Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

L4 — The Unmasked Murderer, ATU 311, 312.

157 Myths, legends and folktales

157 Unique narratives for motif L4

87 Cultures & traditions where L4 is told

2 Sub-motifs of motif L4

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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

Overview

The character consistently (almost) kills girls (rarely: his nephews or his wife's younger brothers) whom he brings to his home (usually a male character kills wives). The heroine or hero (the youngest of all) avoids the common fate, usually after discovering the captives or their remains.

Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits

This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.

L4 has 2 other sub-motifs

L4.  The character consistently (almost) kills girls (rarely: his nephews or his wife's younger brothers) whom he brings to his home (usually a male character kills wives). The heroine or hero (the youngest of all) avoids the common fate, usually after discovering the captives or their remains.
L4a.  To test the loyalty of the heroine (hero), the demon demands that she eat food that humans should not eat. Usually, when the heroine reports that the food has been eaten, the demon asks where the food is, and the food answers him.
L4b.  The character learns about the violation of the prohibition to enter a certain room, as evidence of this has been preserved on the body of the heroine (hero) or on an object in her (his) hands (often blood on a key or an apple).

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of L4’s motifs

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny

Motif	Similarity	Motif summary
L73	97.88%	Trying to drink a river, lake, or sea, the antagonist bursts.
K38F6	96.52%	A creature consisting of fire is mentioned.
I103	96.40%	Sirius is associated with a dog or a wolf.
I41B	96.27%	The rainbow drinks (draws into itself) water (and living creatures).
K12B	96.02%	The hero enters a world beyond the human world and marries there. His wife allows him to visit his former world, but on certain conditions. The hero breaks these conditions, which leads to (irreparable) misfortune. Cf. motif F94 (the hero betrays his fairy wife in her world); K25a6 (the hero visits his world together with his fairy wife).
A39A	95.71%	Each of the calendar segments (usually months) that make up the year is represented by a special object or creature.
M136B	95.63%	A man cuts the branch he is sitting on and similar variants (cuts the rope he climbed up on; climbs onto a dry branch that breaks; climbs onto a tree that has been cut down in order to fell it).
M114I	95.61%	When asked where her father, mother, brother, etc. are, the girl or boy answers in such a way that only an intelligent person can guess what is meant (father went to make an enemy out of a friend, mother went to make one out of two, etc.); or the girl explains the meaning of similar phrases uttered by others.
K107D1	95.60%	Waiting for his magical wife, the young man falls asleep. The wife cannot wake him up and leaves (this episode is often repeated).
I121	95.59%	Constellations (usually Ursa Major and Ursa Minor) are considered as two similar, paired objects. (For Africa, Eurasia and Alaska – paired names; for most of America – semantic association, but the names are not paired).

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Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

87 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 87 traditions: Arabs of Levant (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan); Bedouins of Sinai, Kabylia and other Berber of Northern and Central Algeria: Beni Snous, Beni Menacer (incl Zuav), Shaui, etc.), Tunisia Arabs, Dinka, Atuot, Nuer, Iraku (Irakw), Yao, Makua, Khoekhoe (=Hottentot; incl Nama, Korana); Damara, Hadza, Toda, Kota, Kuruba (Kurumba), Badaga, Maravar, Pulaya, Kadar, Sinhalese; Vedda, Ireland, England, British, Bretons, Scotland, Scots, Picts, Scotti, Scottish, Spain, Spaniards, Portuguese, Portugal, Basques, Catalan, Aragon, Maltese, Sicily, Sicilians, Sardinia, Corsica, Sardinians, Corsicans, France, 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, Slovakians, Slovaks, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Croatians, Croats; Italians of Dalmatia (if the motif is absent among other Italians), Slovenians, Slovenes, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Uzbek, Baluch, Persians, Cherkassians, Adyghe, Kabardin, Ossetians, Tats, Armenians, Anatolia Turks, Kurds, Turkmen, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Mansi, Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Udeghe, Chukchi, Central Yupik, Han, Tagish, Kaska, Tanana, Bering Strait Inupiat (incl. King Island), North Alaskan Inupiat, Mackenzie Delta, Polar Inuit, Baffin Land Inuit, Labrador Inuit (Koksoagmiut), Naskapi, Montagnais, Menominee, Carrier, Shuswap, Pomo, Colorado (Tsachila), Tenetehara, Machiguenga, Piro (Yine), Tacana, Chacobo, Iranxe, Paresi, Mataco, Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal), Tonga (Tsonga; incl, Soli, Sala, Lenje), Upper Chinook: Wasco, Wishram, Clackamas, Kathlamet, Oriya (incl. Dom/Domba/Dombo, Ghasi, Bhat and other Oriya-speaking castes of Odisha), Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Frisians, Transylvanian Saksons, Greenland, Tunisia, Russian Federation

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