Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
K92A — A woman builds a house, ATU 923B.
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 girl who has been driven from her home or has become the wife of an insignificant pauper becomes rich and respected.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
K92 has 3 other sub-motifs
RelatedK92. The father asks his children a question, the answer to which seems obvious (does his daughter love him, who is the eldest in the family, etc.). The youngest daughter (less often – son) gives an unexpected answer, the father drives her away (deprives her of her inheritance), and later becomes convinced of her intelligence and nobility.
K92a. A girl who has been driven from her home or has become the wife of an insignificant pauper becomes rich and respected.
K92b. A daughter tells her father (rarely her brother) that she loves him like salt (or that salt is more important than him, etc.). He sends his daughter away (gets angry with his sister), but then realises she is right.
K92C. A princess or sorceress turns out to be the wife of a poor man. She weaves or embroiders a scarf (or other item) and sends her husband to sell it. This marks the beginning of their path to success.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K27ZZ1 | 98.03% | Several wives are thrown into a dungeon (banished), each gives birth to a child, but only one manages to save hers. The boy grows up and rescues the women. |
| K136C | 97.06% | Upon leaving, the demon temporarily kills or puts the girl to sleep, and upon returning, revives her. |
| A23D | 96.83% | Animals argue about which of them should start the cycle of 12 months or years. The mouse wins the primacy. |
| K38C | 96.79% | After the hero helps the bird (usually by doing good to its chicks), it takes him to the place he desires, or instructs its chicks to do so. (This does not involve movement between levels of the universe; in the Sumerian version, the bird gives the hero the ability to move with lightning speed and directs him to his goal). |
| M60A1 | 96.66% | The hero meets a servant (usually a shepherd) and takes his form, after asking how he acts, how he talks to the hostess (usually finds out what to say in order transport the herd across the river). |
| I127 | 96.62% | Ursa Major – bed, couch. |
| M149A | 96.52% | The character, either recklessly or against his own will, finds himself bound by a contract with a predator, which he cannot or does not want to fulfil, or which he breaks. The predator intends to eat him, but the character remains alive. |
| M125 | 96.44% | One character lies to another, pretending to eat his own eyes. The other agrees to eat his own. The first character gouges out one of his eyes and gives him something tasty in its place. The character believes that this is the same eye that was gouged out and agrees to give up the second. |
| K120A2 | 96.15% | Family members want to marry their daughter off to a man who is unacceptable to her (usually they want to marry her off to her own brother). The girl refuses to address her father, mother, etc. as close relatives, but calls them in-laws (mother-in-law, sister-in-law, etc.) or enemies; or the relatives themselves demand that the girl address them as in-laws. |
| K116C | 95.99% | In order to take possession of the girl, the priest arranges for her father to agree to place her in a chest (barrel) and lower it into the river (leave it in a deserted area). |
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
57 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 57 traditions: Yemen, Arabs of Levant (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan); Bedouins of Sinai, Arabs of Iraq, Iraqi, Berbers of Morocco and adjacent parts of Algeria, Burmese, Intha, Shan, Ahom, Khampti, Khmer, Viet, Muong, Maria, Muria, and other South-Central Dravidians: Binjhwar, Bacop, Bhattra, Bom, Jhoria (=Jhodia), Gadaba (in Koraput, neighbors of Munda-speaking Gadaba), Duruwa (Parji), Mehtar; Pardhan, Telugu (incl. Yanadi, Chenchu), Kannada, Lingayat, Halakki, Tamil, Muthuvan, Marvar, Tamils, Bengali, Kashmiri, Nepali; Tharu, Hindi-speaking peoples and casts (incl. Teli, Parahiya; incl. Chhattisgarhi) of Northern and West-Central India, Assamese, Koreans, Sardinia, Corsica, Sardinians, Corsicans, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Lithuanians, Karelians, Uzbek, Tajik, Baluch, Persians, Abaza (Abazins), Cherkassians, Adyghe, Kabardin, Karachays, Balkar, Ingush, Lezgians, Archin, Kürin; Khinalug, Rutul, Tsakhur, Dargin (Dargwa), incl. Müregin, Khürkilin, Kubachi, Laks, Georgians, Armenians, Gagauz, Anatolia Turks, Azeris (Azerbaijanis), Kurds, Kazakh, Kirghiz, 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), Mari (Cheremis), Chuvash, Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Sauk (Sak, Mesquakie), Fox, Kickapoo, Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal), Oriya (incl. Dom/Domba/Dombo, Ghasi, Bhat and other Oriya-speaking castes of Odisha), Kumaoni (Central Pahari), incl. Garhwali, Salars, Buryats: Eastern (trans Baikal), i.e. Khori, Lebanon, Yemen, China, Japan, Russian Federation
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