Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
J38 — Stuck claws.
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 mighty bird sinks its claws into a huge aquatic creature. The claws get stuck in its body. The bird is dragged underwater or struggles to free itself.
Berezkin category: Avenger heroes: The amerinday cycle
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| I112 | 96.18% | The boat is a living creature with a mouth, a fish. |
| K8C4 | 96.10% | A small animal (bird, mouse, porcupine, fox) or (rarely) a tiny human being allows itself to be swallowed by a large ungulate (elk, deer, bison, tapir) in order to rip open its belly (and eat it). |
| M42 | 95.88% | The character takes his eyes out of his orbits and loses them. He usually regains his eyes later, makes new ones, takes away from another character, etc. See the M41 motif. |
| F51A | 95.30% | After incest is discovered, the sister openly demands her brother as her husband, turns into a monster, and kills people. |
| F65C | 94.85% | A man pretends to be dead (in order to marry his daughter or to be able to eat the meat of hunted animals alone). One of his younger children recognises their (adoptive) father or notices that the supposed dead man is alive (he runs away from the funeral pyre, laughs, etc.). |
| F58 | 94.75% | The character spends the night with a group of women, concealing his nature and/or intentions. In the end, he is either identified and punished, or he slips away to continue his mischief. |
| L97 | 94.59% | Seeing a character who is unable to move (nailed to the ground, his lower body rooted to the ground, petrified, completely absent), the hero himself manages to avoid a similar fate. |
| M41 | 94.56% | The character throws his eyes (an inhaler has a tooth) up or into the distance. At first they return to the eye sockets, but then they disappear. |
| I93 | 94.06% | The Milky Way â the backbone, support, pillar of the sky or world. |
| B75B1 | 94.01% | The character pushes his mother-in-law or wife into a hollow, and she turns into the creaking of trees or an echo. |
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
23 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 23 traditions: Persians, Mansi, Southern Selkups, Northern Selkups, Kets, Chukchi, Central Yupik, Bering Strait Inupiat (incl. King Island), North Alaskan Inupiat, Haida, Heiltsuk (Bellabella), Oowekeeno, Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw), Nootka (Nu-chah-nulth), Makah, Menominee, Sauk (Sak, Mesquakie), Fox, Kickapoo, Winnebago, Lkungen (Straits; including Samish, Songish, Sooke, Lummi), Klallam, Comox, Pentlatch, Sechelt (incl Sisiatl), Squamish, Halcomelem, Quileute, Chemakum (Hoh), Hopi, Mundurucu, Curuaia, Manao, Katawishi (Teffe lake); groups of uncertain affiliation mostly from Rio Jamunda
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