Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
K76A — The frog son and the frog husband.
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 frog or toad marries a beautiful woman, or a handsome young man marries a frog.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 9, Identification of protagonists of the stories with particular animals or persons with particular qualities.
K76 has 9 other sub-motifs
RelatedK76. A boy who is born or found has a strange or ugly appearance (ball, nut, sack, half-human, dwarf, animal), but then demonstrates magical powers and turns out to be handsome (usually getting a bride of high status). The princess's magical spouse initially has a non-human or ugly appearance.
K76a. A frog or toad marries a beautiful woman, or a handsome young man marries a frog.
K76b. The son or foster son of snake spouses. He turns into a human. The snake is the princess's magical spouse, lost and returned.
K76c. The son (rarely – daughter) or foster child of a married couple emerges from a pumpkin (rarely: watermelon, nut) or is found inside it.
k76c1. A woman gives birth to a pumpkin, inside which there is a person (many people) or which turns into a person.
K76d. The son or foster child of a married couple is a hedgehog. He marries a princess and turns into a handsome man.
K76e. The son (daughter) or foster child of a married couple is a pig. He marries a princess and turns into a handsome man (she marries a handsome man).
K76f. A young man with the appearance of a calf marries and then turns into a handsome man.
K76g. The son or foster son of a married couple – a crab. He marries a princess and turns into a handsome man.
K76h. A young man, temporarily having a strange or monstrous appearance (freak, animal, etc.), woos a princess, but is rejected. Then he causes natural disasters or creates personal troubles for the king, who is forced to give up his daughter.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K73A6 | 99.02% | Malicious women kill (throw away) her wonderful children. Trees (flowers) grow from their remains, later reincarnating into humans. |
| M196A | 99.01% | Arguing over a trivial matter, a husband and wife (or one of them) lie down and do not move, and people gather to bury them. At the last moment, the supposed dead person opens their mouth, and people think that the dead have come back to life; or the supposed dead person is actually buried in the ground. |
| M84D | 98.52% | A person hears trees talking, one of which is (fatally) ill and suffers. |
| K95 | 97.96% | Two people who love each other (usually a man and a woman) die prematurely and are buried in the same grave or nearby. After or during the burial, something unusual happens that is connected with the story (special plants grow in that place, the smoke from the two funeral pyres joins together, the dead turn into two birds, two stars, etc.). |
| M75B3 | 97.12% | Enemies are shown a life-size or larger image of a horse or bull. Not realizing that this is a ruse, they bring the figure to their own territory and are defeated as a result. |
| K15 | 97.04% | A woman swears that she has not been with anyone except (her husband and) a dirty beggar. Others do not know that her lover has taken on the appearance of a beggar. |
| K27ZY | 96.98% | A young man (woman) lives in the house of a cannibal (witch). In order to destroy him or her, the cannibal orders that a certain object be brought from other cannibals (often from his or her mother or sister). The hero or heroine escapes (and destroys all the cannibals). |
| L108C | 96.94% | To prevent the victim from recognising him and opening the door, the predator, the cannibal, shows part of his clothing, his hand, his paw, making the victim believe that his mother, teacher, etc. has come. |
| M198B4 | 96.79% | The fake fortune teller, expecting to be exposed, utters words that reflect his state of mind. The thieves standing nearby perceive some of the words as their names, believe that the fortune teller has found out about them, and ask him not to reveal them. |
| K80 | 96.68% | The character transforms into objects or creatures, which another character systematically destroys. However, the character (usually a young woman) is reborn each time in a new form and eventually in her original 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
24 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 24 traditions: Shan, Ahom, Khampti, Garo (Atchik), Kachari (Bodo, incl. Lalung), Dimasa, Tripuri, Riang (of Tripura), Khami, Riga, Mori, Assamese, Sinhalese; Vedda, Miao (Hmong) and Yao of Southern China, Meo (Hmong) of Thailand, Laos and Northern Vietnam, Lavrung, Jiarong; Qiang (incl rGyalrong), Koreans, Ireland, England, British, Bretons, Spain, Spaniards, 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, Hungarians, Norwegians, 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), Mongols (Khalkha), Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Nanai, Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal), Toto, Rabha (northern Western Bengalia), Bhutan, China, Japan, Russian Federation
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