Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
K45B — A woman becomes an aquatic animal.
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 man and a woman belonging to different generations (father – daughter, son – mother) come into conflict, as a result of which the woman turns into a marine mammal, the mistress of marine mammals, or a frog.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
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.
K45 has 2 other sub-motifs
RelatedK45. A man and a woman belonging to different generations (father – daughter, son – mother) come into conflict. The man sails away from the woman in a boat or on a raft, or leaves her on a sledge. When she tries to grab the edge of the boat (raft, sled), he cuts off her fingers. (The common motif among the Warrau and Eskimos was first noted by O. Zerries [Zerries 1954: 346, 376]).
K45a. A man sails away from a woman or girl in a boat or on a raft. When she tries to grab the edge of the boat (raft), he cuts off her fingers. The fingers turn into aquatic animals.
K45b. A man and a woman belonging to different generations (father – daughter, son – mother) come into conflict, as a result of which the woman turns into a marine mammal, the mistress of marine mammals, or a frog.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K45 | 99.95% | A man and a woman belonging to different generations (father – daughter, son – mother) come into conflict. The man sails away from the woman in a boat or on a raft, or leaves her on a sledge. When she tries to grab the edge of the boat (raft, sled), he cuts off her fingers. (The common motif among the Warrau and Eskimos was first noted by O. Zerries [Zerries 1954: 346, 376]). |
| F91 | 98.68% | A man finds or breeds monstrous worms to eat his wife. |
| K45A | 98.68% | A man sails away from a woman or girl in a boat or on a raft. When she tries to grab the edge of the boat (raft), he cuts off her fingers. The fingers turn into aquatic animals. |
| F9E | 98.36% | Small mammals with sharp teeth are found in a woman's vagina. |
| I123 | 98.36% | Altair with a small neighbouring star from the constellation Aquila or Vega with a similarly faint star are considered to appear during or immediately after the winter solstice, although they are actually visible before that. |
| K51A | 97.93% | One woman comes to another in the absence of a man and kills her by pushing her rival's head into boiling liquid or pouring boiling water or hot fat into her ear. See motif K51. |
| M123C | 97.80% | A non-migratory bird sets off south with migratory birds, but is unable to reach its destination. |
| E15B | 97.33% | Bird women sew the birch bark covering of the hero's boat. See motif E15. |
| E9AA | 97.33% | A man searches for a missing woman, who is a fox by nature, and comes to the burrow where she has hidden. Various bird or animal women come out of the burrow and offer themselves in place of the fox. Then they let him inside. |
| F51C | 97.33% | Upon learning that her unknown lover is her own brother, the girl shows him her genitals or bare breasts, offering him what he so desired. After that, she runs away, and he rushes after her. |
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
12 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 12 traditions: Chukchi, North Alaskan Inupiat, Netsilik, Caribou, Iglulik, Polar Inuit, Baffin Land Inuit, West Greenland, Labrador Inuit (Koksoagmiut), Cuna; XVI century data on Eastern Panama, Warao, Greenland
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