Arklių įgijimo būdai pasakojamojoje tautosakoje

LTArklys tradicinėje lietuvių kultūroje – ne tik naudingas, bet ir brangus gyvūnas. Tik turtingi ūkininkai išgalėjo turėti daugiau nei vieną arklį. Arkliai buvo akylai saugomi, skiriama daug dėmesio jų priežiūrai ir įsigijimui. Taip pat arklys buvo labai brangi dovana ypatingomis progomis. Straipsnio objektas – arkliai bei jų įgijimo būdai, vaizduojami pasakojamojoje tautosakoje. Straipsnyje analizuojamas arklių vogimas, mainymas, pirkimas, dovanojimas ir pavertimas, kai arklys reikalingas kaip priemonė. Aiškinamos minimų vaizdinių sąsajos su realybe ir gyvavusiais papročiais, tradicine pasaulėžiūra. [Iš leidinio]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Arklys; Dovanijimas; Dovanojimas; Papročiai; Pavertimas; Pirkimas; Vagystė; Vogimas; Customs; Gift; Horse; Purchase; Stealing; Transnurtation; Trasmutation.

ENA horse is a very useful and expensive animal in the traditional Lithuanian culture.This paper analyses stealing, interchange, buying and donating of a horse, as well as transmutation into a horse when a horse is needed as an implement. Also connections with reality and existing customs are studied. Horse-stealing was a well-known and wide spread phenomenon in real life and it is a quite common motive in narrative folklore. It is expressed differently in various folklore genres. On the one hand, it shows that a horse was a treasured animal and a precious commodity. On the other hand, a theft of a horse can have some symbolic meanings or reflections of some family customs. In most of the genres, stealing is accepted neutrally and often even sympathetically: a thief and his artifice is a target of admiration and delight. In joke tales, horse stealing has connections with wedding customs. In mythological legends, a horse thief is represented as a hero, who rescues the newlyweds from death; after that he is remunerated. Means of sympathetic magic when trying to protect horses from thefts are also mentioned. In legends, the narrative folklore genre that gained a significant influence from the Christian world-view, stealing is treated absolutely differently: it is condemned demonstrably.Tricksters are also shown in situations where horses are bought or traded. They manage to overreach a person and trade off an undesirable item. Those situations come from the real world: there have always been some people who know how to sell any item. In joke tales and parables, horse-buying and trading, which are described, are related to real-life facts too: a horse was a very important and expensive object, therefore, its buying or trading is so prominent. What is more, in magic tales, a horse that helps a hero to overcome difficulties is often presented as a gift or a character of a tale, e.g., dead parents or a godfather. In mythological legends, horses are changed or gained from special mythological characters as well. That is why those horses also have some oneness. There is also a possible archaic belief related to sacral time taboos, which can be seen in mythological tales where horses are exchanged. Transmutation into a horse differs from the previously mentioned types of purchase, as in this case another character of the text becomes a horse. In mythological legends, witches metamorphose their hinds into horses. Such conversions of hinds into horses can have some erotic features. In legend tales, the social aspect is emphasized very clearly: by a transformation into horses, people of higher social status are punished. In etiological legends, which interpret the origin of a horse, devil is transformed into a horse more often than a man. A man can be that person who converts a devil into a horse with a piece of advice of God. [From the publication]