TYPOLOGICAL COMMONALITIES AND NATIONAL SPECIFICITY OF THE WATER FAIRY IMAGE IN ENGLISH AND UZBEK FOLK ORAL LITERATURE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55640/Keywords:
water fairy, Uzbek folklore, English folklore, typological analysis, comparative literature, Undine, Melusine, Suv parisi, Suvsanam, archetypesAbstract
This article presents a comparative-typological analysis of water fairy images in English and Uzbek folk oral literature. Tracing figures such as Undine, Melusine, and the Lady of the Lake in the English tradition alongside Suv parisi, Suvsanam, and Humo in the Uzbek tradition, the study identifies both universal archetypal features rooted in prehistoric animism and the culturally specific characteristics shaped by distinct historical, religious, and ecological contexts. Drawing on the methodologies of comparative mythology, structural folkloristics, and Jungian archetypal theory, the analysis reveals that water fairies across both traditions function as symbols of purity, liminality, moral judgment, and the dangerous power of feminine beauty. At the same time, significant differences emerge regarding the religious substrates (Celtic-Germanic versus Turkic-Persian-Islamic), narrative functions (romantic tragedy versus heroic assistance), and ecological symbolism (maritime versus agrarian irrigation culture). The paper argues that these images represent culturally mediated expressions of a shared deep-structural archetype — the Anima figure associated with water — and that their comparative study enriches our understanding of cross-cultural folklore dynamics [1, 2, 3].
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