Мифы, легенды, предания тувинцев. - 2010. ([Т. 28.)

SUMMARY This book is the first scholarly monograph devoted to the study of non-folktale genres of Tuvan folkloric prose: myths ( burun-chugaalar ), legends (toolchurgu chugaalar ), and historical tales (teegy-chugaalar ) . The corpus of texts is prefaced by an introductory article «Tuvan traditional non-folktale prose», which reflects the specific qualities of the given genre alongside other genres of Tuvan folklore. The 106 prose texts included in the present volume, with the excep­ tion of two (texts 11, 15), are published here in Russian translation for the first time. All of the texts deriving from archival sources or documen­ ted during recent fieldwork are authentic recordings from native story­ tellers. The translations are accompanied by commentaries, annotations, a glossary of untranlated words, as well as lists of place names, perso­ nages, and informants. Also, the commentaries and notes include variants of texts documented at different times on the territory of Tuva from the end of the 19th century to the present. The first part of the volume contains the texts of 74 myths. These include cosmogonic, etiological, toponymic, and generalogical myths, sto­ ries about supernatural denizens of the Middle and Lower Worlds, and also myths about shamans and folk healers. Tuvan folklore contains a rich array of myths reflecting the tradi­ tional Tuvan religious views based on early, pre-Buddhist beliefs of a totemistic or animistic character. The most ancient layer of Tuvan my­ thology is represented by cosmogonic myths. These include, first foremost, scory lines about the origin of the sky, stars, and other heavenly phe­ nomena, as well as myths about the universe. The present book includes texts about the heavenly thunderbolt-hurler, about the constellations Orion ( Ym-Myigak ), Ursa Major (Chedi-Kbanri), Pleiades (Mechin), and