The “Maadai-Kara” Epic
Its Background And Its New Features
Efremova Maria, Russia
There exist many interesting ancient legends, tales and epics in the Altaic narrative tradition. More than a hundred are published by now, more than sixty are translated into Russian, some into German and English. Among them is the “Maadai-Kara” epic – one of the most populär in the Altai region now. We are going to talk about its background first, which is, actually, common for the majority of other epics as well.
Through the centuries there appeared in the Altai gifted narrators who carried on and gave a new life to this or that epic. They developed in themselves the talent for throat-singing – the so called “kai” – in which epics were traditionally performed. Such performances lasted for many hours or even days — with short breaks — and tumed into special occasions by which the daily routine of the whole Settlement was interrupted. In old times these performances, probably, were a part of some sacred rituals, for even nowadays the elders remember the reverend attitude with which people used to listen to the singers who were considered saints. Some of the singers lived in a village, and the village took it for a Messing, was proud of it and famous for this fact. Other singers travelled – and whenever they came to a settlement, the people put aside their household cares and duties to greet them almost as prophets and to enjoy their narrative art.
The singers leamed from the older masters various plots, motives, traditional formulas and images. At first they imitated, leamed the tale by heart and then developed the old story into their own original variants. A. Kalkin, whose variant of “Maadai-Kara” we know today, leamed the kai technique from his father, he listened to the famous kaichies of the beginning of the Century, the “Maadai” epic he leamed from kaichy Ulagashev. Kalkin is called “the Altaian Homer”, for though almost blind from his childhood and uneducated, he has a great memory and the talent for improvisation.
The epic song as a genre developed out of the sacred song and was based on the myth. But the myth, being sacred universal knowledge and carrying no signs of concrete time and place, differs from the epic song which refers to some more or less definite period of time and presents some important past events. Epics were composed not only in ancient times, some of the songs reflect, for example, the events ofthe 17lh–18th centuries.
At the early stage of its development the Altaic epic genre was based on a different mythology than that of the later shamanism : it was the world of monsters and hosts of the elements.
One of the well-known altaic philologists S. Surasakov divides the history of the epic song in Altai into three stages: 1) the epic of the tribal System period; 2) the epic of the early feudal period; 3) the epic of the feudalism period.
The first period generated the “archaic” epic which in its essence was a hunting epic. It was usually about heroes’ meeting and fighting with the hosts of the lands and waters who appeared in the images of animals and birds. The main motives of these epics were; the hunting of the hero, the birth of his son while he is hunting, the enemy attack in his absence. To the hero himself magic forces and skills were generally ascribed.
The major character type was “mergen” — “the hunter”, later it would be transformed into “batyr” – “the warrior”.
The decisive change which influenced the life of the Altaic tribes and, of course, was reflected in the epics was horse-breeding. One of the most important motives therefore is that connected with horses. The main character can’t become a mighty warrior without a horse. His horse is his best friend and adviser. This motive consists of minor episodes devoted to the horse: the hero’s complaining about not having one, his search for one, catching it, fighting with it, trying it, their becoming friends. The horse also possesses magic crafts and skills.
The usual themes of the tribal system period were: heroes fighting with monsters, their seeking in marriage, repelling enemies’ raids, other themes reflecting different sides of the tribal life.
Very popular was the motive of close family relationships, mutual defense and help between the relatives, very orfen — a son’s revenge for his abused father, yet the conflicts within the family and between tribes were reflected as well.
The epics of the second period picture numerous wars. The wars were long lasting, and not separate tribes, but big tribal unions took pari in them. It is in this cycle of narratives that the notion of an “army” appeared for the first time, and much attention was paid to the description of the battle scenes. Two types of khans were opposed in these epics: aggressors and peace-makers who took pains to make the life of the peoples peaceful and prosperous. The latter type was an epic ideal and not a real historical type, though.
The third period was that of nomadic feudalism (13th Century), when Altai was under yoke and tribute of Chingiskhan. The society split into two classes: “bais” and “zaisans” — on one side and enslaved cattle-breeders on the other. The epic of the time reflected the changes in the leading images: the khan was no longer the head of his people, but of his social class, and the main hero — the mighty warrior — was out of the common people – a shepherd or a hunter.
Thus, one can see the complicated evolution of themes, motives, plots, ideas, images, composition through the history of the Altaic epic development.
Let us also consider some traditionally predominant images, characteristic not only of the Altaic, but of other Turkic and Mongolic epics as well.
Very important for the Altai people was the image of the Mother-Nature and the patriotic imagery of their own native land. The key image was the Sacred Tree that symbolized the center of the universe and the link between the three worlds — the earthly, the higher and the lower.
In most cases the Tree was a poplar — the so called “bai-terek”, sometimes it could be a birch, a cedar or a willow. Usually the sacred poplar stood in front of the khan’s “palace” — “yurta” — oriented to the East according to the Turkic custom. Under the Tree sacred rites were performed, the heroes slept there to see prophetic dreams.
The Sacred Tree had its permanent attributes. In the foliage at the top of the Tree two golden cuckoos were sitting, on one of the middle branches — two golden eagles, and at the roots — two big dogs.
The cuckoos were famous for their prophetic singing and their wisdom. Their golden color symbolized the awakening of nature. But if one spoke of gray cuckoos, that meant sorrow and death. The dark and evil forces were personified in ravens that had demonic features and were known to be assistants to Erlik, the king of the Underground world.
The golden eagles played the most active and functional part. They could soar high above, see everything, defend the hero from the evil spirits. To find someone’s soul or to save the hero his horse often turned into a golden eagle. Such features ascribed to eagles originated in the Altaic traditional belief that eagles are protectors of women and children. According to one of the beliefs shamans themselves descended from eagles. Eagles also carried them through the space during their magic rites.
Another sacred tree, a birch tree, was, as a rule situated on the tribal holy mountain, and enemies didn’t know about that sacred place. The birch tree symbolized a blessing mother. In times of danger children were hidden by it.
Along with some other sacred objects the Tree was a Symbol of eternal life and prosperity of the tribe. If the foe cut off or burnt the Sacred Tree and pulled out the rail-post, that meant death for the tribe.
The rail-post was also in the center of tribal life. The horses were bound there, important events took place by it. The rail-post was richly decorated, for it was believed that the upper part of it belonged to Yooch-Kurboostan — the heavenly god, and the lower part — to Erlik under the ground, this fact put the khan who possessed the middle part of it on one line with the gods.
Before we go on to talk about some other common constant images, let us enumerate the episodes common for many epics as well as for the one in question. These episodes are connected and go in a quite definite succession: 1) the birth of the hero; 2) enemy’s attack; 3) the hero’s upbringing by an old woman — the hostess of the tribal mountain; 4) the hero’s journey to the enemy’s land with the obstacles he overcomes on his way there; 5) his stay in the enemy’s camp in the image of Tastarakai, the clownish beggar; 6) his looking for the foe’s soul; 7) the destruction of the foe; 8) getting back home and a great feast.
These episodes are rieh in typical images, which proves that the Turkic peoples borrowed imagery for their epics from one another.
For example, common are the obstacles — two giants, a yellow poisonous sea (denoted by the word which can mean also “a river” and in this case define the epic river Toybodym connecting the three worlds). The third hindrance – generally known as “the meeting and diverging rocks” – in the Altaic tradition is called ” the opening and closing rocks”.
For description and characterization of objects and persons different stylistic devices are used.
Typical are the constant epithets that offen become a part of the name of the object they describe. Mountains and rivers are named by colors or the number of their peaks. They are also called “father”, “mother”, “lord”, “tower” (meaning “defense”). The lodgings – yurtas – are said to be made of gold, iron or stone, to have a hundred comers. Such hyperbolic epithets are employed to stress the beauty and solidity of the house.
White and black are the opposite colors for good and evil living beings. “Light-faced” are the good people, they have white flocks and herds. “Coal black” is the cattle of the evil, their rivers, mountains and they themselves are also black.
Hyperbole is widely used to enumerate people and animals, to define the sizes of lands, to characterize heroic and demonic actions.
Similes and metaphors are numerous and various, both hackneyed and original.
In the epic tradition there exist also constant formulas that serve as charms and blessings, greetings and leave-takings, permanent attributes of the characters and their actions. Probably having originated as magic formulas they became indispensable in the epic narration.
The “Maadai-Kara” epic and its variants, which are recognized by the criterion of the presence of all the main motives and images and the similarity of the compositional and ideological structure, also possess all these common features, but with time they have acquired new plots, developed new interpretations of the old ideas and images. And, of course, the role of the singer is great, for he is each time the new author of the epic. Ile adds new colors and details depending on his experience and talent. So did Aleksei Kalkin. S. Surasakov notes that even between two recordings (1948, 1964) the singer has enriched and developed “his” epic a lot.
“Maadai-Kara” retains many archaic properties: it is traditionally called by the name of the father of the hero, the enemy of Maadai-Kara — Kara-Kula reminds one of a mythological monster, the conception of nature is mythological and pantheistic. But many new influences are evident: those of Buddhism – in the episodes with yellow lamas (in the Altaic epic yellow is the color of the evil shul-muses, so it shows the negative attitude to the lamas) and early Christianity – in the final part of the epic the Underground world is described where people and animals are being punished after death.
The major novelty in comparison to the archaic epic is thq type of social relations: Maadai-Kara is the head not only of his tribe, but of a union of tribes, and more than that – the crisis of the union is shown: several tribes have left wilfully while the old Maadai was sleeping, and he has to take his arms to force them to come back. At the same time Kara-Kula attacks Altai not just to drive away the cattle, but to enslave the whole people and to bring it to live on his land as he has already done with dozens of such nations. Maadai-Kara doesn’t fight, for he is too old, and Kara-Kula is too strong. So he surrenders and remains with his tribes in the slavery.
His son as a folk hero has many new qualities. For instance, the episode of initiation of a young warrior in epics usually produced a comical effect, warrior’s clothes and arms were too big for the boy and the horse was too strong. In this epic Kogydei-Mergen has already performed a heroic deed — he has killed many wolves and ravens, so at the moment of initiation everything fits him perfectly. He has all the traditional hero’s characteristics: strength, wit, abilities of a magician, his anger is rash and great, his sleep is mighty, he loves challenging tasks and risks. New is his disinterest in the wealth of his defeated enemy and his father-in-law. He rejects the riches he has deserved, for his goal is to restore peace and to free the nations.
Some other new peculiarities are: the moral teaching, universal and very detailed, pronounced by the old lady who has brought the boy up; the episode of practicing witchcraft by shaman Tordor, that shows that shamanism as a religion appeared much later, for in archaic epics the heroes performed such rituals themselves; the episode of destruction of the foe’s soul, which Kara-Kula, actually did himself, tearing two small birds where his soul was hidden (the epic motive brought by the ancient shamanism) differs from the scenes of a long lasting single combat or a battle that are pictured in other epics.
Formally the epic’s arrangement is much more complex than in ancient ones. Events and actions of the heroes are painted with great detail, the description of the appearances, clothing, weapons are very thorough and accurate.
This fragmentary analysis shows that the “Maadai-Kara” epic is based on the archaic epic, but the new features that reflect the influences of the epoch of its origin predominate in it, and that A. Kalkin being the last author of the epic has added much from his personality and his time to the story (e. g. a fragment when Kara-Kula makes monstrous plans to tum the great rivers into a different direction which, fortunately failed).
“Maadai-Kara” was translated into Russian several times both in prose and in rhyme. It is very challenging and interesting for translators because of its original, colorful imagery, complexity of ideas and forms.
(Source: PIAC Newsletter No. 26, August 1999, pp. 23–27)