Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
H53 — The wolf – lord of the dead.
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 wolf participates in the creation of the earth or is the brother of the creator and/or conqueror of the demons of the underworld. He dies and/or is considered the first to die and/or becomes the lord of the land of the dead.
Berezkin category: Paradise Lost
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.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K1J | 99.86% | The abandoned one turns into a bird and returns home faster than the one who abandoned him. |
| J41B | 99.59% | The son returns, finds his mother, who was humiliated and tortured in his absence, and burns his tormentor and his men, summoning fire and heat with magic. |
| M29J | 99.22% | See the motives in square brackets. |
| A38A | 98.71% | The sun is caught in a loop made of a woman's pubic hair. |
| M93A | 98.19% | The character punishes a part of his body (burns his ass, breaks his eyes) for not sounding the alarm. See Motive M93; cf. Motive M142. |
| M53B | 97.87% | Trickster claims he's carrying songs in his bag. See M53 motif. |
| M66 | 97.40% | After eating certain foods frivolously or rubbing his body with his spine, the character suffers from itching, diarrhea, or an irrepressible eruption of intestinal gases. |
| M32A | 97.26% | character's insides or pieces of flesh fall out of his back. He eats them, mistaking them for regular meat and fat. |
| B95 | 97.07% | The appearance of the sphincter or buttocks is explained by the fact that a certain character burned his backside. |
| J12M | 97.07% | A woman or two sisters come to two men and become wives of one of them. The other kills or tries to kill his rival or the women. As a result, the women turn into waterfowl. |
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
12 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 12 traditions: Kuki, Chiru, Falam (Hallam), Chin (Meitei =Manipuri, Khami, =Kumi), Lakher, Mizo (Lushei), Anal, Pawi (Lai), Purum, Koireng, Milhiem, Kolhen, Mru, Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Ottawa, Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Montagnais, Sauk (Sak, Mesquakie), Fox, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Sarsee (Tsuu T'ina), Omaha, Ponca, Assiniboine, Yokuts
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