Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M7B — The fox asks for help from people passing by
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
Overviewzoomorphic character (usually a fox) finds himself in a place he can't get out of, and consistently asks for help from animals (fish) passing by or approaching him. The latter helps.
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.
M7 has 4 other sub-motifs
RelatedM7. The character goes to the lower world, to the sky, to the country on the horizon, etc. and waits for someone to give him a ride to his goal. Usually, some animals/birds or celestial bodies follow by, and the last (often the Sun or Month) delivers.
M7a. Birds or animals take the character into their boat, but take on a zoomorphic appearance and leave their passenger in the water (after he breaks a ban). (It is significant that the boat or raft only appears to be artifacts, but is actually the bodies of the corresponding birds or animals, or it is an ice floe; cf. Motive M31).
M7a1. Person gets to a place from which he is unable to come out. Several (more than two) different celestial bodies rise and move near him or above him. He puts attention to them (and asks their help)
M7b. zoomorphic character (usually a fox) finds himself in a place he can't get out of, and consistently asks for help from animals (fish) passing by or approaching him. The latter helps.
M7c. zoomorphic character is waiting to be transported across the water. Animals or fish consistently offer help. The character only accepts the latter's help - he was waiting for him to eat.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| L72H | 95.63% | Fleeing for his life, the character throws behind him a tool for kindling fire (flint, tinder, match, kindling), which becomes an obstacle in the path of his pursuer. (A discarded flint is counted if it serves to strike fire, and is not counted if it is simply a hard stone that turns into a mountain). |
| C26 | 86.60% | Monsters are ready to invade our world from another, but a powerful character protects people from the invasion. |
| L41C | 86.60% | A cannibal grabs children as they slide down a hill. |
| B48C | 84.92% | In the head of the pike there are (visible) tools used by people. |
| B68B | 84.87% | A character who, by his appearance, behaviour or unexpected appearance, tried to frighten God (people) and was turned into an animal (with a different appearance than before) for this. |
| L17 | 83.09% | Mouth and eyes of an anthropomorphic creature on the chest, no head. |
| B48D | 82.50% | People or objects swallowed by a pike become part of its body (bones in its head, liver). |
| K32K | 82.50% | The false wife, replacing the real one â a foul-smelling beetle or larva. |
| M84B2 | 82.16% | The character carefully preserves the bones of migratory birds eaten (not fish or animals) and the birds come to life again. (Episodes of reviving a domestic goose or rooster are not taken into account in everyday tales). |
| B110 | 82.11% | A character who is dragged along the ground or who runs, falls apart or hits the ground with different parts of his body. This determines the characteristics of the landscape and flora. |
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
14 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 14 traditions: Estonians, Western Sami, Eastern Sami (including Skolts), Kerek, Chukchi, Central Yupik, Bering Strait Inupiat (incl. King Island), North Alaskan Inupiat, Lkungen (Straits; including Samish, Songish, Sooke, Lummi), Klallam, Tunica, Alabama, Koasati, Ute, Mundurucu, Curuaia, Itelmen
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