Two pieces stand at the head of the Altai legends, and they belong together. In the Creation of the World, before the earth was finished, all was water, and God and one man more flew over it as black geese. The man dives for earth and hides a handful in his mouth to make land of his own; spat out, it becomes the little marsh hillocks, and God names him Erlik. Under the one tree of nine branches the first people eat of the five branches toward sunrise and are forbidden the other four — until the snake, with the Devil inside her, persuades Edji, and Edji smears the fruit into Torongoi's mouth. There follow the judgments, Erlik's making of a heaven of his own and its fall — whence came the rocks and the mountain forests — his forge, where frog, snake, bear and camel spring from under the hammer, and God's long farewell, in which he leaves the people in the care of Mandy-Shire, Mai-Tere, Shal-Jime and Japkara. The End of the World then tells, twice over — as the Teleuts tell it and as the Altaians tell it — how it will be when the sky is iron and the black earth burns: the nine black stones breaking on the sea floor, the herb kongol and its locusts, and the last descent of the heroes. Fresh in-house English translations from the German texts, made for this series — no existing translation used.
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
Chapters:
01:58 The Creation of the World
27:15 The End of the World
Source: Wilhelm Radlov, Proben der Volkslitteratur der türkischen Stämme Süd-Sibiriens, Part I (St. Petersburg, 1866) — tales and legends of the Altai people (Altaians and Teleuts), recorded by Radlov on his Siberian journeys. Public domain. Passage note, placed in front: in the Creation tale, God's farewell speech contains a clause of reported doctrine concerning the self-killed — a spoken ruling, inside the speech, on which of the dead are "taken"; nothing is enacted, depicted or instructed anywhere in the piece. The closing piece is apocalyptic prophecy in the reported register, foretold and not enacted. Both pieces are carried whole, as printed. After the first tale and its music you will hear this episode's short spoken break, placed there by design.
Left for later parts or held under the channel's content rules: Die drei Diebe, Dschuksunbai und der Fliegenteufel, Kudai looks at the earth, Är Taschtu and Ak Kān stand on the bench for later parts; the warrior tales of Tardanak, Täktäbäi Märgän and Kan Püdäi, The Two Princes, Schünü, The Literate Boy and Janar Kusch remain excluded; the seer's tale of Altain Sain Salam and The Official's Son are held for review; the prayer and blessing formulas stand parked with the sacred texts; Tschiwalkow's fables belong to another collector's voice. No completeness is claimed for the volume.
Music: opening and closing theme, with a short separator between the tales — Crimson Peak.
KacheliTV — world classics, read aloud.
