Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
L5C — Head-chaser, D1641.7, D992, D1602.12, R261.1.
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 monster head pursues celestial bodies, people, or attaches itself to someone else's body. See motif L5.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 8, Queer and monstrous beings, creatures, objects and loci, folk beliefs related to particular phenomena and objects.
L5 has 11 other sub-motifs
RelatedL5. Describes or depicts a creature in the form of a skull or head without a body.
L5A. A rolling head turns into a celestial object that emits or eclipses light (sun, moon, stars, fireball; it is the cause of eclipses). See motif L5.
L5B. A rolling head turns into lightning/thunder. See motif L83.
L5c. The monster head pursues celestial bodies, people, or attaches itself to someone else's body. See motif L5.
L5d. The rolling head suffers from thirst. See motif L5.
L5e. The decapitated body of a woman pursues her husband, while her head pursues their children.
L5e1. A woman who has become a monster pursues her own children.
L5f. Head, face or skull – a woman's husband, fiancé or son; not dangerous to her, brings wealth, saves from hunger, etc.
L5g. Only the head remains of one of the sisters. It rolls after the other sister or sisters, or they take it with them; in the end, the head finds a place where it wants to settle.
L5h. Two sisters or two brothers find themselves in the demon's house or in front of an obstacle. One of them crawls through a narrow hole. The other gets stuck. The brother or sister pulls him or her by the head, and the head is torn off.
L5i. A multitude of rolling heads or skulls try to take a woman away.
L5j. The rolling head laughs for no reason. See motif L5.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| C34 | 96.94% | The flood begins after people kill (harm, maim) some kind of creature (usually aquatic). |
| L48 | 95.73% | The hero (usually somewhere on high ground - on a tree, rock, at the edge of a precipice or well) kills and/or throws one of his opponents down from there. The other opponents do not recognise their comrade and believe that the slain man is the hero they are pursuing. |
| L68 | 95.22% | Left alone (usually at night in a deserted place) with his companion, a man undergoes a monstrous metamorphosis. |
| I28 | 94.30% | Wild or domestic animals live inside a mountain, in a cave or in the underground world, or once came out of there into our world; often animals take on human form underground and have an owner. See motif H18. |
| K10 | 94.00% | A monstrous bird (bat) attacks people, heroes engage in battle with it. See motifs K10A – K10G. |
| L61 | 93.65% | The character eats himself, guts himself, or kills himself in order to be eaten. |
| F34B | 92.91% | A girl, woman or group of women voluntarily take as their lover a penis that exists as a special creature, snake, moray eel, lizard, worm, crab, large aquatic animal or aquatic monster, or large terrestrial mammal. People kill or maim the lover, the woman and/or her offspring, or she herself loses her human nature. The woman's behaviour is condemned. |
| F53 | 92.63% | An unattractive man marries, but hides his face. When he is seen, the marriage is dissolved. |
| B27 | 92.55% | The characters ponder what object or creature they should transform into, and once they have made their choice, they undergo metamorphosis. |
| M8A | 91.88% | Animals, and more often birds, find it difficult to break through a rock from the outside or inside, make a hole in the tree, in the body of an absorber creature, tear fetters, etc., to help a character or get out of the confined space by yourself. The list <b><i>includes</i></b> groups whose texts deal with the exit of the first ancestors to earth from a confined space. |
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
18 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 18 traditions: Hausa, Tenda (incl Bedik, Basari), Biafada, Nalu, Pajadinka, Badyara (Badiaranke), Temne (Timne), Santali, Turi, Mahli, 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, Indian literary tradition (Vedic, Brahman, Purana, Indian Buddhism, Hinduism, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchtantra, Jatakas); iconography of Hindu temples, Estonians, Karachays, Balkar, Nez Perce, Colorado (Tsachila), Wanana, Tucano proper, Pira-Tapuya, Arapaso, Tariana, Trumai, Cayapo (incl. Kubenkranken, Pau d’Arco, Shikrin or Xikrin), Apinaye (Apinage, Apinaje), Guarani of Paraguay and Brazil: Caygua, Mbia, Apapocuva, Nyandewa, Chiripa, Northern and Southern Tehuelche, Matses (Mayoruna)
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