Опит за митологическа peконструкция нa една селищна традиция
An Attempt at a Mythological Reconstruction of a Village Tradition

Summary/Abstract: The article makes an attempt from a sociological point of view to decipher the data about the continuity of a village tradition, encoded in historic memory. Use is made of folklore, linguistic and toponomic material in order to prove that the Moslem population predominant in the village in 1878 is direct descendent of the Bulgarian Christian population in the studied village. Material to prove that thesis is sought in the preserved name of the village (Dobrodan), in the still extant legends about the mythical founders of the village (the shepherd brothers Dobri and Dan), about the Turkish Conquest and specifically about the Islamization of the village, about sacred and enchanted spots in the village lands and about the cases of Islamization right up to the Liberation. The fact that the Islamized population still remembers the legends about the origins, the Turkish Conquest and the Islamization process, as well as the unchanged name of the village, point to a particular significance of the name of the village – Dobrodan. Content analysis of local legends, toponymy data and certain linguistic “fossils” as well as research into the refrains of Christmas songs serve as the basis for a hypothesis for the existence of a possible Slavonic god Dobrodan (Dobri-Dan, Dobri-bog Dan, etc.), whose shrine was in the lands of this village that is why the village has preserved its name unchanged even after Christianization and Islamization and which in turn confirms the thesis of the continuity of the village tradition.

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