The extensive collection of Olonkho – the heroic legends of Yakutia – is the pearl in the crown of the Yakut peoples’ literary art, indeed it is their favourite and most distinctive type of literary art.

Olonkho is the general name for the entire Yakut heroic epic that consists of many long legends. While their average length runs from ten to fifteen thousand verses, some of the longer Olonkho legends extend to over twenty thousand verses. In the past, Yakut Olonkhotellers created even larger pieces by blending different plots together; regrettably those pieces were never recorded.

In actual fact, there is no specific data as to how many pieces of Olonkho existed during the time when the epic flourished. We can certainly say that there was ‘a significant number’ of them. Furthermore, it is very difficult to estimate how many pieces of Olonkho co-existed at the same time. The fact is that a plot of any one Olonkho piece can be more or less freely transferred into another piece, or simply reduced, by leaving out entire plot lines, or specific details, episodes, and different description. The main characteristic feature of the Yakut epic, and the reason for the legends’ similarity, lies in the scope for ‘interpenetration’ and the opportunity to reduce or enlarge the length of Olonkho without ruining its content and the logical sequence of the events’ development.

The Yakut Olonkho is an epic of a very ancient origin. The stories originate from the times when the Yakut people's ancestors lived on their former homeland and closely communicated with the ancestors of the Turkic and Mongolian peoples living in the Altay and Sayan regions. This is proven by the fact that there are common features in the Olonkho plot and the other people's epic plots, as well as some similarities in the language structure and vocabulary. There are general features in the heroes’ names (khan – khan, mergen, botur, etc.). The word kuo in the main heroine's name that the modern Yakut people had forgotten about serves as a permanent element of the name in its modern form.

In the other Turkic people's epics a similar word ko means ‘beautiful woman’. In Olonkho the story-tellers sometimes add the particle alip to the name of the evil character, thereby changing its meaning to ‘an evil sorcerer’ (Alyp Khara). Alp and alyp are known among the Turkic peoples as words denoting ‘a hero’. Consequently, the Turkic alp (alyp) is represented in Olonkho as an evil enemy.