Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

J62C — A sister asks her brother to obtain the impossible.

93 Myths, legends and folktales

93 Unique narratives for motif J62C

56 Cultures & traditions where J62C is told

4 Sub-motifs of motif J62C

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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

In order to destroy the young man, the antagonist arouses in his sister (rarely: in him himself) a desire to possess wonderful objects, the attempt to obtain which is deadly dangerous. The young man sets off to obtain the objects.

Berezkin category: Avenger heroes: The amerinday cycle

This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.

J62 has 4 other sub-motifs

J62.  The character turns those who come to him into inanimate objects (usually stones). (In variants of the ATU 303 plot, the motif is often absent; original texts are needed).
J62a.  The character turns those who come to him into plants (trees, flowers). The hero (heroine) remains alive and breaks the spell on those who have been transformed.
J62b.  The character turns those who come to him into animals. Thanks to the hero, they are disenchanted.
J62b1.  A sorceress living on an island turns men into animals.
J62c.  In order to destroy the young man, the antagonist arouses in his sister (rarely: in him himself) a desire to possess wonderful objects, the attempt to obtain which is deadly dangerous. The young man sets off to obtain the objects.

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of J62’s motifs

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny

Motif	Similarity	Motif summary
K27R2	99.83%	Task: bring objects (fruit, wood, water, etc.) that perform actions characteristic of humans (sing, dance, yawn, laugh, etc.).
K157	99.78%	The character lures his opponents out one by one and cuts off each one's head as soon as they appear. Less commonly, a multi-headed opponent sticks out its heads one by one, and the hero cuts them off.
M91C5	99.64%	The person himself or his little son goes to the bazaar to sell a cow (or another large pet). The crook convinces him that it is a sheep (or another animal that is smaller and cheaper). Each of the crook's friends confirms the score or gives an even lower grade. A man at a loss sells a cow for the price of a sheep.
M153	99.55%	A hoofed animal asks a predator to examine its hoof under various pretexts, and then kills or maims it with a kick.
K33A	99.55%	Young siblings (most often a brother and sister) leave home. One of them (rarely: several brothers) accidentally breaks a taboo and is transformed into an animal (usually a hoofed animal) or (rarely) a bird; later, the spell is usually broken.
K147	99.54%	The enemy dismembers the hero's body. The remains are tied to the horse's saddle, or the horse itself picks them up and brings them to friendly characters. They revive the hero.
C30A	99.54%	A man borrows money on the condition that if he fails to repay it by a certain date, he will have to give the lender a certain amount of his own flesh. The lender cannot cut off the flesh, because he is unable to fulfil the formally logical but essentially absurd demand made of him.
K27G	99.51%	The character is ordered to bathe in (hot) milk, in boiling water, to jump into the fire; he remains unharmed, while his opponent usually perishes.
K64A	99.50%	A man blinds a sleeping or immobile giant-cannibal and escapes from him.
J32	99.48%	Someone regularly steals livestock (horses, sheep, etc.) or crops (apples, hay, peas, flowers, etc.). Those who undertake to guard them (usually the older brothers) fail to catch the thief, and only the hero (usually the younger brother) discovers him.

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Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

56 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 56 traditions: Arabs of Levant (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan); Bedouins of Sinai, Arabs of Egypt, Kabylia and other Berber of Northern and Central Algeria: Beni Snous, Beni Menacer (incl Zuav), Shaui, etc.), Algeria Arabs, Malagasy, Bhuiya (now Aryans, originally Munda; Rahman 1955: 203), Baiga, Bhaina, Bhumia (subgroup of Baiga, incl Bharia, formerly Munda, now speak Indo-Aryan languages of neighboring groups), Bengali, Kashmiri, Hindi-speaking peoples and casts (incl. Teli, Parahiya; incl. Chhattisgarhi) of Northern and West-Central India, England, British, Bretons, Spain, Spaniards, Portuguese, Portugal, Basques, Aragon, Sicily, Sicilians, Sardinia, Corsica, Sardinians, Corsicans, France, 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, Czech, Czechs, Slovakians, Slovaks, Hungarians, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Croatians, Croats; Italians of Dalmatia (if the motif is absent among other Italians), Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Albanians, Balkarians, Lithuanians, Karelians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Uzbek, Rushani, Shughni, Khufi, Bartangi, Tajik, Iranian literary tradition (including Avesta, Pahlevi scripts, Sah-nameh, Marzban-nameh); Zoroastrians of Iran, Indian Parsees, Zoroastrianism, Abaza (Abazins), Cherkassians, Adyghe, Kabardin, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Ossetians, Udin, Dargin (Dargwa), incl. Müregin, Khürkilin, Kubachi, Avar, Andi, Akhvakh, Kumyk, Terekemen, Tats, Mingrelians (Megrelians), Laz, Armenians, Gagauz, Anatolia Turks, Azeris (Azerbaijanis), Kurds, Kirghiz, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Oirats (incl Torgouts, Derbets, Oilots), Dogrib, Slavey, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Bosnians, Tunisia, Russian Federation

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