Mythological Hero Assistants in the Bashkir Fairy Tale

Abstract

The article discusses assistants to Bashkir characters in fairy tales. Researchers N.K. Dmitriev, A.N. Kireev, M.H. Mingazhetdinov have left only a passing mention of them in their publications. The author gives a more complete picture of each helper of a hero and shows his function. The main character is an assistant horse. Hence the article focuses more on him. The horse has the art of magic, looks beautiful. The fairy-tale hero gets a horse in different ways: as a gift, by choice, for services, etc. The horses main functions: 1) to assist in the goings of the hero; 2) rescuing the hero by abduction from his home when he was in danger; 3) because the horse is a talking one, its functions are also giving timely hints, tips, warnings. In some tales the heroes assistant appears as corpse or skull of a man. In the fairy tales proper a skull or enchanted shepherd tells the young man where to go, what to take with him, and in the heroic fairy-tales he having become a friend of the hero on the way on trading business, helps the hero get his wife and provides a rich, happy life. Among assistants are also a bearded old man, a serpent helping the boy for his good deeds; wonderful wife chosen by an arrow shot from the bow, the bride becoming the best among the three daughters, a dog, a cat or a cow. Another assistant of the hero is Samrigush. It is an episodic Assistant, but it occurs in Bashkir tales often and helps the hero in gratitude for saving her chicks from Ajdaha-monster. It turned out that in the Bashkir fairy tales mythological heroes assistants are the mythical horse, domestic animals (cow, cat, dog), a cadaver or a skull, a white-bearded old man, a wonderful spouse, snake, etc. All of them posses one function: to help the hero. Each creature renders its own help: the horse delivers to the right place, pets returned the hero a magic item, the snake heals, wonderful wife helps the hero by clues where to get magic items required by the king.