Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
L33C — The boulder crushes the trickster.
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 trickster and the boulder agree to race down the slope. The boulder rolls faster and faster and crushes the trickster. See motif L33.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits
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.
L33 has 7 other sub-motifs
RelatedL33. The stone rolls after the character, trying to crush him.
L33a. The trickster takes an object lying on or near a rock or other inanimate object, which he has given to that object. The object pursues or otherwise punishes the offender. See motif L33.
L33b. The character challenges someone who, at first glance, is unable to move (a stump, a boulder, fire) to race or roll over it. The challenged party sets off, crushes or burns the character, or runs away with their property.
L33c. The trickster and the boulder agree to race down the slope. The boulder rolls faster and faster and crushes the trickster. See motif L33.
L33d. A rolling stone-monster kills people. The hero destroys it. See motif L33.
L33e. The trickster demands back or takes the cloak belonging to the skale or another character (usually he himself had previously given this cloak as a gift).
L33f. A rock or boulder pursues a character. The character calls for help, and the nightjar splits the rock into pieces.
L33g. A tree, a creature on a tree, a stone kills (seriously injures) anyone who calls it a certain way, climbs on it, etc. The character provokes others to do this and eats the dead, the last of the invited guests deceives the provocateur himself.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| L33B | 95.83% | The character challenges someone who, at first glance, is unable to move (a stump, a boulder, fire) to race or roll over it. The challenged party sets off, crushes or burns the character, or runs away with their property. |
| K32B1 | 93.67% | The man's mother-in-law takes on the appearance of her daughter to take her place. See motif K32. |
| M30A | 93.66% | The character flying over the village falls, is tied up, and defecated on him. |
| B42S | 92.33% | The Big Dipper or Polar Star – a small animal (ermine, marten, forest marmot) or anthropomorphic character with animal features, struck by a spear or arrow. |
| I60A | 92.20% | The Milky Way – a stripe associated with a longitudinal stripe on an animal's body. |
| K19E | 91.69% | Returning from the sky to earth, a woman or two sisters encounter a male wolverine who tries to capture them. Usually, the women who have descended first find themselves in a tree. Some animals cannot or will not help them descend to the ground. The wolverine descends to take the sisters as wives; they run away from him. See motif K19B. |
| K18C | 91.54% | The man in whose arms the boy urinates will be recognised as his father. See motif K18. |
| K67 | 91.01% | At night, one person intends to throw another person's shoes or clothes into the fire, but ends up burning his own shoes or clothes. Usually, the father-in-law throws his son-in-law's shoes into the fire at night in order to freeze him out, but the son-in-law has already switched shoes, so the father-in-law burns his own. |
| D4C1 | 90.81% | Animal-people come to steal summer from its owners. One of them, in the guise of an elk or caribou, distracts the owners' attention or floats a log or stump down the river, which the owners of summer mistake for an elk and rush after. |
| B57A | 90.77% | Seeing the reddened sky, the character understands that another's blood has been spilled, or that another has spilled red liquid. See motif B57. |
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
14 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 14 traditions: Anatolia Turks, Malecite, Passamaquoddy, Micmac, Wawenock, Abenaki, Penobscot, Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Naskapi, Montagnais, Arikara, Plains Ojibwa, Lima dep: Costa and adjacent Sierra (Spanish, Kechua, and Jacaru-speaking communities, mostly in Pachacamac, Cajatambo, Canta, Huarochirí; Spanish sources of XVI-XVII centuries), Kechua-speaking communities of Apurimac, Cuzco, Arequipa, Puno departments; Spanish sources of XVI-XVII centuries; Callawaya (Kechua with Pukina substratum), Northern and Southern Tehuelche
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