Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M94B — The wolf under the mill wheel
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 is lured to look under the mill wheel, he dies or is maimed.
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.
M94 has 4 other sub-motifs
RelatedM94. One character invites the other to roll down the mountain to destroy him. Cf. Motive L42C.
M94a. The demonic character kills his victims, provoking them to slide down the mountain.
M94a1. By stupidity or negligence, a zoomorphic character rolls down a mountain and as a result dies or suffers damage (attacks the edge, falls into the water, etc.).
M94b. The character is lured to look under the mill wheel, he dies or is maimed.
M94b1. The character is lured to look under the mill wheel, he dies or is maimed.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K56A4B | 99.79% | A girl is told to clean the yarn, or to spin and weave. The wind blows the yarn (cloth, spindle) away, the girl goes in search of it, and comes across a character who rewards her. |
| L96B | 99.51% | A person encounters an ascetic, demon, etc. The latter intends to kill him by pushing him into a boiling cauldron or cutting off his head when he bows before the deity. The person asks the ascetic to do everything first, then pushes him into the cauldron or cuts off his head himself. |
| M29Z1 | 99.41% | purely anthropomorphic character, or a character who bears the name of an animal or plant but does not act zoomorphic in the course of his adventures. See the motives in square brackets. {Data not fully entered} |
| K129A | 99.39% | A young woman (lying in a tomb) comes back to life, then appears dead again, but is ultimately freed from the spell. |
| M90C | 99.39% | man agreed with another that he could take the first thing he touched from his house. The visitor is going to take his wife, but when he takes up the stepladder to go up to the woman, he is told to pick up the stepladder and leave. |
| I87A1 | 99.10% | Two people engage in a dialogue, contradicting each other in their descriptions of the sizes of creatures and objects. |
| B2F2 | 98.88% | The character carries the body of the deceased for a long time, unable to bury it or not knowing how to do so, but eventually buries the body in the ground. |
| L125A | 98.81% | The woman with whom the man has come together is a creature of a non-human nature. This becomes clear after she suffers from thirst at night and, finding no water in the house, takes on her true form, turning into a snake, separating her limbs from her torso, etc. |
| M114C | 98.78% | The character is puzzled as to how the other person's clothes (firewood, etc.) remained dry after the rain – the other person covered them with their body (hid them in a vessel, waited out the rain in a shelter). |
| K38B1 | 98.77% | Every time a mare gives birth to a wonderful foal, a bird carries it away. Setting out in search of the foals, the hero kills the snake that was devouring the bird's chicks. The bird returns the foals. |
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: Northern Munda of Kharwar branch: Birhor, Ho, Mundari, Kol, Asur (including Agaria, Kol, Birjhia), Bhumij, Persians, Ossetians, Lezgians, Archin, Kürin; Khinalug, Tabasaran, Aghul, Dargin (Dargwa), incl. Müregin, Khürkilin, Kubachi, Avar, Andi, Akhvakh, Tats, Georgians, Anatolia Turks, Azeris (Azerbaijanis), Kurds, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Bashkirs, Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal), Bhutan
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