Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
L125B — Eats carrion.
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
OverviewAfter following his wife (husband), the husband (wife) discovers that she or he goes around devouring dead bodies.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K56A5 | 99.59% | An old or ugly woman unexpectedly becomes a young beauty or acquires wealth. Usually, another woman tries to repeat her actions and either dies or suffers damage. |
| K146 | 98.95% | The hero is sent to fetch a remedy that can cure the sick or revive the dead. On the way back, a woman who is friendly to the hero keeps part of the remedy (or all of it, replacing it with a fake) and, when the hero is treacherously killed, revives him. |
| M200 | 98.58% | An old man and a boy set off on a journey, taking a donkey with them. They try all the options: only the old man rides the donkey, only the boy rides the donkey, both ride together, both walk alongside the donkey, they drag the donkey behind them. Each time, people make unflattering comments. |
| M204 | 98.41% | When a deity (an authoritative figure) tries to convey values to a person, they either get them or they don't, despite the unlikely circumstances (such is their fate, such is the will of God). |
| K14E | 98.41% | The sons do not care for their elderly father (rarely: the daughter-in-law does not care for her mother-in-law). He pretends to be hiding something. The sons believe that these are valuables that their father will leave them, and they begin to care for him. |
| M75B4 | 98.21% | To master a woman, the hero hides inside the hollow figure of a horse (bull, deer) or in an animal carcass. The character guarding the woman takes her to her. The hero gets outside and becomes a woman's lover. Or a woman hides inside the figure of a horse, which is taken to the man's chambers. |
| K56E | 98.20% | Two people have the same physical defect (a bump, a hump). The first one finds himself in a place where spirits gather, and they rid him of his defect. The second comes to the spirits, and they double his defect, giving him what they took from the first person. (Uther 2004 mentions Kasevich, Osipov 1976, No. 171; the Karen text is published there and does not correspond to the definition of the motif). |
| B33F1 | 98.11% | By performing certain actions, the (old) woman determines the daily cycle. |
| K27Z8 | 97.81% | A person poses a riddle that can only be solved by knowing the circumstances in which he found himself. |
| K160 | 97.65% | The hero is given the task of bringing back the hair, feathers, scales, etc. of a dangerous character. He does this with the help of the character's wife or mother. |
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
16 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 16 traditions: Yemen, Arabs of Levant (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan); Bedouins of Sinai, Berbers of Morocco and adjacent parts of Algeria, Kabylia and other Berber of Northern and Central Algeria: Beni Snous, Beni Menacer (incl Zuav), Shaui, etc.), Santali, Turi, Mahli, Slovakians, Slovaks, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Latvians, Livonians, Estonians, Western Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars, Karaims, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Russian Federation
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