The road and journey in Turkish folk narratives

Mankind has felt the need to transfer the knowledge it has acquired since its existence. Narratives, as a way of reflecting this accumulation, are instrumental in combining the elements that lie in the subconscious of the person with the elements of the collective consciousness. The narratives, which have a rich and deep meaning structure, serve as a bridge from the past to the present and the future. At the same time, narratives, which are like a window to the past and a door to the future, are treasures waiting to be resolved. Folk narratives are a system that extends from unity to unity with the mythical and motif elements they contain. Narratives are the way of expressing the life lived and imagined by blending reality and metaphor in the world of meaning adorned by images and symbols. In the narratives formed around the design of the three worlds (underground-earth-sky), existence and concepts at the level of the interlocutor of the human are also included. One of these concepts, the road, has a mixed literal-metaphorical world of meaning that takes place in every layer of these three world representations. The path, which is a line from birth to death, is the expression of consciousness and re-existence in narratives. The hero's union with symbolic values in his adventure for a purpose and his integration with himself with the help of supernatural forces reveals the relationship of the road with the journey. The road, which is generally the product of a positive conceptual world, plays an important role in the protagonist's maturity and return to his essence with its fluid structure. The road has a structure that adds value and meaning to life with its many features.