Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences / The Metaphor of Road in Sakha Epic Space

Full text (.pdf)
Issue
Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences. 2022 15 (6)
Authors
Nakhodkina, Alina A.
Contact information
Nakhodkina, Alina A.: M. K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University Yakutsk, Russian Federation; ; ORCID: 0000-0003-1522-2792
Keywords
road; path; metaphor; Yakut; Sakha; epic; olonkho; characters; rituals
Abstract

The article outlines the image of the road in the Yakut heroic epic olonkho, which describes the life of the Sakha people in different historical eras from various aspects. The road in the epic is a plot-forming spatiotemporal metaphor; it commonly starts in the south and leads north, repeating the pattern of the Sakha migration to Siberia. The article reveals how epic space and roads shaped the collective memory of the people who existed in the south of the Asian continent and had to move to the north. The author examines the typology and functional characteristics of the road and its unique sacred nature, identifies the features of roads and passages leading to the Under World, their out-of-borderness and significant remoteness from the sacred center of the native land. This borderline marginality is aggravated by the personality of the road and its bestial incarnation. Special attention is paid to the rituals related to the road in epic and real space. This study is based on the English translation of the Yakut heroic epic olonkho «Nurgun Botur the Swift» written by P. A. Oyunsky

Pages
769–779
DOI
10.17516/1997-1370-0891
Paper at repository of SibFU
https://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/145396

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