Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

M49 — A hero in someone else's skin

217 Myths, legends and folktales

217 Unique narratives for motif M49

101 Cultures & traditions where M49 is told

1 Sub-motifs of motif M49

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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 hero meets a character from the enemy camp and, taking on his form, penetrates enemies. Usually, the hero kills the person he meets and puts on his skin.

Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes

This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.

M49 has 1 other sub-motifs

M49. The hero meets a character from the enemy camp and, taking on his form, penetrates enemies. Usually, the hero kills the person he meets and puts on his skin.
M49a. hero needs to penetrate unnoticed into the locus of dangerous creatures; he meets an old woman (usually a shaman, a doctor) going there, puts on her skin, and penetrates into dangerous ones in her guise creatures.

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of M49’s motifs

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny

Motif	Similarity	Motif summary
K27O3	98.12%	Two groups of characters compete in overcoming trials or play a game, divided into two teams (at least two episodes with different characters on both sides). The participants are either anthropomorphic but possess different unusual abilities, or they are different animals (natural phenomena, elements, etc.). Cf. motif K27xy (Characters with different properties in opposing camps).
M29X1	96.39%	See the motives in square brackets.
K27A	95.94%	Test: spend the night in the cold (the antagonist tries to destroy the hero in this way). See motif K27. Compare motif M35: two zoomorphic characters compete to see which of them will sit out the night in the cold.
K27XY	95.85%	Several men (animals), each of whom can do something better than the others, work together to accomplish difficult tasks set before them by their opponents. The competition is not intended to find a worthy suitor for a girl or to get rid of an unwanted suitor. Cf. motif K27o3 (Competition between two teams).
B85	95.78%	The wind blows too strongly, it is forced to calm down.
B42H	95.24%	Orion's Belt – game, another star or group of stars within or outside Orion – hunter.
F10	95.20%	A woman has a second mouth (usually in her vagina) with sharp teeth. A man inserts or throws a stone, bone, stick, etc. into this mouth, knocking out the teeth or extracting toothy animals from it in this way.
K21	94.83%	A girl ends up in the sky and gets married there.
I23	94.48%	The door of the house opens and slams shut by itself, crushing those entering or leaving. See motif I22.
B44E	94.35%	First ancestors (usually birds or animals) argue with each other about the length of time periods in the calendar or daily cycle, or about the desirability of the dominance of cold and dark or warm and light times. See motif B44.

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Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

101 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 101 traditions: Kabylia and other Berber of Northern and Central Algeria: Beni Snous, Beni Menacer (incl Zuav), Shaui, etc.), Malagasy, Arabs of Sudan, Sudanese, Nuba, Bemba (Wemba, Babemba; incl Ambo, Lala, Lamba, Bisa), Holoholo, Kaonde, Akan, Ashanti, Akwapim; Ga (Accra), Kra, Twi (Chwi, Chi), Gilbert Islands, Nauru, Banaba (Ocean island), Northern Munda of Kharwar branch: Birhor, Ho, Mundari, Kol, Asur (including Agaria, Kol, Birjhia), Bhumij, Wakhi, Ishkashimi (including Sanglich), Munji, Yazgulami, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Karachays, Balkar, Nogai, Kalmyk, Anatolia Turks, Kazakh, Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Mongols (Khalkha), Daur (Daghur), Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Southern Altai: Altai proper (Altai-Kiji), Telengit, Altaians, Northern Altai: Chelkan, Kumanda, Tubalar, Altaians, Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Tungus (Evenki) of China (Solon, Birar, Oroqen, Manegir), Evenks, Tungus (Evenki): Russian Far East, Evenks, Western Tungus (Evenki), Western Siberia Tungus (Evenki): Sym River, Ket River, Ainu, Udeghe, Oroch, Nanai, Nivkh, Chukchi, Central Yupik, Koyukon, Bering Strait Inupiat (incl. King Island), North Alaskan Inupiat, Haida, Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw), Bella Coola (Nuxalk), Northern Saulteaux, Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Eastern Cree, Montagnais, Menominee, Winnebago, Omaha, Ponca, Iowa, Kiowa Apache, Plains Cree, Plains Ojibwa, Assiniboine, Chilkotin, Shuswap, Thompson (Nlaka'pamux), Lushootseed (Puget Sound: Puyallup, Nisqualmi, Snuqualmi, Duwamish, Muckleshoot, Snohomish, Skagit), Western Sahaptin (Upper Cowlitz, Klikitat, Tenino, Umatilla, Yakima, Wallawalla), Nez Perce, Tillamook, Takelma, Oregon Athabaskans: Lower Umpqua, Tututni (incl Joshua), Upper Coquille, Galice, Tolowa, Coos, Alcea, Okanagon, Sanpoil, Kutenai, Shasta; Chimariko, Karok, Hupa, Chilula, Wintu, Patwin, Nomlaki, Achomavi, Yana, Kawaiisu, Tubatulabal, Northern Paiute (=Paviotso), Northern Shoshone, Western Shoshone, Gosiute, Eastern Shoshone, Upland Yuma: Walapai, Havasupai, Yavapai, Ute, Southern Paiute, Chemehuevi, Serrano, Western Apache (White Mountain, San Carlos), Hopi, Yuma proper (Quechan), Mohave, Maricopa, Pima, Bribri, Cabecar, Terraba; Chiriqui (AD 800-1500) iconography, Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal), Mustang, Chechens, Northeastern Yakuts (Sakha): Yana, Indigirka and Kolyma Basins, Kordofan, Buryats: Eastern (trans Baikal), i.e. Khori, Bhutan, Ilimpii Tungus/Evenki, Yerbogachen Tungus/Evenki, Tungus/Evenki of Nercha - Chita area, Morocco

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