Abstract:

Plants have an important place in the life of Turks, a nomadic society. The narratives, which are a kind of reflection of the life in which we live, have included the assets that are important for the societies. For this reason, plants which play an active role in the Turkish cultural life have been handled with various meanings in the narratives. Turks' lifestyle, beliefs, traditions and customs and so on. Therefore, it is inevitable to include plants that have an important place in the Turkish cultural life in the Book of Dede Korkut, which reflects this. The Turks used the plants as a means of expressing their emotions in a sense by imposing various meanings on the plants. In Dede Korkut Book, plants are not only considered as nutritional value; they are symbolic in explaining situations or emotions. The Turks accepted the cult of the God of Life by starting from the Ağ Tree of Life yük. For this reason, in the studies carried out to date, the use of the tree and the meanings in which it is installed are discussed in the Book of Dede Korkut. However, in the Book of Dede Korkut, many plants are mentioned besides the tree and their various features are used for analogy purposes. In this study, we will examine the plants mentioned in the Book of Dede Korkut and the meanings attributed to these plants with examples.