Tales of Mardin: Review-text

The aim of this study, which deals with the tales of Mardin in two stages as compilation and analysis, is to compile and examine the tales told in the region and to determine the current situation of the tale-telling tradition in the city of Mardin. Mardin, which has hosted many important civilizations in history, is a city rich in folkloric materials. However, the studies on the tales of the Mardin region were limited in number and in a narrow framework. In this respect, in this study, tale texts were recorded with the "Field Research Method" and the tales were examined in terms of formal elements, contextual features, type and motif. The types identified in the fairy tales were classified according to the catalogs of Aarne-Thompson's "The Types of the Folktale" and Eberhard-Boratav's "Typen Türkischer Volksmarchen" (TTV). The motifs in Mardin tales were determined according to the study named "Motif- Index of Folk-Literature" prepared by Stith Thompson and the rare and frequent motifs in Mardin tales were analyzed. According to the information received from the source people, the tradition of telling tales has begun to weaken in Mardin. The reasons such as the mass media reaching the rural areas, the decrease in the difference between village and city life, the beginning of migration to the city and the death of the source people who knew the tradition negatively affected this tradition. In the study carried out in Mardin city center and its districts, 120 fairy tales were recorded as a result of the interviews with the source people. However, due to the incompleteness of some tales, only 80 tales were included in the study. With the new compilation studies to be made, it is important to save the oral narrative culture of the region from extinction and to keep it alive.