Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
L10 — Sharp tail.
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 character has a sharp (biting) tail or a protrusion on its back. See motif L9, cf. motif L9C.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 8, Queer and monstrous beings, creatures, objects and loci, folk beliefs related to particular phenomena and objects.
L10 has 1 other sub-motifs
RelatedL10. The character has a sharp (biting) tail or a protrusion on its back. See motif L9, cf. motif L9C.
L10a. A demonic character approaches a man's campfire. The man leaves a log in his place and hides. The character throws himself on the log, mistaking it for a sleeping man; usually, the hunter kills or wounds the demon.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| B97A | 99.81% | A strip of light or dark feathers (rarely: wool) on the neck of a bird (animal) is its necklace (scarf). |
| M29F | 99.53% | As a result of its stupidity or antisocial behavior, the wolverine dies or suffers damage. See the motives in square brackets. |
| L102 | 99.22% | A girl or woman (for various reasons, jokingly or seriously) calls an animal or animal remains her husband, or steps on bones and addresses them. The animal (comes to life and) carries her away. Her human husband, parents or brother come for her, and they flee; usually the animal husband pursues them, but stops the chase or dies. |
| A13A1 | 99.02% | The raven rescues or obtains the hidden or stolen sun (daylight). |
| M16A | 99.01% | A character (usually a loon) restores a person's sight and/or health by diving into the water with them. See motif M16. |
| C19A | 98.98% | The character (except Quileut: Raven) turns into a child, asks for and receives heavenly bodies to play, or (Chukchi) comes to play with the little daughter of the owner of the stars. |
| M20 | 98.79% | The character does something unacceptable, is caught, and his beak or jaw is damaged. Usually (except for the Koryaks), people keep the torn-off beak (jaw) in their homes, and the character comes and takes it back. |
| M17 | 98.71% | A wife, mother or grandmother directs the arrow of a blind man or boy at game, lies that he missed, cooks and eats the meat herself. See motif M16 (man is blind, K333.1). |
| K32C | 98.59% | The deceiver takes the place of the real wife, and the real wife becomes an owl. See motif K32. |
| M123 | 98.59% | A bird of prey or scavenger (raven, owl, hawk, coyote) marries (or attempts to marry) a partner who (or whose brothers) are geese or other waterfowl. The marriage is disrupted or proves unsuccessful. |
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
16 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 16 traditions: Nenets, Dogrib, Slavey, Han, Athna, Koyukon, Tanana, Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), Caribou, Polar Inuit, Baffin Land Inuit, East Greenland (Angmassalik, Kulusuk), Arapaho, Teton (incl Oglala), Twana (Skokomish), Chumash, Greenland
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