Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
L86 — Children run away from their demon mother.
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
OverviewHaving turned into a demon, a woman pursues her children. Cf. motif K102a2: A mother seeks to destroy her son (children) because he interferes with her love affair and/or sides with his father in a conflict between his parents.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| J19B | 97.39% | An evil spirit kills a woman by burning through her body. |
| M69 | 97.05% | character is attracted by the inside of a large animal's skull (small animals or insects are dancing or feasting inside, or eating some meat); he sticks his head inside , it gets stuck. |
| F59 | 96.99% | Pretending to be a woman, the trickster transforms part of his body, another character, or some object into a swaddled baby, female genitalia, or a female household item, or disguises an animal or object as a baby born to a new husband. |
| M66 | 96.85% | After eating certain foods frivolously or rubbing his body with his spine, the character suffers from itching, diarrhea, or an irrepressible eruption of intestinal gases. |
| M53 | 96.70% | The character invites others to gather around him, focusing on an activity (usually dancing with their eyes closed or lowered), and then kills the crowd (usually one at a time). |
| A38D | 96.43% | Because the Sun has harmed the character (ruined or burned his cloak, the fur on his skin, etc.), he catches it in a trap or kills it. |
| L5E1 | 96.40% | A woman who has become a monster pursues her own children. |
| M80 | 96.27% | The character insults a partridge bird, kills or offends its chickens; the partridge suddenly takes off in front of the offender, he falls (usually into a lake or river). |
| I22H | 95.46% | The character must jump over a gap (abyss) beneath his feet, which alternately widens and narrows, or a river whose banks converge and diverge. |
| C6B | 95.22% | The desired object is brought up from the bottom by a muskrat (rarely a beaver or otter). |
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
25 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 25 traditions: Maori, Moriori (Chatam Islands), Batak (Toba, Dairi), Chukchi, Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Western Woods Cree, Eastern Cree, Menominee, Tuscarora, Blackfoot, Sarsee (Tsuu T'ina), Cheyenne, Teton (incl Oglala), Kiowa, Plains Cree, Plains Ojibwa, Assiniboine, Carrier, Western Sahaptin (Upper Cowlitz, Klikitat, Tenino, Umatilla, Yakima, Wallawalla), Kalapuya, Tewa (San Juan, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Tesuque, Nambe; Hano), Tiwa (Taos, Picuris; Sandia, Isleta), Towa (Jemez), Mocovi; Kechua of Santiago del Estero with probable Guaikuruan substratum; Abipon, Toba (incl Pilagá)
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