Contamination in azerbaijani religious tales

Abstract

Contaminations, considered as one of the compositional features of Azerbaijani religious tales, were
involved in the study. Researches show that as other tale groups, there are also methods in religious tales
which are created by combination of plots and called contamination in folklore. There are four most
widely spread forms and methods of contamination in Azerbaijani tales, which three of them are found
in religious tales. These methods are: 1. Telling about moments experienced by father and mother in the
main plot and their children in the next plot; 2. Sending the main character to reveal some secret or to
learn someone’s story; 3. Several people gather together and tell a tale about them.
It is noted that contaminations in religious tales are observed in the plots both within the same and
different groups. In the article, separate religious tales are involved into investigation arising from the
combination of different plots. Methods of contamination in those tales and their role in newly created
samples are revealed.