Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
K8C4 — The elk dies after swallowing a mouse.
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 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).
Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 11, Tricks and competitions won thanks to deception, absurd and obscene behavior.
K8 has 11 other sub-motifs
RelatedK8a. The character enters the belly of an aquatic creature or a giant creature whose appearance and habitat are not precisely described. He kills the creature from within (K952) and/or returns to the outside without outside help. Upon emerging from the belly, he often finds himself bald (K921). Cf. motifs I81B (Charybdis) and L110 (Devourer).
K8aa. A huge bird swallows people. The hero kills it, freeing those who have been swallowed, or, if he himself has been swallowed, he manages to get out alive.
K8b. A raven finds itself in the belly of a whale; the woman inside asks it not to touch a certain organ of the whale (usually the heart) or a burning lamp. The raven breaks the prohibition, the woman disappears, and the whale dies.
K8c. The character enters the belly of an ordinary land animal, kills it from within (K952) and/or returns to the outside without outside help. Cf. motif M118.
K8c1. A tiny man is first accidentally swallowed by a large herbivore, then carried off by a wolf that began to eat the carcass of this animal.
K8c2. The mouse is swallowed by a large land animal and comes out by cutting it open from the inside.
K8c3. One (zoomorphic) character refuses to use any part of another's body except the one he uses to kill him.
K8c4. 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).
K8c5. A zoomorphic character no larger than a fox allows itself to be swallowed by a bear and kills it by tearing it apart from the inside.
K8d. The character enters the body of an anthropomorphic creature, kills it from within (K952) and/or returns to the outside without outside help.
K8e. The character penetrates inside the creature through the anus.
K8f. The swallowed one discovers a living deer in the belly of the monster. See motif K8A.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| I93 | 98.72% | The Milky Way â the backbone, support, pillar of the sky or world. |
| J40B | 98.09% | After the hero comes back after a long absence and finds his parents enslaved, he tells them to demonstrate openly a lack of respect to their masters and punishes those who were cruel with them |
| K8C3 | 98.00% | One (zoomorphic) character refuses to use any part of another's body except the one he uses to kill him. |
| M42C | 97.94% | Falling off a cliff and breaking his leg, the character eats his bone marrow. |
| J53C | 97.92% | 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. |
| L97 | 97.64% | Seeing a character who is unable to move (nailed to the ground, his lower body rooted to the ground, petrified, completely absent), the hero himself manages to avoid a similar fate. |
| M46A | 97.51% | 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). |
| F64 | 97.48% | The character is presented as another person in order to mate with a close relative in the descending or (less commonly) ascending line. |
| F65C | 97.34% | A man pretends to be dead (in order to marry his daughter or to be able to eat the meat of hunted animals alone). One of his younger children recognises their (adoptive) father or notices that the supposed dead man is alive (he runs away from the funeral pyre, laughs, etc.). |
| J52A | 97.30% | 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. |
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
40 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 40 traditions: Nuba, Yoruba; incl Ife), Nupe, Bini (Edo), Engenni, Chamba, Dakka, Kukuruku, Mansi, Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Nenets, Central Yakuts (Sakha), Uilta (Orok), Forest (Upper Kolyma) Yukaghir, Han, Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw), Menominee, Osage, Wichita; Spiro Mound iconography, Kiowa Apache, Comanche, Crow, Thompson (Nlaka'pamux), Lillooet, Lower Chehalis, Upper Chehalis, (Lower) Cowlitz, Quinault, Oregon Athabaskans: Lower Umpqua, Tututni (incl Joshua), Upper Coquille, Galice, Tolowa, Lower Chinook (Chinook proper), Klamath, Modoc, Owens Valley Paiute, Northern Paiute (=Paviotso), Northern Shoshone, Western Shoshone, Gosiute, Eastern Shoshone, Upland Yuma: Walapai, Havasupai, Yavapai, Ute, Southern Paiute, Navajo, Jicarilla, Chiricahua, Tewa (San Juan, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Tesuque, Nambe; Hano), Tiwa (Taos, Picuris; Sandia, Isleta), Towa (Jemez), Aztec; Aztec and Teotihuacan iconography, Aguaruna, Huambiza, Shipibo, Conibo, Setebo, Kayabi, Upper Chinook: Wasco, Wishram, Clackamas, Kathlamet
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