Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
K57A — The Beauty from the Land of Soap, (ATU 510B).
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 noble young man, who treated a lowly servant girl rudely and contemptuously, does not recognise her in the guise of a magnificent beauty and does not understand her hints about the relevant episodes. Or the younger brother responds to the hints of his older brothers after they first beat him and then fail to recognise him in the guise of a handsome hero.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
K57 has 5 other sub-motifs
RelatedK57. A girl hides her beauty and/or lives in poverty, a man of high status sees her in her true form/in luxurious attire and takes her as his wife, recognising her by an item he gave her or she lost, usually a slipper or shoe, or by seeing her change her clothes. {All texts with this motif are also considered to contain the f62 motif}.
K57a. A noble young man, who treated a lowly servant girl rudely and contemptuously, does not recognise her in the guise of a magnificent beauty and does not understand her hints about the relevant episodes. Or the younger brother responds to the hints of his older brothers after they first beat him and then fail to recognise him in the guise of a handsome hero.
K57b. To stop a beautiful woman from running away, a man in love with her smears resin or glue on the threshold (porch). The shoe sticks, and all the girls try it on to find its owner.
K57c. The prince puts a ring on the finger of a beautiful girl, not knowing that she is the very girl who works in his kitchen. The girl slips the ring into the prince's food, and he recognises it.
K57d. The prince marries the girl who fits the shoe. The girl cuts off her toes or heel so that the shoe will fit.
k57e. Due to her naivety or by accident, a young girl causes her mother's death.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| L65B2 | 100.00% | The hero's dogs have names that speak of their strength and agility (Wind, Ironbreaker, etc.). |
| M38C1 | 99.89% | The character (supposedly) forges a person, rejuvenating or reviving him, the other unsuccessfully tries to imitate him. |
| F73B | 99.84% | The bear (wolf, lion, dragon) believes that the vulva is a wound inflicted on a human being. |
| M193A | 99.83% | A woman baked a flatbread (pancake, pie, dough figure). It rolled away (ran away). On its way, it encounters various people and/or animals who want to eat it. It rolls away from each of them, but a fox (rarely another animal) eats it. |
| K119D | 99.83% | A cat helps a poor young man marry a princess (a girl marry a prince). |
| M95 | 99.80% | weaker character asks a stronger character to take the gift to his family and climbs into a basket, bag, etc. A strong character brings and leaves a gift without knowing that brought whoever sent this gift. Usually a girl hides her sisters in a bag (chest), and next time she sits there herself, and the cannibal believes that there are gifts for the girls' parents in the bag and carries the bag. |
| M38C | 99.80% | blacksmith (supposedly) forges a person, rejuvenating or revitalizing him. |
| A32D2 | 99.77% | A man with a pitchfork in his hands can be seen in the silhouette of the moon's spots. |
| H6C3 | 99.77% | Large birds that fly in wedge formations (storks, cranes, swans, geese – German: Zugvögel) are associated with the otherworld (they bring children from there, carry children away to the non-human world, control living and dead water, etc.). |
| K56A4E | 99.77% | After meeting a supernatural character, a kind person receives valuables, while a greedy person burns to death upon returning home. |
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
20 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 20 traditions: Arabs of Levant (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan); Bedouins of Sinai, Arabs of Egypt, Portuguese, Portugal, 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, Poles, Slovakians, Slovaks, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Lithuanians, Finns, Karelians, Swedes, Danes, Danish, Persians, Gagauz, Mordvins, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Russian Federation
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