Plot structure and poetic-stylistic features of the Oirat epic “Еgil-Мergen”

Despite the extensive study of the Mongolian epic, this study is relevant because the issues of plot structure and poetics of the Oirat epic tradition remain poorly understood. The novelty of the work lies in the analysis of the plot and poetic-stylistic constants of the Oirat heroic epic in a comparative aspect with the versions of the epic “Dzhangar” of the Oirats and Kalmyks. The purpose of the article is to study the plot structure and poetics of the Oirat epic “Egil-Mergen”, recorded by B. Ya. Vladimirtsov in Northwestern Mongolia in 1913–1915 from an unknown Derbet storyteller, a professional rhapsodist. The original text of the epic was published in 1926 by Vladimirtsov in the collection “Examples of Mongolian Folk Literature”. To achieve the goal, the following tasks are solved: to study the plot structure of “Egil-Mergen”, to identify poetic and stylistic constants, and to compare them with the Xinjiang-Oirat and Kalmyk versions of “Dzhangar”. The following folklore methods are used in this work: descriptive, comparative and textual. The original text of the Oirat legend “Egil-Mergen” and its prose translation into Russian by Vladimirtsov, as well as the texts of national versions of “Dzhangar” are used to conduct the study. The study of the Oirat epic “Egil-Mergen” showed that the legend has a two-step text organization. Unlike other Oirat epics, this narrative does not include marriage competitions, difficult tasks of the future father-in-law or passing the test by destroying the enemy mangas. The traditional theme of heroic matchmaking is complicated by the repeated development of the thematic core: the hero EgilMergen, after marrying his betrothed and returning to his native nomadic camps, sets out on a campaign again, meets the hero Bayhankhan-Arsalan, who is equal in strength, and, having entered into a duel with him, wins; however, having shown nobility to the defeated, he fraternizes with him and together they destroy the enemiesmangas. The results of a comparative analysis of the poetics of the Oirat epic “Egil-Mergen” and the traditional versions of “Dzhangar” indicate that the heroic epic inherited the features of archaic tales. This is manifested in the presence of ancient motifs (first creation, miraculous birth, heroic matchmaking, etc.) and typical places (description of the miraculous strength of the hero, saddling and praising the horse, dressing the hero, etc.). The epic tradition of the Oirats has preserved unique examples of this early stage of the development of the epic, in which one can trace the process of transformation of the archaic tale into the heroic epic.

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