Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

L64 — Removable head.

55 Myths, legends and folktales

55 Unique narratives for motif L64

45 Cultures & traditions where L64 is told

0 Sub-motifs of motif L64

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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

Overview

A certain character removes, takes out a part of his body (head, scalp, lungs), takes it in his hands, puts it back.

Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits

This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 8, Queer and monstrous beings, creatures, objects and loci, folk beliefs related to particular phenomena and objects.

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny

Motif	Similarity	Motif summary
K24	95.04%	Women (rarely men) possessing magical powers and usually coming from another world (from the sky, from under water, they are winged creatures, bird-people, animal-people; rarely: a girl of higher social status than the hero) take off their clothes (feather coverings, etc.) or part of them. The character hides the clothes (one of them), forcing him (rarely her) to fulfil his (rarely her) desire.
B79A	94.47%	At the beginning of time, a bird flies, lays an egg or eggs, and various objects or creatures hatch from them.
I52	94.31%	The world rests on a fish or fish-like creature, or the earth itself is such a creature or originated from a fish. See motif I8B.
H43	94.20%	One character creates people's bodies, while another brings them to life.
I57	93.75%	Thunder's enemies are animals, reptiles, and spirits that live in burrows. They usually hide from him in various objects and items, and Thunder (a god, angel, etc.) strikes his enemies or these objects with lightning.
K76	93.62%	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.
K27X3	93.45%	The ruler seeks to take possession of the wife or bride of a man of lower social status and, in order to get rid of him, gives him impossible tasks or secretly kills him. {Both ATU and some regional indexes (e.g., Cardigos 2006: 110) list texts that do not meet the definition of plot 465: the king's desire to take possession of the hero's wife is not explicitly stated as the reason why the king seeks to get rid of the hero}.
K73	93.24%	A young wife (promises to give birth and) gives birth to wonderful children (or one son). In the absence of her husband, attempts are made to kill the wife or her child (usually by slandering them to the husband), but they remain alive. (For medieval European variants, see Newell 1906).
K73A	93.18%	Malicious women replace the newborn with an animal or an inanimate object (they tell the baby's father that his wife gave birth to an animal or an object). See motif K73.
K98	93.17%	An animal or (less commonly) a woman who gave birth to a hero or helped him turns into a house and property.

See the 100 most similar distributions →

Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

45 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 45 traditions: Kosa (Xosa, Xhosa), Yoruba; incl Ife), Nupe, Bini (Edo), Engenni, Chamba, Dakka, Kukuruku, Songhai, Akan, Ashanti, Akwapim; Ga (Accra), Kra, Twi (Chwi, Chi), Sepik-Ramu stock: Abelam, Yatmul, Aibom, Ayom (incl Tembregak, Asai-river pygmies), Tangu, Porapora (Ambakich), Rao and other groups of Middle Ramu and Upper Keram River tribes; Kwanga, Watam, Kaian, Gamei, Awar; Kire (Lower Ramu), Melanesians and Papuans of Central Solomons: Vella la Vella (Bilua language), Shortland islands (Mono language), San Cristobal, Saint Georgia, Eddystone, Vangunu, Bunak, Northern Luzon: Apayao, Bontoc, Nabaloi (Ibaloi), Ifugao, Igorot (highland people, not specified), Ilocan, Ilongot, Isneg, Kalinga, Kankanay, Tingian (Tinggian, Bilongan Itneg); Ibanag, Kasiguran Agta, Keley-i Kallahan, Santali, Turi, Mahli, Kuki, Chiru, Falam (Hallam), Chin (Meitei =Manipuri, Khami, =Kumi), Lakher, Mizo (Lushei), Anal, Pawi (Lai), Purum, Koireng, Milhiem, Kolhen, Mru, 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, Sinhalese; Vedda, Miao (Hmong) and Yao of Southern China, Portuguese, Portugal, Lithuanians, Setu, Norwegians, Uzbek, Tajik, Ossetians, Tats, Kirghiz, Uyghur, Turkmen, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Bashkirs, Mari (Cheremis), Udmurt, Komi (Zyrians and Permyaks), Mansi, Daur (Daghur), Central Yakuts (Sakha), Nanai, Sauk (Sak, Mesquakie), Fox, Kickapoo, Cherokee, Tepehua, Totonac, Lacandon, Choco: Embera, Nonama (Waunana), XVI century Dabaiba, pre-Columbian iconography of Sinu, Wayapi, Emerillon, Chacobo, Buryats: Northern (Lake Baikal), Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Lutsi (Ludza), China, Russian Federation

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