A review on the legends compiled from Uşak

Legends are products that are worth carefully studied as they create a connection between the mythological and historical past of the people and their present, bring cultural elements to the present, reflect the common memory of the people, social subconscious and imagination. Being accepted as real and lived events by the performers and the listeners make the legends go beyond being literary texts and make them an important source of folklore. It has been observed that a comprehensive study has not yet been carried out on the legends of the city of Uşak, which is one of the oldest settlements that has embraced many civilizations throughout history and which also has a long tradition of telling legends. With the effect of changing life conditions, the start of denial about the importance of the legend genre has impelled us to study on the legends of Uşak. In this academic work, field study covering the central district of Uşak province and other districts and villages was carried out in order to compile the legends that continue to live in the memory of the people and in the oral culture, write down the identified texts in order to facilitate their transference to the next generations, classify them in terms of themes and subjects in accordance with scientific methods for the aim of examination. We also aim to bring legends in Uşak into Turkish folklore within the scope of this study; therefore collection activity was carried out in 120 regions of Uşak province, 439 source people were interviewed and 1417 legend texts were reached. These texts were classified according to their subjects, the motifs in the legends were determined and the legends were examined in terms of their functions. As a result of the study, it was ascertained that the tradition of telling legends continues in Uşak, Uşak legends have important functions in many areas, especially in the socio-cultural field, and Uşak legends are both rich and colorful in terms of content and motif structure.