Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
K75A — Throwing an apple at a suitor, H316.
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 character chooses one of many suitors (a woman chooses a husband, a boy chooses a father, a young man chooses a bride) by throwing an object (often an apple) at him. Cf. motif K113A (throwing an object at random, not at a person who is nearby).
Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
K75 has 6 other sub-motifs
RelatedK75. The girl (usually the youngest of the sisters) does not reject the hero, who temporarily takes the form of an animal, a freak, an old man, a poor man, or a loser, or she picks up the hero's remains and he comes back to life. After some time, the hero reveals his true nature.
K75a. The character chooses one of many suitors (a woman chooses a husband, a boy chooses a father, a young man chooses a bride) by throwing an object (often an apple) at him. Cf. motif K113A (throwing an object at random, not at a person who is nearby).
K75a1. The ruler orders his youngest daughter (and her chosen husband) to live in conditions that do not correspond to her status. He does not know that her chosen one is not a poor wretch, as he seems, but a mighty warrior and a handsome man.
K75a2. Appearing incognito to an authoritative figure, the hero works for him as a gardener.
K75a3. Appearing incognito to an authoritative character, the hero works for him as a groom.
K75b. Wanting to show that it is time for them to marry, daughters of different ages send their father fruits of varying degrees of ripeness (bread baked in different ways).
K75c. The devil promises a person wealth if he does not wash (cut his hair, etc.) for a certain period of time; both keep their promises.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K123A | 98.99% | A boy or young man accidentally, or more often out of mischief, breaks or overturns a vessel belonging to a woman or girl. This episode forms the basis of the rest of the story. |
| K96 | 98.74% | Several (more than three) brothers marry or must marry in such a way that their wives are sisters. |
| K35A | 98.57% | In exchange for improving his current situation, the character agrees to have his body injured or branded. |
| K121 | 98.35% | At the crossroads, it is indicated that one road is safe, another is neutral, and the third is deadly dangerous. There can only be two roads – dangerous and safe. The hero travels along the dangerous road. |
| K73B | 98.28% | A woman falsely accused of murdering her newborn child, or of giving birth to a puppy instead of a child, etc., is subjected to cruel and humiliating punishment or execution. See motif K73. |
| M116A | 98.22% | A man drags his father, intending to leave him to die in a deserted place, give him to an almshouse, throw him into a precipice, etc. He stops on the way. The father says that he also stopped at this place when he was dragging his father. Or the boy asks to keep the sledge, the skin, etc., on which his father is dragging his grandfather (or takes half of the cloak with which his father covered the old man): it will come in handy when he drags his father himself. Or the old man is given a wooden (broken, etc.) plate to eat from, and the boy says that he will give his father the same one when he grows old. The man brings his father home (begins to take care of him). |
| M198B2 | 98.10% | An authoritative character asks a person whose name (or his wife's name) is the name of an insect (most often Grasshopper) to guess what is in his fist (in a box, etc.). The corresponding insect is there. The person says that now he, so-and-so, has been caught, while others think that he has guessed correctly. |
| I25A | 97.99% | The character gives herbivorous animals food intended for carnivores, and carnivores food intended for herbivores; the character sees that the animals have food that is inedible for them and corrects the situation. |
| M75B | 97.97% | A person hides in the skin or carcass of a large animal. A bird brings a skin or carcass to the nest without knowing what it brought the person. |
| J32A1 | 97.87% | But at night someone tramples the field, steals hay, etc. The hero learns that it is horses doing this. |
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
67 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 67 traditions: Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Mehri; Harsusi, Jibbali (Shahri, Shauri), Soqotri, Arabs of Levant (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan); Bedouins of Sinai, Arabs of Iraq, Iraqi, Arabs of Egypt, Berbers of Morocco and adjacent parts of Algeria, Algeria Arabs, Arabs of Sudan, Sudanese, Nuba, Bhuiya (now Aryans, originally Munda; Rahman 1955: 203), Baiga, Bhaina, Bhumia (subgroup of Baiga, incl Bharia, formerly Munda, now speak Indo-Aryan languages of neighboring groups), Kachin (Singpho), Chak, Indian literary tradition (Vedic, Brahman, Purana, Indian Buddhism, Hinduism, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchtantra, Jatakas); iconography of Hindu temples, Bengali, Hindi-speaking peoples and casts (incl. Teli, Parahiya; incl. Chhattisgarhi) of Northern and West-Central India, England, British, Bretons, Spain, Spaniards, Basques, Sicily, Sicilians, 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, Czech, Czechs, Slovakians, Slovaks, Hungarians, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Macedonians, Balkarians, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Croatians, Croats; Italians of Dalmatia (if the motif is absent among other Italians), Albanians, Balkarians, Lithuanians, Danes, Danish, Uzbek, Wakhi, Ishkashimi (including Sanglich), Munji, Yazgulami, Tajik, Persians, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Avar, Andi, Akhvakh, Kumyk, Terekemen, Nogai, Tats, Georgians, Armenians, Kalmyk, Azeris (Azerbaijanis), Talysh, Kara Kalpak, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Uyghur, Hui (Dungan) of Xinjiang, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan (Dungan texts from Southern and Eastern China are clustered with the Chinese ones), Turkmen, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Bashkirs, Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal), Arabs (literary tradition; incl. One Thousand and One Nights), Luri, Bakhtiari, Kordofan, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Lutsi (Ludza), Berbers of Algeria, Tunisia, Iraq, Yemen, China
If you wish to get access to data for projects and research, then please contact us, we do our best to help
How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
0009-0006-1672-4451
Where applicable, users should also cite the relevant original sources, catalogues, and classification systems, including Berezkin, ATU, Thompson, and other cited authorities, alongside the page accessed and the last time accessed.
Editorial annotations and database enhancements © Jonathan Fielder-White licensed under CC BY 4.0. Berezkin-derived narrative and metadata licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Full rights information can be found here.
All rights are reserved in the database structure, selection, arrangement, metadata, classifications, software, interface design, and original editorial content.
Important: The Folklore Database expressly reserves all rights in relation to text and data mining, automated extraction, scraping, machine learning, dataset creation, and the training, development, validation, or improvement of artificial intelligence technologies or systems. No part of this website or database may be scraped, copied, reproduced, harvested, downloaded in bulk, or otherwise used for AI training or commercial data extraction without prior written permission.
Designed and Developed by Jon Fielder-White.
© 2024–2026 Crecganford / Jonathan Fielder-White. All rights reserved.