A hero with a “head of a dog and a body of a fish” in the Altai heroic epic: On the formation of the mythological basis for an epic legend (based on the epic “Kan-T’elbekey” by E. K. Tashtamysheva)

Abstract

This article studies the folklore of the Altaic peoples. The novelty of the work is in introducing and interpreting the little-known material of Altai epic into the scientific circulation. The hero of the legend under study has a head of a dog and a body in the shape of a fish. His birth was accompanied by a snowfall that covered the ground to the tops of the trees, followed by cold and famine. The family leaves the shelter having locked him in the palace and covered him with stones. The hero survives and gets to the new place of residence of his relatives. He sees in his dream the conquest of the country, warns his family, and leaves them. His first heroic act is killing the giant who conquered the country of his protectors. He gets married to their daughter with an ability to transform into a goose. Further heroic acts are connected with his liberation of the country and descent into the underworld in order to get married to the daughter of the underground lord. No descriptions of heroic fights have been found in the epic literature. The study resulted in identifying the epic mythological basis and revealing the parallels with the plots of the legends of the Ancient East in separate fragments.