The dog-head people in the Oğuz epic and Northern European mythical narratives

The It-Baraks tribe which is a unique, special Northern tribe Oghuz Khan could not defeat in Oghuz Epics, known as Dog-Head tribe in world literature as well, has not been the center topic of any substantive study as yet. It-Baraks, which are told as a tribe situated in Southern Ural Mountains and the river İdil in the epics set a precedent as the first and the most difficult war maneuver in Oghuz Khan's grand conquest plan. Although there are differences in the copies of Oghuz-name between the pre and post Islamic versions, in both versions, It-Barak was a common subject and told in a detailed manner. In our study, we discuss the It-Barak tales, which can be varied in the versions of Oghuz-Name manuscripts, in a comparative way. It is expected that there should be other records rather than the ones in Oghuz-name regarding It-Baraks since they were narrated in a detailed way there. Therefore it can be seen that, It-Barak is a roughly comparable shared tale in the mythologies of Northern Folks. As a matter of fact, it has become an anonymous tale as Dog-Head tribe in all over the world. When Oghuz-name's different versions, which include many elements of Turkish history, literature, linguistics, culture and folklore, is comparatively analyzed; it appears as a reflection of the collective legacy of (the Northern folks) as a whole. Turks as the one of the most important actors which had shaped the anthropogeography of our planet influenced the folks and their cultures they interacted with. We aim to shed some light to the subjects on the origins, existence, history of ItBarak people which have not been scrutinized much and covered properly by other studies concerned and bring an explanation to overcome the ambiguity of their place in the history/mythology while focusing on all Northern folks worldwide in this study. Although it seems that the interaction among folks put an impediment to determine an exact origin for It-Baraks, we can say that the geographical region including Turkish homeland, the region to Sweden in West, Manchuria in East will be our main focus in our study. Although we seem to be limited with Oghuz-name and Northern mythologies in our study, the traces and similar narratives on It-Baraks can be found in Chinese and Indian mythologies in the East, Helen and Roman myths in South and Germanic folk tales in the West. 231 It-Baraks as unbeatable warriors is perceived as marginalised savages with their untamed nature by other nations. The other important subject in the It-Baraks is their effect of the other nations perception about the usage of mask and body armour. At the present day, "Berserk Syndrome" emphasized by contemporary historians, is exactly related to this subject. Berserk tribes or Berserkers, threatening German nations in south of Europe, stroke fear into all the Germanic territory by wearing animal fur at their head and using glue at their body. Even thuogh It-Baraks nation is seen as a head dog by associating with this sign, it is also a strong posibilty that they are seen as a civilized nation because settled populations describe them, as not wearing mask or armour. Yet, this situation can not exactly express a real fact. Additionaly, 'Wolf-Man' or 'Werewolves' appearence that we could accept it from its similar appearnce of ItBaraks, mostly it is an evolved historical reflection as Dog-Head tribe known by the World. In the scope of science, this sitiuation is supported with serious signs or results of both historical and cultural views. Having an important implications and detailed place of It-Baraks, that are mentioned by all the World history and mythology, stated in Oghuz Epics, is one of the most important heritage in the Turkish history and an important aspect for us. Having been studied of It-Baraks tribes mentions in detail and comprehensively stated in Oghuz Epics, could be accepted as an important work for Turkish and World historical and mythological literature. The results that we reached as a outcomes of our study have made a more precios sense for this study.