Motif Academy Journal of Folklore

Abstract

As the name suggests in the work titled Underwater World in Turkish Mythological Epics, the underwater world, which is imagined as a fantastic place in the narratives, and the motifs of that world are found in the country. In Turkish narratives, employment and the sky are widely known as a location of the worlds, as there are many different subjects. One of these places on earth is also known as the middle world; It is explained that properties such as humans, animals, demons, fairies and giants live here. In the underworld, also known as the lower world; It is explained that beings such as demonic and evil spirits live here. The sky world is also known as the upper world; It is explained that beings such as gods, angels and good spirits live here. Although the underwater world as a place in Turkish narratives is more common than these three worlds, the existence of such a world has been examined in various details and revealed in this work of Karagöz and has become more known within the literature.
In the preface of his work, Karagöz explained why he decided to turn it into a book because it was prepared and presented as a master's thesis on this subject in 2009 and this work became very popular. Here again, Karagöz stated that he reviewed the entire thesis study before its foundation and made some corrections, additions and deletions.