Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
K51 — The deceived wife.
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
OverviewThe husband feigns death, disappears or leaves home for a long time. The wife learns that he has married another woman, finds and, as a rule, kills her husband and/or rival, who often turns out to be a creature of non-human nature.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
K51 has 2 other sub-motifs
RelatedK51. The husband feigns death, disappears or leaves home for a long time. The wife learns that he has married another woman, finds and, as a rule, kills her husband and/or rival, who often turns out to be a creature of non-human nature.
K51a. One woman comes to another in the absence of a man and kills her by pushing her rival's head into boiling liquid or pouring boiling water or hot fat into her ear. See motif K51.
K51b. The bodies of the slain are left in such a position that it seems as if they are rejoicing – smiling, laughing, dancing.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| M123C | 98.58% | A non-migratory bird sets off south with migratory birds, but is unable to reach its destination. |
| B96 | 98.57% | The heroes' enemy turns into a large commercial fish (usually a sturgeon) or (rarely) a commercial aquatic mammal. |
| K51A | 98.15% | One woman comes to another in the absence of a man and kills her by pushing her rival's head into boiling liquid or pouring boiling water or hot fat into her ear. See motif K51. |
| I123 | 98.11% | Altair with a small neighbouring star from the constellation Aquila or Vega with a similarly faint star are considered to appear during or immediately after the winter solstice, although they are actually visible before that. |
| F91 | 98.00% | A man finds or breeds monstrous worms to eat his wife. |
| K27N3C1 | 97.85% | The inhabitants of the polar bear village – relatives of his wife – set the hero difficult tasks and trials. |
| M29A1 | 97.85% | In three or more different episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is raven (crow) |
| E9M | 97.67% | A man marries a bear (white or grizzly) that takes the form of a woman, or a woman who takes the form of a bear. |
| M46D | 97.28% | A small child cries and calms down only after being given a valuable item hidden in the house to play with. After receiving an item, a child or an associated character takes it away. |
| M123D | 97.17% | A bird from the corvid family is rejected after its mate or relatives discover that it eats carrion or filth. |
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
34 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 34 traditions: Tuvalu (Ellice), Nanai, Nivkh, Reindeer Koryak, Maritime Koryak (Alyutor), Chukchi, Asiatic Eskimo (Sirenek, Naukan, Chaplino), Aleuts, Central Yupik, Nunivak Island, Chugach, Inland Tlingit, Kaska, Athna, Ingalik (Der Hit’an), Koyukon, Tanana, Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), Bering Strait Inupiat (incl. King Island), North Alaskan Inupiat, Mackenzie Delta, Copper, Polar Inuit, Eyak, Tlingit, Algonquin, unspecified Algonkians of the Midwest (probably Old Algonquin), Menominee, Osage, Western Sahaptin (Upper Cowlitz, Klikitat, Tenino, Umatilla, Yakima, Wallawalla), Chumash, Western Keres (Acoma, Laguna), Eastern Keres (Cochiti, Sia, San Felipe, Santo Domingo, Santa Ana, Paguate, Seama), Kodiak, Itelmen
If you wish to get access to data for projects and research, then please contact us, we do our best to help
How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
0009-0006-1672-4451
Where applicable, users should also cite the relevant original sources, catalogues, and classification systems, including Berezkin, ATU, Thompson, and other cited authorities, alongside the page accessed and the last time accessed.
Editorial annotations and database enhancements © Jonathan Fielder-White licensed under CC BY 4.0. Berezkin-derived narrative and metadata licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Full rights information can be found here.
All rights are reserved in the database structure, selection, arrangement, metadata, classifications, software, interface design, and original editorial content.
Important: The Folklore Database expressly reserves all rights in relation to text and data mining, automated extraction, scraping, machine learning, dataset creation, and the training, development, validation, or improvement of artificial intelligence technologies or systems. No part of this website or database may be scraped, copied, reproduced, harvested, downloaded in bulk, or otherwise used for AI training or commercial data extraction without prior written permission.
Designed and Developed by Jon Fielder-White.
© 2024–2026 Crecganford / Jonathan Fielder-White. All rights reserved.