Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
L101 — Discarded clothing distracts the pursuer.
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
OverviewWhile running away, a person gradually undresses and throws items of clothing behind them. The pursuer wastes time picking them up or destroying them.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| B71 | 96.87% | The northern lights are people who play, dance, sit by the fire, fight or run with torches. |
| E9I3 | 94.73% | Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife, helper) has the image of a goose. |
| M46E | 91.48% | They (promise to) give a child the Sun (and or the Moon) to play with |
| K54 | 88.95% | When encountering a giant or a snake, a person is afraid of it, but it becomes his friend and asks for help when he is fighting another giant or snake. The person fulfils the request. |
| K67 | 88.40% | At night, one person intends to throw another person's shoes or clothes into the fire, but ends up burning his own shoes or clothes. Usually, the father-in-law throws his son-in-law's shoes into the fire at night in order to freeze him out, but the son-in-law has already switched shoes, so the father-in-law burns his own. |
| M64 | 88.00% | The character comes to the owner of valuables (food, fire) and pretends that he already owns them. As a result, valuables are made available (littoral is exposed at low tide, salmon spreads in waters, etc.). |
| M29F | 87.50% | As a result of its stupidity or antisocial behavior, the wolverine dies or suffers damage. See the motives in square brackets. |
| L73B | 87.48% | The fugitive draws a line on the ground (ice), creating an obstacle in the path of the pursuer. |
| A43 | 86.99% | The character runs away in a hurry and undergoes a metamorphosis, turning into a bird or rising into the sky. He is missing one trouser leg, or a shoe on one foot, or one mitten. |
| F65A | 86.88% | The spouse leaves the character at the burial site; the (pretend) dead person comes back to life and leaves to be with their lover. |
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
29 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 29 traditions: 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, Slovakians, Slovaks, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Finns, Western Sami, Eastern Sami (including Skolts), Tats, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Bashkirs, Chukchi, Central Yupik, Bering Strait Inupiat (incl. King Island), North Alaskan Inupiat, Mackenzie Delta, Copper, Netsilik, Caribou, Iglulik, Polar Inuit, Baffin Land Inuit, West Greenland, Labrador Inuit (Koksoagmiut), Micmac, Five Nations Iroquois (Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga), Blackfoot, Lkungen (Straits; including Samish, Songish, Sooke, Lummi), Klallam, Greenland
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