CC BY
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Section 11. Philology
Aliyeva Hamida Achmed, Philosophy assistant professor of Literature of foreign countries department of Azerbaijan University of Languages E-mail: ahemide@mail.ru
The world outlook of Germanic and Turkic peoples in “Beowulf” and “The Book of Dede Korkut”
Abstract: The article deals with the astonishing parallels between “Beowulf" and “The Book of Dede Korkut” and investigates the view point of German and Turkish nations, reviews the similarities of their ethic moralities. The article highlights the episodes of Anglo-Saxon traditions, life style and bravery and compares the analogies between “The Book of Dede Korkut” and “Beowulf”. The paper also juxtaposes affinities between Anglo-Saxon hero Beowulf and Turkic hero, Basat.
Keywords: epic, tribe, ancient saga, mythical, folklore, Anglo-Saxon.
There are remarkable resemblances between the Anglo-Saxons’ epic poem of “Beowulf” and the Azerbaijani Turkic epic literary work of “The Book of Dede Korkut” that is featuring the spiritual and heroic characteristics of Azerbaijani Turks.
One can conjecture the origin of the similarity between the two literary works considering the fact that “Beowulf” was created based on the most ancient Scandinavian legends.
There are sufficient historical facts proving that Turkic tribes — who have been known under various names by researchers and historians, but in fact they all belonged to the same origin who lived in historical Azerbaijani territories before they moved to Asia Minor and then to Europe in millenniums BC.
Icelandic “The Prose Edda” contains interesting and logical information about Turkic tribes (As tribes — H.A) who moved to Iceland [3, 8].
Prominent Icelandic historian and public figure, Snorri Sturluson, penned “The Prose Edda” based on ancient sagas. As part of his book’s introduction, Snorri Sturluson touched upon the settlement of “As” tribes across the northern regions of Europe including Sweden, Norway and Iceland following the tribes’ migration to Troy. “Ynglinga saga", a chapter of Sturluson’s book namely “Heimskringla’’, provides wide information on the Asian origin of "As" tribes [7].
In his book which is studying the Germanic zoomor-phic decoration published in 1904, Well-known Swedish archaeologist B. Salin, voiced his attitude towards the issue and confirmed that S. Sturluson’s theory has been formed based on historical facts (Altgermanische Thierornamentik).
Following his visit to Gobustan rocks, the famous Norwegian scientist and traveler, Thorheyerdahl surprisingly,
decided to look for the traces of his Scandinavian ancestors in Caucasus particularly in Azerbaijan instead of far North.
The intermingling of ancient Turkic with Scandinavians had positive impacts on the development of social and cultural life of both nations.
That is why one can explore a number of common spheres between Scandinavian folklore and the folk art of Turkic nations. Therefore it is an essential need to look for the root of some common theme and subjects between “The Book of Dede Korkut” and the Scandinavian epic “Beowulf”. The existence of heroic songs as well as supernatural characters — cyclops, ogre, dragon, etc- and fight scenes against queer creatures, indicate the similarity in the folklore area of both nations.
“Beowulf” starts with an introduction narrating about legendary Scyld Scefing who is considered the ancestor of Danish kings and fame of glorious Scyldings royal family. Great-grandson of Scyld, the king Hroth-gar gained much property by the means of conducting military strikes. For his knights, Hrothgar constructed a luxurious palace which was decorated with dear horns and named the palace as Heorot (mead hall). The king periodically used the “mead hall” to hold various kinds of receptions and feasts to keep the fighters happy.
Somehow it was a sign of the king’s respect to the knights in exchange to their fidelity. In the meantime the move was known as a type of archaic traditional tie between the king and fighters, it also indicated the close-knit and brotherly ties between the king and knights. The same custom was very popular among Oghuz and other Turkic tribes.
Researcher A. M. Hazanov was stating by interpreting the same traditions “Herodotus monarchs’ (tribe leader) would organize huge feast for his fighting men
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The world outlook of Germanic and Turkic peoples in “Beowulf” and “The Book of Dede Korkut”
each year and this tradition indicates close-knit bond between king and knights. Even in the most communities of folklore literature the traditions of feast and giving gifts still exists and this is typical for nomadic tribes" (ancient Turks- H. A.) [6, 184].
In different chapters of “The Book of Dede Korkut” one can find lots of similar scenes. For instance, “It was customary for Bayindir Khan, khan of khans, to invite all princes of the Oghuz to a feast once a year. As usual, he gave a feast this year too, and had many stallions, young male camels and rams slaughtered for the occasion...” (Legend I: The Story of Bugach Khan, Son of Dirse Khan, The Book of Dede Korkut).
One of the motives which were reflected in Turkic epic is connected with giving gift custom. While being merciless to their enemies, Turks were faithful to their companions and supporters and in order to express their feeling they were sharing their fortune so generously with their pals. Alongside with their money, gold and other expensive items they used to share their most beautiful horses with friends. Obviously, for Turkic tribes, horses were the most saint creature as well as the most quintessential element indicating their existence. Gifting a horse could be the symbol of special regard and gratefulness.
The king of Danes Hrothgar alongside with some precious presents gifted two gracious horses to Beowulf that is one of the facts featuring a common tradition with Turks.
The most salient feature stating similarity between “The Book of Dede Korkut” and “Beowulf” is linked with the “Goggle-eye” Tepegoz - Grendel stories.
In the first chapter of “Beowulf” it is depicted that Hrothgar had been under attack by a monster known as Grendel for twelve years. Every night, he would appear out of the fog that covered the swamp and would eat fighters. No one was able to encounter him, hence feasts were getting less and less and whole Denmark was covered with grief and sorrow. After some while the Geats heard about their neighbor’s tragedy and jointly with 14 knights Beowulf came to help Hrothgar.
As can be seen, Beowulf is not an Anglo-Saxon hero; he is the knight of one of the Scandinavian tribes — the Geats who settled in the east of Sweden.
In the eighth legend of “The Book of Dede Korkut” namely “The Story of Basat, Killer of Goggle-eye” the events approximately occurred on the same manner.
In this legend the object being under attack is Oghuz people and the violator is a One-Eyed Giant. To prevent losing more people, Oghuz tribe agreed to appease two men and 500 sheep every day.
It is notable that the episodes based on One-Eyed Giant or Cyclopes are widespread in most nations’ folklore. We can observe such kind of legends on Slavic, German, French, Finnish and Scandinavian nations. Nevertheless, the first written source based on One-Eyed Giant is considered to be Homer’s Odyssey in the world literature. However, it is not correct; the most ancient legend of “The Book of Dede Korkut” is “The story of Basat, Killer of the One-Eyed Giant”. “The Father of History” Herodotus in his books mentioned the topic of “OneEyed Giant” and stated that there were quite a lot of legends about single-eyed creatures among Scythians (the most ancient Turkish tribes). “The Book of Dede Korkut” caught the attention of German scholar H. F. Von Diez and he, in his turn invented the book for Europe, and this breakthrough primarily linked with the legend of “One-Eyed Giant”. There isn’t any indication of Gren-del’s being a Cyclop in “Beowulf” epos. However one can identify Grendel with “One-Eyed Giant” for some features. Oghuz’s “One-Eyed Giant” is the off-spring of Houri (half human-being and half legendary creature) and the father of “Goggle-Eye” Sari Choban (Yellow Sheppard) and they met each other at a spring.
According to ancient “Oghuzname” mother of “Goggle-Eye” lived in a big sea, Grendel’s mother also lived in a swamp, meanwhile Grendel in “Beowulf” is known as the monster of the sea. After Grendel’s death, his mother attacked Beowulf and the Danes to revenge. Houri in “Book of Dede Korkut” tends to get revenge not only for Sheppard but also for whole Oghuz tribes; however she does it not straightforwardly but in a roundabout way.
She wears magic ring to the finger of her son, makes him immortal and says: “My Son the sword will not cut you, the arrow will not kill you” (The Legend of Basat, Killer of the One-Eyed Giant) with this act she puts Oghuz family under danger.
Grendel of “Beowulf” just like One-Eyed Giant is so dreadful and dangerous, cruel and with doing much crime he killed a number of Danish knights.
One-Eyed Giant also killed lots of gallant boys of Oghuz tribe — brother of Kazan khan Qaragune, Alp Rustem, Demir Donlu Mamaq, Ushun koja and his two brothers, Bigiqanli Bukduz Emen. In both eposes when people were oppressed heavily -Danish people were covered with tyranny, Beowulf rode to save them, as there was a turn of third brother to be killed by One-Eyed Giant, Basat displayed heroism. Unlike Basat, brave fighter of Geats Beowulf rushes to help their neighbor the Danes and rescue them from lurch. However this episode itself has something in common with Oghuz tribes and with
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their socio-political as well as ethical-moral values and reminds relationship between Outer and Inner Oghuz.
Despite the fact that there were some gaps and sometimes clashes among Oghuz noble men, they were never left one- another in trouble.
We can come across with such kind of short struggles among northern and eastern German tribes in “Beowulf" as well. For instance we can portray as an example the king of Geats Hygelac who is identified with the king Chlochilaicus in the source by Gregory of Tours and the king appears as invading the Frankish Kingdoms.
Beowulf just like Basat fights with the enemy face to face, Basat defeats One-Eyed Giant and Beowulf kills Grendel only due to their own power and courage.
One of analogous between both heroes is their competence to vanquish the enemy not only by the means of physical privilege but also with playing trick, capability estimating the circumstance on time. Prior to fight against One-Eyed Giant, Basat asks the elders (preparing meal for Giant) about the rival’s weak points. The elders answer the Giant’s single eye is only from meat and the other parts of body are spell-binding and immortal. Acting wily, Basat exactly beats the eye of Google-Eyed and guarantees himself with success in the struggle.
Beowulfminds the enemy’s power and weak points in advance and he is primarily aware of Grendel’s being cruel, ruthless and crafty. Therefore he explains his friends being meaningless to fight against Grendel face to face.
Beowulf is sure that he is able to perish Grendel with his sword and shield however he also knows that the monster will run from open combat and the hero is absolutely aware of his sudden explode in darkness. Thus Beowulf waits for the night to come and hides among his knights. At night Grendel attacks “the mead hall” after having been disturbed by the noise of the drunken revelers, unexpectedly Beowulf with strong hand holds his wrist and Grendel terrifies and realizes to be confronted with supernatural power. Hard man-to-man fight ends with the victory of Beowulf and the hero mortally wounds Grendel by ripping his arm off and he dies in his cave under the swamp.
Another analogous between “Beowulf” epos with “One-Eyed Giant” is linked with the names of heroes — the names of Beowulf and Basat. Hence, all the heroes particularly in “Beowulf” are named with individual alias, only the name of Beowulf is absolutely different.
The name of Basat was given by Dede Korkut. Once, during the following assault of rival, Oghuz tribes had to move, while immigrating Aruz Koja’s little son was left behind and the lion found the child and brought him
up. Some years passed one day the herdsman of Oghuz family enlightened people about one boy having human face but with lion feature and attacking horses and sucking the blood of animals. Aruz recognizes his lost son and brings him back home. With advice of Dede Korkut he leaves the lion and joins Oghuz heroes, trains to ride horse and fight with sword. Dede Korkut calls him Basat because of his attacking horses.
We can assume that there was some explanation or legend connected with the name of Beowulf, only it wasn’t spread to Britain. It would be the cause of having much idolatry figures and being abridged by clerks or probably there wasn’t any episode among Scandinavian sagas implying the legend of the name. We know that Anglo- Saxons didn’t bring “Beowulf” to Britain in complete form, they brought it with fragments. Anyway the etymology of the name of Beowulf arises some interest and taking into consideration the epic experience of the epos, emerging this name couldn’t be fortuitous situation. To research the meaning of the name properly, we need to pay attention to some special features of Anglo-Saxon language. There were some simple words constructing system in Anglo-Saxon language as well as in German and Danish ones. The exact and correct formation of individual and things’ names in ancient Anglo-Saxon language, no matter sounds funny in modern period but raises astonishment as well. For instance the word body was interpreted in Anglo-Saxon language as “the house ofbones” (“bahus”) and the word joint as “the garden of bones” (“banloca”). Literal sense of the name Beowulf means “the wolf of bees” [8, 87].
If we would make more meticulous, semantic analyses, we can find out that it means “bear”. Saxon’s element beo means bee, vulfmeans wolf. This expression was formulated because of a bear having erected nose just like wolf and dogs, while looking for the meal its demolishing swarm of bees with the same nose. This presents Anglo-Saxon language being so precise and having great literal sense of translation features, at the same time this language has abundant poetical expression and imagery modes.
“Beowulf” ends with the death of the hero -funeral rite of Beowulf. We must note here that this funeral ceremony is held according to heathendom traditions in Europe in antic period. His cremating in somehow reminds Hector’s cremating scene in Homer’s “Iliad”.
At the end of the story the bravest twelve fighters of Beowulf with displaying the last gratitude towards their king and warlord, bury the ashes together with jewelers which were found out of the cave of the dragon (killed by Beowulf) and reared a hill on his grave.
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Cognitive strategies of impact in media discourse
Obviously, one can observe hill-shaped tombs in areas where lived Turks and they were calling such kind of graves as “kurgan”. The meaning of kurgan is the grave of khan and these tombs were recognized as “Scythian kings’ tombs” and were scattered over Eurasian territories. Ancient Turks used to bury their kings or glorified heroes with their own jewellery, welfare things and even with their horses as well.
A tomb which was discovered in south-eastern Kazakhstan, the Issyk kurgan, belonging to the king namely “Golden dress” describes the culture of Sak-Turks.
In Europe people were making cremating procession and it was the same in Scandinavia. The first history of
Kurgan tradition starts with the funeral of the king Freyr which was mentioned in the book named “The Earth” contained of Nordic sagas. However funeral ceremonies are very conservative rites and not all Scandinavians were happy with this new method. After his death the king of the Danes was buried alongside with all his fight equipment, personal items and horse according to his will. This leads to the beginning of the age of Kurgans in Denmark.
Despite, Norwegians and Swedes continued to cremate corpses; the last funeral episode in “Beowulf” expresses the elements of both ceremonies in it. This echoes the mutual bond of two different cultures and their being in synthesis not in opposition.
References:
1. The Book of Dede Korkut.//[Electronic resource]. - Available from: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Book_of_ Dede_Korkut.
2. Beowulf (dual-language ed.). - New York: Doubleday, 1977.
3. Sturluson Snorri. The Prose Edda: Tales from Norse Mythology, translated by Jean I. Young. - University of California Press, 1964.
4. Гуревич А. Я. История и сага. - М.,1972.
5. Мельникова Е. А. Англосаксонское общество в истории и эпосе. - М.,1987.
6. Хазанов А. М. Социальная история скифов. - М.,1975.
7. [Electronic resource]. - Available from: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/598/598-h/598-h.htm.
8. After the Flood by Bill Cooper.//[Electronic resource]. - Available from: http://www.ezekielwatch.com/por-tal/69/resources/aftertheflood.pdf.
Issina Gaukhar Ilikeshevna, Karaganda State University, Kazakhstan, Doctor of Philology, the Faculty of Foreign languages
E-mail: g.issina@mail.ru Kondratyeva Yuliya Taguirovna, Karaganda State University, postgraduate student, the Faculty of Foreign languages E-mail: juliavip4@yandex.ru
Cognitive strategies of impact in media discourse
Abstract: The article investigates cognitive strategies of impact in contemporary press in order to identify the most effective mechanisms of influence on recipient in media discourse. The cognitive approach has received a great popularity in the realm of media discourse study: due to its mediator role mass media do not simply reflect or mirror the events of reality but rather create a new reality through interpretation processes. The research was carried out on the base of material taken from the news broadcasts on Eastern and Western channels.
Keywords: discourse, mass media, cognitive mechanisms, strategies of impact.
An address to the field of media discourse is caused by its core position in the discursive space of public communication: it penetrates into all types of institutional and everyday discourse because of its thematic variety and genre originality.
The cognitive approach has received a great popularity in the realm of media discourse study: due to its mediator role mass media do not simply reflect or mirror the events of reality but rather create a new reality through interpretation processes (media channels,
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