This study advances a comparative analysis of the Errementari narrative in Basque folklore and the blacksmith-devil constellation in the Anatolian oral tradition, situating both corpora in relation to cultural memory. The analysis examines the apotropaic efficacy of iron, the purificatory valence of fire, and the liminal positioning of the blacksmith as symbolic codifications of social order and traces the rearticulation of ritual continuity across aesthetic and mythopoetic registers in the Book of Dede Korkut, the legend of Blacksmith Kawa, and talismanic practices. Drawing on Jan Assmann’s theory of cultural memory and Mircea Eliade’s account of mythic sacrality, the study conceptualizes archetypal oppositions as historically sedimented and culturally operative structures, approached via a comparative folkloristic methodology. The article contributes to interdisciplinary debates across folklore, memory studies, and aesthetics by elucidating the dynamic interplay of continuity and transformation governing the persistence of mythical imaginaries in modern cultural formations.
Cultural memory, ritual continuity, comparative folklore, apotropaic practices, Errementari.