Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M75A — Revenge for falling from heaven
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 character lures a veteran to avenge his fall from the sky. Either the (potauatomi) shovel drops the character or leaves him on top to avenge being lured and caught.
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.
M75 has 9 other sub-motifs
RelatedM75. The character attracts and catches corpse eaters (usually birds) and as a result obtains valuables or returns something valuable (fire, woman, animals, etc.).
M75a. The character lures a veteran to avenge his fall from the sky. Either the (potauatomi) shovel drops the character or leaves him on top to avenge being lured and caught.
M75b. A person hides in the skin or carcass of a large animal. A bird brings a skin or carcass to the nest without knowing what it brought the person.
M75b1. A person (usually of high status) learns that a poor boy who is born will inherit his property or become king. He tries to stop it, but what he predicted comes true.
M75b1a. A high-ranking person finds out that a (just born) poor or ugly girl is intended for him, or the girl herself finds out that she is destined to become a man's wife of high origin. A betrothed or someone else tries to kill a girl, but only hurts her and the prediction is fulfilled; if the girl is ugly, she becomes beautiful.
M75b2. bird tries in vain to prevent the marriage, which she learned was inevitable when the future spouses were still children.
M75b3. Enemies are shown a life-size or larger image of a horse or bull. Not realizing that this is a ruse, they bring the figure to their own territory and are defeated as a result.
M75b4. To master a woman, the hero hides inside the hollow figure of a horse (bull, deer) or in an animal carcass. The character guarding the woman takes her to her. The hero gets outside and becomes a woman's lover. Or a woman hides inside the figure of a horse, which is taken to the man's chambers.
M75c. A person is offered to climb a rock or tree to get treasures. A return descent is not possible. Doomed to death, the hero remains alive.
M75d. A man bereaves vultures of their hunting weapons or amulets
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| M66A | 99.91% | After eating a certain food, the trickster leaves a mountain of excrement that is larger than himself. |
| B42A | 99.52% | Hunters chase a bear across the sky and kill it in August-October. The bear's blood or fat falls to the ground in the form of dew or colours the foliage red. See motif B42. |
| F45A1 | 99.50% | A woman, against her will, conceives from the wind. |
| K104 | 99.50% | The youngest of the brothers stays at home, wounds a red swan or duck, and follows its trail. |
| L75 | 99.29% | One of two brothers is the embodiment of evil; at birth, he cuts open his mother's body, killing her. |
| M13A | 99.21% | A deity and a human meet so that the former can fulfil the latter's request. As a result, the human is turned to stone. Usually (except for the Squamish), one of the supplicants wants eternal life and is turned to stone. See motif M13. |
| H37B | 97.57% | One character gives another his power (usually a skunk gives his volley). The other wastes the resource unnecessarily to test its effect. Usually, when the need arises, the resource no longer works. |
| M61A3 | 97.54% | The character tells each of two different species of fish how the other allegedly used to be hostile or offensive towards the former. Fish kill each other and the character prepares them to eat. |
| M53C | 97.43% | trickster, inviting birds to dance around him with their eyes closed, kills them one at a time and threatens to turn red at the one that opens their eyes; this is an empty threat, or for a bird that opens eyes and eyes have really turned red ever since. |
| K69 | 97.04% | Several men walk towards the horizon to ascend to the sky and visit the Sun or another supreme deity. Usually, one or more of them perish along the way, while others reach their destination. They return by a shorter route than they came. |
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
13 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 13 traditions: Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Eastern Cree, Menominee, Sauk (Sak, Mesquakie), Fox, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Winnebago, Omaha, Ponca, Iowa, Plains Cree, Plains Ojibwa, Assiniboine
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