One of the old Hun chieftains had two very beautiful daughters. This chieftain thought only Gods could marry to his daughters. For this reason, he built a very high tower on the north of his country and made his daughters settle in there. After a while, the girls got married to a wolf that came down to the tower, thinking that he was the god. The Nine Oguzes, born from this marriage, had voices like the wolf.
The Migration Myth
In the land of the Uighurs (Uygurlar), there was a mountain called "Hulin". Two rivers named Tugla and Selenge came out of this mountain. One night, a divine light came over a tree out there. The people living between the two rivers watched this carefully. A protrusion was formed in the trunk of the tree, and the light stayed on the protrusion for nine months and ten days. The trunk of the tree was split and five children were seen in the hole. The people of the country looked after these five children. The youngest among them, Bugra Khan, became the ruler when he grew up. The country became rich and the people were happy. A long time passed. A prince called Yulug Tigin became the ruler.
He fought with the Chinese on a great scale. He decided to make his son Galı Tigin marry to a Chinese princess. The Chinese demanded a rock called Celebrated Mountain, located on the skirts of the Tanrı (God) Mountain against this marriage. The Chinese set a fire around the rock in order to carry the rock; when the rock was red-hot, they poured vinegar on it. They carried the rock to China when it was divided into pieces. All the birds and the animals in the country cried in their languages because the rock had gone. Seven days after this, Galı Tigin died. Famine and drought occurred. They had to migrate leaving their countries.
The myths of creation, Alp Er Tunga, Shu, Oguz Khan, Ergenekon, Creation and Migration, which we tried to tell above, are assumed to be the common myths of all the Turkish Republics and Societies of today.
Dede Korkut stories and Dede Korkut himself, both the teller and a hero of the stories, are among the important works which is known in all the Turkish world and which is kept alive in both the oral and the written tradition. After the Turks adapted Islam in masses in tenth century and after the Oguz migrated to the west, to the Anatolian land of today; Turks lived in different political unions in both Anatolia, Balkans and Middle East. Among the myths which were formed after the tenth century, those except Köroglu extended as far as the communication between the societies and communities of the Turks. Köroglu myth was formed in sixteenth century in Anatolia and it was adapted by nearly all the Turkish world and it is still revived today in many forms.
The Turkish Myths After the Adaptation of Islam
Karahanlı ruler Satuk Bugra Khan adapted Islam as the official state religion in tenth century. The first myth to be formed after Islam was born by the telling of the struggles by this ruler to adapt and extend Islam. The text of this myth may be summarized as follows: