Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M71 — Selected piece of wood
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
OverviewA character (usually carried away by a river or fallen from a height) turns into a piece of wood. Someone is picking it up. The character then takes on his true form, usually in the absence of the hosts.
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.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| B28D | 99.95% | Not understanding who they are dealing with, the characters respond to the wandering Transformer that they are preparing weapons to kill so-and-so or a hiding place to escape from so-and-so. The Transformer kills them himself or turns them into animals. |
| F28D | 98.88% | By masturbating with an artificial penis, a woman conceives children. |
| D4E | 98.73% | The thief or giver of fire, light or sun is a coyote or fox (indicated in square brackets). See motif 4A. |
| A32C1 | 98.72% | The figure or imprint of a predatory mammal (fox, wolf, dog, coyote, jaguar, lion) is visible on the lunar disc. Either this animal is associated with the moon, belongs to it. See motif A34. |
| H24E | 98.65% | Having brought the seeds of humanity into our world, the character drops or prematurely opens what he has brought. (Sometimes this explains the inequality of people and disorder in society). |
| B1G | 98.62% | Four brothers change the world, freeing it from monsters, transforming its inhabitants and obtaining valuable resources (water, fire, cultivated plants, etc.). Usually one of the brothers is the leader, and the others help him. All four often have a common name. |
| J53A1 | 98.62% | The children of the murdered man kill the murderer's children, luring them to a place where they perish from heat or smoke. |
| H20A | 98.53% | A woman or several women keep fish or water in some kind of container; a man releases all the fish into rivers or the sea, releases the water. See motif H20. |
| K27N3A | 98.43% | The character who gives the hero difficult tasks or subjects him to trials is associated with the sun, moon, thunder or wind (cloud, downpour). See motif K27. |
| F21 | 98.36% | While the character copulates with a woman, she turns into a tree or a rock. His penis gets stuck in her. |
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
16 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 16 traditions: Dinka, Atuot, Nuer, Basques, Bering Strait Inupiat (incl. King Island), North Alaskan Inupiat, Shuswap, Thompson (Nlaka'pamux), Sechelt (incl Sisiatl), Squamish, Halcomelem, Lushootseed (Puget Sound: Puyallup, Nisqualmi, Snuqualmi, Duwamish, Muckleshoot, Snohomish, Skagit), Lower Chehalis, Upper Chehalis, (Lower) Cowlitz, Okanagon, Sanpoil, Kutenai, Karok, Yurok, Paez, Guambia, Pijao; Ilama culture, Kechua-speaking communities of Apurimac, Cuzco, Arequipa, Puno departments; Spanish sources of XVI-XVII centuries; Callawaya (Kechua with Pukina substratum), Machiguenga
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