Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
F5B — Artificial bride.
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 (listed in square brackets in the list of ethnic groups) offers another woman. Not having one or not wanting to give her away, he makes a bride out of wood, snow, etc., turns an animal into a girl, sends a servant instead of his daughter, turns himself into a woman, or confesses to the lie when the trouble is over. See motif E8.
Berezkin category: Gender and sex
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.
F5 has 2 other sub-motifs
RelatedF5. The character does not want to or cannot give all the suitors his daughters in marriage and turns them into girls of various animals. (Usually after the flood or at the beginning of time, men want to marry the only daughter of a deity or patriarch).
F5a. God was going to make Eve from Adam's rib. The rib was stolen by a dog (cat, fox, monkey, devil). God (or an angel sent by him) chased after the thief, grabbed him by the tail and tore it off. God made Eve from this tail. Either God first made a woman from edible material and the dog ate this figure. He had to make a new one from Adam's rib. Or God cut off Adam's tail and made Eve from it.
F5b. The character (listed in square brackets in the list of ethnic groups) offers another woman. Not having one or not wanting to give her away, he makes a bride out of wood, snow, etc., turns an animal into a girl, sends a servant instead of his daughter, turns himself into a woman, or confesses to the lie when the trouble is over. See motif E8.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| C2 | 90.99% | The inhabitants of the middle world (in part) are destroyed (or will be destroyed) once by fire or drought, another time by a flood, or the world is flooded with a stream of fire and boiling water. |
| E5D | 89.32% | The first people to arrive on earth and settle within a limited space are threatened by a predator or monster. |
| I24 | 89.17% | A snake (or fish) forms a bridge across a river. |
| B37 | 88.66% | The character decorates various birds (less often fish) and distributes fat to animals. Since then, the corresponding species have possessed their current characteristics. |
| M33 | 88.53% | The character plugs or seals his anus tightly (with wax, clay, grass, etc.), or someone else does it. See M32 motif. |
| D13D | 88.02% | One character tries to make another character, who is hiding somewhere in the house, laugh in order to find them. |
| I29 | 87.95% | A character climbs into an animal's burrow and finds himself in the underworld, or digs a deep hole and finds himself in a world inhabited by burrowing animals. |
| L35 | 86.33% | A shaman or spirit comes at night and, reaching his hand into the hut, steals food or disturbs a woman. A man in the hut cuts off or tears off the hand. |
| E17 | 86.31% | People get the idea of ornamentation of vessels, baskets, bodies, etc., or of a sign system after someone manages to see a pattern on the body of a zoomorphic or supernatural creature or make an imprint of it. |
| J2 | 85.85% | Husband or lover â tree (temporarily transformed into a human). |
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
25 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 25 traditions: Geez, Tigrai, Tigre, Tiv, Bamum (Bamun), Mungaka (Mgaka, Bali), Beba, Anaguta, Bete (Mbete, Karang), Ekoi, Nyang, Vute (Wute), Jukun, Chamba, Bamileke, Kwotto, Kirri; Denya (Nyang), Viet, Muong, Khasi, Indian literary tradition (Vedic, Brahman, Purana, Indian Buddhism, Hinduism, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchtantra, Jatakas); iconography of Hindu temples, Kazakh, Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Chuvans, Russian-speaking Creols of Markovo, Chukchi, Aleuts, Central Yupik, Sauk (Sak, Mesquakie), Fox, Kickapoo, Wichita; Spiro Mound iconography, Assiniboine, Yana, Chiricahua, Lacandon, Makiritare (Yecuana), Warao, Wayana, Aparai, Mehinaku, Waura, Yaulapiti, Kamayura, Trumai, Northern and Southern Tehuelche, China
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