Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
K76D — The Hedgehog Son, ATU 441.
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 son or foster child of a married couple is a hedgehog. He marries a princess and turns into a handsome man.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 9, Identification of protagonists of the stories with particular animals or persons with particular qualities.
K76 has 9 other sub-motifs
RelatedK76. A boy who is born or found has a strange or ugly appearance (ball, nut, sack, half-human, dwarf, animal), but then demonstrates magical powers and turns out to be handsome (usually getting a bride of high status). The princess's magical spouse initially has a non-human or ugly appearance.
K76a. A frog or toad marries a beautiful woman, or a handsome young man marries a frog.
K76b. The son or foster son of snake spouses. He turns into a human. The snake is the princess's magical spouse, lost and returned.
K76c. The son (rarely – daughter) or foster child of a married couple emerges from a pumpkin (rarely: watermelon, nut) or is found inside it.
k76c1. A woman gives birth to a pumpkin, inside which there is a person (many people) or which turns into a person.
K76d. The son or foster child of a married couple is a hedgehog. He marries a princess and turns into a handsome man.
K76e. The son (daughter) or foster child of a married couple is a pig. He marries a princess and turns into a handsome man (she marries a handsome man).
K76f. A young man with the appearance of a calf marries and then turns into a handsome man.
K76g. The son or foster son of a married couple – a crab. He marries a princess and turns into a handsome man.
K76h. A young man, temporarily having a strange or monstrous appearance (freak, animal, etc.), woos a princess, but is rejected. Then he causes natural disasters or creates personal troubles for the king, who is forced to give up his daughter.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| A32M | 100.00% | The moon is called the "Gypsy sun". |
| A35B | 100.00% | The character tries to cover the moon with resin (so that it shines less brightly). |
| B123 | 100.00% | A fly lands on the chest of the crucified Jesus. His persecutors, who intended to drive a nail into his heart, do not do so, believing that the nail has already been driven in. |
| B124 | 100.00% | Ever since a piece of flesh was torn from a person's foot, a hollow has formed between the toe and the heel. |
| B49B | 100.00% | In the past, cows had more teats on their udders than they do now. |
| C32 | 100.00% | Demonic characters will make a ship out of nail clippings. |
| F101 | 100.00% | With the help of magic, a rival or the spouse's mother tries to prevent a woman from giving birth. |
| F57 | 100.00% | A girl or her father (rarely: mother) picks a plant (usually a flower) and as a result encounters a character with a non-human appearance and/or inhabiting the underworld. The girl becomes the character's wife. In some cases, the picked plant is the character's hair, but more often there is no direct association of this kind. |
| F87B | 100.00% | A snake crawls onto the clothes of a bathing girl, climbs down in exchange for a promise to marry him, and takes her to the underwater world. She is happy there and gives birth to children. Together with them, she visits her relatives. They call the snake out of the water and kill it. After that, the wife transforms her children and/or herself into plants. |
| H52A | 100.00% | Returning from the land of immortality, a person must not touch the ground. However, he dismounts from his horse to help an old man (old woman). Death, who has taken the form of an old man, immediately kills him. Rarely: at the last moment, the hero decides not to perform actions that are fatal for him. |
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
13 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 13 traditions: Dutch, Flemish, 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, Czech, Czechs, Slovakians, Slovaks, Hungarians, Croatians, Croats; Italians of Dalmatia (if the motif is absent among other Italians), Slovenians, Slovenes, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Swedes, Russian Federation
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