İnsanlık tarihinde aile kurma ve akrabalık tesisi için evlilik ön şart olarak kabul edilmiştir. En ilkel toplumlardan günümüze kadar evlilik, belli uygulamalara bağlı olarak gerçekleştirilen törenlere dönüşmüştür. Eş seçiminden evlilik töreninin son aşamasına kadar uygulanan birtakım kalıp davranışlar ve uygulamalar toplumdan topluma çeşitlilik göstermektedir. İster sıradan bir insan olsun isterse bir destan kahramanı alp olsun tüm erkekler, evlenmek istedikleri kız için belli birtakım sınavlardan geçmek zorundadırlar. Destan kahramanı alpların evlilik maceraları, sıradan insanlara göre çok daha zor ve çetin geçer. Alpların kendilerine uygun eşi arayıp bularak her türlü şartı yerine getirip bir dizi sınavlardan geçtikten sonra onunla evlenmesi "alplara mahsus evlilik" veya "kahramanın evlenme yolculuğu" olarak tarif edilmektedir. Epik kahramanın biyografisinin tamamlanmasında önemli bir aşama olan evlilik konusu, birçok destanda ana tema olarak ele alınmıştır. Ana teması evlilik olmayan destanlarda ise evlilik, kahramanın atılacağı başka maceralar için köprü görevi görür. Orta Asya bozkırlarından Balkanlara kadar uzanan geniş sahada teşekkül eden ve hâlâ gelişmekte olan Köroğlu destanı, "Batı" ve "Orta Asya" olmak üzere iki ana kolda genişleyip yayılmıştır. Bu çalışmada Batı versiyonunun Anadolu sahası Köroğlu kolları, "Köse Kenan ile Dana Hanım Kolu" merkeze alınmak suretiyle alplara mahsus evlilik bağlamında incelenecektir. Bu yapılırken zaman zaman Dedem Korkut'un yiğitlerinden alplara mahsus bir şekilde evlenen Kan Turalı'nın evlilik macerasına göndermeler yapılacaktır

In human history marriage was admmitted as pre-condition for family and kindred. From primitive communities to modern day, marriage transformed into that occurs according to certain implementations. These implementations and patterns applied from choice of couple to the last step of marriage vary in societies. Either an ordinary man or a gallant, all man have to struggle for his woman. But the marriage adventures of the gallant are more though and ardous. Having find the appropriate match, fulfilling all the necessities and marriying her is defined as “common marriage of warriors (alp)” or “marriage progress of a hero”. The marriage issue, an important stage in completing the biography of a heroic person has been dealt as a main idea. In legends, which’s main idea isn’t about marriage, the marriage issue acts as a bridge to other adventures of a hero that he will embark on. The Legend of Köroğlu, consist of al large region from Middle Asia moorlands to Balkans, expanded in two main branches: “West Asia Legend” and “Middle Asia Legend”. The West Asia version of Köroğlu Legend is formed by the narratives appears in Azerbeijan, Anatolia, Balkans settlements and neighbour Turkish settlements. On the other hand, Middle Asia version contains the narratives, belong to Turkomen, Uzbekh, Kazakh, Kırghız, Tatar and Uyghur and Arabic and Tadjiki narratives belong to Bukhara Arabs and Tadjik Turks. Behçet Mahir in his Köroğlu versions narrates the marriage adventures of “Köse Kenan and Miss Dana”, “Köroğlu and Han Nigar”, “Mr. Hasan and Telli Nigar”, “Han Avaz and Mine Sultan”, “Mr. Kiziroğlu Mustafa and Suna Şah”, and “Esebali and Miss Dönek”. In this marriages the most similar type to the form “common marriage of worriors” is Köse Kenan and Miss Dana. In this case, Anatolian area’s Köroğlu versions were studied via centeralizing Köse Kenen and Miss Dana story as part of the marriage type for warriors. In the survey ironies has been made from the warriors (alp) of Dedem Korkut to marriage adventures of Kan turalı. In conclusion, it has been confirmed that the marriage adventures in Köroğlu Legend occured according to schema below. 1- Specification about the marriage request and obtaining information about the girl 2- Going on a trip 3- Entering the hometown of the future wife by hiding the identity 4- Expressing the being of relative 5- Selection the girl 6- Achievement the difficult tasks 7- Return to hometown and the weddingThe marriage adventure which is one of the circles of the process of performing and proven self of the warrior(alp) who is the hero of an epic comes true via the hero’s coming back to hometown after the achievements the different tasks in the different places that he doesn’t know. The marriage adventure of the hero creates the main theme in some epics. In the case, as you can see the main theme in the subsection of Köse Kenan and Miss Dana is the marriage. With the marriage’s coming alive, the subsection’s case chain is complated. In the case which contains an exclusive context of the the warriors(alplar)’s marriages of Köroğlu epic’s west version’s subsections, the 17 subsections that compiled from Behçet Mahir were examined and the six of that 17 subsections (Köse Kenan and Miss Dana, Köroğlu and Han Nigar, Hasan Bey and Telli Nigar, Han Ayvaz and Mine Sultan, Mr. Kiziroğlu Mustafa and Suna Şah and Esebali and Dönek Hanım) were determined as ‘’ common marriage of warriors’’. The characteristics that were determined became stereotypes in some subsections. The marriage adventure that in the Köroğlu subsections is close to the marriage event of Kanlı Koca Oğlu Kan Turalı Story from Dede Korkut Stories. Kan Turalı talked about the characteristics that he wants in the girl who will marry in the future. The most important characteristic was the being a warrior (alp) like him. In the case of Köse Kenan and Miss Dana, the reason the Köse Kenan’s going on a marriage trip was not the beauty of the Miss Dana, the reason was Miss Dana’s brave personality. In the other Köroğlu subsections, the definations of the beautiful girls were enough to go on a trip for the warriors (keleş). In that subsections, the beauty was more important than being brave. Going on a marriage trip is a special thing to man heroes. The marriage girls were waiting for the men in a passive way. Selcen Hatun waited for the war between her suitors and the three monters. But Miss Dana waited for her suitors to wrestle. She was separate for this case, she had an active role in the events. Köse Kenan and Kan Turalı had no competitor in their marriage adventure. Miss Dana’s suitors were eleminated by Miss Dana in the “grey square(boz meydan)”. Kan Turalı’s competitors were killed by a bull and even they didn’t see the other two monsters. In some subsections, the girl who will marry didn’t want to an achievement about a task, she can help her hero to go away. – Hasan Bey Telli Nigar version takes attention about this case.- In that way, the marriage became a going away from warriors’ specific way. As in Kanlı Koca Oğlu Kan Turalı Story, in Köroğlu versions the marriage types “egzogami” and “monogami” were idealized. The glorificaiton of egzogami and monogami in Köroğlu versions shows that these versions have the memory of ancient times. In that version, some warriors(keleşler) married with the beatiful girls without being a war and going away became a marriage way and only warriors’ marriage type turned to lovers’ marriage type in the public stories.