Aldacı
Erlik Han's envoy for the dying, told as the Red Bird.
- Realm
- Underworld / Earth
- Type
- Spirit
- Might 4/5
Codex plate · 512×512In the sourcesfolklore · scholarship · footnoted
The taker
In Altai belief no one simply dies. A person dies because an aldacı has come up from below and taken the soul. The name is often explained as "the taker", but the sources do not support that derivation; the word names the spirit of death that leads the soul away. It is a job, not a personal name, and the record speaks of aldacı both as one and as a kind.[1]
The aldacı is a servant, not a lord. Erlik, ruler of the Underworld, does not come for the dying himself; he sends. After a death the aldacı does not leave at once: it lingers by the dwelling and among the relatives, with the soul, seven days for a child and forty for an adult. The household is unsafe while it stays, and a Kam is called to drive it out.[2]
The one who defies death at a bridge belongs to another book. In the Book of Dede Korkut it is Azrail whom Deli Dumrul challenges, and Azrail escapes him by turning into a dove.[3]
In Tengri Versefictional reading
The Red Bird
In Tengri Verse Aldacı is one being, not a title shared by many: Erlik Han's chief soul-taking envoy, also told as the Red Bird.
Erlik Han is confined to the lowest layer of the Underworld and cannot come to Earth himself. What reaches Earth is his will, his whispers and the dark spirits he made. Aldacı is the one he sends for the dying.
It is Aldacı whom Deli Dumrul defies in the old legend: the mad bey of a bridge who would not yield to death. That is why the codex stops at four. Aldacı is very dangerous, but it can be withstood.
Bibliography
- Oinotkinova, N. R. "Etimologiya i semantika altayskikh demonimov". Tomsk State University.
- Anokhin, A. V. Materialy po shamanstvu u altaytsev. Leningrad, 1924.
- Ergin, M. Dede Korkut Kitabı I. TDK, 1958.
- Küçük, M. A. Gazi Türkiyat 20, 2017.
- İnan, A. Tarihte ve Bugün Şamanizm. TTK, 1954.