A Study on the Motifs in the Fairy Tales Collected by Âşık İhsan Ozanoğlu

A Study on the Motifs in the Fairy Tales

Abstract

Fairy tales are common folk narratives that reflect the material and spiritual cultural values and social perspective of the society to which they belong. Fairy tales, which are formed by the combination of motifs that are considered the basic building blocks of the narrative, have continued to exist by spreading in different cultures and geographies for centuries. Fairy tale motifs are elements that recur in similar forms in different societies and deepen the meaning of the narrative. Folklorists have tried to analyze both the structure and function of motifs by systematically examining them. Stith Thompson's work titled MotifIndex of Folk-Literature, which classified the motifs in folk narratives within a certain system, brought an important innovation to the study of folk literature motifs. The Index, arranged in alphabetical order under 23 main headings, aims to reveal the similarities of fairy tale motifs around the world. However, it has been determined that Thompson's Motif Index does not include enough Turkish fairy tale motifs. In order to eliminate this deficiency, Erkan Karagöz developed a method in his phd thesis titled Comparative Motif Study on Tatar-Bashkir Magic Tales (Transfer-Motif Detection (According to Motif-Index of Folk Literature) - Motif Index) that will systematically place new motifs detected in Turkish tales into the Motif Index. In this article, the motifs of the tales recorded by Âşık İhsan Ozanoğlu in Kastamonu and its surroundings were examined according to the Motif Index, and the citation system developed by Karagöz was used for the motifs not included in the Index. As a result, 457 motifs that are included in the Motif Index and 57 motifs that are not included were identified. While the common motifs of Turkish tales included in the Motif Index show the universal side of the tales, the motifs not included show the aspects of the tales that are specific to Turkish culture. The motifs identified in local fairy tale compilations will also provide data to compare common and different aspects with fairy tales from the Turkish World.