Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M197F — Black beard, grey head, ATU 921C.
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 dialogue plays on the fact that in youth the beard is black, and in old age it is white. Usually a person explains why his head has turned grey but his beard has not: the beard is 20 years younger.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| M147B | 99.88% | To get rid of fleas, the fox (jackal) takes a bunch of moss (hay, grass) in its mouth and dives into the water. The fleas, in order not to drown, move closer and closer to its head and then fall onto the moss or hay. The fox leaves the bunch in the water and comes ashore. |
| M199C | 99.83% | A person pretends to throw or is about to throw an object somewhere from which it cannot be retrieved (often into the sky, the clouds, or the sea). The opponent asks them not to do so and to stop the contest. |
| M106G | 99.81% | A man lifts a cow (donkey, ox, wife) onto the roof so that the animal can eat the grass growing there (the wife has gathered turnips, etc.) â usually by throwing a noose around the neck of the wife or animal. |
| K128 | 99.80% | A character orders the hero to graze animals (or birds) and promises to execute him (deprive him of his reward) if even one animal is lost. Cf. K128B (ATU 570). |
| K103C | 99.76% | Sitting on a bull or a cow, a young man or woman runs away from their stepmother's house. Along the way, the bull fights other bulls (monsters), the last of which usually kills it. |
| M182B | 99.74% | Animals ask to be taken for a ride in a sleigh. The sleigh breaks down, and the animals bring unsuitable materials from the forest to repair it. While the owner of the sleigh goes into the forest to look for a replacement for the broken shaft (or leaves to chop wood), the animals eat the horse (bull) and leave a stuffed animal in its place. |
| K107D1 | 99.68% | Waiting for his magical wife, the young man falls asleep. The wife cannot wake him up and leaves (this episode is often repeated). |
| K65F | 99.68% | Once in the locus of demons, a person sees them in their true form. Upon returning, the person sees the demon again, which ordinary people are incapable of doing. The demon blinds him. |
| M136 | 99.67% | Some people do not know what to do with cutting tools; they try to use tools that are not suitable for these purposes instead. |
| F73B | 99.67% | The bear (wolf, lion, dragon) believes that the vulva is a wound inflicted on a human being. |
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
10 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 10 traditions: Punjabi, Seraiki (Multani), France, Czech, Czechs, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Finns, Danes, Danish, Pashto, Russian Federation
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