A mythic creature in the narratives of altai Turks: Celbegen [Altay türkleri·ni·n anlatmalarinda mi·ti·k bi·r varlik: Celbegen]

Altai Turks, who has located within the Russian Federation so far, have lived with many different communities throughout the history and have remained under the influence of many other belief systems. Having kept their traditional belief systems alive, Altai Turks on the other side have also adopted the nuances, which were taken from the new cultures they have already met. As a result they have a very rich oral tradition. Their epics, tales, legends are the primary creations that reflect this tradition. Some unnatural creatures in the belief system are used as "leitmotif" in the above mentioned genres. Celbegen, who generally has seven heads and eats people in the narratives, is also one of unnatural creatures. Celbegen, who makes people to be frighten or to be loathen due to its physical and characteristic properties, appears in the narratives either by supporting the evildoers or directly by being the evildoers itself. This situation is actually related to its existence in Erlik's vassal, because according to Altai Turks' belief system defective creatures such as snake, bear, camel, etc. and bad spirits such as alkari{dotless}si{dotless}, şulmus, Celbegen were created by Erlik. These creatures are used to live in underground with Erlik and they are being sent to the Earth to do evil on all occassions. This defective soul, which are named as "Celbegen", "Elbegen" or "Celven" by Altai Turks, takes places in their epics, tales and legends very often. Thus, in this paper the forms of Celbegen's existences in the above-mentioned narratives will be analyzed, the common characteristics of this type will be defined and evaluated and finally its role in the narratives will be discussed.