Turkish storytelling: Keloğlan, Nasreddin Hodja, Dede Korkut
In short: Turkish tales open with a rhyming formula, “Bir varmış, bir yokmuş” (once there was, once there wasn't). Their best-known figures are Keloğlan, a bald and clever boy, Nasreddin Hodja, associated with 13th-century Anatolia, and Dede Korkut, the wise elder of the Oghuz stories preserved in 15th-16th-century manuscripts.
Dede Korkut
The Book of Dede Korkut is a collection of Oghuz Turkic stories about heroes, families and courage. The two main manuscripts are kept in Dresden and in the Vatican, and are dated to the 15th-16th centuries, but the stories are older.
Nasreddin Hodja
The Hodja is linked to Akşehir in the 13th century. Whether a real person lies behind the jokes is debated, but the funny, wise tales spread across Anatolia, the Balkans, the Middle East and Central Asia.
Keloğlan
Keloğlan is poor, lives with his mother and is often underestimated. With wit and kindness he wins over sultans and giants. He is a favourite hero of Turkish tales told to children.
Coffeehouse storytellers
Ottoman-era storytellers (meddah) performed in coffeehouses, imitating voices and characters. Their art is part of why tales are told with so many voices.
Timeline
- 13th centuryNasreddin Hodja is linked with Akşehir.
- 15th-16th centuriesThe surviving Dede Korkut manuscripts.
- Ottoman eraMeddah storytellers perform in coffeehouses.
- 19th-20th centuriesKeloğlan and other tales are collected and published.
Questions
What does “Bir varmış, bir yokmuş” mean?
Literally “once there was, once there was not”: a gentle way to say the story is not meant to be taken as fact.
Do you have Turkish tales?
Yes. Black Horse writes stories in Turkish, English and German, and the same account works in all three.
Sources and further reading
- The Book of Dede Korkut, translation by Geoffrey Lewis (1974).
- Pertev Naili Boratav, Halk Hikâyeleri ve Halk Hikâyeciliği (1946).
- Nasreddin Hodja collections.