Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
H24D — Still gathering what has been released.
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
OverviewAn animal character who released the contents (darkness, insects, reptiles) from a vessel is still trying to gather everything back (etiology of the behaviour of a certain species of animal).
Berezkin category: Paradise Lost
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 7, Etiology of plants and animals and of their peculiar features, particular animals as protagonists of cosmological stories, metamorphoses, weather and calendar.
H24 has 7 other sub-motifs
RelatedH24. A vessel or other small container with valuables or living beings (creatures) is opened (prematurely). Its contents get out of control or disappear.
H24a. Opening the bag, the character releases stars that rush chaotically into the sky.
H24b. The character must open the vessel containing the soul of the deceased when he reaches the place or after a certain time has passed; if he opens it before the time is up, the soul flies away. See motif H24.
H24c. People open a vessel (a bundle, a basket, etc.) containing death (or old age, illness), and therefore they are mortal.
H24d. An animal character who released the contents (darkness, insects, reptiles) from a vessel is still trying to gather everything back (etiology of the behaviour of a certain species of animal).
H24e. Having brought the seeds of humanity into our world, the character drops or prematurely opens what he has brought. (Sometimes this explains the inequality of people and disorder in society).
H24f. The character has the ability to put a large amount of meat or fish into a bag or container that is easy to carry.
H24g. A woman returned from the other world or obtained there disappears when a man opens the vessel in which she is kept prematurely.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| M38C2 | 100.00% | To shove a horse or donkey, Jesus (the saint) cuts off his leg, nails a horseshoe to his hoof, and attaches his leg back. The other character tries to imitate in vain. |
| M39A4F | 100.00% | Fool sells property to the statue and believes that it will pay him. Trying to get his money, he finds treasure |
| M157D | 100.00% | Animals (mainly domestic) and/or people join forces to achieve a goal (usually to pull a root vegetable out of the ground). They succeed after the last participant (usually the weakest) joins in. |
| H7B2 | 100.00% | A man named Poverty makes Death swear that it will never come to him. Therefore, poverty is inevitable in the world. |
| K37B | 100.00% | A man must identify his chosen one blindfolded. He does this by touch, knowing that one of her fingers is damaged or missing. |
| B87C | 99.99% | Alcor (the faint star next to the second star of the Big Dipper's handle) â rider, driver, coachman. |
| J51A1 | 99.99% | To retrieve an object from a hard-to-reach place, the girl orders it to be dismembered (or just have its fingers cut off) and then reassembled, after which it comes back to life. |
| K32H1 | 99.99% | The antagonist is executed by being placed in a barrel (with nails) and rolled down a hill or tied to a horse. |
| L129A | 99.99% | The wolf or demon is asked why its body parts and organs are the way they are. It explains sequentially. |
| N8 | 99.99% | fairy-tale text ends with a formula that says that the characters placed the narrator in a gun or gun and fired a shot, or he jumped onto the core himself and thus arrived at the place where the fairy tale was performed |
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
15 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 15 traditions: Poles, Czech, Czechs, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Armenians, Kono (=Kone), Wai, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Lutsi (Ludza), Russian Federation
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