Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

M81D — Healed blind people

46 Myths, legends and folktales
46 Unique narratives for motif M81D
33 Cultures & traditions where M81D is told
8 Sub-motifs of motif M81D
Please log on to view the narratives.

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

A person meets (most often in the sky) one or two blind people and restores their sight.

Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes

This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.

M81 has 8 other sub-motifs

Related

M81.  Wandering, the hero finds himself in a place where blind or blind (two or more) live.
M81a.  The hero meets two blind women and makes them sighted. These women are birds (geese, ducks, hazel grouses, partridges).
M81b.  The character is warned not to try to reach an arrow if it gets stuck in a tree. He breaks the ban and gets into trouble.
M81c.  A person goes to heaven or (rarely) to the lower world, where he meets blind people (one or two), usually makes them sighted, and returns to earth himself.
M81d.  A person meets (most often in the sky) one or two blind people and restores their sight.
M81e.  young man undertakes to herd cattle and is warned not to cross the borders of a giant, dragon, witch, etc. The young man violates the ban and kills a giant.
M81e1.  A young man lives with an old man whose eyes or eyes were carried away by a giant. The young man goes to the giant, kills him, brings his eyes, the old man sees the light.
M81e2.  By playing an instrument or otherwise, a character is able to attract an animal or person far away from him.
M81f.  blind beggar robs an honest man. He watches him and, when he enters the house, takes everything the blind man has accumulated. He often takes money accumulated by other blind people as well.

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of M81’s motifs

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny
MotifSimilarityMotif summary
F1598.66%The character sticks his plant-like penis out of the ground (provoking a woman to sit on it).
E30A98.55%A man without a wife or a woman without a husband uses a substitute spouse made of wood or other material until a real spouse appears.
J53B97.83%Two women live together, both have children. One of them leaves the house with the other, kills her, brings her meat home and starts cooking it. The children of the deceased notice their mother's breasts (in California – eyes or liver), or the mother's breasts themselves turn to her children.
J5797.67%Conceived by the Sun, a woman gives birth to sons or a son; when they come of age, they visit their father. See motif J56.
M46A96.96%The character turns into a baby, is picked up by the owners of valuables, and then steals valuables or converges with a woman. The baby is not a demonic creature and does not intend to kill those who pick it up (cf. Motive L60).
M81C96.19%A person goes to heaven or (rarely) to the lower world, where he meets blind people (one or two), usually makes them sighted, and returns to earth himself.
K27T95.98%Competition: climbing a pole. See motif K27.
E3795.87%The creator collects many sticks, feathers, reeds, etc., and turns them into people (either people of both sexes and all ages, or no mention is made of gender or age).
F45B95.76%A woman gives birth to a son conceived by (the rays or light of) the sun.
L40A95.75%An unattractive woman sees the reflection of a young man sitting in a tree in the water and thinks that she has become beautiful.

See the 100 most similar distributions →

Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

Drag the map to pan, use the scroll wheel to zoom — choose a texture or projection below

Traditions

33 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 33 traditions: Samoa, Rotuma, Niue, Maori, Moriori (Chatam Islands), Northern Cook Islands: Rakahanga, Manihiki, Tongareva, Southern Cook Islands: Mangaia, Rarotonga, Atiu, Iatutakim Pukapuka, Tubuai (=Austral Islands, incl Rapa), Marquesas, Gilbert Islands, Nauru, Banaba (Ocean island), Kapingamarangi, Nukuoro, Ontong Java, Nukumanu, Takuu, Nukuria, Tuvalu (Ellice), Central islands and Bikol: Vizaya, MansakΓ‘, Bikol, Mangyan, Panayan, Sulod, Cebuano (Cebu), Capiz, Romblomanon, Manuyu, Chukchi, Inland Tlingit, Tlingit, Haida, Heiltsuk (Bellabella), Oowekeeno, Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw), Nootka (Nu-chah-nulth), Makah, Bella Coola (Nuxalk), Carrier, Shuswap, Comox, Pentlatch, Sechelt (incl Sisiatl), Squamish, Halcomelem, Lower Chehalis, Upper Chehalis, (Lower) Cowlitz, Tillamook, Takelma, Oregon Athabaskans: Lower Umpqua, Tututni (incl Joshua), Upper Coquille, Galice, Tolowa, Karok, Northern Paiute (=Paviotso), Tokelau, Southern Khanty (Ostyaks), Nauru

Please log on to view the narratives.