Gülsemin KOTANCI

Köroğlu Epic differs from all other texts with its recognition and diversity among the literatures of the Turkic world. Because addressing such a wide geography in material and spiritual terms brings with it both all the socio-cultural codes of the ancient Turkish nation and the value judgments of the Turkish people and their unique perception of the world that enables their identity construction. Since heroes play the role of a microcosm for the societies from which they emerge, making sense of them means making sense of the macrocosm as well. However, evaluating the text not only in terms of the hero but also through the actions of his supporters will facilitate the interpretation of the text. Because the process of transformation is a difficult one to overcome with only the individual's own physical and cognitive abilities, it is likely that the hero will need various sources of ready knowledge. At this point, the collective unconscious supports the hero's construction process with various people, animals and/or objects that it includes in the narrative. Thus, the hero first becomes an alp, then with the knowledge and life practices he acquires, he turns into an alp wise. For this reason, the identification of the supreme individual and supernatural supporters who have an impact on the process of the hero's transformation from an ordinary person to a hero is valuable in terms of making sense of the text. In doing so, turning to the versions of the same texts fed by different social and cultural dynamics means strengthening the desired result. For this reason, the Azerbaijani version of Köroğlu was chosen as the subject of the study and the heroes in the epic text were analyzed in terms of the supreme individual-alp wise type and supernatural supporters.

Keywords: Azerbaijani folk literature, epic, Köroğlu, supreme individual, alp, wise.