A Glance At Oghuz Khagan Saga In The Light Of Axel Olrik’s Epic Laws

Human beings’ relation with time and space has very ancient offsets. It would be reasonable to seek the first data of these offsets in nationalization processes as human beings realized their existence through social consensus. This social consensus has certain phenomena which mainly appear in cultural forms. The first data and assigning meanings during nations’ presenting their social existence are mainly found in epics. Therefore, it would be reasonable to focus on epics with a view that they are the codes of nations’ social memories. It is a known fact that, beginning from their first ancestors, human beings have always acted in accordance with some main purposes and themes. Therefore the importance of epics is paramount in terms of the archetypes they accommodate. It is known that these archetypes not only provide a means to read the past, but also shed light on our present. This provides a remarkable opportunity to reach the roots of the cultural phenomena of nations and societies. When we look at the Turkish epics, we are welcomed by Oghuz Khagan Saga, which can be counted as an important leap forward in terms of Turks’ nationalization process. There are different methods to understand and explain or assign meanings to epics. One of these methods is Axel Olrik’s “Epic Laws Theory”, one of the methods of Historical-Geographical Finnish School. This theory aims at approaching mythological works with a universal standardization and evaluating these mythological works within the frame of certain principles. The aim of the present article is to read Oghuz Khagan Saga, fraught with symbols in terms of Turkish history’s mythical offsets, in the light of Axel Olrik’s epic laws and to discuss the data obtained thereof in the context of the epic and its nature.

Keywords

Epic, Oghuz Khagan Saga, Axel Olrik, The Epic Laws of Folk Narrative.