The Epic Model of the World of Plants (On the materials of Bulgarian heroic epic) Cover Image
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Эпическая модель растительного мира (На материале болгарского героического (юнацкого) эпоса)
The Epic Model of the World of Plants (On the materials of Bulgarian heroic epic)

Author(s): Konstantin Rangochev
Subject(s): Anthropology, Social Sciences, Customs / Folklore, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Culture and social structure
Published by: Асоциация за антропология, етнология и фолклористика ОНГЬЛ

Summary/Abstract: This article analyzes the presence of plants in Bulgarian epic. Six semantic groups of “epic plants” are differentiated: tree, shrub, grass, flower, fruit, and grain. Each group is divided into two subgroups according to the opposition wild plants – domestic plants (nature vs culture). The paper comments on the “selectivity” of epic plant model that corresponds to the mythological thinking. It also shows asymmetry in some subgroups (for example the group “grain” does not have a subgroup “wild”, while the subgroup “domestic plants” has eight members). The analysis of specific epic plant realia (for instance, rice became known in Bulgarian lands in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century) allows the author of the paper to subscribe for the hypothesis that modern Bulgarian heroic epic as a heir of the VI–XIV century Bulgarian epic, was constituted in the period of the XV–XVII centuries.