The article considers some ways of actualization of semantic and poetic expressiveness in the uliger text. It studies different types and functional peculiarities of such means of epic expressiveness as metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, epithet, and simile. The analysis is based on the versions of the Buryat epos about Geser recorded from well-known uligershins (Alfor Vasilyev, Peokhon Petrov, Manshud Imegenov, Elbon Shalbykov). However, most of the examples are taken from the epic «Abai Geser Bogdo Khaan» (the ekhirit-bulagat version of the narrator A. Vasiliev). The originality and uniqueness of the imagery system of the Buryat epic in general and uliger «Abai Geser Bogdo Khaan» in particular are revealed at all levels of content and expression plans. The lingvostylistic analysis of the mentioned uliger text suggests that the poetics of the epos is a sophisticated but yet a highly organized system, which had been developing and perfected for a long time. The imagery means of the researched uligers are remarkable for a variety of forms and frequency of their usage.

The main epic feature is the semantic nature of allegory serving as a method of imaginative perception of reality and which is transmitted by general folklore and literature, colloquial metaphorical figurative expressions. The epic speech means in general and comparisons in particular are characterized by laconism, rhythmic organization, being refined and having some formula. The most productive in the poetics of the Buryat uligers imagery means, having high artistic expressiveness and contributing to the creation of vivid epic images and historic styling are identified and analyzed in the paper. All the revealed elements perform a semantic, expressive-emotional function in the Buryat epic. Their use is determined by the internal needs of the heroic story and the general requirements of the epic depiction. It is obvious that in the course of historical development the epos has developed its own unique imagery system. Narrators used the traditional forms that had been assigned to certain realities of the depicted phenomena and events. The aesthetics and pragmatism of the Buryat epic of Geser, its considerable axiological potential is revealed in the ethnospecific imagery elements (metaphors, metonymy, epithets, simile, etc.) of the poetic system.

The subject of article is made by mythology elements, first of all cosmogonic mythology in epic legends of the Evenki people in their relations to the general representations about mythology of the Evenki and in connection with the problem of sources of the Tungus people mythology, where cosmogonic myths as a folklore form are actually absent. The author reveals and analyzes the Evenki epic legends as, where the description of the world or process of its appearance serves as a beginning.

The structural analysis of the text elements shows that only three texts include all elements of the model of the world without an exception, namely – three spheres of the world including the Middle world, as well as components of the geographical code (names of the landscape elements), phytonimic code (names of trees and grass), and zoonimic code (names of animals). The feature of these texts is the absence of characteristics of the sky which in different variants is present in other texts.

Other texts – and they make the obvious majority – show us the world model of an incomplete kind where there are only its separate elements. It is the Earth, the Middle World, the Sky (the sky-umbilical cord, the sky in size about the squirrel eye, the sky with a threefold rainbow, the sky with six rainbows, the sky covered box made from birch bark, the sky similar to a rainbow, the sky similar to an overturned kettle); ears of elk, a carpet, a skin from a head of a deer, mountain, rivers, the sea, trees, grass, animals.

The author does a conclusion that mythological expositions in Evenki epic texts are rather late, as well as at the Mongolian peoples, according to available researches, and marks the potential of comparative researches of the Evenki epic legends with the Yakut epic texts Olonkho in aspect of the Tungus epos genesis.

Translation of folklore and in particular the epic, is related with some challenges such as translation of words that incorporate and convey the outline and national identity of epic narrative. So, how do we translate an epic narrative from one language to another? Beyond the translation of words, the interpreter needs to transmit the cultural and social-historical realities of a particular culture to another. Often translators resort to footnotes, however the extensive usage of footnotes can be exhaustive and make the text difficult to read. On the other hand, if all the words are translated via the literal layer of the vocabulary, the epic becomes stripped off its national identity, thus becoming a mere retelling of well-known mythological and epic motives. These problems on different scales are seen in Russian and English translations of the epic “David of Sassoun”. The Armenian national epic has several English translations – “David of Sassoun”: The Armenian Epic in Four Cycles” by Artin Shalian (1964), “Daredevils of Sassoun” by Leon Surmelian (1964) and “The Saga of Sassoun” by Mischa Kudian (1970) etc. Each translation addresses and solves the question of translation of epic in comparative ways. This article focuses primarily on Artin Shalyan’s and Leon Surmelian’s translations, while dealing with other translations in deriving argument and analysis.

In folklore the existence of one epic in different variants is of great interest: the similarity and differences of texts that appeared at different times in different places.

The comparative analysis of different variations of the epic with same-named from different narrators can give answers to many questions in the study of the process of the composing an epic. The article presents a comparative analysis of the texts of the same-named olonkho “Kun Erili” by narrators N. I. Stepanov – Nooroi, N. M. Tarasov and narrator-writer S. S. Vasilev – Borogonsky in order to identify the similarities and differences of established traditions in the motives, as well as additional secondary motives. The target comparative study of the motives of the same-named olonkho would aid the explanation of the existence of different variations of olonkho with a same name. This problem is one of the undeveloped problems in the Yakut epic studies.

Comparing the motives of the same-named olonkhos “Kun Erili” by N. I. Stepanov, N. M. Tarasov and S. S. Vasilev, we came to the conclusion that the olonkhosuts in the description of the developments of their olonkho preserved the stability of the following traditional motives: the description of spatial time, the description of the family sacred tree, the description of a wonderful country, the mission of the hero, the offer of marriage of the abaasy warriors to the aiyy girls, the insult of the aiyy hero by abaasy warrior, the molestation of the abaasy women to the aiyy heroes, the victory of the aiyy hero over the enemies in a sharp battle, the mutual assistance of relatives, the marriage of the heroes and their return to their home places. These main motives are the carcass of the olonkho “Kun Erili”.

At the same time, each of them improvised, reducing or expanding traditional motives, without damaging the content, purpose, logical sequence of the main motives. Except the main motives, the olonhosuts introduced additional secondary motives. Small changes in the main motives, supplementing them with secondary motives, occur as part of the epic tradition to achieve the colorfulness and brightness of the epic performed by him.

Olonkhosuts N. I. Stepanov, N. M. Tarasov and S. S. Vasilev do not reproduce the previously heard olonkho, they create their own olonkho that does not repeat the previous ones created by others. Improvising, expanding and reducing the main motives, supplementing the secondary motives, each olonkhosut created the unique olonkho.

Acknowledgements: The research is financially supported by the Russian Foundation for Humanities, project No. 15-04-00496 (а)

The present article reviews various strategies of translating the Yakut heroic epic Olonkho into Russian language and includes conveyance of the meaning of culture-specific elements and grammatical structures, uncommon in the Russian language. The epic world of Olonkho is understood as the collection of location descriptions, mythological ideas, persistent tropes, distinctive patterns in the form of a uniquely organized text, which consists of realia, culture-specific elements in translation and interpretation studies; persistent imageries in the form of established descriptive words, figures of speech, etc.; so called typical places or epic formulae, which consist of traditional depictions and alliterative syntactic parallelisms. All the above mentioned forms unique literary style of Olonkho, the attributes of which are necessary to convey adequately when translating it into other languages, including Russian.

As fixed statements of translations’ strategical goals, the author analyses so called “letters to readers”, which accompany translations, and methods of translation as the result of one or another strategy realization.

The author points out two major strategies of creating the epic world of Olonkho in Russian language, which are the same as the two major types of Olonkho translation. The first strategy is defined by a communicative situation, in which an initiator of translation demands the highest possible preservation of original poetic manner up to the preservation of linage and syntactic structure of sentences for reproduction of Olonkho in a foreign language in order to widen the circle of folklore’s readers and researchers. The examples of translational decisions, used in the realization of such strategy, are introduced.

The second strategy of composing the epic world of Olonkho is defined by a communicative situation, in which initiators of translation have diverse goals, ranging from simple insight into the major plot to conveyance of artistic and stylistic features of a folkloric text, so that the reader can embrace emotionally the other culture’s text. At this rate a translator is primary guided by aesthetics of declamation art of the language, into which the translation is conducted, and finds the balance between familiar and exotic for the reader of the translation.

The conclusion of the approaches of the strategies of composing the epic world of Olonkho in the Russian language are made in the end of the article. The translation methods uniformity of varied Olonkhos’ text units is noted, which gradually creates the canon of Olonkho translation into the Russian language and through which the parallel epic world of Olonkho of the Russian language is composed.

The relevance of the research is due to the observed today spiritual rise in the epic environment of the Sakha ethnic culture, when along with the revitalization of the authentic verbal narrative phenomenon, a laborious study of the written texts of the olonkho epic has been started with the aim of revealing the target information and hidden meanings geared by the ancestors for future generations. Given that, the study of olonkho texts as a whole is not productive, as they are known to be enormous in size, but is better to be done by oluk-fragments, representing parts of the whole. That part in our case is the oluk-fragment of olonkho “Muldjyot Bege” by Khangalas narrator Mikhail Innokentyevich Savvin about the smithy of the traditional epic black smith Kytai Bakhsy Uus, studied through the methods of semiotic, informational and hermeneutic analysis in the cultural aspect. The work was carried out based on the author`s previously studies of numerous epic texts and the historiographical examination of academic works on the subject. Having revealed the structural features of this traditional fragment of the Yakut epic olonkho, as well as a special hidden meaning laid down by the narrator in this oluk-fragment, the researcher formulates the conjectural conclusions that this oluk-fragment of the text of the local Khangalas epic olonkho the main, overarching and fateful idea of the Yakut epic heritage on the concept of building the man’s spirit in the younger generation. In conclusion, the author lists the logical, algorithmically consistent parts of the concept. As a subject of further research, one can propose a comparative study of similar traditional oluk-fragments of the Yakut olonkho about Kytai Bakhsy black smith, in order to finalize the elaborated concept of the education of boys with the development of socio-cultural projects for the reconstruction of specialized national schools called Uus Kysata in rural areas dominated by the indigenous Yakut population. Such schools will be part of the triune complex of the spiritual centers of the Yakut society, the other two components of which will be the Olonkho House and the Sakha Religious Culture Houses.

The article considers the features of images of comparisons in the olonkho text recorded by A. F. Middendorf in 1844. The text of this record consists of two parts: the first part is recorded in the original language in prosaic form in the Latin alphabet; The second is a retelling of the content of the olonkho in Russian. As the text material for the study, the first part of the record, which was previously transcribed by the authors into Cyrillic alphabet and translated into a poetic form, was taken. For a comparative analysis of the images of comparison to the study, texts of other olonkho are involved.

According to the authors’ opinion, in the Yakut narrative art the level of ownership of such an artistic and visual medium as comparison reached the highest degree. The comparisons created by the Yakut narrators are intended to convey not only the semantic information, but rather the emotional attitude of the narrator to the action, his world view and attitude, as well as his intellectual and creative abilities. And since olonkho is a collective work, in addition to the individual qualities of an individual person, it is capable of characterizing a national-specific vision of the world of an entire ethnic group.

Based on the results of the study of the passage of the text, only 11 comparisons were found. It is established that the most frequent phenomena in comparison are the phenomena of nature (glade, river bend, hill, earth fault, mountain split). Such comparisons are considered the earliest in epic tales. Single examples of the use of images of man, animal, insect and object of life are noted. Nine comparisons are stable formulas, in the text of the olonkho their simplified versions are used, that is, practically only the basics of the images are transmitted without detailed elaboration. This is one of the signs of the lack of improvisational talent from the olonkho performer, recorded by A. F. Middendorf. Two examples of comparison did not find analogies in other olonkhos considered. In the first of them, the “landing” of the sacred horse, the loss of its celestial origin, is observed. In the second, the expression of dislike for a person of a different nationality is recognized.

Acknowledgements: The research is financially supported by the Russian Foundation for Humanities, project No. 15-04-00496 (а)

In article reviews the images of narrators from the village of Pokhodsk, Nizhnekolymsky land, of the XIX century – Mikhail Sokovikov and Mitrofan Krivogornitsyn, singers of bylinas and historical songs. There are works of folklore which were recorded by V. G. Bogoraz from Sokovikov. Also, there are some works which, perhaps, are recorded from this performer or from the narrator Mitrofan Krivogornitsyn. For studying the authorship of the performer in D. I. Melikov`s records, the comparative and descriptive analysis of the available texts is carried out, as well as comparison of records at the level of motives and individual style. Some features of texts of the bylinas “Dobrynya and Zmeinishche Gorynishche”, “Alyosha Popovic and Tugarin”, “Ilyusha and Idolishche”, “Duke Stepanovich”, “Potop Mikhaylovich”, “About Mishenke Danilovich”, “Ivan Kulakov” performed by M. F. Sokovikov are compared. The bylina “Ilya Muromets on the Falcon Ship” which is recorded from M. Krivogornitsyn is considered.

We also studied historical songs “About Skopin”, “Detinushka Entering a Stone Town”, “Ah, Talan, My Little Talan” are and the ballad “Key Keeper”, performed by an unknown narrator in Melikov’s record.

During the research, it becomes clear that certain epic formulas are peculiar to Sokovikov’s style. The formulas of “the entrance in gridnya” and the process of footwear putting on are to be finalized.

Basing on the comparison of the versions of the song about the Count Chernyshov, it is possible to assume that the performer, whose creativity D. I. Melikov recorded, was Mitrofan Krivogornitsyn.

It is necessary to study further the questions connected with identification of authorship of some works of folklore which are recorded by D. I. Melikov. M. F. Sokovikov had children (Ivan Sokovikov – Kularenok, Arina Chetverikova), whose creativity also should be studied.

In the era of globalization there is a review of many cultural values and traditions, which often leads to artificial contrasting of the “new” and “old” worldviews – the ideas, values and meanings, as well as attributing a completely opposite content to previously negative events of history. In this regard, the article discusses ethnic-epic narratives of ethnic-cultural heritage as the fundamental basis of culture (as a Gestalt of national and ethnic cultures). The artistic images presented in ethnic-epic narratives are interpreted by the method of ideation (discretion of ideas) and idealization (as a literary approach) through repeated epic approaches.

The object is the ethnic-epic heritage of the Tatar people.

The aim is to study and interpret the ethnic-epic narrative on a new aspect (philosophical and cultural discourse).

Traditional and universal cultural phenomena and noumenon of the archetypal model of the ethnic-epic narrative of traditional culture compose the value core (substrate) of ethnic, and then national culture. In the process of the revitalization of ethnic culture a special role is played by the multilevel epic traditions of the ethnos and the people. Also, the preservation and reproduction of the basic value meanings laid down in ethnic-epic narratives makes it possible to maintain the established social order. Since the identification of the ethnic-cultural tradition of the Tatars of the Volga region with polyethnic traditions and not only Turkic traditions helps to reveal the essence of the continuum of ethnic traditions, the explication of their role for national culture. Interpretation of different-level traditions of a kind of substratum and superstratum of sociocultural space of peoples of the Volga region makes it possible to explicate the modes of the main archetypes and archetypal images, as well as the archetypal elements of modern national culture. Therefore, it is important to study and translate the basic value meanings of the ethnic-epic heritage of traditional culture.

The article presents information about the documentary complexes on the history of the epic heritage monuments kept in the Russian Academy of Sciences Archive and their publication. Among them are: documents on preparations for the celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the

Epic; epic heritage; archive; Russian Academy of Sciences; history; document; “David Sassoun”; “Jangar”; “Legend of Narts”; Russian epic; “Idegei”

Armenian national epic “David of Sassoun” in 1939; the transcript of the meeting of the Department of History and Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, where on March 27, 1939, Academician I. A. Orbeli made a report on Armenian folk epic “David of Sassoun”; documents on the Kalmyk folk epic “Jangar” in 1939; the preparation for the publication of the Ossetian folk epic “The Tale of the Narts” in 1940; the preparations for a meeting in 1955 with the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR on the epic of the Slavic peoples; and the transcript of the report of Academician A. B. Rybakov “Russian epic in historical coverage” at the general meeting of the Department of Historical Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR February 23, 1960. Documents on the history of epic heritage monuments are reported to be in the personal funds of scholars D. N. Ushakov “The main directions in the study of the Russian folk epic”, N. A. Morozov “Love motifs of the Nartian epic of the mountaineers of the North Caucasus”, S. V. Bakhrushin “On the epic” Idegei “and” Traces of the Polovtsian epos in the annals “, A. V. Pavlov “Legends of the Ossetians “, N. I. Conrad “Epic Tales of the Peoples of China”. Identification of documents on the history of epic heritage monuments and their publication was carried out in the “Catalog” section of the “Accounting and catalog” section of the database of the information system of the Russian Academy of Sciences Archive. Currently, the division includes 29% of the headings of cases and documents of the RAS Archive, among which the majority are personal funds of scholars. Thus, the RAS Archive remains a broad informational field for studying the history of the epic heritage. The presented documents will allow expanding the source study base on the history of the epic heritage and can be used for research and educational purposes.