Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
I37D1 — St. Peter spits out mushrooms, ATU 774L.
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
OverviewSt. Peter secretly eats bread, and when Christ asks him what he is doing, he chokes, spits out the crumbs, and they turn into mushrooms.
Berezkin category: Supernatural objects, objects and creatures
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks 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.
I37 has 8 other sub-motifs
RelatedI37. Mushrooms are mentioned in a mythological context.
I37A. A mushroom is a substitute for a real object: 1) inferior, imaginary food (people ate mushrooms before the advent of hunting and agriculture; a character offers mushrooms instead of real food; real food appears as a result of the metamorphosis of mushrooms); 2) a preparation for creating or imitating a complete object (fish, birds, animals arise as a result of the metamorphosis of mushrooms; a copy of a lost or non-existent object is made from mushrooms); 3) characters of low status (lice, turtles) are engaged in mushroom picking; 4) the appearance of mushrooms is associated with a violation of the rules of interpersonal relations. See motif I37.
I37B. Mushrooms are associated with the dead, the afterlife, evil spirits, and disease. See motif I37.
I37C. Mushrooms have erotic associations. See motif I37.
I37d. Mushrooms are the excrement of a mythological character. See motif I37.
I37d1. St. Peter secretly eats bread, and when Christ asks him what he is doing, he chokes, spits out the crumbs, and they turn into mushrooms.
I37e. Tree mushrooms cry out like people.
I37f. Mushrooms are called "ears".
I37g. A tree mushroom is a step, a platform; an object that helps or hinders movement; provides shelter or refuge. See motif I37.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| I59B2 | 100.00% | The Milky Way – St. James' Way. |
| I80B | 99.99% | Man is allowed to control the weather in his own interests. He sends rain at the right time, but cannot take all factors into account (he usually forgets about the wind). The bread will not grow or will be unpalatable. |
| B104A | 99.99% | The son was about to eat some meat (chicken). At that moment, his father came in, and the son hid the meat so as not to share it with him. When his father left and the son took out what he had hidden, the meat turned into a toad (snake) and jumped on his face. |
| K25A4A | 99.99% | A young woman finds herself in the power of a water creature, and when she comes ashore, she is chained. To free the woman, the chain must be broken. |
| K33A2 | 99.99% | A brother takes his sister to her fiancé. She cannot hear her brother's words, and the witch distorts them (as if the brother is telling his sister to throw herself into the water, to blind her, etc.). Having got rid of the heroine, the witch replaces her with her own daughter. |
| M38C3 | 99.99% | A conceited smith attempts to rejuvenate an old woman (man). His magic helper tries to save the victim but all that he do is to transform the woman into an animal, usually a monkey |
| H7B2 | 99.98% | A man named Poverty makes Death swear that it will never come to him. Therefore, poverty is inevitable in the world. |
| K37B | 99.98% | A man must identify his chosen one blindfolded. He does this by touch, knowing that one of her fingers is damaged or missing. |
| H24D | 99.96% | 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). |
| M38C2 | 99.96% | 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. |
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
10 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 10 traditions: 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, Kashubians, Slovakians, Slovaks, Hungarians, Slovenians, Slovenes, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians
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