Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
J53C — One friend kills another.
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
OverviewTwo women live together, both have children. One of them leaves the house with the other, kills her and (later) eats her. The children of the murdered woman escape. See motif J52.
Berezkin category: Avenger heroes: The amerinday cycle
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
J53 has 5 other sub-motifs
RelatedJ53. The children of a character associated with a hoofed animal (deer, antelope) come into conflict with an enemy associated with a predator or a larger hoofed animal. They kill his children and/or run away from him. See motif J52.
J53a. A character invites another to play. The latter follows the rules, but the initiator of the game does not and kills the other.
J53a1. The children of the murdered man kill the murderer's children, luring them to a place where they perish from heat or smoke.
J53b. Two women live together, both have children. One of them leaves the house with the other, kills her, brings her meat home and starts cooking it. The children of the deceased notice their mother's breasts (in California â eyes or liver), or the mother's breasts themselves turn to her children.
J53c. Two women live together, both have children. One of them leaves the house with the other, kills her and (later) eats her. The children of the murdered woman escape. See motif J52.
J53c1. Two women live together, both have children. One of them kills and (then) eats the other. The killer is associated with a grizzly bear, and the victim with a smaller species of bear.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| M42C | 98.80% | Falling off a cliff and breaking his leg, the character eats his bone marrow. |
| M46A | 98.47% | The character turns into a baby, is picked up by the owners of valuables, and then steals valuables or converges with a woman. The baby is not a demonic creature and does not intend to kill those who pick it up (cf. Motive L60). |
| J52A | 98.02% | A she-bear or bear treacherously kills his companion, neighbour, etc., who is associated with a herbivorous animal or a weaker predator. The victim's children take revenge by killing the murderer's children or flee. See motifs J52, J54. |
| K8C4 | 97.92% | 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). |
| H22 | 97.69% | Large game animals did not have a sense of smell. They acquired it and began to flee from hunters after someone created olfactory organs for them or gave them a strong smell to smell. Cf. motif H22A. |
| J53A | 97.52% | A character invites another to play. The latter follows the rules, but the initiator of the game does not and kills the other. |
| K23A | 96.74% | Birds use their feathers as arrows, or falling feathers cover the mouths of their victims. |
| M50 | 96.71% | The character tries to join a group of stars (usually the Pleiades) or catch up with characters who run away from him and turn into stars; the goal of the persecution is sexual contact or the desire to be reunited with family. |
| I93 | 96.69% | The Milky Way â the backbone, support, pillar of the sky or world. |
| I118 | 96.48% | A female spider (less commonly, an old spider) protects the hero or heroine, who live with her, and the hero marries her daughter. (Texts in which the spider only lifts the hero up to the sky or lowers him to the ground are not included; see motif I117). |
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
26 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 26 traditions: Kalenjin; including Sabaot, Nandi (Nande), Arusha, Kipsigis, Pokot (Suk), Keiyo (Elgeiyo), Marakwet, Sebeei, Northern Halmahera Papuans: Galela, Loda, Pagu, Modole, Tabaru (Tobaru), Tobelo, Tidore, Ternate, Numfoor, Warope, Wamesa (Wandamen, Windesi), Sinhalese; Vedda, Lavrung, Jiarong; Qiang (incl rGyalrong), Western Sami, Eastern Sami (including Skolts), Mansi, Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Nenets, Nganasans, Southern Selkups, Northern Selkups, Kets, Menominee, Shuswap, Thompson (Nlaka'pamux), Lkungen (Straits; including Samish, Songish, Sooke, Lummi), Klallam, Oregon Athabaskans: Lower Umpqua, Tututni (incl Joshua), Upper Coquille, Galice, Tolowa, Klamath, Modoc, Wailaki, Mattole, Lassik, Sinkyone, Cahto, Northern Paiute (=Paviotso), Andoque, Mataco, Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal), Salars
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