OLONKHO
the Yakut Heroic Epos

(Detailed description as it was written in candidate application for the 3rd proclamation of masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of the humanity)

OUTSTANDING VALUE AS THE MASTERPIECE OF HUMAN CREATIVE WORK

The narrative tradition developed both solo and choral performance. The simplest type of performance was a duet, when one performer read recita tives, the other sang monologues. There were known the cases of choral per formance by several prominent Olonkhohuts, and famous Olonkhohuts and narration schools were known to organize competitions. All this developed mastership of performers and stimulated people's interest in epos. Later, for historical and social reasons, the epic environment decayed, the epic narrative tradition, embodied in the form of schools declined. Today, solo performanc es with all their unique features (free poetic improvisation, special epic manner of performance, richness of poetic vocabulary and structures, queer gut tural singing, mimics, gestures, etc.) no longer exist.

The high title of "Olonkhohut" was granted by the people only to those individuals, who met the esthetic and spiritual requirements of the epic environment, had a true talent for Olonkho creation and performing, and, finally, loved and respected Olonkho and forgot their own interests for the sake of Olonkho performance.

Certain specific features characterize Olonkho performance. It is based on poetical improvisation, implying the key clichés (formulas), polished for cen turies. Basing on them, Olonkhohut varies an epic text. The regularities of Olonkho verse are based on the Yakut folklore free verse with the elements of syllabics. The rhyme scheme of the epic verse is based on sound organization of the text with various forms of alliteration: initial (vertical), horizontal and final (grammatical ones). So, the Yakut epos makes poetry to be sung, as Olonkho mostly part consists of songs without musical accompaniment.

Songs in Olonkhos play a great role, constantly alternating with prosaic parts. The conductor G.M. Krivoshapko, who took part in recording of Olonkho "Nurgun Bootur the Impetuous", performed by G.G. Kolesov, writes: "In deed, Olonkho is the song, created by the author. For instance, performance of the complete text of Olonkho "Nurgun Bootur the Impetuous" by P.A. Oiun- skyi (taking into account that 40 verse lines of recitative and 12 lines of a song last one minute) would take 28 hours and 27 minutes, with songs lasting for 18 hours 46 minutes and recitatives - for 9 hours 41 minutes". 1 It is obvious that in this Olonkho song fragments apparently prevail over the prosaic parts. In song fragments of Olonkho "songs of the characters disclose their origin and mission as well as the purpose of their actions. Each character has its own specific melody, which is changeable with the change of environment".

Olonkhos contain not only songs of human characters, but also songs of mythological characters of both anthropomorphous and zoomorphous origin. These songs represent the direct speech of the characters. Olonkhohut is not only a narrator and master of poetical improvisation, but also a wonderful singer, proficient in all styles of Yakut singing. He must have a good, strong and deep-toned voice and be able to sing kylyhakh (the Yakut guttural singing manner).

Thus, olonkho performer is a unique carrier of oral narrative and singing traditions, developed for centuries. Outstanding value of olonkho as a masterpiece of human creativity is that it is a paragon of non-material spiritual lega cy of not only Sakha people, but also that of relative Turkic and Mongolian peoples in their expressive peculiar epic form. The characteristic traits are the archaic and mythological genre in comparison with other forms of Turkic and Mongolian epic; special manner of performance that preserves the sources of epic singing legacy with archaic Turkic substrate in the form of guttural sing ing ky-ly-sakh; ancient poetic language, only to be found in olonkho; gift of improvisation as genetic memory of peoples over the centuries of history. That is why Yakut heroic epic represents a unique cultural phenomenon of spiritual wealth of a small ethnic group, which nowadays is a considerable value for all the mankind.

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