Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M57D2 — The tree makes wishes come true
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
OverviewThe man was about to cut down a tree. It himself, or the creature living on it or in it, asks not to do so and fulfills the person's wishes.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 9, Identification of protagonists of the stories with particular animals or persons with particular qualities.
M57 has 11 other sub-motifs
RelatedM57a. Instead of the usual secretions from the human body, beads, flowers, gold and other valuables pour in.
M57a1. When a beautiful woman walks on the ground, jewels appear under her feet, flowers bloom, etc.
M57a2. Instead of common body discharges a a man urinates, spits, etc. beads, flowers, gold and other valuables; valuables are produced by the very presence of particular male person. See motif m57a
M57a3. Instead of common body discharges a a woman urinates, spits, etc. beads, flowers, gold and other valuables; valuables are produced by the very presence of particular female person. See motif m57a
M57b. Beads or metals are the bodily secretions of a deity.
M57c. An animal (donkey, bull, horse, goat, bear, leopard) or inanimate object makes gold or food stand out, or a character makes others believe that this is the case.
M57c1. A man fights a bear or (Malayali) leopard and makes another person believe that this animal is defecating with gold.
M57d. A person consistently receives magical items that bring wealth. Others replace them or take them away. A person returns what has been taken - usually by receiving another wonderful object (baton, whip) that hits the kidnappers.
M57d1. bird consistently gives a person magical objects (or gives one, with which he receives the rest) or consistently fulfills his wishes.
M57d2. The man was about to cut down a tree. It himself, or the creature living on it or in it, asks not to do so and fulfills the person's wishes.
M57d3. A person receives a reward from a character who is associated with the wind. Cf. Motive K175 (“The wind carried away the flour”).
M57d4. A person receives a reward from a character who is associated with frost.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K64A | 99.57% | A man blinds a sleeping or immobile giant-cannibal and escapes from him. |
| L15H | 99.57% | The object in which the character's life is concentrated is enclosed in another, which is enclosed in a third, and so on (like an egg in a duck, a duck in a hare, a hare in a chest). Or the animal in which the character's soul is enclosed transforms into other animals as it flees. There are three or more enclosures or transformations. |
| I4 | 99.51% | When a vehicle moves across the sky, thunder rumbles. |
| J32D | 99.50% | The girl will be won by the one who, on horseback or by some other means, quickly reaches a hard-to-reach place (the top of a tower, a mountain, the upper floor of a palace, the top steps of a staircase, a bridge, the bottom of a chasm, jumps over a moat, etc.). Usually, the girl herself is located where the suitor must climb or (rarely) descend. In Italian versions, the hero wins tournaments. |
| K67A | 99.48% | A character of low status annoys characters of high status. Learning of the intention of the characters of high status to drown him or his property (rarely: to strangle him), he arranges for one of them or their property to be drowned instead. |
| M114B1 | 99.41% | When answering the question of what is the sweetest (fattest, fastest, etc.), a clever person names abstract concepts and entities (while a foolish person names specific objects or creatures). |
| K27R2 | 99.37% | Task: bring objects (fruit, wood, water, etc.) that perform actions characteristic of humans (sing, dance, yawn, laugh, etc.). |
| M39A5A | 99.37% | Realizing that a stupid son, wife or (rarely) husband, after telling the truth, will cause trouble for the family, the mother or husband (wife) adjusts that the son, wife or husband describes events that They obviously couldn't have happened. They're mistaken for crazy, the message is ignored. |
| J62C | 99.36% | In order to destroy the young man, the antagonist arouses in his sister (rarely: in him himself) a desire to possess wonderful objects, the attempt to obtain which is deadly dangerous. The young man sets off to obtain the objects. |
| K39 | 99.35% | The character must feed a powerful creature by regularly throwing it pieces of meat. When the prepared meat runs out, he cuts off the last piece from his own flesh. See motif K38 (the bird carries the hero where he needs to go; on the way, he throws pieces of prepared meat into its beak; when the supplies run out, he gives the bird a piece of his own flesh). |
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: Berbers of Morocco and adjacent parts of Algeria, Kabylia and other Berber of Northern and Central Algeria: Beni Snous, Beni Menacer (incl Zuav), Shaui, etc.), Viet, Muong, Indian literary tradition (Vedic, Brahman, Purana, Indian Buddhism, Hinduism, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchtantra, Jatakas); iconography of Hindu temples, Spain, Spaniards, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Karelians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Nogai, Kirghiz, Bashkirs, Mari (Cheremis), Udmurt, Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Mongols (Khalkha), Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Nanai, Wallons, Picardie, Arabs of Kuwait, Bahrein, Qatar, Emirates, Oman,, Buryats: Eastern (trans Baikal), i.e. Khori, Morocco, Russian Federation
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