Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
K165 — Seeking to experience fear, ATU 326.
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
OverviewThe young man has never experienced fear and wants to know what it is like. Robbers and evil spirits do not frighten him.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
K16 has 1 other sub-motifs
RelatedK16. Taking the form of a bird, bat, insect, small animal, or fish, the man enters the young woman's home (her father's house).
K16a. In an effort to show that he is a good hunter, a man regularly walks in front of a girl, pretending to carry prey. Once he slips, and the imaginary prey turns out to be a scarecrow stuffed with ashes or a bundle of termites.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K57C | 99.91% | The prince puts a ring on the finger of a beautiful girl, not knowing that she is the very girl who works in his kitchen. The girl slips the ring into the prince's food, and he recognises it. |
| M106E | 99.89% | A man says that provisions have been made for the winter, in case of need, etc. In the absence of the owner, a man enters the house and claims that his name is Winter (Ramadan, Necessity, etc.). The woman thinks that her husband meant this man and gives him all the provisions. |
| M157A6 | 99.89% | To help a person answer the ruler's questions, a servant or friend impersonates him and gives witty answers. Most often, the ruler asks, among other things, what he is thinking at the moment. Answer: you think you are looking at one person, but in fact it is another. |
| M118A | 99.85% | The chieftain (demon) brings robbers (other demons) to the courtyard of someone else's house, hiding them in empty jugs, barrels, etc. At night, they are supposed to attack the owners. A girl or young woman (less often, the owner of the house) learns of the danger and destroys the robbers (usually by pouring boiling water into each jug or barrel). |
| B117 | 99.84% | A document issued to animals (usually dogs) is lost through the fault of a cat (swallowed by a cat, burned, gnawed by mice). Since then, dogs and cats (usually also cats and mice) have been at enmity. |
| K38E3 | 99.82% | Among three (less often two or four) loci or objects associated with materials of high but varying degrees of value, the highest belongs to precious stones (usually diamonds, but also glass and crystal). |
| I138 | 99.82% | The glass mountain (tower, bridge) is mentioned as an unusual (inaccessible) locus. |
| B33C | 99.81% | The month on the border between winter and spring (usually March) takes (rarely: buys, steals) a few days from its neighbour. |
| K33E | 99.80% | Newborn children disappear (die) one after another, but are returned to their wife or husband grown up and in good health. |
| L23C | 99.80% | Trying to free himself, the captured character sequentially changes his appearance. The last transformation is a small wooden object (usually a spindle). When this object is broken in half, the character permanently regains his human form. |
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
38 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 38 traditions: Saudi Arabia, Arabs of Levant (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan); Bedouins of Sinai, Arabs of Iraq, Iraqi, Arabs of Egypt, Berbers of southern Tunisia and adjacent part of Libya (Matmata and Ghadames areas), Malagasy, Spain, Spaniards, Portuguese, Portugal, Catalan, Aragon, Sardinia, Corsica, Sardinians, Corsicans, France, Germans: North (Low- and Central German dialects): Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg, Pommern, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony, incl East Frisia and Oldenburg), Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Thüringen, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen, Brandenburg, Rügen, Poles, Slovakians, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Croatians, Croats; Italians of Dalmatia (if the motif is absent among other Italians), Lithuanians, Latvians, Livonians, Estonians, Finns, Western Sami, Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, Danish, Western Ukrainians, Tats, Anatolia Turks, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Mari (Cheremis), Arabs (literary tradition; incl. One Thousand and One Nights), Icelanders, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Russian Federation
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