Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

M157A5 — Golden mortar.

21 Myths, legends and folktales
21 Unique narratives for motif M157A5
16 Cultures & traditions where M157A5 is told
0 Sub-motifs of motif M157A5
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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 person finds a golden (rarely marble, etc.) mortar (bell) and brings it to an authoritative figure. Instead of gratitude, the latter demands that the pestle (the tongue of the bell, etc.) also be brought.

Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes

This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny
MotifSimilarityMotif summary
H7B99.85%A person asks Death (a spirit) to climb a tree or sit on a bench, to which they stick and can only be freed with his permission.
K101A99.84%A man spends several nights next to a dead girl who has become a dangerous demonic creature. As a result, the girl is exorcised.
M136A99.77%People try to bring light, darkness, smoke, etc. into or out of a room.
M106H99.76%A man puts his hat on the ground and pretends that there is something valuable under it. In reality, there is only shit. Those who believe the deceiver lose their property.
L23B99.75%Trying to free himself, the captured character sequentially changes his appearance. The last transformation is into a spindle.
K30B99.75%A woman or girl is forbidden to go outside. As soon as she does, a flying creature kidnaps her.
M191C99.74%Through singing (threats, pleasantries), the wolf (less often, the bear) gradually forces the old man to give him his domestic animals (and family members).
H33A99.74%God wanted to throw a newborn baby (over a fence, house, etc.) so that it would immediately stand up and start walking, but the woman was frightened and did not allow it. Therefore, children do not walk from birth. See motif H33.
H7E99.74%In the past, people knew when they would die, so before their death they stopped doing their work or performed their duties half-heartedly.
K33A599.73%A woman who has been turned into a duck (goose) by her rival's scheming tries to establish contact with her children or husband.

See the 100 most similar distributions →

Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

16 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 16 traditions: Ireland, Portuguese, Portugal, Germans: North (Low- and Central German dialects): Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg, Pommern, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony, incl East Frisia and Oldenburg), Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Thüringen, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen, Brandenburg, Rügen, Poles, Kashubians, Hungarians, Estonians, Finns, Swedes, Danes, Danish, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Georgians, Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal), Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Germans: South (Upper German dialects): Alsace (Elsass), Baden-Württemberg, Bawaria, Swabia, Switzerland, Bohemia, Sudeten, Austria, Czech Republic

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