Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
C32C — Nails must be preserved.
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
OverviewNails (and hair) have special significance for a person's fate, their soul or the world as a whole. (Compound motif).
Berezkin category: Disasters
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.
C32 has 3 other sub-motifs
RelatedC32. Demonic characters will make a ship out of nail clippings.
C32A. Nails will be needed in the afterlife to save oneself (to climb a steep mountain, climb into the sky, build a bridge, etc.).
C32B. Demonic characters will make something useful for themselves (and harmful to humans) out of nail clippings.
C32c. Nails (and hair) have special significance for a person's fate, their soul or the world as a whole. (Compound motif).
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K161 | 99.39% | A character who has deprived a dragon (demon, thunder) of its freedom orders others not to unlock the dungeon (not to enter a certain room, not to give the chained creature anything to drink, etc.). The prohibition is violated, the chained creature is freed, which leads to disaster. Cf. motif K100f1. |
| K62A1 | 99.37% | A man saves (spares) and nurses a wounded bird. Having regained its strength, the bird puts him on its back and carries him to a distant land or to the sky. |
| M57D2 | 99.22% | The man was about to cut down a tree. It himself, or the creature living on it or in it, asks not to do so and fulfills the person's wishes. |
| L15H | 99.15% | The object in which the character's life is concentrated is enclosed in another, which is enclosed in a third, and so on (like an egg in a duck, a duck in a hare, a hare in a chest). Or the animal in which the character's soul is enclosed transforms into other animals as it flees. There are three or more enclosures or transformations. |
| H6C | 99.08% | The raven (crow, vulture) is associated with death or contrasted with humans as immortal among mortals (sent to bring the elixir of immortality or water that revives the dead; drinks this water himself; teaches people funeral rites; etc.). |
| I4 | 99.04% | When a vehicle moves across the sky, thunder rumbles. |
| K102A4 | 98.97% | A hostile young character is located behind a water barrier. The young man's sister or mother helps him cross and becomes his lover. |
| K39 | 98.95% | The character must feed a powerful creature by regularly throwing it pieces of meat. When the prepared meat runs out, he cuts off the last piece from his own flesh. See motif K38 (the bird carries the hero where he needs to go; on the way, he throws pieces of prepared meat into its beak; when the supplies run out, he gives the bird a piece of his own flesh). |
| M162 | 98.82% | The character pretends to eat his own entrails or flesh. Others believe him and kill themselves (or allow themselves to be killed). |
| K120A4 | 98.76% | The character must fill a vessel with tears (pour them on the floor). |
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
39 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 39 traditions: Saudi Arabia, Algeria Arabs, Basques, Ancient Italy: Latins, Etruscans, Magna Graecia, Poles, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Albanians, Balkarians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Finns, Karelians, Vepsians, Scandinavians: early written sources ("Edda"; Saxo Grammaticus etc.); Gothland picture stones; Ancient Germans (Late Bronze Age in Scandinavia), Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Persians, Iranian literary tradition (including Avesta, Pahlevi scripts, Sah-nameh, Marzban-nameh); Zoroastrians of Iran, Indian Parsees, Zoroastrianism, Dargin (Dargwa), incl. Müregin, Khürkilin, Kubachi, Svans, Georgians, Armenians, Gagauz, Kirghiz, Bashkirs, Mari (Cheremis), Chuvash, Komi (Zyrians and Permyaks), Mansi, Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Khakas, Nenets, Icelanders, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Saudi Arabia, China, Russian Federation
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