Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
K13D — Leg hanging in the sky.
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 group of boys reaches the sky, the last one's leg is cut off or torn off.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 2, Moon spots, stars, constellations.
K13 has 3 other sub-motifs
RelatedK13a. The character's leg (rarely: both legs) is cut off, bitten off, torn off, or damaged. The character ascends to the sky: to the moon; becomes the moon; turns into a star or constellation; becomes the sun; blood flowing from the leg colours the sky.
K13b. A man crosses a body of water on the back of a caiman. The caiman bites off his leg. The cripple undergoes a metamorphosis, turning into a constellation or an animal.
K13c. The cannibal's daughter takes revenge on her husband for her mother's death and manages to cut off his leg. See motif K13A.
K13d. A group of boys reaches the sky, the last one's leg is cut off or torn off.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| I5A | 100.00% | The tapir is associated with the upper world (thunder, sky, moon). |
| K19F | 100.00% | A star or many stars descend from the sky to work in the fields. See motif K19B. |
| M139 | 100.00% | The fox caught the birds and put them in a bag. Another character secretly replaced them with thorns. |
| B99 | 99.98% | A person or their head left on a tree turns into an insect nest. |
| L88 | 99.94% | A man kills a demon, but when he touches its remains some time later, it comes to life. |
| J11 | 99.94% | The son in his mother's womb asks her to pick flowers or fruit for him (usually when a woman picks flowers, she is bitten by an insect). See motif J9. |
| J15A | 99.89% | Setting off on a journey (usually in search of a fiancé, husband, or relatives), a woman finds herself in the lair or settlement of large dangerous predators - pumas or jaguars. See motif J15. |
| B28A | 99.89% | A character pinned to the ground by a rod, transported somewhere to the edge of the world and associated with an object that continues to influence people. |
| B32 | 99.89% | As a result of conflict with their husbands, women turn into fish. |
| J10 | 99.89% | A woman loses her way after being stung by a wasp (or bee, ant, snake). She slaps her stomach (either to kill the insect or to punish her unborn sons, because of whom she went to pick a flower and was stung; see motif J11). The offended sons fall silent, ceasing to show the way. See motif J9. |
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
4 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 4 traditions: Chamacoco (Ishir), Mataco, Caduveo, Mbaya, Guarani of Paraguay and Brazil: Caygua, Mbia, Apapocuva, Nyandewa, Chiripa
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