Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

L9 — Cutting and stabbing body parts.

188 Myths, legends and folktales

188 Unique narratives for motif L9

122 Cultures & traditions where L9 is told

7 Sub-motifs of motif L9

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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's body parts resemble cutting or stabbing weapons.

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.

L9 has 7 other sub-motifs

L9.  The character's body parts resemble cutting or stabbing weapons.
L9a.  The character's leg is crippled (intentionally or accidentally) or originally pointed. He uses the pointed bone for hunting, fishing or killing people.
L9b.  The sharp elbows or (rarely) knees of the character resemble knives or awls.
L9c.  The character kills others with a sharp protrusion on his chest.
L9d.  The character has sharp nails or knife-like hands, which he uses to kill people.
L9e.  The anthropomorphic character has a nose resembling a copper or iron beak.
L9f.  A person with a nose or teeth made of gold or silver is a sign of their demonic nature.
L9g.  A man's hair or beard of an unusual colour is a sign of his demonic nature.

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of L9’s motifs

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny

Motif	Similarity	Motif summary
K20	91.24%	Looking at the sky at night, a man or woman expresses a desire to marry a star or the Moon (kuchin: to possess a star as an object). See motifs K19a, K19b.
L61	89.87%	The character eats himself, guts himself, or kills himself in order to be eaten.
I1	87.90%	Creatures that cause or embody rain and/or thunderstorms are birds or winged anthropomorphic characters. {Traditions in which birds are associated with thunderstorms and rain, but Thunder itself is not a bird, are marked with an asterisk (*).
I6	87.63%	A person encounters a huge bird carrying clouds, rain, snow, thunderstorms, etc.
I2	87.50%	Lightning bolts fly from the eyes or mouth {specified} of a creature embodying a thunderstorm. See motif I1.
J17	87.14%	Instead of lice in the character's hair, there are other creatures, or he pretends that such creatures live in his hair.
B18	86.33%	Daylight, warmth, sun or moon are stored in a vessel, under a vessel, under a cover, in a bag, etc.
L9D	85.93%	The character has sharp nails or knife-like hands, which he uses to kill people.
K87	85.91%	A woman becomes the wife of an animal (rarely another non-human creature). The husband takes care of her, but the marriage ends with the murder of the husband, the woman, their offspring, the woman's relatives, the transformation of the woman herself into an animal, leading to hostility between humans and animals, etc.
D9	84.21%	The raven or other large dark-coloured bird of prey is the owner, embodiment, spouse, provider or thief of fire, the sun or daylight.

See the 100 most similar distributions →

Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

122 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 122 traditions: Soqotri, Zande (Azande, incl Nzakara), Maka (Makaa), Baya, Kaka, Hadza, Melanesians of the islands of Massim District ( =Milke Bay Province) to the east of New Guinea: Dobu, Rossel, Fergusson, Goodenough, Murua (Woodlark), Trobrian Islands, d'Entrecasteau Islands, Melanesians and Papuans of Central Solomons: Vella la Vella (Bilua language), Shortland islands (Mono language), San Cristobal, Saint Georgia, Eddystone, Vangunu, Southern Solomons: southern part of Santa Ysabel (Bughotu), Guadalcanal, San Cristobal, Malaita, Ulawa, Batak (Toba, Dairi), Katu (Ködu); Bru (incl. Van Kieu, Khua), Semang, Senoi, Garo (Atchik), Kachari (Bodo, incl. Lalung), Dimasa, Tripuri, Riang (of Tripura), Khami, Riga, Mori, Western Ukrainians, Abaza (Abazins), Cherkassians, Adyghe, Kabardin, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Ingush, Avar, Andi, Akhvakh, Kumyk, Terekemen, Nogai, Georgians, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Bashkirs, Mari (Cheremis), Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Mongols (Khalkha), Southern Altai: Altai proper (Altai-Kiji), Telengit, Altaians, Northern Altai: Chelkan, Kumanda, Tubalar, Altaians, Southern Selkups, Northern Selkups, Dogrib, Slavey, Han, Tagish, Inland Tlingit, Tahltan, Athna, Koyukon, Tanana, Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), Caribou, Iglulik, Polar Inuit, Baffin Land Inuit, West Greenland, East Greenland (Angmassalik, Kulusuk), Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Micmac, 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, Naskapi, Montagnais, Five Nations Iroquois (Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga), Winnebago, Blackfoot, Sarsee (Tsuu T'ina), Cheyenne, Arapaho, Teton (incl Oglala), Santee, Iowa, Arikara, Kiowa Apache, Gros Ventre, Plains Cree, Plains Ojibwa, Assiniboine, Crow, Shuswap, Thompson (Nlaka'pamux), Twana (Skokomish), Quileute, Chemakum (Hoh), Quinault, Tillamook, Oregon Athabaskans: Lower Umpqua, Tututni (incl Joshua), Upper Coquille, Galice, Tolowa, Caddo, Cherokee, Pomo, Yana, Chumash, Northern Shoshone, Western Shoshone, Gosiute, Eastern Shoshone, Choco: Embera, Nonama (Waunana), XVI century Dabaiba, pre-Columbian iconography of Sinu, Sanema, Yanomamo (Yanoama): Yanomam, Yanomami, Warao, Locono, Guiana Kariña, Kaliña, Galibi, Yagua, Ticuna (Tucuna), Xipaya, Tenetehara, Culina, Paumarí, Arauá, Apurina, Cuniba, Suruí, Gaviâo, Zoro, Arua, Cinta Larga, Mundurucu, Curuaia, Mehinaku, Waura, Yaulapiti, Kuikuro, Kalapalo, Calapalo, Kamayura, Trumai, Rikbaktsa, Iranxe, Paresi, Cayapo (incl. Kubenkranken, Pau d’Arco, Shikrin or Xikrin), Canela: Ramkokamekra, Apaniekra, Craho, Apinaye (Apinage, Apinaje), Makka, Chamacoco (Ishir), Mataco, Nivakle (=Chulupi, Ashluslay, Ajlujlay), Chorote, Toba (incl Pilagá), Selknam, Chechens, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians

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