this case the son of the family, a hero of the second generation saves the family. There are cases when the hero for some reason does not wish to marry the heroine. In such cases this is followed by long battles between them. Again the woman purposely makes the hero fight with the mighty Abaahy, causing their defeat. In all such cases the heroine asks the mighty Abaahy character to ‘save’ her from the character pursuing her, by promising to marry him. The mighty Abaahy that believe her, battle the mighty hero and perish. There are cases when the Aiyy shaman girl entangles the hero by using magic and carries him with her. From time to time she throws the mighty hero to the Abaahy as ‘a special treat’ for them to eat. In such cases, the hero breaks the bonds, then battles and conquers the mighty Abaahy that tries to eat him. The themes of the hero’s and heroine’s battles can be quite different. In all cases there is a happy ending to the hero and heroine’s conflict: finally, they get married, produce children and live peacefully and happily ever after.

      In general, the heroine’s character is more finely defined than the hero’s character. The hero is first of all a warrior. The woman is shown not only in battle, but also at home. In the household she is a good housemaid and mother. In battle she is as good as the mighty hero. Being the mighty Abaahy’s captive, she shows her mind’s special inventive power and heroism. On the contrary (and in accordance with the Olonkho tradition), before being captured, living in her household she is represented as a weak, helpless and soft woman. But when she is a captive, she becomes transformed. In order to save her child (most commonly the foetus of the baby, because the creature also captures a pregnant woman) and herself she becomes exceptionally inventive and uses clever methods to save her child (the one the creature wants to eat) and vindicates her honour, and then gives the hero clever advice to help him save her.

      Such characteristics of woman became ingrained in traditional Olonkho and represent the idealization of a heroine – a cause of struggle and contention between Olonkho heroes. During the pre-revolutionary period [the author means The Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917 in Russia], Yakut society was changing into a classist society where women were oppressed and had no rights (although the woman’s position in the family remained quite independent). In ancestral society faced with severe life conditions, the ancient cattle-breeding Yakuts had no notion of established religious views on a woman so within the family women generally held a considerable position of influence. They were required to do as much as men did. All of this complicated women’s characteristics and roles in Olonkho. While heroes of different Olonkho epics hardly differ from each other, the woman’s image is always personalized in some way. Such personalization is not fully representative since the Olonkho women differ not in individual characteristics, not in intelligence or mentality, but in the role they play: some women, for example, are just beauties, a hero’s aspiration, some of them show their mettle when captured, others are heroes, etc.

      Several typical images function identically in all Olonkho epics and are represented almost equally, without any changes.

      One such typical (and very important) image is of a blacksmith named Kytai Bakhsy the craftsman. This image is mythological and it is typical of such a symbolic craft. The blacksmith is one of the most powerful characters of Olonkho. He can smith not only weapons and armour for a hero (as well as for his enemy) but is also a hero himself. In D.M. Govorov’s Olonkho ‘Strong Surefooted Myuldju’ the blacksmith forges a hero into a self-moving iron pike to enable him to cross an ocean of fire. Then after crossing it (having negotiated his way through traps set by his enemy), the pike can become both a hero and his enemy (the second is to elude the vigilance of the enemy’s guards, using water of life or death for example).

      Another interesting character is the wise man Serken Sehen. He has much in common with an image of old and wise elder-aqsaqals from the Turkic epic. It is specific that Serken Sehen is wise not only because he knows all about everything and can give a hero any advice but also (even most importantly) because he can show the way to the enemy: to tell where and when he came, where he is now and how to find him. He is a typical taiga way-wise man. This character is unique as it is created by taiga people. He is depicted as a small (tiny as a thimble) wizened elder: his body became a thing of wisdom. However, this wizened elder can be much stronger than any powerful hero can. Therefore, everyone fears and respects him.

      Slaves in Olonkho do not have their own names. They are named after the work they do. They are inconsequential characters and nobody notices them. However, there are two characters that stand out among the slaves in Olonkho. They are the shepherd Soruk Bollur and an old woman known as Simekhsin who works in a cowshed. They are both comic, even caricature, characters with volcanic tempers, full of cheerfulness yet also firmness. The clever but mocking shepherd Soruk Bollur always laughs at and makes a fool of his arrogant masters. In addition, degraded and scorned old woman Simekhsin shows how clever she is in a difficult situation and saves the day when her masters are confused and helpless. Under the inexorable logic of events, even in conditions of patriarchal slavery, people’s power bursts the bonds that tie them and they become free. This idea is expressed through the images of the slaves Soruk Bollur and Simekhsin.

      Olonkho expresses not only mythologized images of the remote past, but also of more recent times when a representative of a tribe was named after his tribe. For example, there is the character of a Tungus hero. In the majority of Olonkho epics, he acts as a hero’s rival in marriage and loses out in the struggle for a bride. Although the character of the Tungus hero (he is usually named Arjaman – ­Jarjaman, P.A. Oyunsky called him Bokhsogolloy Botur) is fantastic and mythologized, he has some features of a real man as well (he is a taiga man dealing with hunting and riding reindeer). The Tungus hero struggles only for a bride, there are no other conflicts involving him. He is depicted as a smart, cunning and artful hero. In the relationship between the main hero and the Tungus hero the pursuit for a peaceful relationship between the Yakuts and the Tungus (swapping, common festivities) is clearly evident. It is hard to determine the date of origin of the Tungus hero since the main hero’s rival in Olonkho. It could be on the Yakut’s present native land. (According to historical research, in the early days of their settling in Yakutia there were several conflicts between the Yakuts and indigenous tribes.) In addition, the Yakuts would have been able to meet the Tungus in the Baikal region. However, the heroic

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