The cultural and semantic aspect of the somatism “сaeр” (“head”) in the epic folklore of the ossetians

The article deals with the somatism “сæр” (“head”) in the epic texts of the Ossetians, discovering all the shades of the meaning, described in the modern dictionaries of the Ossetian language. It is associated with the representations of life, conveyed by the means of the idioms, metaphors and other fictional means. The universal folklore features are analyzed: the presence of many-headed creatures (seven-headed and hundred-headed) and the motive of competition. The specific features are found out in the motives of heading and scalping.