‘The Oirat-Mongolian Tale of Urdyn Ulankhongor’: Integrity of the Basic Epic Plot Model within Temporally Different Texts Revisited
Introduction. The study of the mechanisms of the epic plot composition, the identification of the patterns of formation of the basic model of the epic is relevant for clarifying many issues: studying the process of preserving or destroying the epic text, determining the nature of contamination, compounds in the epic narrative, for predicting the prospects of epic creativity, the national epic in a multilingual, multicultural environment, in conditions competition of folklore with modern mass culture and information technology. The purpose of the article is to conduct a comparative analysis of two versions of the Mongol-Oirat legend “Urdyn Ulanhongor”, recorded at different times, to identify the basic model of the epic plot, which allows storytellers to structure their narrative, learn and reproduce the epic text from memory. The material for the study was the texts of the Mongol-Oirat epic “Urdyn Ulanhongor”, performed by the Oirat tuulchi C. Baglay in 1940 and published in 1968 in the collection “Zhangaryn tuuls”, as well as recorded 79 years later by the narrator N. Ankhbair in somone Naranbulag of the Ubsnur aimak of Mongolia. Research Methods. The study uses the techniques of various methods (structural-typological, statistical, descriptive), allowing to study the mechanism of structuring the epic narrative and the laws of the epic plot, to convey the specifics of the national epic. In the process of attracting expeditionary material, the information obtained during the “included observation”, questioning and interviewing of the informant was taken into account. Results. The study showed that the storytellers of different years, Ch. Baglay (1940) and N. Ankhbayr (2019) used elements concentrating around the biography of the hero Urdyn Ulanhongor, depicting similar plot situations associated with military conflicts of the protagonist with antagonists (Dolda Hurel Baatar, 16 mangas) . The emergence of new versions of one epic does not break the general structure of the epic plot if it is based on a basic model learned from the narrator of the predecessor within the framework of one (local, national) tradition.