Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
F65A — The Imaginary Dead Man: Meeting with a Lover, ATU 885A.
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 spouse leaves the character at the burial site; the (pretend) dead person comes back to life and leaves to be with their lover.
Berezkin category: Gender and sex
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
F65 has 4 other sub-motifs
RelatedF65. To satisfy their secret desire, which involves breaking social norms (forbidden sex, refusing to share food with relatives), the character pretends to be dying, abandoned at the burial site.
F65a. The spouse leaves the character at the burial site; the (pretend) dead person comes back to life and leaves to be with their lover.
F65b. The character fakes death in order to eat greedily alone.
F65c. A man pretends to be dead (in order to marry his daughter or to be able to eat the meat of hunted animals alone). One of his younger children recognises their (adoptive) father or notices that the supposed dead man is alive (he runs away from the funeral pyre, laughs, etc.).
F65d. The character pretends to be dying and is left at the burial site. However, his wife (mother, aunt) finds out about the deception and provokes the supposed dead man, forcing him to reveal himself.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| M7C | 93.02% | zoomorphic character is waiting to be transported across the water. Animals or fish consistently offer help. The character only accepts the latter's help - he was waiting for him to eat. |
| K27P1 | 91.08% | The father-in-law (less often the mother-in-law) orders the hero to kill or tame a dangerous animal or not to kill a certain animal while hunting. This animal is himself or his daughter (wife). |
| L118 | 88.45% | One character provokes another to stick a part of their body into a split log (between two boards, etc.) and knocks out the wedge. |
| K12B | 88.40% | The hero enters a world beyond the human world and marries there. His wife allows him to visit his former world, but on certain conditions. The hero breaks these conditions, which leads to (irreparable) misfortune. Cf. motif F94 (the hero betrays his fairy wife in her world); K25a6 (the hero visits his world together with his fairy wife). |
| B71 | 87.03% | The northern lights are people who play, dance, sit by the fire, fight or run with torches. |
| L101 | 86.88% | While running away, a person gradually undresses and throws items of clothing behind them. The pursuer wastes time picking them up or destroying them. |
| L4 | 86.82% | The character consistently (almost) kills girls (rarely: his nephews or his wife's younger brothers) whom he brings to his home (usually a male character kills wives). The heroine or hero (the youngest of all) avoids the common fate, usually after discovering the captives or their remains. |
| B42T | 86.70% | All seven stars of the Big Dipper (and not just the stars of the dipper) are considered to be the figure of an animal - a bear, moose, deer, ram, camel, or dog. |
| C25C | 85.94% | A change in the configuration of a certain constellation (usually the Big Dipper) or its disappearance from the sky will signal a global catastrophe. |
| L73 | 85.76% | Trying to drink a river, lake, or sea, the antagonist bursts. |
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
58 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 58 traditions: Yemen, Arabs of Levant (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan); Bedouins of Sinai, Arabs of Egypt, Fula (Fulbe, Fulani, Pular), Burmese, Intha, Early Chinese written sources, Scotland, Scots, Picts, Scotti, Scottish, Spain, Spaniards, Portuguese, Portugal, Basques, Sardinia, Corsica, Sardinians, Corsicans, France, Germans: North (Low- and Central German dialects): Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg, Pommern, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony, incl East Frisia and Oldenburg), Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Thüringen, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen, Brandenburg, Rügen, Poles, Czech, Czechs, Slovakians, Slovaks, Lithuanians, Latvians, Finns, Vepsians, Swedes, Danes, Danish, Western Ukrainians, Persians, Armenians, Kazakh, Chukchi, Aleuts, Central Yupik, Inland Tlingit, Tahltan, Ingalik (Der Hit’an), Koyukon, Tanana, Bering Strait Inupiat (incl. King Island), North Alaskan Inupiat, Mackenzie Delta, Copper, Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw), Sauk (Sak, Mesquakie), Fox, Kickapoo, Sarsee (Tsuu T'ina), Arikara, Jicarilla, Chiricahua, Western Apache (White Mountain, San Carlos), Lipan, Colorado (Tsachila), Nivakle (=Chulupi, Ashluslay, Ajlujlay), Kodiak, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Greenland, Yemen, Russian Federation
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