Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M171C1 — In exchange for a bast shoe.
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
OverviewThe character has only a bast shoe with him (or he pretends that he had a bast shoe). He asks for a place to stay for the night, and in the morning he claims that he had something more valuable with him. At each new place to stay, he continues to exchange something less valuable for something more valuable.
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.
M17 has 2 other sub-motifs
RelatedM17. A wife, mother or grandmother directs the arrow of a blind man or boy at game, lies that he missed, cooks and eats the meat herself. See motif M16 (man is blind, K333.1).
M17a. The mother or grandmother of a blind man or boy secretly eats (the meat or fish he has caught), pretending that there is no food in the house.
M17b. The wife directs the blind man's arrow at game, lies that he has missed, and eats the meat herself.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| B33D1 | 100.00% | In narrative folklore, the days of the week (most often Friday and Wednesday) are special (female) characters with a more or less pronounced demonic nature. |
| F9G1 | 100.00% | On her wedding night, the bride-heroine throws herself on her groom to crush him. |
| I100D | 100.00% | Stars are associated with kids. |
| K73B3 | 100.00% | A person who is asked to count the nuts in a barrel (taking them out one by one) accompanies his actions with a revealing story. |
| K57D | 99.99% | The prince marries the girl who fits the shoe. The girl cuts off her toes or heel so that the shoe will fit. |
| K56A4A | 99.96% | Left alone with the demon in the bathhouse (mill, etc.), the girl demands that he bring her new clothes, jewellery, etc., and while the demon is fetching them, morning comes. |
| M199N | 99.95% | A man offers a demon to fill his hat, bag, etc. with money. The demon does not notice that there is a hole in the hat and gives the man much more than he intended to give. |
| K18D | 99.90% | A young man releases or saves a fish (frog, snake, supernatural creature), it grants his wishes, and he marries a princess. {References to ATU are not entirely reliable. In particular, Uther 2004 includes a Corsican variant (Massignon 1984, No. 66), in which the main part of the plot is missing. References to Balkan variants probably correspond to the definition of the plot, since it does exist among the Bulgarians}. |
| M29Z2 | 99.90% | Being smart and witty, the Gipsy overcomes strong adversaries |
| F87 | 99.89% | The snake forces the girl to promise to marry him and takes her to the underwater world. She is happy there and gives birth to a son (or two sons) and a daughter. Together with her children, she returns to visit her relatives. They learn what words she must use to summon her husband from the water, summon him, and kill him. Seeing the bloody water, the snake's wife (rarely the snake himself) turns the children and herself into birds or trees. |
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
11 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 11 traditions: Latvians, Estonians, Setu, Karelians, Vepsians, Western Ukrainians, Udmurt, Komi (Zyrians and Permyaks), Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Russian Federation
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