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Paper long abstract:

This paper focuses on the close semantic, semiotic and motivic correspondences between the Central Eurasian (Hunnic: Sozomenos, Jordanes, Prokopius; Alano-Sarmatian and Ossetian: e.g. Jacobson 1993; Jacobson-Tepfer 2015; Colarusso & Salbiev [eds]: 2016: 160-181; Turkic: e.g. Sinor 1982: 223-257; Mongolic: Koppe 1993; Bawden 2003; Hungarian: Veszprémy & Schaer 1999) and the Arthurian epic tradition (Malory's Le Morte Darthur, Chrétien's Charrette, Lanceloet and the Deer with the White Foot, etc.; Littleton 1978, 1994), regarding the episode of the pursued doe (AaTh 401; "The White Animal", Littleton & Malcor 1994: 102-103).

Since the innovative and thought-provoking book of Littleton & Malcor (1994) it is relatively well-known that there are numerous close similarities between the Arthurian and the Caucasian Nart heroes, heroines and narrative motifs, e.g. the Lady of the Lake, the Sword in the Stone episode, the magical cauldron called the Nartamongæ, or "Revealer of the Narts" in the Nart epic. Among many other close correspondences appears the hunt of the white animal (or white hart, stag, deer or hind; Loomis 1949: 68-70; Pschmadt 1911), but Littleton and Malcor wrote just a brief and undetailed passage on this hunt. Since the authors did not notice the connection between the bridges leading to the Otherworld of Celtic tradition (perilous bridge) and Caucasian folklore (originated from the Zoroastrian Mythology: Chinvat Bridge), the motif of the bridge leading to the otherworldly castle is only casually mentioned by them in the part reviewing the hunt of a white animal.

I argue that the presence of the deer hunt motive sequence in the Caucasian Nart Epic, in the Hungarian Origin Myth where the pursuing brothers marry the daughters of the Alan king (cf. Alano-Sarmatians), and in the Arthurian Legends has historical reasons and it did not happen by chance.

I am going to shed a new light on the entire motive sequence in question with the methods of historical-comparative folklore studies and text analysis.