Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M187A — Fish race, ATU 250.
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
OverviewTwo fish (a fish and a whale, a dolphin, a squid and a dolphin, etc.) agree to race each other.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 11, Tricks and competitions won thanks to deception, absurd and obscene behavior.
M18 has 2 other sub-motifs
RelatedM18. The character turns into an object of fishing or hunting and presents himself as a target. The fisherman or hunter does not harm them, but they take away what they use: arrows, darts, harpoons, hooks, bait; or they catch fish, having turned themselves into hooks; or they are caught but escape death by taking on human form again.
M18a. The character becomes the object of fishing or hunting, presenting himself as a target for enemies. Numerous arrows, darts, and harpoons stick into his body without causing harm, and he carries them away. See motif M18.
M18b. The character turns into a fishing object in order to carry away the hook with which he is caught or the spear with which they try to harpoon him, or he turns into a hook to catch fish. See motif M18.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| F54C | 99.43% | A husband sees someone's fingernail marks on his wife's body and gathers the men to find out who left the marks. |
| M187C | 95.80% | Participating in a race, the crab defeats its faster opponent. |
| M29G2 | 95.31% | Cancer (crab) defeats or deceives strong opponents by cunning. |
| F54 | 94.07% | Unaware of this, the son and mother (Konkani: daughter and father) engage in sexual relations and later learn of the incest they have committed. Cf. motifs c8c, f54e. |
| L41A1 | 91.43% | When the demon tries to shake the meat out of the bag over the cauldron, stones fall from the bag into the cauldron and it splits, or the boiling water spills out and scalds the demon. |
| M39B1 | 91.30% | Once in the boat, some people row in one direction and others in the opposite direction, the boat remains in place. |
| L23 | 90.39% | Trying to free himself, the captured character successively transforms into various substances, materials or animals, or (Urarina, Setebo) orders various dangerous animals to successively attack the person who captured him. (In some cases, only one variant of transformation is mentioned, but in the same context as in typical variants with a series of transformations). |
| L23D | 89.25% | A man captures a desirable woman. Trying to free herself, she transforms into various substances, materials, animals or (urarina, setebo) orders various dangerous animals to attack the man who captured her. |
| M143 | 88.60% | Finding himself in a pit or well, one character persuades another to climb down to him, thanks to which he gets out, leaving the other at the bottom. |
| K27X9 | 88.13% | The hero must retrieve a small object (often a ring or signet ring) thrown into deep water (often the sea). Cf. motif C6 ("The Diver"). |
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
17 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 17 traditions: Kapingamarangi, Nukuoro, Palau (Western Carolines), Yap, Truk, Eastern Fayu, Losap, Pulap, Puluwat, Mortlock (incl. Satawan), Ponape, Ngaik, Mwoakil (Mokil), Kusaie (Kosrae), Ireland, Spain, Spaniards, Catalan, Dutch, Flemish, Germans: North (Low- and Central German dialects): Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg, Pommern, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony, incl East Frisia and Oldenburg), Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Thüringen, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen, Brandenburg, Rügen, Latvians, Finns, Western Sami, Eastern Sami (including Skolts), Lkungen (Straits; including Samish, Songish, Sooke, Lummi), Klallam, Frisians, Palau
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