Khotun
Stayed there shouting
And burst into tears;
Their cry was heard
In the Upper World,
Their grief was known
In the Under World…
The relatives of Ala Buhrai
From the Under World,
The descendants of Nuken Buhrai99
Who were miscreants
Trampled down
Relatives of Aiyy-Khan,
The kind-hearted tribes
With the reins on their backs,
Straight-nosed and front-faced;
The fire in their sacred hearth went out,
Their warm home was ruined…
The sons of Arsan Dolai, the demons,
Broke the orders of the Upper Deities…
Then the Deities decided
To send down
To the Middle World
The warrior
Nurgun Botur the Swift,100
With the fleet of foot black horse,
Born standing on the border
Of the clear, white sky,
They got him as ready as an arrow,
They fitted him up as a bow,
To defend the Sun tribes,
To protect the Aiyy kin.
If you want to know who was sent to be a shield
Here is his story…
Since his childhood he promised,
Since the time he could barely sit
That by making a sharp wooden spear
He would trample the Upper World,
Since the time he started crawling
He threatened
He would rock the Under World,
Crushing it with his legs…
He roared violently,
They say…
1Traditional epithet, part of the so called ‘epic formula’ that would appear regularly in the description of the earth, that is compared to a sewn birch bark container or bucket with rims to strengthen it. ‘Rim, brim’ would also imply the mountainous edges of the country. The epic number ‘eight’ conveys the idea of infinity; according to some scholars, it could also be the directions: north, south, east, west, north-east, north-west, south-east, south-west
2There are three worlds in the Sakha cosmology: Upper, Under and Middle
3Front-faced, two-legged, two-eyed, etc. – traditional characteristics of human beings
4Ability to foresee – intellect
5In the world of demons everything is perverse, even their clothes
6The Lord of the Under World
7His wife
8Traditional epithet highlighting the kinship between the Urankhai-Sakha people and Sunny Deities. It points out that the Sakha still live according to the rules of their gods
9The Sunny Deities from the Upper World
10The Lord of Ajarais – demons – from the Upper World
11His wife
12One of the layers of the sky
13Utugen, nyuken etugen, tuptur etugen, is represented in Sakha as a name of the Under World, hell, the place where monsters live
14Toyuk – a traditional folk song of a melancholic character
15Sakha believe that their World, like an island of relative peace and stability, lies in an ocean and is surrounded by water. Oceans and water have negative connotation for the Sakha
16Baigal – large water basin or ocean
17An olonkho epic performer
18Title or way of addressing a rich, powerful man, close to the status of lord or knight
19Demons from the Under World. Another name is Ajarais
20Name the Sakha/Yakut people use for themselves
21Here and below – the names of epic performers who really existed
22The Supreme Deity, The White Lord of the Upper World and the Universe
231) Abundance, favour, benevolence, grace; or 2) Energy. Often used as a metaphor for food
24Title or way of addressing a rich, powerful woman, close to the status of Lady
25Aiyy – divine
26A shamaness.
27One of the demons
28One of the demons’ lords, ‘suor’ means ‘raven’
29A dale or valley usually with a lake in the middle.
30Demoness, evil spirit of the ocean
31Epic performer
32Epic performer
33Her husband, the great lord of demons
34Epic performer
35Epic performer
36Abyss – entrance to the Under World
37Abyss – entrance to the Under World
38A great demoness, wife of the Lord of the Under World
39The
