Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M141 — Animals in a pit, ATU 20A.
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
OverviewSeveral animals of different species find themselves in a pit from which they cannot escape. They devour each other, and the last one manages to escape.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
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.
M14 has 1 other sub-motifs
RelatedM14. A man brutally murders his wife (rarely: children, fiancée, sister) and/or eats her flesh himself, or brings her flesh to her relatives (if he kills children, he brings the flesh to his wife).
M14a. To take revenge on his wife or her relatives for (allegedly) causing him offence, the husband roasts his wife alive. See motif M14.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| M39G | 99.98% | The girl weeps, imagining the dangers that threaten her future child; remembering an incident that could end badly; jealous of the fiancé she does not have; distracted from urgent matters, considering the name of the future child instead of meeting the groom. |
| L100B1 | 99.93% | The young man forgets his magic bride and meets another woman. At the last moment a bird tells the story about his real bride and he recalls everything. Usually two birds, a male and a female, have a dialogue in which the female can tell the male that he will be as cruel with her as this youth who has forgotten his bride. |
| A8A | 99.84% | The sun, moon and star (stars) appear as three consecutive and comparable objects/characters in narratives about the abduction and subsequent liberation of celestial bodies. |
| H52B | 99.84% | Setting out in search of a land where there is no death, a man encounters characters engaged in tasks that can only be completed in an impossibly long time. However, the man needs eternal life, and so he continues on his way. |
| J7A | 99.84% | A girl (less often a boy) brings lunch to her father or brothers who are working in the field (in the forest), but encounters a demonic character. |
| K149 | 99.84% | The character has a rope or reins with three knots, allowing him to move faster or slower. Usually, untying the first and second knots causes the character's ship to sail faster (thanks to the rising wind) or his horse to gallop faster; however, contrary to the warning, the character (when almost reaching the goal) also unties the third knot and as a result loses the ship, the horse, ends up not where he wanted to be, etc. |
| M114B3 | 99.82% | When a girl is asked to weave clothes, given a negligible amount of yarn, she asks in return to make her weaving tools from sticks, twigs, straw, etc. |
| K56A4D | 99.82% | A stepmother sends her stepdaughter to a house in the forest, giving her ashes, sand, etc. instead of food. The stepdaughter turns them into flour, groats, etc. |
| M39A8A | 99.78% | A fool or buffoon climbs a tree taking a heavy objects with him and then drops it frightening those who are under the tree |
| G25 | 99.78% | Cereal seeds are scattered across the world, fell to the ground, now people grow bread. |
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
29 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 29 traditions: Hungarians, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Croatians, Croats; Italians of Dalmatia (if the motif is absent among other Italians), Slovenians, Slovenes, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Lithuanians, Latvians, Livonians, Estonians, Finns, Karelians, Vepsians, Eastern Sami (including Skolts), Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Georgians, Armenians, Gagauz, Kurds, Kazakh, Mari (Cheremis), Mordvins, Chuvash, Udmurt, Oirats (incl Torgouts, Derbets, Oilots), Khakas, Lutsi (Ludza), Russian Federation
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