This study of the epic, The Book of Dede Korkut found that connections are formed between the positioning of characters such as Kazan Khan and Aruz Koca because of the functional nature of Beyrek’s characterization. It examines Beyrek’s murder in the twelfth and last boy (narrative) using semantic arguments that allow the determination of a ritual context to the characterization of Aruz and Kazan. The study also evaluates Beyrek’s place and role within this framework and explains that this character is also subject to a change of status along with other figures such as Kazan and Aruz. The highlighted transformation of Beyrek’s positioning is integrated with the function of mediation. The identification of Beyrek’s modifying function allows the disclosure of the ethno-ritual context of shamanism. Beyrek occupies a shamanistic status in the lower layers of the thematic structure and may be identified with the adventure reflected in the third boy of The Book of Dede Korkut, offering several important clues to its significations. 

The study also discusses the hostility between Aruz Koca and Kazan Khan in terms of an internal problem of the Oghuz community. It states the inevitability of finding a meta-ethnos mediator to eliminate the prevailing difficulty and examines Beyrek in the context of a wolf cult, citing examples that elucidate the lupine cosmogonic connections in the qualities of this character. The characters of Beyrek and Korkut Ata are also compared, and it is demonstrated that Beyrek is the metaphorical equivalent of Korkut Ata’s personality. However, it is noted that wolf-specific features may be observed in both characters in contexts underlying the thematic structure of the epic. The article further comments on the ritual setting of the last boy and elucidates the ceremonial nature of the characters.

The existence of transformative elements between the two-layer thematic structures of the text is illuminated and examined through the archetype of the last boy. The transitional phases between these elements are also marked, highlighting that a retrospective methodology is the only applicable means of restoration. Applying this method, it becomes possible to gradually progress from the upper to the lower layer of the thematic structure, which can then be transferred to any context.

In this respect, the old context is present in the new setting in the form of reflections, but these reflections are also found to create oppositions in the new context. The article shows that the contrasts that achieve subtextual consistencies in the thematic structure of the last boy are reflected in the upper layer of the thematic structure as signs. The clarification of these highlighted signs is imperative for the restoration of the lower layer of the thematic structure. This reported framework allows observations to be effected on the basis of the most striking contrast reflected in the upper layer of the thematic structure, the dual positioning of Aruz and Kazan. It is contended that the subtextual is made visible in two aspects. First, the narrator attempts to sustain Kazan Khan’s image as a hero from the beginning to the end of the thematic structure; nevertheless, Kazan’s anti-hero status is revealed. Second, the narrator attempts to portray Aruz Koca as the anti-hero who destroyed Kalın Oghuz; however, Aruz’s heroic status is seen and inferred. 

The present study determines that the transformative positioning of Beyrek’s character in the third and the last boy reflects varied contexts, but important structural elements are repeated through ritual, and Beyrek’s character assumes the position of mediacy. The article discusses the topical construction of the aspect of ritual in the lower layer of the thematic framework of the last boy and evinces the presence of a status changing ritual within this structure. The epic contrast is reflected on the thematic structure as a value-based opposition, and the ritual reinstated in six thematic contexts is actually a status changing ceremony. It is explicated that Oghuz Khan represents the figure that caused the formation of the first cosmogonic processes. Cosmogony is not comprised merely of universe-congenital elements but also the cosmogonic process. The concerned process is directly related to Oghuz Khan’s foundational role in the world and is associated with the modeling of the Oghuz cosmos in the texts that mention his name. The study ultimately reports that the world model labeled Üç Ok - Boz Ok (Three Arrows - Dun Arrow) was created by Oghuz Khan and was reinstated by the Oghuzs in the status changing ritual described in the last boy. It would be impossible to restore the Inner Oghuz-Outer Oghuz cosmos (world order) without grounding it in this model.