Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
J12M — A woman turns into a duck.
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
OverviewA woman or two sisters come to two men and become wives of one of them. The other kills or tries to kill his rival or the women. As a result, the women turn into waterfowl.
Berezkin category: Avenger heroes: The amerinday cycle
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks 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.
J12 has 13 other sub-motifs
RelatedJ12. A girl or two sisters wander, usually in search of a suitable groom or husband who has left or lives far away. Along the way or upon reaching their destination, they encounter false suitors. (Traditions in which two heroines travel rather than one are highlighted in bold (motif j13).
J12a. A girl or two sisters come to an old woman who invites them to marry her son. In reality, he is a worm, a snake or a penis, which his mother hides in a vessel during the day. The girl (sisters) do not allow him to approach them and run away. See motif J12.
J12b. A honey groom or a skilled honey gatherer is attractive to a girl.
J12c. A girl meets her fiancé at a dance and then follows in his footsteps. See motif J12.
J12d. After a girl marries a worthy suitor, the rejected suitor or his relatives kill the rival. See motif J12.
J12E. The false bridegroom - skunk. See motif J12.
J12F. False groom - eagle owl/owl. See motif J12.
J12G. The false bridegroom is a bird that lives on or near water. See motif J12.
J12H. The false groom - the opossum.
J12I. A desirable marriage partner secretes beads instead of saliva or excrement. See motifs J12 and M57.
J12j. A girl or sisters end up with a false groom who plays the role of a jester in the chief's house. See motif J12.
J12k. Desirable and undesirable marriage partners live in the same house. The undesirable partner is a servant or junior partner, usually pretending to be the master.
J12l. The murderer pretends to mourn the victim along with everyone else. The deception is revealed, and the murderer is pursued. See motif J12.
J12m. A woman or two sisters come to two men and become wives of one of them. The other kills or tries to kill his rival or the women. As a result, the women turn into waterfowl.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| B95 | 100.00% | The appearance of the sphincter or buttocks is explained by the fact that a certain character burned his backside. |
| J41 | 99.75% | The hero leaves for a long time. When he returns, his relative does not immediately believe that it is really him. All this time, someone has been mocking him or her, imitating the voice of the departed, saying that he has returned and/or throwing ashes in his or her face. |
| M66 | 99.05% | After eating certain foods frivolously or rubbing his body with his spine, the character suffers from itching, diarrhea, or an irrepressible eruption of intestinal gases. |
| M65 | 98.73% | trickster bakes meat obtained by trick, deception; immobilized by sticking to a tree, ground, or stone; at this time, another character (fox, wolf, coyote, birds) eats all the meat. See M53 motif. |
| K1J | 98.20% | The abandoned one turns into a bird and returns home faster than the one who abandoned him. |
| M65B | 97.83% | Having resorted to deception, the character kills the game, but the thieves take the loot. See M53 motif. |
| H53 | 97.07% | The wolf participates in the creation of the earth or is the brother of the creator and/or conqueror of the demons of the underworld. He dies and/or is considered the first to die and/or becomes the lord of the land of the dead. |
| L5E1 | 96.61% | A woman who has become a monster pursues her own children. |
| M29Q | 96.61% | See the motives in square brackets. |
| M65A | 96.48% | The trees are creaking in the wind. Hearing a creak, the character climbs a tree and gets stuck. See M65 motif. |
See the 100 most similar distributions →
Map of motif dispersal
DistributionDrag the map to pan, use the scroll wheel to zoom — choose a texture or projection below
Traditions
6 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 6 traditions: Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Menominee, Potawatomi, Plains Ojibwa
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