Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

M97 — A blind man asks trees, D1313.4.

78 Myths, legends and folktales

78 Unique narratives for motif M97

31 Cultures & traditions where M97 is told

3 Sub-motifs of motif M97

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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

Overview

Blinded or far from the target, the character walks, bumping into trees of various species and asking everyone a question or request. He eventually achieves his goal.

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.

M97 has 3 other sub-motifs

M97.  Blinded or far from the target, the character walks, bumping into trees of various species and asking everyone a question or request. He eventually achieves his goal.
M97a1.
M97a2.
M97B.

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of M97’s motifs

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny

Motif	Similarity	Motif summary
L5E1	97.86%	A woman who has become a monster pursues her own children.
M69	96.63%	character is attracted by the inside of a large animal's skull (small animals or insects are dancing or feasting inside, or eating some meat); he sticks his head inside , it gets stuck.
D4C	96.50%	Characters obtain the warm season from its original owners.
C6B	96.32%	The desired object is brought up from the bottom by a muskrat (rarely a beaver or otter).
J19B	96.15%	An evil spirit kills a woman by burning through her body.
L99	96.01%	Having captured the character, the ogre orders him to bring wood or a spit to roast him. The character deliberately procrastinates, brings the wrong thing, or is helped to escape by some animal.
M53	95.98%	The character invites others to gather around him, focusing on an activity (usually dancing with their eyes closed or lowered), and then kills the crowd (usually one at a time).
L9B	95.62%	The sharp elbows or (rarely) knees of the character resemble knives or awls.
A38C	95.33%	The Sun exchanges a cape made of animal or bird skins with a boy or girl, or spoils it. As a result, the boy or girl raises their status or takes revenge on the Sun.
M66	94.45%	After eating certain foods frivolously or rubbing his body with his spine, the character suffers from itching, diarrhea, or an irrepressible eruption of intestinal gases.

See the 100 most similar distributions →

Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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🌐 Open as Airocean (Dymaxion) map ↗

Traditions

31 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 31 traditions: Estonians, Western Sami, Eastern Sami (including Skolts), Kets, Chipewyan, Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Algonquin, unspecified Algonkians of the Midwest (probably Old Algonquin), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Eastern Swamy Cree, Eastern Cree, Attikamek, Menominee, Sauk (Sak, Mesquakie), Fox, Kickapoo, Five Nations Iroquois (Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga), Sarsee (Tsuu T'ina), Arapaho, Iowa, Gros Ventre, Plains Cree, Plains Ojibwa, Thompson (Nlaka'pamux), Lkungen (Straits; including Samish, Songish, Sooke, Lummi), Klallam, Okanagon, Sanpoil, Kutenai, Shasta; Chimariko, Maidu, Nisenan, Konkov, Owens Valley Paiute, Northern Paiute (=Paviotso), Southern Paiute

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