Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
L66 — Underground passage beneath the monster.
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
OverviewTo help the hero, a small animal digs an underground passage beneath the lying monster, and the hero strikes it from below.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| L67 | 99.79% | Having dug an underground passage to a lying monstrous hoofed animal, a small animal gnaws the wool from the place on the skin where the heart beats; the hero thrusts a spear or arrow into this place. See motif L66. |
| J65 | 99.28% | After the attack by enemies, a woman and her daughter remain. She rejects the marriage proposals of animal suitors and agrees to give her daughter to the heavenly deity (the Sun). The children from this marriage take revenge on their enemies. |
| M53A | 99.28% | raven gathers seals or other marine mammals around and deceives them into killing them. |
| K43A | 98.70% | People leave a boy, a girl, a sister and brother, a young woman or young spouses alone and depart. Someone sympathises with those who have been abandoned and secretly hides fire for them. |
| M61A | 98.12% | To get valuables, the character provokes a quarrel between their owners. When they start fighting each other, valuables fall out of their bodies and end up at the character's disposal. |
| K87B | 97.98% | A woman is picking berries, steps in bear droppings, and scolds the bears. The offended bear takes her away and marries her. |
| M46 | 97.86% | Some creatures steal or own valuables. To return (get) them, the character turns into a small object, from contact with which a woman becomes pregnant, or into a baby. A picked up or born baby takes on its true appearance and steals valuables (including making the girl who picked it up pregnant, if that was his goal). |
| K10F | 97.60% | The character turns the children of a flying monster into ordinary eagles or owls. |
| K27P | 97.48% | The antagonist sends the hero to places where he is attacked by dangerous creatures; the hero kills them and brings them to the antagonist. The creatures turn out to be relatives, pupils or helpers of the antagonist, whom he (or his close relatives) mourns or revives. See motif K27. |
| B44F1 | 97.38% | In the dispute over whether the world should be light (warm), the bear is on the side of darkness (and cold); or the world is plunged into darkness because the bear hides the sun in his house. |
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
28 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 28 traditions: Yoruba; incl Ife), Nupe, Bini (Edo), Engenni, Chamba, Dakka, Kukuruku, Upper Tanana (Nebesna), Tanacross, Han, Tutchone, Tagish, Inland Tlingit, Kaska, Athna, Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), Tlingit, Mandan, Kiowa, Kiowa Apache, Assiniboine, Crow, Coeur D'Alene, Kalispel (Pend d'Oreille; incl Spokane), Flathead, Upland Yuma: Walapai, Havasupai, Yavapai, Navajo, Jicarilla, Chiricahua, Mescalero, Western Apache (White Mountain, San Carlos), Hopi, Zuni, Eastern Keres (Cochiti, Sia, San Felipe, Santo Domingo, Santa Ana, Paguate, Seama), Tewa (San Juan, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Tesuque, Nambe; Hano), Tiwa (Taos, Picuris; Sandia, Isleta), Towa (Jemez), Lipan
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