Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M84A — A revived goat
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
OverviewAfter supernatural characters put the bones of a dead and eaten deer, cow, ram, or goat in its skin, the animal is whole (and usually comes to life). See M84 motif.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 8, Queer and monstrous beings, creatures, objects and loci, folk beliefs related to particular phenomena and objects.
M84 has 7 other sub-motifs
RelatedM84. A person, animal, fish, or (rarely) a large fruit is killed and eaten. After a meal, what is eaten revives, usually after the bones (seeds) are put together. Cf. motive C16.
M84a. After supernatural characters put the bones of a dead and eaten deer, cow, ram, or goat in its skin, the animal is whole (and usually comes to life). See M84 motif.
M84b. An animal, bird or fish that is killed and eaten comes to life after its bones are thrown into the water. See M84 motif.
M84b1. A person enters a country from where fish come to people (and comes back).
M84b2. 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).
M84b3.
M84c. Sleeping in a deserted place, a person finds himself among spirits. One of them explains that he has a guest, that is the same person.
M84d. A person hears trees talking, one of which is (fatally) ill and suffers.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K27SS | 99.67% | A strong man must overtake a woman, often an old woman. This is difficult or impossible to achieve. |
| N27 | 99.48% | Bird milk (variant: chicken, pigeon, hawkish, etc.) milk is mentioned in fairy tales, riddles, paroemias and conspiracies as something very rare and difficult to obtain or non-existent actually. |
| M152B | 99.45% | When seeing a herbivorous ungulate (usually a donkey) for the first time, a large predator thinks that it is strong and dangerous. The herbivore's subsequent behaviour usually convinces the predator that its first impression was correct. |
| I35A2 | 99.42% | Thunder is heard when stones or large vessels are rolled, dragged or overturned in the sky. |
| J32A1 | 99.40% | But at night someone tramples the field, steals hay, etc. The hero learns that it is horses doing this. |
| N27C | 99.37% | It is claimed that the bird has no milk and/or breasts |
| I95 | 99.29% | The Pleiades are a sieve or riddle for sifting agricultural products. See motif I95. |
| N27B | 99.27% | It is said that someone is only lacking bird’s milk or that somewhere the only thing missing is bird’s milk |
| N18 | 99.14% | fairy-tale text ends with a formula stating that the narrator received food, drinks, money or other real world items from the characters described, but lost them against their own free will because of meeting dogs or people (robbers, boys, children or a neighbor). |
| L96A | 99.14% | A person sighs, after which a character named Oh, Uh, Hey-way, etc. appears. |
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
44 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 44 traditions: Sindhi, Kafir, or Nuristani: Prasun; Kati (incl. Paruni), Ashkun (Ashunu), Waigali, Dards (Kalash, Kho, Kohistani, Shina, Pashai), Burusho (Hunza), Ireland, Wales, England, British, Bretons, Scotland, Scots, Picts, Scotti, Scottish, France, Germans: North (Low- and Central German dialects): Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg, Pommern, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony, incl East Frisia and Oldenburg), Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Thüringen, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen, Brandenburg, Rügen, Croatians, Croats; Italians of Dalmatia (if the motif is absent among other Italians), Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Estonians, Western Sami, Eastern Sami (including Skolts), Scandinavians: early written sources ("Edda"; Saxo Grammaticus etc.); Gothland picture stones; Ancient Germans (Late Bronze Age in Scandinavia), Uzbek, Rushani, Shughni, Khufi, Bartangi, Cherkassians, Adyghe, Kabardin, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Karachays, Balkar, Ossetians, Avar, Andi, Akhvakh, Dido (Tsez), Hunsib, Khvarshi, Kumyk, Terekemen, Mingrelians (Megrelians), Laz, Georgians, Armenians, Anatolia Turks, Kazakh, Bashkirs, Chuvash, Oirats (incl Torgouts, Derbets, Oilots), Shor, Southern Altai: Altai proper (Altai-Kiji), Telengit, Altaians, Northern Altai: Chelkan, Kumanda, Tubalar, Altaians, Tlingit, Western Woods Cree, Arapaho, Lkungen (Straits; including Samish, Songish, Sooke, Lummi), Klallam, Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal), Chechens, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Byzantine
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