Milli Folklor

Öz

Nasreddin Hodja, the legendary figure of Turkish cultural history whose fame goes beyond borders, lives in the present through his anecdotes and fulfills the function of giving advice, guiding and hitting the nail on the head by his anecdotes that include almost every subject and human type. As a matter of fact, Nasreddin Hodja, as the man of people, satirizes the mistakes and deficiencies in the society in an entertaining language with his unique intelligence that makes people laugh and think. The funny, thought-provoking, educational, entertaining and surprising features of the Hodja jokes are due to their multi-faceted humor. Nasreddin Hodja is not only a figure of anecdotes, but also a mystic. Many features of the myth, which are included in the narratives such as legends, narratives, epics, and folk tales are reflected through the anecdotes that are attributed to Nasreddin Hodja by the people of mysticism. Among the anecdotes, the group called legend anecdotes focuses on the motif of resurrection from bones. In ancient belief systems, the place where the soul resides is human blood while the seat of the soul is thought to be the bone. In addition to the symbolic role it played in the creation of the world, bone is also the main element of the creation of human beings. Since bone has been considered as the most permanent element of the human and animal bodies for some people since ancient times, it is assumed that the immortal soul also resides there. In this context, although the belief in resurrection from bones (intermezzo) has been seen in other tribes besides Altaic tribes like Turks and Mongols, it is my opinion that it is mostly from the Northern and Central Asian origin. Based on the bond between bone and lineage, Turkish noble people believe that lineage originates from bone, it forms the basis of living things, and the continuity of life and resurrection can only be achieved through bones. As a reflection of this belief, importance is given to the preservation of body integrity, especially the skeleton and skull as much as possible. This is an indication of the belief that the dead will be resurrected and will continue to live while the bones of the enemy will burn in the fire, and the skeleton and skull would be buried carefully and preserved so that the graves of their ancestors and therefore their bones would not be harmed. The anecdote, which is expressed as a short and dense narrative in a prose language, is not a narrative of belief when compared to a myth and a legend, but the reality of anecdotes, which are tied to a historical type, is like a myth and a legend. These anecdotes are dealt with under a discrete heading called legendary anecdotes in the classification of anecdotes. In this context, there are two anecdotes of Nasreddin Hodjas named Hoja's Bedovasi and Nasreddin Hodja Teacher, which are variants of each other, based on the rumor in the book named Nasradin Hodja and Itar Peyo compiled from the Turks by Sevim Piliçkova from the North Macedonia, which is located in the Balkans where Turks live intensely. The phenomenon of resurrection and resurrection from bones observed in two Nasreddin Hodja anecdotes, which are variants of each other, will be evaluated in terms of their connection with the myth in the aforementioned anecdotes with an emphasis on oral prose narratives, especially religion and belief systems, how they take place in epics, legends and fairy tales and their antiquity.