Mongolian-Turkic epics: typological formation and development

Columbia, MO: Center for Studies in Oral Tradition. Oral Tradition, 16/2 (2001): 381 - 401.The academic community has long noticed the resemblance between Mongolian and Turkic epics. Some believe that the Mongols and the Turkic people share a narrative tradition that accounts for their commonalities. Such a tradition arises from the period of time when ancestors of these two
groups lived together in Central Asia and South Siberia (cf. Nekljudov 1981). One could also assert that Mongolian and Turkic heroic epics display common features in theme, plot, structure, motif, character, and formula. This paper explores how the Mongol-Turkic epic typology formed and
developed.