The Buryat epos “Geser” and Anglo-Saxon epopee “Beowulf”

The epos as part of culture is expression of national mentality, the latter can help identify the national belonging of a person. At the same time the communicative function of folklore makes possible the exchange of cultural achievements among certain human communities as well as individuals. This function makes possible the communication within the framework of dialogue of cultures which in its turn helps create the international cultural stock. The process of globalization leads to making peoples and their cultures closer to each other. One can witness mutual understanding and interpenetration of some elements of various cultures, fragments of epical works, for one. One of the functions of culture is connected with the social and individual factor; in other words, with disintegration, on the one hand, and integration of social, national and other communities of people, on the other hand. 

The international picture of the world, globalization of positive and negative tendencies is evidence of integration of formerly closed, disintegrated human communities. Cultures are not isolated from one another and are of no significance all by themselves, taken separately.  Each culture carries in itself the energy of neighboring and other cultures. In this context the theory of incomprehensibility of other cultures is groundless. The idea of peculiarity of each national culture, contribution of each nation to the culture of the whole mankind is evident. It does not contradict the idea of certain commonness of all cultures. 

Now the humankind came up to the point beyond which there might be global catastrophes. This prompts need in change of the former model of unstable development and integration in the spiritual aspect as well. The words “harmony” and “understanding” should become the key notions of the contemporary world view. People belonging to different cultures should treat each other with the greatest understanding possible. The dialogue of cultures as interpretation of “the alien“, different culture calls for quite a special mentality, new ontology, otherwise a new paradigm “world with man” or “man with the world” or “man in nature” rather than “nature for man.”

It is important to become aware of the priority of the spiritual basis in the whole life of the contemporary mankind, as well as of ecological imperative, human- and nature-conformable tendencies. Internationalization, globalization brought world civilizations and cultures closer to each other. The world does become more united and integrated. In the light of the theory of “cultural pluralism” culture is a connecting link among nations. Therefore understanding and respect for cultural values is not a matter of being educated but an indispensable condition for harmonious development.

No doubt there are very many outstanding tales and legends depicting the ideals of kindness, truth and justice. Among them one could mention an Anglo-Saxon epopee “Beowulf”. The poem of Beowulf is the only great work of heroic epos of Anglo-Saxons that came to us almost intact.  

It was composed in an armed force community just as the Buryat Geseriade, they both describe battles, warriors and feasts in honor of the victory over the enemy. The early medieval period of history, i. e. the V-XI centuries is described. The story began when in the middle of the V century Anglo-Saxons and other tribes of German origin invaded the territory of Britain. The end of that period is 1066 when there was the battle at Hastings that marked the conquest of the British Isles by Normans.  Anglo-Saxons founded some small kingdoms. Angles founded Mercia and Northumbria, Saxons – Wessex, Jutes – Kent. 

Those new formations struggled for the political superiority. Soon Northumbria yielded to Mercia, then in the IX century to Wessex. Thus the western-Saxon dialect of Wessex became the classical dialect of the Old-English language. “Beowulf” was based on the old German pagan legends which appeared among German tribes long before Anglo-Saxons settled in the territory of Britain. The scenes of the poem were laid on the shores of the Baltic sea. 

In Geseriade the actions take place on the territory of the present Buryatia, Mongolia and Tibet (Amdo, Kam). The interaction of the Tibetan, Mongolian, Buryat, Turkic and other cultures made possible the creation of various versions and variants of the heroic epos of Geser. One should also bear in mind that Beowulf  is not an Anglo–Saxon hero and the scene is laid not on the territory of present England. Neither mentioned in most of the variants of the Buryat Geseriade are the Buryats proper. The episodes and motives of the Buryat epos come from the ancient times, when probably the name of Buryats as nation and not just a tribe or a kin had not been formed up yet. In the first part of the Anglo-Saxon poem the events take place in Zealand, in the second part in Juteland.  

Neither Angles, nor Saxons take part in the events depicted in the poem. Accordingly one might suppose that the epopee of Beowulf could be referred to the time before settling of Anglo-Saxons in Britain when their territory on the continent bordered on Denmark. Though one might as well assume that the poem was composed in the period of Dutch interventions. This accounts for the presence of northern narrative traditions typical for Anglo-Saxon tales as well as the details related to the genealogies of the Dutch kings. 

Fragments of historical events, battles of North German peoples among themselves and with South German tribes poetically adapted in the form of saga might be formed up in the first half of the VI century. Under the influence of paganism poetical works were not to be written down, it was prohibited to fix them up in written form. It was not until the introduction of Christianity that written records were allowed. The names of pagan gods and traces of German mythology are lacking but introduced are Christian inclusions. Therefore there are allusions to Cain’s descendents, i.e. borrowings from Old Testament: the names of Abel, Noah, the flood that date back to the biblical book of Genesis. The description of the hero’s death was subject to literary adaptation in the Christian way. 

As for the epos of Geser Buddhism that came much later pressed shamanism. Since the epos “Geser” bears traces of shamanic ideas owing to its archaic origin, the Buddhist clergy did not regard it with favor. Buddhist elements in the epos are not of quite organic nature, they bear evidence of artificial inclusions. “Geser” bears traces of various cults of early communities. Buddhism made attempts at affecting the spiritual foundations of the traditional society. But it was not quite an easy thing to compete with shamans in their practice of touching somebody’s heart and soul which was the main sphere of shaman’s profession.  Nevertheless Buddhist inclusions are still presented in the epos. The spiritual basis of the heroic epos of such Mongolian nations like Mongols proper, Buryats, Kalmycks  is characterized by rich diversity of various cults and rituals. The epos in its spiritual archaic nature possesses mythological, fairy and magical, animistic, totemistic, fetishistic, shamanic features of the ancient syncretical consciousness of Mongolian tribes.   

The poem of Beowulf  might be supposed to date  back to the time of Anglo-Saxon  literature of the VIII – IX centuries because it is written in ancient German alliterated verse which can be found in the Anglo-Saxon as well as the ancient Upper  German  and  ancient Scandinavian poetry of the period between the VIII and XIII centuries. Each verse is divided into two hemistiches with two chief rhythmical accents. The consonants standing in front of one or both the chief accents of the first hemistich were to be repeated before the first accent of the second hemistich.

Metaphorization is typical of the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian poetry. Consider some interesting terms designating the nobility in England in the period of the early Middle ages. The term miles (warrior) besides designating the occupation  soldier denotes the subordinate position of man in public service. Various Anglo-Saxon (eorl, ealdormen) and Latin words (dux, comes, nobiles, defensor, patricius, primas, satrap, subregulus) designate certain ranks  of aristocracy. Thegh, cyninges thegh, thanius, regis  denote  rich high-born people. 

Let us give a brief account of the contents of the poem. Beowulf is a nephew of the king of Geats (a Scandinavian tribe inhabiting the southern coast of present Sweden and called Gauts in Scandinavia). He learns of the tragedy with Dans.

Their palace Heorot or Deer’s palace is celebrated for its beauty and splendor. During many years it had been attacked at nights by a horrible man-like creature Grendel who killed warriors.  

Beowulf goes to Dans, spends a night in Heorot, fights Grendel, defeats him, during the fight he tore off his right hand. The next night Grendel’s mother comes to Heorot to take revenge for her son. She kills and takes away one of the Dutch warriors. Beowulf finds Grendel’s den that was at the bottom of a mountain lake. With the help of a magic sword he defeats Grendel’s mother. In a while after Higelac’s and his son’s death Beowulf becomes the king of Geats for fifty happy years of prosperity.   

Then there appears a fiery red dragon. He longs for revenge because the treasure that he was standing guard over had been encroached upon. A terrible dragon attacks Geat’s settlements and fortresses. Beowulf defeats him but himself dies of the dragon’s poison. The Geats bitterly mourn over his death, set fire to his body and make up a high burial mound on the cape that protruded into the sea so that Beowulf’s mound were seen from afar. The funeral rites and mourning over the great hero complete the poem.   

The bases for the heroic actions are the conflicts that involve many tribes just like in Geseriade. The main hero of the poem is fearless, courageous and brave (Beowulf: lines 603-608, 1383-1396, 2509-2527). The monsters, the hero’s adversaries are blood-thirsty, greedy and malicious (Grendel: lines 729-746; his mother: lines 1276-1281; dragon: 2286-2310).  

The main hero is unique, he is destined to complete a great feat; he is the only one in the world to defeat Grendel and the dragon. Beowulf’s strength is the strength of all  Geats (lines 698-700). The warrior who personifies all the strength and might of his community is showered gifts on by nature which are conditioned by his chief mission, i.e. protection of his tribes from all kinds of monsters.

 Here we can see similar features with the main hero of the Buryat epos and his mission in all the variants of this work, those of the Buryat, Mongolian, Tibetan, Turkic peoples. One of the main functions of the protector and fair judge is that he subdued thirty warriors with only one hand (Beowulf: lines 381-382) just like Geser who with the strength of his shoulder (combat in wrestling) or his big finger 

(archery) defeats the enemy. 

Beowulf stands out for his appearance which is evidence of his heroic essence. 

It is for his outward appearance that guards on the coast pay special attention to him. It is just at first glance at him that celebrated warriors understand that he is an outstanding fighter (lines 336-339). Both Beowulf’s look, his strength and his moral features, his being true to his mission, the king and his people are certainly artistically idealized, exaggerated in the poem.        

Here one can recollect the lines of the heroic beauty of Geser, his might and build. The genealogy of the hero also adds up to his heroic description. The man in the epical story is inseparable from his folk with whom he is connected by the bonds of kinship and friendship. It is typical of Geseriade as well where many of its lines are devoted to the celestial and earthly “biography” of the central hero.

The introduction of the personage in the narration begins with the indication of his kin which is quite important. The connection with a celebrated kin determines to some degree a hero’s merits. He is capable of completing noble deeds not only owing to his personal qualities but as a representative of the kin which is known for its generous deeds. Very often the heroic qualities of the hero are conditioned by the merits of the kin the personage belongs to.  

Depicted in “Beowulf” are some other forms of noble conduct, namely wisdom and generosity of the king of the tribe Hrothgar; courage and devotion of Wiglaf; beauty and generosity of Wealhtheow, the queen of Dans. The epical conflict divides the images of the poem into two camps. In one of the camps there is the main hero, the king and the queen, their armed force; in the other there are monsters, their enemies. In Geseriade we also see two camps: those of the eastern and western deities.  

The king, his bodyguards, the queen, the main hero form up an ideal community of the epical world of the Anglo-Saxon epopee. The king is mighty, generous, wise; the warrior is devoted to his king, courageous and lofty. Embodied in the image of Hrothgar are the ideas of a noble ruler, of social order and well-being which he maintains in his kingdom. One of his chief duties is distribution of wealth, dispensing of treasure just like in Geseriade. The chief mission of both the rulers is protection of their tribes, warriors which is evidenced by a great many epithets embodying the idea of protection, patronage.

Glorified is the wisdom of the ruler which is understood as practical following the ethical norms, conformity with the heroic ideal. Blood relationship is one of the important social relations. In the epoch of late tribal and early feudal set-up each man was involved in the system of vassalage. The duties of the king in relation to his armed force, his bodyguards are unambigous and are embodied in the image of the ideal ruler. In rare cases the attitude of the bodyguards to their king is more complicated and ambiguous. Here one might recall the image of Agsagaldai from Geseriade who betrayed Geser. 

In Beowulfiade the ideal is Wiglaf , who is connected with Beowulf  also by bonds of blood relation. Faith and loyalty of a vassal is kind of charge for the charity and quarter with which a ruler endows his warriors. The blood relationship is also quite important. Beowulf is true to his suzerain Higelac who is also his uncle. He helps his son. Hrothulf  is greatly condemned for killing his relative, Hrothgar’s son in the struggle for the Dutch throne. 

All the objects, mentioned in the poem of Beowulf are weapons, feasts and palaces, rich utensils. All other things representing the diversity of the material world are lacking in the poem. Much is concentrated around battles.     

In Geseriade on the contrary presented in great detail is the whole material world of that time and those communities. This is accounted for by the big size of the epos, sweeping generalization of the epical narrative, where alongside with heroic deeds there is space for everyday life, household and domestic affairs. 

In Beowulfiade depicted more often are weapons and armor, cuirass, helmet, shield, sword with the help of which the hero defeats the enemies. The splendor of weapon, its peculiarity is a well-spread method for representation of heroism just like in Geseriade. Here the key notion in both the eposes is unique nature of weapon.    

Uniqueness of the hero is shown also in the uniqueness of his weapons, in their being destined for each other. The sword which Beowulf finds in the dwelling of Grendel was the only weapon to do away with the monster’s mother. Geser also fights with the mother of one of the monsters. He has many weapons that were destined for him and were sent to him by the celestial deities.  

Let’s give a brief outline of the contents of Geseriade. Conflicting in the primordial time are two camps of tengris - celestial deities. They are the western fifty five tengries headed by Khan Khirmas-tengri and the eastern forty four tengris headed by Atai Ulan-tengri.  Among the western tengris there is the second son of Khan Khirmas by name of Bukhe Beligte, the earthly name of Geser after his second birth (on the Earth). 

Atai Ulan-tengri gets Naran Gokhon, Naran Dulan-tengri’s daughter, to fall seriously ill. In case she dies the western tengris will have to submit to the eastern deities. Manzan Gurme-grandmother reads the sacred book and learns how to treat and save the girl. She sends Bukhe Beligte for a skylark with golden letters on the back and silver letters on the chest. They put the bird on the sick girl and she recovers. Such a description of the start of the heavenly events is connected with the mythological ideas of the Sun deity whose personification was Naran Dulan tengri  as skylark. 

      The reason for the quarrel between the heads of the western and eastern tengris was the desire to possess the rich and prosperous middle Segen Sebdeg tengri. Atai Ulan sends his bators to Segen Sebdeg with a request to submit to him. Khan Khirmas makes the same proposition. Segen Sebdeg values his own freedom and independent position and refuses all the heralds and drives them away. 

Then Atai Ulan sends his sons to Segen Sebdeg with the same message. Bukhe Beligte (future Geser) from western skies also arrives there. Sagan Sebdeg again refuses them. The sons of the tengris (heavens) begin to fight. Bukhe Beligte wins a victory over his adversaries. He throws down Atai Ulan’s sons onto the Earth where they turn into evil Sharablin khans. 

     After the defeat of his sons and warriors Atai Ulan again sends the tengris of the mist, dusk and gloom, hoar-frost. But Bukhe Beligte meets them with nine tengris of wind and flame. Khan Khurmas and Atai Ulan join the battle. Khan Khurmas having learned that the soul of his adversary is in the metatarsus of the big finger of his right foot strikes it and thus he beats the enemy. The defeated Atai Ulan-tengri is thrown upon the Earth where various monsters appear from different parts of his body.

In the land of the three Tugeshin khans there comes the time of misfortunes, mortality; people die, the rivers and grass dry out and fade away. Shamaness Sharagshakhan makes offering of sick people’s tears to Western deities, namely to the head of the 55 tengris Khan Khirmas-tengri, to Shutegte-burkhan and Manzan Gurme- grandmother. Khan Khirmas asks in turn his sons to get down to the Earth but only Bukhe Beligte agrees to go down on condition that his father give him all he asks for. 

Bukhe Beligte turns Naran Gokhon-maid into a lark. He called up dreams to Sargal Noyon-khan about the lark with magic letters on the chest. If they caught that lark the Tugeshin khans would prosper. The khans shoot with an arrow and get down the lark which turns into Naran Gohon beauty. They marry her to Sengelen–khan and drive them away having first crippled her.                                                                                  

Then Naran Gohon gives birth to children: son Jasa Mergen and three daughters. They are born from the top of her head, from her armpit and the navel. Those children are born in an unusual way. They rise to the Sky. The last child is born in a usual way as all earthly children. That was future Geser who now got born on the Earth, that’s how he descended down from the Heavens onto the Earth to save people from all kinds of misfortune.    

Being still a child Geser punishes evil creatures: a black mouse as big as a three-year-old bull, a yellow wasp as big as a horse’s head, a mosquito or a gnat as big as a horse, sends down into the sea shackled seven black and nine yellow devils. Sargal Noyon-khan brings back Sengelen-khan and Naran Gokhon, adopts Geser having given him the name of Nyuhata Nyurgai (Snot Nose Nyurgai).

Nyuhata Nyurgai goes to his future wife Tumen Yargalan together with his uncle Khara Soton. His future father-in-law Turushkhai Bogdo-khan puts his daughter’s fiancés on trial at the matches. Nyuhata Nyurgai wins the victory over his rivals.  

Then Nyuhata Nyurgai goes again together with his uncle Khara Soton to Urmai Gohon maid, Ulanai Bogdo khan’s daughter, to ask her as wife. He catches three wasps- werewolves, that tried to suck blood from his chest. Ulanai Bogdo-khan pleads  Nyuhata Nyurgai to set them free. He promises to give him half of his herds, gold and silver as well as his daughter Urmai Gohon as his wife. The hero together with his wife Urmai Gohon comes home where they have a rich feast.  

Tengris-protectors send down from the Heavens for Nyuhata Nyurgai thirty three bators (mighty warriors), bator’s weapons and a magic winged horse. It is since that time that Nyuhata Nyurgai becomes Abai Geser-khan.  Having  obtained  mighty  armor Geser goes hunting in the Altai and Khukhei  but in the course of three days he does not manage to “let out even a black mouse’s blood”.  He comes across a hunter on a fiery-sorrel horse who catches his game. Geser cannot catch up with the hunter. The unknown hunter disappears in the sea, Geser following him also goes down to the sea. The hunter appears to be Alma Mergen, the daughter of the Lord of the underwater kingdom. Geser manages to curb the obstinate girl. He marries her and stays at his father-in-law’s place for three years. When his wife gives birth into a daughter they go home. Geser after having returned home builds palaces for his three wives. 

Geser learns from the yellow book of fortune that on the southern slope of the Sumer mountain lives the Lord of thick forests, a white monster Orgoli who can draw in everything from a distance of forty versts (14000 ft). He has an intention of swallowing Geser together with his bators. Abai Geser, Sargal noyon, Khara Soton and the warriors fight and kill the monster.  

Geser defeats Abarga-mogoi (a huge snake) with twenty seven heads and thirty three tails having pierced his main head with a spear. He carries away with him an underground treasure with the silver that the snake guarded.

Khara Soton who made many unsuccessful attempts at enticing Geser’s wife Tumen Yargalan goes to the nether world or hell to the nine devils who advise him to deliver a blow on Geser’s health. Geser falls ill having inhaled the yellow mist that spread from a black sheep’s blood. According to the prediction of the yellow book of fortune for Geser to recover it was needed to send Tumen Yargalan to mangadkhai  Abarga Sesen-noyon. Geser thinks that it is better to die than send his wife to the monster. Tumen takes a decision to go to the land of mangadkhais to save Geser. Her people are ready to follow her but she scatters her coral string of beads and tells them to collect them. On her way she overcomes many obstacles. The mangadkhai comes out to welcome her.  

Geser and Khara Soton go to the mangadkhai’s place to save Tumen Jargalan. Because of the heat that Geser caused Abarga Secen is bathing in the sea. On the shore two boys whom Geser turned into are playing with a bow and arrows. Abarga Sesen puts on his head a pellet and asks the boys to hit it. One of the boys utters an incantation in a low voice and shoots. The arrow hits the mangadkhai’s right eye. Abarga Sesen calls Tumen Jargalan. She recognizes Abai’Geser’s black Khangai arrow, ties the mangadkhai with a rope and hammers in the arrow still deeper.  Abai Geser and Tumen Jargalan burn the mangadkhai together with his horse. In order to keep Geser to herself, so that he did not leave her, Tumen Jargalan gives him the food from  which he becomes quite silly and helpless, now he grazes the mangadkhai’s red calves.

Erkhe Taija, the son of the eldest of the three Sharablin khans who possess Sharaid valey made a magpie and sent it to look for a beautiful girl for him to marry. Having returned from the land of larks the magpie says: “There is no one more beautiful than Urmai Gokhon”. They then send a black raven and a magic bird Gangga Zada but they claim the same. 

The three Sharablin khans send their warriors to Geser’s land. His warriors courageously fight with the enemies. Khara Soton betrays Geser and his warriors fall dead desecrated with bloody water. Alma Mergen having turned into a man like Geser  accepts the battle and shoots arrows.

The three Sharablin khans attack Urmai Gokhon and seize her with the help of slyness. Manzan Gurme-grandmother learns from the maternal book about  the trouble in Geser’s camp. She sends onto the Earth Geser’s three sisters who find him and take away and give him back his mighty look.

Abai Geser returns home. Alma Mergen meets him. Geser raises from the dead his bators and armed forces. The bators want to kill their offender Khara Soton but Geser does not give his consent. Khara Soton pretends to be dead. Geser goes to the lands of the Sharablin khans to bring back Urmai Gokhon.

Geser in a magic way turns into a child. He is adopted by Sagan Gerelte khan. The boy who is given the name of Foundling grows very quickly. He takes part in contests of bators and wins. The Sharablin khans are happy, he can grow a strong man and fight against Abai Geser.   

The Sharablin khans send their troops headed by Foundling against Geser’s warriors and bators. Foundling (Geser) joins his warriors and defeats the Sharablin khans. Then in his true look heading his warriors he comes to the land of the Sharablin khans. They ask for mercy. Abai Geser and Urmai Gohon return home The people meet them with great joy. They have a big feast.  

In the land of Gangga Burged-khan there are great misfortunes: the rivers and lakes got dried up; fatal illnesses, dreadful diseases and epidemics began to spread all over the place. Ganga Burged-khan learns from an old man that all the misfortune comes from the crafty designs of Gal Dulme-khan, the monster that came from Atai Ulan-tengri’s head that had been thrown down upon the Earth. The old man says that they should ask Geser to help them. Geser says that it is still early to start the fight with him. Nine years should pass before they might attack him. He is still too strong, possesses magic abilities, and has got six hundred bators and six thousand warriors. Geser’s bators are ready to fight with Gal Dulme-khan and they try to persuade their head to start the war.    

Geser agrees and the battle begins. He asks fifty five tengris and Manzan Gurme-grandmother to help them. On the order of the deities Geser’s brother Zasa Mergen descends from the skies. He shoots Gal Dulme-khan’s central eye in which hidden is his soul and vital energy. The defeated enemy and his horse are burned down. His beauty wife is cut in two, from her belly a seven-month-old baby falls out. No weapon can cut him and only seven celestial smiths could deal with the boy. He falls into the lower world.  

The black mangadkhai Lobsogoldoi had three sisters. The eldest sister Yenkhoboi tells Lobsogoldoi to turn into a traveling lama, build a temple and desecrate Geser with a dirty cup. Lobsogoldoi captures Urmai Gokhon. Asurai mangadkhai ploughs on the donkey. Alma Mergen flies to the county of Khonin Khoto as a lark. There she sends hail on the ground. The donkey eats the hail and that gives him strength. Alma Mergen having turned into Lobsogoi’s sister Yenkhoboi comes and asks to give her the donkey. Together with the donkey she rises up to the sky to Gurme grandmother. They clean and wash Geser and he resumes his former look. 

Geser together with his bators sets out on his journey. His place of destination is the country of Khonin Khoto. He wants to bring back his wife Urmai Gokhon. He fights Lobsogoldoi, throws him into a deep hole and leaves guards with iron bodies armed with arrows. Having returned home he arranges a good feast which lasts nine days. 

Geser fights with Shirem Minata devil. Neither Geser’s Khanggai arrow nor his black spear, nor his yellow damask steel dagger can cut the devil. Sherem Minata beats Geser with a cast iron whip, the bator gets weakened. On his winged horse he goes to the skies and asks his father Khan Khirmas and his brother Zasa Mergen to give him advice how he could conquer the devil. Manzan Gurme-grandmother gives Geser a wool-carding twig. Geser with that twig knocks to pieces the devil’s cast iron whip and beats him to death.

Geser goes to Alma Megen’s father to ask him help to tame the late four sons of the Mother-Earth. Uhan Lobson-khan gives him his magic walking stick. Geser sets out in search of those four late sons, at last he finds them. They turn into a healing spring (arshan), silver, gold and ginseng, which help Geser live a long and happy life. 

The Chinese sovereign Gumen-khan after his favorite wife’s death orders his people to mourn for three years in the posture her death caught them. He himself fell asleep for three years embracing his dead wife. The khan’s subjects decided to address Abai Geser for help, they sent one of the seven black smiths to him. Geser promises to help them but he needs seven black smith’s heads, seventy carts of wood and seven-dimensional copper.

When the khan’s people brought those objects Geser made of the sculls of those heads seven cups and rose on back of his winged horse to Manzan Gurme-grandmother. The both have arkhi from those cups. When his grandma got drunk Geser opened the trunk with her keys and took out fifteen magic treasures and got down to the Earth. The grandma having awakened found out that her treasures disappeared. She was in rage and threw those seven cups after Geser. The cups turned into seven stars known as the Great Bear. 

Then she got sorry about what she had done in rage and sprinkled with her milk in the same direction. The splashes turned into Heaven’s stitches, or the Milky Way and Geser’s protective armor. The bator came to Gumen-khan who was still asleep. Abai Geser buried the khan’s wife and instead of her he put a black bitch. When Gumen-khan awoke he threw Geser into the dungeon. Geser cleaned the dungeon and filled it up with treasures. 

When going home he took with him the Chinese khan’s daughter. But on the way home he told her that they would not be happy together and sent her home.      Geser goes to the land of Tebid to shoot through the top of a lonely growing tree that threatened to grow through eight celestial levels. He shoots off its top with his Khangai arrow, utters an incantation for the tree to remain as it was at the moment, for it not to grow upwards and in breadth. 

Having completed all his deeds on the Earth Geser goes back to the sky to his grandma Manzan Gurme. He says: “I have done away with all those evil and cruel enemies, I have cut short those that grew too high, narrowed those that grew too wide, I have done away with those with the beaks and fangs. Now we’ll live on having three lucks each day”.

The material world of the two epopees is often quite bright and festive. An image of an ideal warrior, his heroic qualities, attire and weapons is depicted. The liberality and generosity was considered to be an indispensable quality of ruler, it gave his warriors and common people hope for safe life. 

Both the eposes show that Nature is closely connected with the life of man. Nature gives man strength, vital energy. The co-evolution of man and nature or the principle of ecological imperative, ecological ethics and ecological responsibility which is the main contribution of the epos to the common knowledge of humankind cannot be overestimated.

The Buryat epic “Geser” and Anglo-Saxon epic “Beowulf” have much in common regarding the historical epoch, content, episodes and motifs, characters, morals and style features. The discourse of the texts in the Buryat Geseriade and Anglo-Saxon Beowulfiade is noted for the features of typological similarity, among which most prominent are ethnic and historical background, textual build-up, heroic deeds and other aspects. The most important passages in the content of the Anglo-Saxon and Buryat epics and their significance and interpretation are very important. The epical consciousness of both the peoples was noted for their symbolical, mythological, totemistic, animistic features and cult pagan beliefs somewhat mixed up with some other religious tendencies like Christian and Buddhist ones respectively. The mythological consciousness displays itself in various heterogenous and heteromorphic elements. 

The parallel study of the two epics might help establish good ties between the two peoples. The two cultures the Geseriade and Beowulfiade belong to are separated from one another not only geographically but in historical, ethnical, language, cultural and other aspects. Nevertheless they have some common features that can play a positive role in the dialogue between the two cultures.