Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M157A6 — You think you are looking at an abbot, ATU 922.
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 a person answer the ruler's questions, a servant or friend impersonates him and gives witty answers. Most often, the ruler asks, among other things, what he is thinking at the moment. Answer: you think you are looking at one person, but in fact it is another.
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.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| B117 | 99.89% | A document issued to animals (usually dogs) is lost through the fault of a cat (swallowed by a cat, burned, gnawed by mice). Since then, dogs and cats (usually also cats and mice) have been at enmity. |
| K165 | 99.89% | The young man has never experienced fear and wants to know what it is like. Robbers and evil spirits do not frighten him. |
| M106E | 99.88% | A man says that provisions have been made for the winter, in case of need, etc. In the absence of the owner, a man enters the house and claims that his name is Winter (Ramadan, Necessity, etc.). The woman thinks that her husband meant this man and gives him all the provisions. |
| M118A | 99.81% | The chieftain (demon) brings robbers (other demons) to the courtyard of someone else's house, hiding them in empty jugs, barrels, etc. At night, they are supposed to attack the owners. A girl or young woman (less often, the owner of the house) learns of the danger and destroys the robbers (usually by pouring boiling water into each jug or barrel). |
| I138 | 99.79% | The glass mountain (tower, bridge) is mentioned as an unusual (inaccessible) locus. |
| K57C | 99.74% | The prince puts a ring on the finger of a beautiful girl, not knowing that she is the very girl who works in his kitchen. The girl slips the ring into the prince's food, and he recognises it. |
| B42Q | 99.73% | Ursa Major – chariot, cart. |
| K107D | 99.73% | After overcoming difficulties, a girl (rarely a boy) finds a magical spouse, but at first cannot wake him (her) up. |
| M199C1 | 99.71% | A man and his opponent agree to test their strength by throwing a heavy object as far as possible. The man pretends that he is going to throw the object so far that those who are across the sea, behind the mountain, in a distant city, etc. (including the opponent's relatives) may be harmed. The opponent refuses to take part in the test. |
| K27X6 | 99.71% | Setting out in search of a marriage partner, the hero or heroine successively encounters the embodiments (masters) of celestial bodies and atmospheric phenomena (the sun, moon, stars, wind). |
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
44 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 44 traditions: Arabs of Levant (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan); Bedouins of Sinai, Arabs of Egypt, Berbers of Morocco and adjacent parts of Algeria, Sinhalese; Vedda, England, British, Bretons, Portuguese, Portugal, Catalan, Aragon, Maltese, Sicily, Sicilians, France, Poles, Czech, Czechs, Slovakians, Slovaks, 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, Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, Danish, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Georgians, Anatolia Turks, Chuvash, Lima dep: Costa and adjacent Sierra (Spanish, Kechua, and Jacaru-speaking communities, mostly in Pachacamac, Cajatambo, Canta, Huarochirí; Spanish sources of XVI-XVII centuries), Arabs (literary tradition; incl. One Thousand and One Nights), Wallons, Picardie, Icelanders, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Iraq, Kuwait, Russian Federation, Spain
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