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 epic expresses these ancient relationships of the Yakut and the Tungus in the context of ‘heroics’ – fantastic heroic collisions.
In some Olonkho epics, the main hero and the Tungus hero are friends and allies; another epic shows the Tungus hero as the main hero. He struggles with Abaahy heroes and saves people. It is quite possible that the character of the Tungus hero in the role of the main hero is a result of late folk art, which suggests a higher plane of intelligence.
A significant role in Olonkho is taken by the hero’s talking and singing horse – a supporter, an adviser and an active participant at all the events in which the main hero is engaged. The horse not only gives advice to the main hero but also on occasion fights with an enemy horse and wins the battle. The heroic horse saves the defeated hero by carrying him away from the battlefield and by following his orders. Horse races are described as very exciting. The winner is the horse that comes first, so heroic horses go full speed and tear up hill and down dale, across the sky and under the ground. They are inbued with feelings – they rejoice in victory and regret defeat. The heroic horse is one of the most interesting characters of Olonkho. Olonkho-tellers describe it in detail, from point to point magnifying its strength, beauty and intelligence. Finally, this character more perfectly reflects the author of Olonkho – a genuine horse-breeder, a true horse devotee, a representative of his cattle-breeding culture.
As we have seen, Olonkho emphasizes a fantastic element as the means of expressing the heroic element. An Olonkho plot (which is both mythological and fantastic) shows the heroic nature of main heroes’ deeds which are not only related to the family. The Olonkho challenge is wider: it concerns the struggle for happiness and well-being of the whole tribe, which is the primary social entity. The main hero cherishes this idea of happiness, he struggles against evil, and he is always at the heart of events: the whole scene is focused on his life.
Therefore, biographical development of composition is typical of Olonkho: from the hero’s birth until his return home. His life is described as a chain of heroic deeds performed by him in order to achieve happiness for the whole world. The separate links of this chain of events form several episodes of Olonkho. The main story is sometimes interrupted by stories about misfortunes of other heroes of Aiyy kin attacked by monsters. Separate episodes and interwoven stories become a complete story only within a chain of all the events of Olonkho, and thus they are not inconsequential stories. They are elements of the whole story. In addition, here Yakut Olonkho-tellers show great imagination by inventing a huge number of stories and by weaving them into the fabric of the narrative. Such a composition is common to all Olonkho epics.
An olonkho warrior clubbing a demon
One of the main features of Olonkho as a genre is its specific historicism. Olonkho is created and represented as a history of humankind in the broad sense, indeed the history of the entire human society. Yet this story is unreal and fantastic and human society means only the epic tribe of Aiyy kin (ancestors of the Yakuts). The point is that any Olonkho epic describes the history of humankind since the origin of the universe, at least since ‘The Middle World’ settlement. Therefore, Olonkho describes thoroughly (in a fantastic and mythological manner) the life of the first people on Earth and their struggle for happiness, especially the life of the main Olonkho hero as his destiny is a reflection of the destiny of the whole tribe.
Olonkho is created in the lofty style in accordance with the significance of described events. At the beginning, the action gets off to a slow start but gradually events follow swiftly one after the other and turn into a flow of collisions. There are a number of symbols, archaic words as well as fantastic images in Olonkho. Its style is characterized by hyperbole, image contrast, parallel and complex constructions, traditional ancient poetical formulas – the ‘common places’, metaphors and figural expressions that move from one Olonkho epic to another. Olonkho is rich with different figures of speech especially with simile and epithets. Almost any broad description (Olonkho is full of descriptions as it is generally a descriptive work) includes not only separate similes but also complex simile constructions (several similes similar in form with many adjacent words with additional similes). Often epithets in Olonkho are complex as well. Sometimes similar syntactic constructions that enumerate objects are accompanied with characterizing epithets forming a common chain of epithets. All of this together creates a fascinating pattern, a sort of verbal arabesque. However, the elements of this pattern are not spread across but follow a strict inner system. Let us consider two examples to make the point. The first example describes the hero’s rising anger at having been insulted:
His hamstrings were strained,
Like a tough stem of a tree;
His legs were cramped,
Like a sash of a
