Myths and riddles: Echoes and Reflections
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | This presentation takes a look at the possible connections between Mongolian riddles and myths. It is well known that Mongolian riddles, along with forms of oral folklore, have fulfilled, and continue to fulfil, an important pedagogic function in nomadic life. The researchers S. Dulam and G. Nandinbilig also see riddles as intrinsically tied to Mongolian origin myths. To tell a riddle is to invoke a myth and its wider functions. I look at the specific case of a Buryat origin myth mentioned by S. Dulam and G. Nandinbilig involving the Wide Earth locking away the Sun and the Moon in a wooden chest (avdar), an object that itself figures in many Mongolian riddles, often as a metaphor for the cosmos. These fragments of myth that reappear in the riddle corpus take on life of their own, initiating newer micro-narratives, while still maintaining a mythic aura. |
| Related projects: |