Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

H20 — Released fish.

141 Myths, legends and folktales

141 Unique narratives for motif H20

56 Cultures & traditions where H20 is told

1 Sub-motifs of motif H20

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Source data for narratives and traditions is drawn from Berezkin’s Analytical Catalogue. If you use this data, please acknowledge and link to it: Ю.Е. Березкин, Е.Н. Дувакин. Тематическая классификация и распределение фольклорно-мифологических мотивов по ареалам. Аналитический каталог.

Summary of motif

Overview

All the fish or (rarely) molluscs were concentrated in one place. A certain character allows them to escape or deliberately releases them into rivers or the sea. {In some cases, the theme of the spread of fish concentrated in a small container is difficult to separate from the theme of the spread of water. In any case, neither of these exist in Africa}.

Berezkin category: Paradise Lost

This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 7, Etiology of plants and animals and of their peculiar features, particular animals as protagonists of cosmological stories, metamorphoses, weather and calendar.

H20 has 1 other sub-motifs

H20. All the fish or (rarely) molluscs were concentrated in one place. A certain character allows them to escape or deliberately releases them into rivers or the sea. {In some cases, the theme of the spread of fish concentrated in a small container is difficult to separate from the theme of the spread of water. In any case, neither of these exist in Africa}.
H20a. A woman or several women keep fish or water in some kind of container; a man releases all the fish into rivers or the sea, releases the water. See motif H20.

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of H20’s motifs

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny

Motif	Similarity	Motif summary
J44	96.91%	The hero lures the enemy onto a rickety bridge. The enemy falls into the water, into the abyss (see motif J46). See motif J52.
K3	95.96%	The hero climbs a tree or rock to get bird eggs, chicks, fruit, honey, etc. He cannot climb down because another character makes the tree (rock) very tall or makes the tree trunk thick. See motif K1A.
B29	95.68%	People turn into animals, birds or stones, living beings acquire their current characteristics at a general meeting, festival, after a festival, after performing a ritual or after defeating a common enemy.
F94	95.63%	A man ascends to the upper world, where he can choose a wife associated with either life or death.
B14	95.57%	In order to regulate the flow of the river in a certain way, the character creates rapids and waterfalls.
A34	95.45%	The jackal, coyote or fox are associated with the moon (usually with the appearance of lunar spots).
K87A	95.31%	A forest woman receives or kidnaps a little boy and raises him to be her lover.
B28	95.17%	Travelling from one locality to another, the character successively transforms people into birds and animals, into stones, sanctuaries (or transforms monstrous animals into ordinary ones), establishes cultural norms, determines the biological characteristics of creatures, the appearance of the locality, etc.
H32A	95.10%	A young woman is the embodiment of fertility; she comes to live with people, and food becomes readily available. The woman is wronged, she leaves, and the superabundance ends.
M8A	94.44%	Animals, and more often birds, find it difficult to break through a rock from the outside or inside, make a hole in the tree, in the body of an absorber creature, tear fetters, etc., to help a character or get out of the confined space by yourself. The list <b><i>includes</i></b> groups whose texts deal with the exit of the first ancestors to earth from a confined space.

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Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

56 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 56 traditions: Sepik-Ramu stock: Abelam, Yatmul, Aibom, Ayom (incl Tembregak, Asai-river pygmies), Tangu, Porapora (Ambakich), Rao and other groups of Middle Ramu and Upper Keram River tribes; Kwanga, Watam, Kaian, Gamei, Awar; Kire (Lower Ramu), Southern Solomons: southern part of Santa Ysabel (Bughotu), Guadalcanal, San Cristobal, Malaita, Ulawa, Central Vanuatu: Espiritu Santo, Araki, Aore, Maewo, Malekula, Vao, Efate (Vate), Nguna, Mae, Ambrim, Pentecost, Oba (=Aoba, East Ambae, Lepers'), Omba, Hawaii, Batak (Toba, Dairi), Basques, Nganasans, Inland Tlingit, Koyukon, Tanana, Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw), Nootka (Nu-chah-nulth), Makah, Malecite, Passamaquoddy, Micmac, Wawenock, Abenaki, Penobscot, Sarsee (Tsuu T'ina), Shuswap, Thompson (Nlaka'pamux), Lushootseed (Puget Sound: Puyallup, Nisqualmi, Snuqualmi, Duwamish, Muckleshoot, Snohomish, Skagit), Lower Chehalis, Upper Chehalis, (Lower) Cowlitz, Western Sahaptin (Upper Cowlitz, Klikitat, Tenino, Umatilla, Yakima, Wallawalla), Nez Perce, Tillamook, Kalapuya, Okanagon, Sanpoil, Kutenai, Karok, Hupa, Chilula, Yurok, Pomo, Northern Paiute (=Paviotso), Northern Shoshone, Tepehua, Totonac, Kekchi; Mopan, Guajiro, Wapishana (incl Ataroi); Mapidian; Taruma, Napo (Quijo), Kanelo (“Jungle Kechua”), Kofan, Barasana, Taibano, Macuna, Letuama, Tanimuca, Ufaina, Yahuna, Kabiyari, Yukuna (Yucuna), Baniwa (incl. Wakuenai), Bare, Piapoco, Curripaco, Siusi, Guarikena , Tariana, Lima dep: Costa and adjacent Sierra (Spanish, Kechua, and Jacaru-speaking communities, mostly in Pachacamac, Cajatambo, Canta, Huarochirí; Spanish sources of XVI-XVII centuries), Tupari, Makurap, Sakirap, Ajuru (Wayoro), Mehinaku, Waura, Yaulapiti, Ayoreo, Chamacoco (Ishir), Mataco, Chorote, Toba (incl Pilagá), Upper Chinook: Wasco, Wishram, Clackamas, Kathlamet

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