Özet
A Hair Ornament in Anatolian Tales: Comb and Its Functions
Abstract
Tales, which have an important place in folk narratives, carry the wisdom of the past to the future with a symbolic language. These narratives, which are the creation of the collective consciousness, are the representatives of cultural memory by connecting the past and the future. Various entities and objects can interact with everything in isolation from the real world, or turn into magical objects against their nature in the fictitious world of fairy tales. The comb, which is one of these objects, is used both in its own sense and out of its meaning. In fairy tales, where the function of making magic comes to the forefront as well as the function of straightening the hair, the comb is among the most important tools used by the heroes of the narrative to perform various tasks.
The purpose of the present study was to determine the functions of the comb in Anatolian tales. For this purpose, fairy tale studies in doctoral and associate professor theses prepared in the context of regions and made into books were examined. The functions undertaken by the comb in terms of the frequency of use in Anatolian tales were analyzed under five main headings as; “making forest/bush/thorn with comb, testing with comb, rewarding with comb, beautification with comb, and hiding in comb”. It was determined in the fairy tales that the heroes try to get rid of evil creatures with a magic comb that turns into a forest/bush/thorn, giants are tested by bringing the buxus wood comb, and are rewarded/beautified with a comb for their goodness. The fact that the comb, which is used for combing hair in the public memory, is handled with magic/talisman in fairy tales made it one of the indispensables of the fairy tale world. It was determined that the comb, which is among the oldest personal grooming products, helps the heroes to do extraordinary things in fairy tales.
Anahtar Kelimeler
Fairy tales, comb, function, motif, transformation.