Military Virtue of the Jangar’s Warriors in the Kalmyk Versions

Abstract

The article defines the features of military virtue, which is given to the heroes from the Kalmyk version of the heroic Epic of Jangar. The main hero of the Epic is the hero Jangar, who rallied the heroes around himself and created the country of Bumba. All the songs of the Epic are associated with Jangar. The hero Jangar personifies a wise ruler and a brave warrior, who instructs his heroes and inspires them to exploits. Jangar and his heroes are not just brave warriors, but also bearers of unique characters and skills. Their individuality is emphasized in the descriptions of their actions, weapons and war horses. In the epic there are also young heroes, who following the example of the heroes, defend the country of Bumba from enemies. Since the Kalmyk “Jangar” is a composite work, the article compares songs belonging to the repertoires of different jangarchis: twelve songs translated by S. Lipkin (which includes ten songs from the repertoire of Eelyan Ovla), six songs from the repertoire of Mukeben Basangov translated by N. Bitkeev and three songs of the Maloderbetovsky version translated by A. Kichikov.