Фольклор долган. - 2000. (Т. 19.)

SUMMARY The present volume "The Dolganian Folklore" is a first scientific publication of the best samples of the folklore of the Dolgans, a small minority in the Far North (6 929 people). Only in 1973 had there been developed the principles of the writing system of the Dolgans and in 1984 the first "ABC" book was published The Dolgans is one o f the youngest ethnic minorities in Siberia that had been formed in the XVII I —XlXth centuries on the territory o f the today’s Taimyr autonomous district out of several ethnic groups: tribes o f the Evens, Evenks, Enets, Nenets, Nganasans, northern Yakut-deerbreeders, the Russian first residents. The elements of traditional spiritual culture of these peoples became a basis of the Dolganian folklore originality. Thanks to the efforts of the Soviet folklore specialists, ethnographers, linguists and representatives o f the Dolganian intelligentsia, a great amount of oral art works o f the Dolgans has been collected. They have hardly been published in the original form. The first collection of the Dolganian folklore compiled by a famous Siberian ethnographer A.A.Popov (1902—1960) was issued in 1937 with the text in Russian. Only in the book of P.E.Yefremov "The Dolganian Olonkho" (1984) have the two epic legends "A Son o f the Horse "Atalamii the Bogatyr" and "Brother and Sister" been published in the Dolganian language. P.E.Yefremov (1933—1992) — a compiler of the present volume — had been collecting many records on all the genres of the Dolganian folklore during the expeditions to Taimyr in 1964, 1968, 1987 and in 1989—1990s. In the last expeditions took part G.G.Alekseeva — a specialist on the ethnic music and an author of the musicological article in the volume. The field materials o f A.A.Popov and P.E.Yefremov served as a basis of the first bilingual publication o f "The Dolganian Folklore" in the series "Folklore Monuments of the Peoples of Siberia and the Far East". Represented in this volume are the typical samples o f epos, fairy tales, non-fairy prose (myths, legends) and songs. The texts by A.A.Popov are published for the first time. P.E.Yefremov was responsible for the scientific preparations of the texts in the Dolganian language.