Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M84D — A sick tree
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
OverviewA person hears trees talking, one of which is (fatally) ill and suffers.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 8, Queer and monstrous beings, creatures, objects and loci, folk beliefs related to particular phenomena and objects.
M84 has 7 other sub-motifs
RelatedM84. A person, animal, fish, or (rarely) a large fruit is killed and eaten. After a meal, what is eaten revives, usually after the bones (seeds) are put together. Cf. motive C16.
M84a. After supernatural characters put the bones of a dead and eaten deer, cow, ram, or goat in its skin, the animal is whole (and usually comes to life). See M84 motif.
M84b. An animal, bird or fish that is killed and eaten comes to life after its bones are thrown into the water. See M84 motif.
M84b1. A person enters a country from where fish come to people (and comes back).
M84b2. The character carefully preserves the bones of migratory birds eaten (not fish or animals) and the birds come to life again. (Episodes of reviving a domestic goose or rooster are not taken into account in everyday tales).
M84b3.
M84c. Sleeping in a deserted place, a person finds himself among spirits. One of them explains that he has a guest, that is the same person.
M84d. A person hears trees talking, one of which is (fatally) ill and suffers.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| M198B4 | 99.57% | The fake fortune teller, expecting to be exposed, utters words that reflect his state of mind. The thieves standing nearby perceive some of the words as their names, believe that the fortune teller has found out about them, and ask him not to reveal them. |
| K76A | 98.52% | A frog or toad marries a beautiful woman, or a handsome young man marries a frog. |
| K56D | 98.00% | One man treats a bird, which brings a seed, and something valuable grows. Another deliberately cripples a bird, then treats it, and it brings a seed, and something harmful and terrible grows. |
| M196A | 97.95% | Arguing over a trivial matter, a husband and wife (or one of them) lie down and do not move, and people gather to bury them. At the last moment, the supposed dead person opens their mouth, and people think that the dead have come back to life; or the supposed dead person is actually buried in the ground. |
| K73A6 | 97.49% | Malicious women kill (throw away) her wonderful children. Trees (flowers) grow from their remains, later reincarnating into humans. |
| K80 | 96.72% | The character transforms into objects or creatures, which another character systematically destroys. However, the character (usually a young woman) is reborn each time in a new form and eventually in her original form. |
| A12G | 96.70% | The character tries to eclipse the moon for telling on him. |
| B116 | 96.28% | The first book (writing, important document) is eaten by an animal or a person. (In some European traditions, the eating of the book is not described, but is implied from the context). Cf. ATU 200. Cf. Thompson 1955-1958. â A2219.2. Cow swallows book; cause of maniplies in stomach. |
| M171D | 96.22% | The character exchanges one thing for another and ultimately receives a musical instrument (usually a drum). |
| K95 | 95.97% | Two people who love each other (usually a man and a woman) die prematurely and are buried in the same grave or nearby. After or during the burial, something unusual happens that is connected with the story (special plants grow in that place, the smoke from the two funeral pyres joins together, the dead turn into two birds, two stars, etc.). |
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
6 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 6 traditions: Chin-Naga: Ao, Mao, Sema, Zeme, Kolren, Kom, Lhota, Rengma, Angami, Kabui, Tangkhul, Koirenf, England, British, Bretons, Finns, Komi (Zyrians and Permyaks), Daur (Daghur), Japan
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