Ër-Töshtük

a Kirghiz folk epic. It apparently originated during the period of the primitive communal system. It is also popular among the Kazakhs, the Altais, and the Tiumen’ Tatars.

Among the Kirghiz, Ër-Töshtük is a monumental epic composed completely in verse. It describes a hero’s struggle against monsters in order to save his nine brothers; ancient mythological and cosmogonic beliefs pervade the work. The first transcription of the epic was made by Academician V. V. Radlov in 1869 and was published in 1885 in Part 5 of Examples of the Folk Literature of the Northern Turkic Tribes. In the Soviet period, transcriptions have been made of versions of Ër-Töshtük performed by the skaziteli (singers of epic folk songs) Dzh. Dzhamgyrchiev (1927), S. Karalaev (1939), and K. Suranchiev (1940).