Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
I37G — Mushrooms - a step, a platform, an obstacle.
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
OverviewA tree mushroom is a step, a platform; an object that helps or hinders movement; provides shelter or refuge. See motif I37.
Berezkin category: Supernatural objects, objects and creatures
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| L84 | 97.09% | The character attempts to chop down a tree with an axe made of obviously unsuitable material. Cf. motif K27g5. |
| K10A | 94.17% | Heroes kill a dangerous bird; during or before the battle, they hide in a shelter (hut, cage, vessel, sack, well) or cover themselves with an object that protects the body. |
| M8B | 94.17% | Animals, and often birds, struggle to break through the rock to get water or honey hidden inside it. |
| F34 | 93.46% | A woman takes a large land animal as her lover. Her husband, brother or (adopted) children kill or maim the lover and (sometimes) the woman herself. Sometimes there is mention of a group of women and their husbands. (Unlike motif K102, "The Demon's Mistress," the lover is not dangerous to the hero and plays a passive role, and the woman, if she becomes hostile and dangerous, does so only after the lover's death. Unlike motif K76, the woman and her husband/lover of non-human nature are clearly evaluated negatively). |
| M29L | 91.06% | See the motives in square brackets. |
| M73A | 89.50% | Two (animal) persons compare their feces (with different purpose). One of them gets to exchange them |
| M5 | 88.55% | Once in a situation where his life depends on the will of a demon or animal, the hero feels like insulting or hitting him. See M1 motif. |
| G13 | 88.42% | Before the advent of cultivated plants, people ate rotten or soft wood (ceiba â Ceiba L., balsa â Ochroma (Bombax) Sw.); some people eat rotten wood. |
| F34B | 88.15% | A girl, woman or group of women voluntarily take as their lover a penis that exists as a special creature, snake, moray eel, lizard, worm, crab, large aquatic animal or aquatic monster, or large terrestrial mammal. People kill or maim the lover, the woman and/or her offspring, or she herself loses her human nature. The woman's behaviour is condemned. |
| D4O | 87.83% | In order to steal fire from its owner, the character pretends to be wet and cold, and after receiving permission to dry off, runs away, bringing fire to the people. |
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
0 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 0 traditions:
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