Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
K122 — The queen of the other world finds the hero (ATU 551).
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
OverviewHaving penetrated the world of a powerful woman, unattainable without the support of supernatural helpers, the man returns. The deceiver tries to take credit for the feat. The woman whom the hero met in her world finds him and punishes (rejects) the deceiver.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
K12 has 2 other sub-motifs
RelatedK12. The hero returns the woman whom his enemy or rival tried to take away from him.
K12a. An unrecognised hero arrives at a place where his bride or wife is to be given to another man or turned into a servant. Contrary to expectations, he manages to draw a tight bow (raise a spear), with which he kills his rivals.
K12b. The hero enters a world beyond the human world and marries there. His wife allows him to visit his former world, but on certain conditions. The hero breaks these conditions, which leads to (irreparable) misfortune. Cf. motif F94 (the hero betrays his fairy wife in her world); K25a6 (the hero visits his world together with his fairy wife).
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| M163 | 99.83% | A man arrives in a country where there are many mice (rats, snakes) but no cats. He sells a cat there and receives a reward. |
| L100B | 99.80% | Having escaped from his pursuers, the young man parts with the girl, intending to return for her soon, but forgets her. When he is about to take another wife, the girl manages to restore his memory with the help of magic, and she marries him. Alternatively, the girl, who has briefly parted from her magical spouse, herself forgets him after an embrace or a kiss in her parents' house. |
| M39A8A | 99.69% | A fool or buffoon climbs a tree taking a heavy objects with him and then drops it frightening those who are under the tree |
| M178 | 99.69% | The owner successively sends others to graze the goat (herd of goats). The goat eats grass to its heart's content, but each time replies to the owner that it has been kept on a starvation diet. The owner is outraged and kills or drives away the shepherds. Convinced of the goat's deceitfulness, he decides to kill it. Either the owner begins to skin the live goat, or the goat runs away. In most versions, both motifs are combined. |
| M163B | 99.68% | A father leaves his son (each of his sons) something of little value as an inheritance. The son goes to a country where such objects or animals are unknown and sells what he has received for a large sum of money. |
| K27Z1 | 99.67% | The assistant teaches how to steal the desired object, but not to take anything else (take the bird, but not the cage, the horse, but not the bridle, etc.). The character takes what he should not, is caught, released on the promise to deliver another object, then the girl. In the end, the hero keeps both the girl and everything he stole. {ATU 550 includes a much wider range of texts; in particular, the Indian, Burmese and Persian variants mentioned in Uther 2004 do not correspond to our definition}. |
| M90A5 | 99.66% | The story mentions the golden fruits (rarely leaves) of a tree, usually golden apples. |
| M39A2C | 99.66% | A fool (or a character pretending to be crazy) sows salt (small objects) like a grain. |
| M135 | 99.65% | Two ungulates – usually after the wolf agrees to share the meadow between them – gore the predator from both sides, killing or maiming it. |
| M39G | 99.65% | The girl weeps, imagining the dangers that threaten her future child; remembering an incident that could end badly; jealous of the fiancé she does not have; distracted from urgent matters, considering the name of the future child instead of meeting the groom. |
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
44 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 44 traditions: Algeria Arabs, Tunisia Arabs, Santali, Turi, Mahli, Dards (Kalash, Kho, Kohistani, Shina, Pashai), Ireland, England, British, Bretons, Scotland, Scots, Picts, Scotti, Scottish, Sicily, Sicilians, 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, Czech, Czechs, Hungarians, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Albanians, Balkarians, Latvians, Estonians, Karelians, Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, Danish, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Wakhi, Ishkashimi (including Sanglich), Munji, Tajik, Baluch, Persians, Cherkassians, Adyghe, Kabardin, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Lezgians, Archin, Kürin; Khinalug, Avar, Andi, Akhvakh, Georgians, Armenians, Azeris (Azerbaijanis), Kurds, Mari (Cheremis), Chuvash, Hopi, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Russian Federation
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