Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
L41C — Children sledding down a hill.
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
OverviewA cannibal grabs children as they slide down a hill.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
L41 has 4 other sub-motifs
RelatedL41. After catching a person, the cannibal carries his prey home, but the captive escapes on the road or at the cannibal's house. See motif L38 (a person falls into a demon's trap).
L41a. The character runs away from his captor, leaving a stone (or a log, sand) in his place. See motif L41.
L41a1. When the demon tries to shake the meat out of the bag over the cauldron, stones fall from the bag into the cauldron and it splits, or the boiling water spills out and scalds the demon.
L41b. A basket in which a cannibal puts people is smeared or filled with tar. See motifs L41, L42.
L41c. A cannibal grabs children as they slide down a hill.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| B48C | 98.06% | In the head of the pike there are (visible) tools used by people. |
| B68B | 98.00% | A character who, by his appearance, behaviour or unexpected appearance, tried to frighten God (people) and was turned into an animal (with a different appearance than before) for this. |
| M84B2 | 94.87% | The character carefully preserves the bones of migratory birds eaten (not fish or animals) and the birds come to life again. (Episodes of reviving a domestic goose or rooster are not taken into account in everyday tales). |
| B110 | 94.81% | A character who is dragged along the ground or who runs, falls apart or hits the ground with different parts of his body. This determines the characteristics of the landscape and flora. |
| B42I | 94.49% | Cassiopeia is associated with a deer or elk. |
| H7F | 94.49% | God gives instructions that certain categories of people must die and suffer. The character who receives the instructions, caring for the people, passes on other orders to the executors. |
| B3C | 92.83% | When the creator, having created the land, lies down to rest, the antagonist tries to drown him, dragging him to the edge of the earth. As a result, the earth expands, and the antagonist is unable to reach its edge. |
| C31A | 92.58% | The master (mistress) of the underworld receives (should receive) heavenly lights or fire. Due to a trick or accident, they are not given to him or are returned. |
| I98B | 91.91% | The Pleiades â ducks, nest or wild duck egg. |
| A29A | 91.91% | Heavenly and earthly women (demons) pull a man in different directions. As a result, he (or his half) turns into a heavenly object. |
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
9 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 9 traditions: Lithuanians, Western Sami, Eastern Sami (including Skolts), Kerek, Reindeer Koryak, Maritime Koryak (Alyutor), Central Yupik, Lkungen (Straits; including Samish, Songish, Sooke, Lummi), Klallam, Itelmen
If you wish to get access to data for projects and research, then please contact us, we do our best to help
How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
0009-0006-1672-4451
Where applicable, users should also cite the relevant original sources, catalogues, and classification systems, including Berezkin, ATU, Thompson, and other cited authorities, alongside the page accessed and the last time accessed.
Editorial annotations and database enhancements Š Jonathan Fielder-White licensed under CC BY 4.0. Berezkin-derived narrative and metadata licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Full rights information can be found here.
All rights are reserved in the database structure, selection, arrangement, metadata, classifications, software, interface design, and original editorial content.
Important: The Folklore Database expressly reserves all rights in relation to text and data mining, automated extraction, scraping, machine learning, dataset creation, and the training, development, validation, or improvement of artificial intelligence technologies or systems. No part of this website or database may be scraped, copied, reproduced, harvested, downloaded in bulk, or otherwise used for AI training or commercial data extraction without prior written permission.
Designed and Developed by Jon Fielder-White.
Š 2024â2026 Crecganford / Jonathan Fielder-White. All rights reserved.