Animals and animal symbolism in tales of the Turkic world

The fairy tale, which is one of the products decorated with symbols, is one of the most important literary yields of Turkish culture. In the fairy tales, which contain different symbols from each other, there are various meanings represented by animals. The relationship of man with the animal dates back to prehistoric times. Animals also have an important place in the life of Turks. Turks have lived together with animals throughout history, including a Decadent lifestyle from a nomadic lifestyle to a sedentary lifestyle. The Turks are afraid of some animals, ascribe sacred values to them and put forward various taboos around these animals; some of them have benefited from their meat and milk, while others have attached negative meanings and tried to keep them away from their surroundings. The Turks have used these animals, which have various features and functions, in their works of art, folkloric products. Animals, which have various symbolic meanings in them, have also taken their place in fairy tales. In this regard, the main purpose of the study is to determine the animal symbols in the fairy tales of the Turkish world, to reveal the reflections of these animals in the fairy tales, to show with what characteristics the animal symbols that have an important place in the social life of the Turks take place, and to consider and evaluate the character traits of animals with their functions in the fairy tales from a symbolic point of view. In this study, fairy tale texts of Azerbaijani, Bashkir, Crimean-Tatar, Gagauz, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tatar, Turkmen, Turkish, Tuva, Uyghur, Uzbek, Yakut Turks were scanned and animal-related sections were identified. Within the scope of the study on Animals and Animal Symbolism in Turkic World Fairy Tales, the animals included in the fairy tales were examined from a symbolic point of view and it was stated what animals are symbols of in the fairy tales. The study was conducted using document analysis technique, one of the qualitative research methods as a method. Information about document analysis is described in the relevant section. The fairy tale texts of the study consist of fairy tale books published in Turkey, translated into Turkish, and master's and doctoral theses published at the national thesis center. The texts in these sources were scanned, fifty-five animals were identified, and forty-eight animals with symbolic meanings from these animals were evaluated in terms of symbolism. In addition, in the last part of the thesis, Stith Thompson's world-famous "Motif Index of Folk Literature" is listed with the main and subheadings of the article (B) Animals, which he included in his work. The animal motifs identified in the tales of the Turkish world are sorted according to the items determined by Thompson in his study.