Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

L90 — Mouth to the sky.

117 Myths, legends and folktales

117 Unique narratives for motif L90

61 Cultures & traditions where L90 is told

5 Sub-motifs of motif L90

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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

One lip (one fang, horn, etc.) of the creature reaches the sky, while the other drags along the ground.

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.

L90 has 5 other sub-motifs

L90.  One lip (one fang, horn, etc.) of the creature reaches the sky, while the other drags along the ground.
L90a.  Describes a house that stands on the legs or a single leg of a bird or small animal and/or rotates (is capable of turning).
L90b.  One tooth (fang) of the creature touches the sky, the other reaches the earth or the underworld.
L90c.  One horn of an animal (deer, ram, bull, goat, wolverine) touches the ground, while the other is raised to the sky or reaches the sky.
L90d.  The hero attaches the upper lip (jaw) of the monster to the sky, and the lower lip to the earth.
L90E.  Human heads are impaled on stakes outside the house of a dangerous character, and one head is missing (or there is a wall of heads, with one missing). It is assumed that the head of the hero of the story should be there.

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of L90’s motifs

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny

Motif	Similarity	Motif summary
K38B	99.50%	A snake or monster of aquatic-chthonic or indeterminate nature eats or maims the young of a bird or other flying creature – in most cases, the chicks of a huge bird. A man kills the snake (monster). See motif K38.
F9F	99.09%	Without the woman's knowledge, the demon regularly kills her suitors on their wedding night.
L125	99.00%	After meeting a beautiful woman, a man finds her in a situation where her inhuman nature is revealed. After that, the marriage falls apart.
K38C	98.87%	After the hero helps the bird (usually by doing good to its chicks), it takes him to the place he desires, or instructs its chicks to do so. (This does not involve movement between levels of the universe; in the Sumerian version, the bird gives the hero the ability to move with lightning speed and directs him to his goal).
M78G	98.87%	When the inhabitants of the house fall asleep, a joker (usually a tiny boy) ties them together in pairs so that when they wake up, they quarrel.
M195	98.62%	The character must guess which of the two horses or cows is older. He does this by knowing the behavioural characteristics of these animals.
K139	98.55%	A servant is so struck by the beauty of a girl (rarely: a boy) that he lets the meat or bread intended for his master burn.
K82	98.34%	A man's wife or another woman tries to destroy his sister.
F14	98.29%	The hero is born as a result of the union of a man with a stone or rock.
K77B2	98.29%	The goat (goat, ram, etc.) responds to the predator's questions in the sense that parts of its body are weapons and other objects designed to kill the questioner, or that the goat is actually armed.

See the 100 most similar distributions →

Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

61 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 61 traditions: Old and New Testament, Ugarit, Phoenicia, Arabs of Egypt, Santali, Turi, Mahli, Bhuiya (now Aryans, originally Munda; Rahman 1955: 203), Baiga, Bhaina, Bhumia (subgroup of Baiga, incl Bharia, formerly Munda, now speak Indo-Aryan languages of neighboring groups), Sora (Savara, Saora), Parenga, Gondi (mostly Northern Gondi), Indian literary tradition (Vedic, Brahman, Purana, Indian Buddhism, Hinduism, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchtantra, Jatakas); iconography of Hindu temples, Bengali, Nepali; Tharu, Balahi; Lambadi (Banjaaa), Lepcha, Slovakians, Slovaks, Hungarians, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Macedonians, Balkarians, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Estonians, Setu, Scandinavians: early written sources ("Edda"; Saxo Grammaticus etc.); Gothland picture stones; Ancient Germans (Late Bronze Age in Scandinavia), Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Tajik, Baluch, Persians, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Ossetians, Ingush, Laks, Kumyk, Terekemen, Tats, Georgians, Armenians, Kalmyk, Gagauz, Anatolia Turks, Azeris (Azerbaijanis), Kazakh, Hui (Dungan) of Xinjiang, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan (Dungan texts from Southern and Eastern China are clustered with the Chinese ones), Turkmen, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Bashkirs, Mordvins, Chuvash, Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Oirats (incl Torgouts, Derbets, Oilots), Mongols (Khalkha), Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Khakas, Southern Altai: Altai proper (Altai-Kiji), Telengit, Altaians, Northern Altai: Chelkan, Kumanda, Tubalar, Altaians, Ainu, Nivkh, Forest (Upper Kolyma) Yukaghir, Arabs (literary tradition; incl. One Thousand and One Nights), Salars, Southern Altai: Teleut, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Russian Federation

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