The legends of Kutahya

Legends, which are one of the verbal products of folk literature, tend to be forgotten due to both development of technology and changing the way people spend their time. In consequence of being products of oral culture, unfortunately, legends are at much higher risk for being forgotten. The great impact of technology on people set them apart from their social lives and therefore, people do not come together even at funerals or wedding ceremonies, whereas they formerly had no difficulty in getting together. Hence, it is impossible to render the products of our oral culture inherited from our ancestors to us, especially the legends. In this study, we aim to put the legends of Kutahya, which are neither recorded nor brought into light, on paper by means of compiling (by interview method) and written literature review. We would like to emphasize that the legends obtained from resource persons constitute the sum of our study. We confined our study to Kutahya and its counties and villages. We did not include the legends being told outside Kutahya. In conclusion, 76 legends are compiled in total. These compiled legends are classified into six chapters. The legends are examined one by one and motifs are removed. In addition to this, the raw texts of the legends obtained from resource persons are presented to the reader in the last part of the study.