Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
L27 — The eaten maiden.
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
OverviewSisters or friends encounter a demon. One or both do not understand the danger. One is eaten or maimed, the other escapes.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
L27 has 1 other sub-motifs
RelatedL27. Sisters or friends encounter a demon. One or both do not understand the danger. One is eaten or maimed, the other escapes.
L27a. Sisters or a brother and sister find themselves in the same house with an antagonist, whose cannibalism they only suspect or do not know about at all. Trying to hide his actions, the cannibal eats one of the children. The other child or children run away, and the antagonist pursues them. Usually the antagonist is female, and if male, he has no sexual interest in his victims. (In the Central Andes, the plot may have been borrowed in the 19th century from Chinese migrants; see motifs J47, M21).
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| I81 | 93.78% | Earthly waters fall into the abyss. |
| D1B | 88.87% | The man is the master or embodiment of fire (alone or alongside the woman-fire). |
| L18 | 88.30% | A bird with two or more heads in descriptions or images. |
| C2 | 86.86% | The inhabitants of the middle world (in part) are destroyed (or will be destroyed) once by fire or drought, another time by a flood, or the world is flooded with a stream of fire and boiling water. |
| L38 | 86.22% | The demon sets a trap, and people fall into it. Cf. motif K64A. |
| H28 | 85.68% | A creature that has been killed and destroyed (often burned) (usually a cannibal, a ferocious animal, or a powerful shaman) turns into stinging insects or other harmful, unpleasant, or dangerous creatures. |
| G6 | 85.40% | One of the trees is the main, original tree, which is very different from the others (it was the first to appear; the progenitor of trees; the progenitor of wild or cultivated plants; the sea and rivers within it; the world axis; higher than the others; obscuring the sky). |
| I29 | 85.17% | A character climbs into an animal's burrow and finds himself in the underworld, or digs a deep hole and finds himself in a world inhabited by burrowing animals. |
| B12 | 82.24% | The riverbed follows the path of a snake, fish, dragon, or crab; the river arises from parts of the snake's body; the river is a snake. |
| F5B | 81.67% | The character (listed in square brackets in the list of ethnic groups) offers another woman. Not having one or not wanting to give her away, he makes a bride out of wood, snow, etc., turns an animal into a girl, sends a servant instead of his daughter, turns himself into a woman, or confesses to the lie when the trouble is over. See motif E8. |
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
37 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 37 traditions: Khoekhoe (=Hottentot; incl Nama, Korana); Damara, Eastern Arunachal Pradesh: Abor (incl Minyong, Shimong, Padam, Pasi, Panggi), Apa Tani (Apatani), Bori, Bugun, Dafla (=Nyishi, Nisi, Nishing, incl Tagin), Gallong (=Galo, Adi), Mishmi, Garo (Atchik), Kachari (Bodo, incl. Lalung), Dimasa, Tripuri, Riang (of Tripura), Khami, Riga, Mori, Kuki, Chiru, Falam (Hallam), Chin (Meitei =Manipuri, Khami, =Kumi), Lakher, Mizo (Lushei), Anal, Pawi (Lai), Purum, Koireng, Milhiem, Kolhen, Mru, Meo (Hmong) of Thailand, Laos and Northern Vietnam, Estonians, Western Sami, Chuvash, Mansi, Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Mongols (Khalkha), Khakas, Southern Selkups, Northern Selkups, Kets, Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Tungus (Evenki) of China (Solon, Birar, Oroqen, Manegir), Evenks, Tungus (Evenki): Russian Far East, Evenks, Uilta (Orok), Nanai, Upper Tanana (Nebesna), Tanacross, Tanana, Yana, Aztec; Aztec and Teotihuacan iconography, Sicuani, Pemon: Arekuna (incl. Kamarakoto), Taulipang (Taurepan), Locono, Guiana Kariña, Kaliña, Galibi, Wayapi, Emerillon, Colorado (Tsachila), Siona, Secoya, Coreguaje, Chayahuita , Karijona, Urubu (Urubu-Kaapor), Iranxe, Paresi, Caraja
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