Abstract

The present paper examines interethnic and interreligious values in Turkish and Crimean folk legends. The folklore of both Crimea and Turkey has a multicultural background, which makes both corpuses of texts suitable for research. In the course of the study, a wide range of published Turkish and Crimean legends were reviewed and analysed. There are two deeply-rooted tendencies in the studied legends. First of all, the interethnic and interreligious relationships can be described as ghastly and cursed. Thus, antagonists in the legends are often from ethnic minorities or strangers in relation to domestic ethnic groups. However, if the texts are analysed thoroughly, we can see that there are important sacred cultural values at the core of the legends, including values of life, health, and divinity.