Intercultural Connections in Archetypal Stories Concerning the Protagonist’s Predestination

Abstract

The paper seeks to provide a thematological analysis of folk tale types 461 and 930 (“protected by fate”) and to identify their thematic and motivic intersections of intercultural validity in terms of existential semiotics within the comparative frame of European and Asian literary traditions. The invariant semanteme of all mentioned myths, fairy tales or legends resides in the unsuccessful endeavour of a high-ranking, powerful man to kill a person predestined to become his successor. In many cases, the storyline of this thousand year-old motif also includes well-known biblical motifs, such as, massacre of the innocents, a heavenly sign and fulfilment of the prophecy.