Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

H33A — Throwing children over the roof.

24 Myths, legends and folktales
24 Unique narratives for motif H33A
14 Cultures & traditions where H33A is told
1 Sub-motifs of motif H33A
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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

Overview

God wanted to throw a newborn baby (over a fence, house, etc.) so that it would immediately stand up and start walking, but the woman was frightened and did not allow it. Therefore, children do not walk from birth. See motif H33.

Berezkin category: Paradise Lost

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.

H33 has 1 other sub-motifs

Related

H33.  At first, children walked, had to walk, or could walk immediately after birth.
H33a.  God wanted to throw a newborn baby (over a fence, house, etc.) so that it would immediately stand up and start walking, but the woman was frightened and did not allow it. Therefore, children do not walk from birth. See motif H33.

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of H33’s motifs

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny
MotifSimilarityMotif summary
K30B100.00%A woman or girl is forbidden to go outside. As soon as she does, a flying creature kidnaps her.
K27F2100.00%A girl demands that her fiancΓ© get her the same pair of shoes (or other items) as hers. These items either exist in a single copy, or it is not known what they look like. Having become invisible, the hero either steals the items (and the owner has to make new ones herself), or finds out what they look like.
N16100.00%fairy-tale text ends with a formula stating that the narrator had a horse and/or harness made of wax, ice, linen, vegetables, etc. In most cases, the narrator loses them (they melt, they are taken away, eaten, etc.).
N35100.00%Somewhere milk rivers flow with banks made of jelly (porridge) - a sign of abundance (impossible in reality). Cf. H16B motive.
K56A2B99.99%A supernatural character asks a girl to redeem (feed) his (her) children. These are snakes, beetles or wild animals. The girl does everything she is asked and is rewarded.
L23B99.99%Trying to free himself, the captured character sequentially changes his appearance. The last transformation is into a spindle.
M191C99.98%Through singing (threats, pleasantries), the wolf (less often, the bear) gradually forces the old man to give him his domestic animals (and family members).
K38B3B99.98%A mighty bird (rarely – another creature) helps a person for sheltering (warming) its chicks (offspring, children).
B87B99.96%The Great Bear – a cart harnessed by a wolf or bear. Usually, the shape of the handle of the dipper is explained by the fact that a wolf or bear attacked an ox harnessed to the cart and took its place. In this case, it is associated with Alcor or the last star of the handle of the dipper – Ξ·.
M38E99.96%mushroom (pumpkin) thinks that it is as durable as a tree.

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Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

14 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 14 traditions: Poles, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Macedonians, Balkarians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Livonians, Karelians, Western Sami, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Chuvash, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Russian Federation

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