SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF WOOD SYMBOL IN GERMANIC AND GEORGIAN MYTHOLOGY

Abstract

The present paper aims at identifying parallel motifs between Kartvelian and Germanic mythologies. For this, main similar and different characteristics in myths of both cultures are explored as an empirical material. It is maintained that according to the data analysis Prop’s mythology of fairy tales and Levi Strauss’s theory of the myth seem appropriate for analysis. On the basis of these mythological models the symbol of the world tree as a universal mythological notion is compared and contrasted in Kartvelian and Germanic mythologies. Distinctive versions of the world tree are presented according to their functions such as Life tree, fertility tree etc. Thus, Myth as a unique and universal model represents a mythological tree as an essential symbol. Common traditions associated with the world tree are compared and contrasted that leads us to a conclusion that tree is a universal symbol in both mythologies with lots of common characteristics like planting tree, tree as a symbol of life etc.

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