Keywords: Nart epic, kernel, polycentricity, national centres, Scythian-Alanian basis.

One of the most contested issues in Nartiada is in what ethno-cultural environment the formation of the initial core of the epic had been taking place. The disputes go back to the publication of V. I. Abaev’s famous book on Narts’ epics, where the Scythian-Alanian environment was clearly marked as the original core legends had been formed in. In accordance with E. I. Krupnov’s concept of polycentricity, Narts’sagas are regarded as the result of original creativity of the Caucasian peoples. The concept provoked the emergence of the works in which to the Adyghe-Abkhazian basis of the formation of the epic were consecutively added also the Ingush and Karachay-Balkar centers. The works of Abaev, Dumezil and others give the author profound basis to argue that there is a single Scythian-Alanian core of the formation of the Narts’ Sagas with the subsequent borrowing of the epic by the neighboring peoples.

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