Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
L57 — The character returns his organ.
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 loses an internal organ or part of the body, which is taken away by others; he approaches unnoticed and takes back what was lost.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
L57 has 2 other sub-motifs
RelatedL57. The character loses an internal organ or part of the body, which is taken away by others; he approaches unnoticed and takes back what was lost.
L57a. The enemy takes possession of part of the character's body (remains). Another (usually resorting to trickery) returns what is missing, and the character comes back to life or recovers.
L57b. A person tears off or cuts off a part of the body of a predatory animal or demonic creature and uses it. The creature comes for the lost part, usually killing or maiming the person.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| M61A | 99.34% | To get valuables, the character provokes a quarrel between their owners. When they start fighting each other, valuables fall out of their bodies and end up at the character's disposal. |
| K52B | 99.28% | The hero comes to capture the daughter of a supernatural creature. He sees a slave breaking an axe (adze, wedge). The hero repairs the axe, and the slave helps him in return. See motif K52. |
| B35 | 99.15% | The bear hastily puts his left moccasin on his right foot and vice versa, which is why he is club-footed. |
| K52 | 99.15% | A woman or young man who approaches the shore is carried away by predatory sea creatures to the bottom of the sea; a character descends to rescue the kidnapped person and brings him or her back with the help of cunning and shamanic powers. |
| K43A | 99.07% | People leave a boy, a girl, a sister and brother, a young woman or young spouses alone and depart. Someone sympathises with those who have been abandoned and secretly hides fire for them. |
| L1F | 98.99% | The sister, using magic or transforming herself into a monster, kills her brothers in revenge for the death of her lover or husband. |
| M53D | 98.59% | The character pretends to be enemies coming; when people run away in fear, the character takes what the deceived people owned. |
| J65 | 98.34% | After the attack by enemies, a woman and her daughter remain. She rejects the marriage proposals of animal suitors and agrees to give her daughter to the heavenly deity (the Sun). The children from this marriage take revenge on their enemies. |
| M53A | 98.34% | raven gathers seals or other marine mammals around and deceives them into killing them. |
| K52A | 97.99% | The hero goes to the bottom of the sea for a woman. The slave pours water into the hearth in the house of the water dwellers. Hiding behind clouds of steam, the hero takes the woman away. See motif K52. |
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
47 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 47 traditions: Slovakians, Slovaks, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Armenians, Central Yakuts (Sakha), Nanai, Reindeer Koryak, Maritime Koryak (Alyutor), Upper Tanana (Nebesna), Tanacross, Han, Tagish, Inland Tlingit, Tahltan, Denaina, Tanana, Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw), Bella Coola (Nuxalk), Carrier, Shuswap, Thompson (Nlaka'pamux), Comox, Pentlatch, Lushootseed (Puget Sound: Puyallup, Nisqualmi, Snuqualmi, Duwamish, Muckleshoot, Snohomish, Skagit), Lower Chehalis, Upper Chehalis, (Lower) Cowlitz, Western Sahaptin (Upper Cowlitz, Klikitat, Tenino, Umatilla, Yakima, Wallawalla), Nez Perce, Tillamook, Kalapuya, Okanagon, Sanpoil, Kutenai, Maidu, Nisenan, Konkov, Achomavi, Owens Valley Paiute, Northern Paiute (=Paviotso), Northern Shoshone, Western Shoshone, Gosiute, Eastern Shoshone, Southern Paiute, Quiche, Achí, Cakchiquel, Pocomchi, Pocomam, Ticuna (Tucuna), Upper Chinook: Wasco, Wishram, Clackamas, Kathlamet, Western Yakuts (Sakha): Olekma and Vilyuy Basins, Northwestern Yakuts (Sakha): Yessey, Anabar, Olenyok and Lower Lena Basins, Northeastern Yakuts (Sakha): Yana, Indigirka and Kolyma Basins
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