Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

M65A — A squeaky tree

20 Myths, legends and folktales
20 Unique narratives for motif M65A
17 Cultures & traditions where M65A is told
2 Sub-motifs of motif M65A
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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

The trees are creaking in the wind. Hearing a creak, the character climbs a tree and gets stuck. See M65 motif.

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.

M65 has 2 other sub-motifs

Related

M65.  trickster bakes meat obtained by trick, deception; immobilized by sticking to a tree, ground, or stone; at this time, another character (fox, wolf, coyote, birds) eats all the meat. See M53 motif.
M65a.  The trees are creaking in the wind. Hearing a creak, the character climbs a tree and gets stuck. See M65 motif.
M65b.  Having resorted to deception, the character kills the game, but the thieves take the loot. See M53 motif.

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of M65’s motifs

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny
MotifSimilarityMotif summary
K6999.24%Several men walk towards the horizon to ascend to the sky and visit the Sun or another supreme deity. Usually, one or more of them perish along the way, while others reach their destination. They return by a shorter route than they came.
J4197.99%The hero leaves for a long time. When he returns, his relative does not immediately believe that it is really him. All this time, someone has been mocking him or her, imitating the voice of the departed, saying that he has returned and/or throwing ashes in his or her face.
M13A97.84%A deity and a human meet so that the former can fulfil the latter's request. As a result, the human is turned to stone. Usually (except for the Squamish), one of the supplicants wants eternal life and is turned to stone. See motif M13.
M53C97.41%trickster, inviting birds to dance around him with their eyes closed, kills them one at a time and threatens to turn red at the one that opens their eyes; this is an empty threat, or for a bird that opens eyes and eyes have really turned red ever since.
M61A397.37%The character tells each of two different species of fish how the other allegedly used to be hostile or offensive towards the former. Fish kill each other and the character prepares them to eat.
B5C97.16%At the beginning of time, there are an old woman and a young woman. One or both of them conceive in a miraculous way. A son or twins are born, who settle the world.
L7597.09%One of two brothers is the embodiment of evil; at birth, he cuts open his mother's body, killing her.
B42A96.90%Hunters chase a bear across the sky and kill it in August-October. The bear's blood or fat falls to the ground in the form of dew or colours the foliage red. See motif B42.
B9596.48%The appearance of the sphincter or buttocks is explained by the fact that a certain character burned his backside.
J12M96.48%A woman or two sisters come to two men and become wives of one of them. The other kills or tries to kill his rival or the women. As a result, the women turn into waterfowl.

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Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

17 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 17 traditions: Semang, Senoi, Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Algonquin, unspecified Algonkians of the Midwest (probably Old Algonquin), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Eastern Cree, Menominee, Sauk (Sak, Mesquakie), Fox, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Winnebago, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Teton (incl Oglala), Iowa, Plains Cree, Plains Ojibwa, Crow

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