Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

I113 — The piglet – the golden bristle, (ATU 530A).

36 Myths, legends and folktales
36 Unique narratives for motif I113
15 Cultures & traditions where I113 is told
2 Sub-motifs of motif I113
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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

A pig or boar made of gold or with golden bristles is a precious object. (In ATU, "a pig with golden bristles" is one of the possible miraculous objects; the presence of a corresponding number in regional indexes does not necessarily mean the presence of an image; only cases where the image is directly named are taken into account).

Berezkin category: Supernatural objects, objects and creatures

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.

I11 has 2 other sub-motifs

Related

I11.  The turtle (toad, frog) serves as a support (embodiment) of the earth (sky), or the supports of the sky are made from its body.
I11a.  Describes how, in the process of creation, the earth is placed on the back of a turtle or frog, which becomes its support.
I11b.  The pillars of the sky are made from the legs of a four-legged animal (usually a turtle).

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of I11’s motifs

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny
MotifSimilarityMotif summary
F87100.00%The snake forces the girl to promise to marry him and takes her to the underwater world. She is happy there and gives birth to a son (or two sons) and a daughter. Together with her children, she returns to visit her relatives. They learn what words she must use to summon her husband from the water, summon him, and kill him. Seeing the bloody water, the snake's wife (rarely the snake himself) turns the children and herself into birds or trees.
I87E100.00%After the present humans, dwarves will live on earth.
K168B100.00%A person makes another person believe that he has turned into a bear (wolf), found himself in the forest, etc. When he wakes up, the bewitched person finds himself where he was before.
K67G100.00%Pretending to carry out his master's orders, the worker cuts off the animals' lips (to make them look like they are smiling).
K56A4A99.98%Left alone with the demon in the bathhouse (mill, etc.), the girl demands that he bring her new clothes, jewellery, etc., and while the demon is fetching them, morning comes.
M114B399.98%When a girl is asked to weave clothes, given a negligible amount of yarn, she asks in return to make her weaving tools from sticks, twigs, straw, etc.
A8A99.94%The sun, moon and star (stars) appear as three consecutive and comparable objects/characters in narratives about the abduction and subsequent liberation of celestial bodies.
H52B99.94%Setting out in search of a land where there is no death, a man encounters characters engaged in tasks that can only be completed in an impossibly long time. However, the man needs eternal life, and so he continues on his way.
J7A99.94%A girl (less often a boy) brings lunch to her father or brothers who are working in the field (in the forest), but encounters a demonic character.
K14999.94%The character has a rope or reins with three knots, allowing him to move faster or slower. Usually, untying the first and second knots causes the character's ship to sail faster (thanks to the rising wind) or his horse to gallop faster; however, contrary to the warning, the character (when almost reaching the goal) also unties the third knot and as a result loses the ship, the horse, ends up not where he wanted to be, etc.

See the 100 most similar distributions →

Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

15 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 15 traditions: Dutch, Flemish, Latvians, Setu, Vepsians, Scandinavians: early written sources ("Edda"; Saxo Grammaticus etc.); Gothland picture stones; Ancient Germans (Late Bronze Age in Scandinavia), Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Cherkassians, Adyghe, Kabardin, Chuvash, Komi (Zyrians and Permyaks), Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Terek Cossacks, Transylvanian Saksons, Russian Federation

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