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Borisov Yu. Weapons of Remote Combat in Early Records of Yakut Olonkho Epic: Historical-Comparative Aspect

Yu. Borisov
Olonkho Research Institute,
M. K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University
Yakutsk, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0002-0265-373X
E-mail: olonhoman@mail.ru

 

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ABSTRACT. The article is an interdisciplinary study of the early records of the Yakut heroic epic Olonkho, comparing the names of remote combat weapons mentioned in the Olonkho texts with actual historical artifacts using the comparative-historical method. Olonkho mentions real types of weapons used until the end of the eighteenth century. Information about these types of weapons is partly reflected in ethnographic materials and confirmed by new archaeological data. Some fragments of the epic contain information about the methods of manufacturing such weapons as the Yakut bow of the northern type, an arrow with a srezen-type arrowhead, and an armor-piercing arrow with a bone tip. The descriptive character of the epic narrative made it possible to preserve associative parallels in describing the varieties of arrows applied with the Yakut bow. The study also reveals the names of remote combat weapons that do not have an exact dictionary definition and are not mentioned in ethnographic descriptions: saadakh yiyyr mas (“wood for hanging saadakh”), atara och (“atara arrow”), tүүleh tүheh och (“plumed arrow tuseh”), daryespe taas meechik (“stone cannonball”), timir merylene meechik (“iron whistling cannonball”). As for the references to firearms, the article reveals that the shotgun of the Sibirki type and the ammunition for it are used only as reference points in the descriptions of certain events taking place in the epic. Firearms types of remote weapons never act as weapons for the epic heroes, the bogatyrs, an indication that these weapons are superimpositions of a later historical period.

 

KEYWORDS: Yakut heroic epic Olonkho, early records of Olonkho, narratorOlonkhosut, names for remote weapons, historical artifacts, ethnographic realities

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8600-2024-2(24)-59-86
UDC 398 (=512.157)

 

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