Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M30A — They relieve the need for a fallen person
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 flying over the village falls, is tied up, and defecated on him.
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.
M30 has 4 other sub-motifs
RelatedM30. character who has no natural wings or can't fly long distances rises into the air, but falls or, having lost its wings, stays where he can't return from. (The motive includes several options, but even when taken together, they don't cover the whole world. Texts with M25 and M28 motifs are counted as including the M30 motif).
M30a. The character flying over the village falls, is tied up, and defecated on him.
M30b. Birds give a non-flying or ugly character feathers so that he can fly or become beautiful, but then take them away.
M30c. A character flying through the air falls, violating the ban on talking, looking down, flying over villages, etc. (The character is not dropped by the person carrying it and flies above the ground, not descends from the sky or rises to the sky).
M30d. To get into the air, a character without wings (usually a turtle or a frog) grabs a stick with the ends held in their beaks by two birds.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K32B1 | 98.98% | The man's mother-in-law takes on the appearance of her daughter to take her place. See motif K32. |
| D4C1 | 98.86% | Animal-people come to steal summer from its owners. One of them, in the guise of an elk or caribou, distracts the owners' attention or floats a log or stump down the river, which the owners of summer mistake for an elk and rush after. |
| B101 | 98.04% | Angry at the birch tree, the character beats or cuts it, leaving stripes on the bark that remain to this day. |
| E15B | 98.02% | Bird women sew the birch bark covering of the hero's boat. See motif E15. |
| E9AA | 98.02% | A man searches for a missing woman, who is a fox by nature, and comes to the burrow where she has hidden. Various bird or animal women come out of the burrow and offer themselves in place of the fox. Then they let him inside. |
| F51C | 98.02% | Upon learning that her unknown lover is her own brother, the girl shows him her genitals or bare breasts, offering him what he so desired. After that, she runs away, and he rushes after her. |
| H37A | 98.02% | A character gives another the ability to easily light a fire. The latter uses it unnecessarily and loses it. |
| K25A3 | 98.02% | The magical bird-wife flies away when she makes herself new feather clothing from feathers collected on the ground. |
| K8B | 98.02% | A raven finds itself in the belly of a whale; the woman inside asks it not to touch a certain organ of the whale (usually the heart) or a burning lamp. The raven breaks the prohibition, the woman disappears, and the whale dies. |
| M123A | 98.02% | A raven marries or tries to marry, pretending to be a chief and a handsome man. One day, someone notices that he is eating carrion. Usually, everyone is forced to take off their moccasins, and they see that the raven has a three-toed paw. The raven is banished in disgrace or hastens to leave on his own. |
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
8 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 8 traditions: Nenets, Chipewyan, Beaver, Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Montagnais, Plains Ojibwa
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