몽골 고대 서사문학에 나타난 기형 모티프와 신성에 대한 알레고리 2

A Study on the Deformity Motif and Allegory of Divinity in Ancient Mongolian Narrative Literature 2: With a focus on the blacksmith motif of one-eyed characters

The purposes of this study were to trace the common meanings of one-eyed characters in Mongolian narrative literature and examine their relations with blacksmiths. There are three types of one-eyed characters including the animal, monster, and human types. Those who have “Sohor” in their names would seem like special beings with only one eye, perspicacity or clairvoyance. “Sohor” is used as a metaphor for “one-eyed persons,” “eyes that can see very far,” or “eyes of wisdom.” Even though the story units of blacksmiths are not much apparent in the name of “Sohor,” there seem to be certain connections between one-eyed characters and blacksmiths based on the universal nature of the former. The human-type one-eyed being “Sohor” is also considered as a humanized literary embodiment of a huge one-eyed animal that has long been passed down since the very old times. Those Sohors are regarded as the latter version of one-eyed beings with the one-eyed figure holding symbolic significance rather than actuality. The monster-type one-eyed Sohors are the negative embodiments of monster figure with the story units of blacksmiths disclosed in them indirectly. The child-type one-eyed beings take the form of god of hell that was reborn in the mundane world by the gods of Heaven with the story units of blacksmiths reflected in them consistently. The animal-type one-eyed beings are animals in the family of dark gods, having the ability to see very far like other one-eyed figures and revealing their ferocious cannibal habits. The one-eyed characters in the ancient Mongolian narrative literature are closely related to the cultural heroes called blacksmiths at the core. In a pastoral society, blacksmiths were called “dark blacksmiths,” being depicted as devil incarnates or death-related beings in narrative literature as negative concepts such as a sorcerer and cannibal devil were attached to them and amplified in them along with such personalities as a god of hell, mundane world, dark god, and incantatory rain.