Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
N30 — He looks one way, cries, looks the other way, laughs
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
Overviewformula that describes the confusion of feelings: when a character looks in one direction, he cries, and when he laughs or smiles in the other direction.
Berezkin category: Fabulous and epic formulas
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 13, Formulae.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| C29 | 99.43% | People (God) learn a secret by overhearing (spying on) a character talking to himself or his relatives (or performing actions that should be remembered). The knowledge gained is related to cosmogony or the acquisition of cultural values. |
| M198A1 | 99.16% | Three characters sequentially and without apparent reason determine the characteristics of an object or person they have not seen. |
| L9E | 99.06% | The anthropomorphic character has a nose resembling a copper or iron beak. |
| M130 | 99.05% | The fox and the bird hide from the hunter in the same burrow or hollow. The bird pretends to be dead and as a result is saved â either alone or together with the fox. Cf. motif M130A. |
| B51A | 99.02% | The snake is the enemy of the swallow (usually because the swallow prevents the snake from destroying people â the snake sends a mosquito or other blood-sucking insect to find out whose blood tastes better; the mosquito returns to report that it is human blood; the swallow bites off its tongue, and the snake plucks the feathers from the swallow's tail). |
| B46A | 98.87% | One of the stars of the Pleiades was separated from the others (usually stolen by the stars of the Big Dipper and identified with Alcor). |
| K40 | 98.86% | Two (rarely more) characters consider themselves doomed to death, but the one whose death will come later rejoices, while the one whose death will come earlier grieves. Cf. motif N30. |
| K169 | 98.80% | The hunter spares the hunted animal, noticing that it is a pregnant female and remembering his own pregnant wife. |
| N24 | 98.80% | You can see a light that resembles a second moon or a second sun. It comes from a pretty girl. |
| K32G1 | 98.73% | The guilty party is offered a choice of items of utilitarian value (often forty, seven, three, etc. horses or the same number of knives). The person usually does not understand that these are methods of execution. |
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
36 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 36 traditions: France, Hungarians, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Karelians, Western Ukrainians, Tajik, Cherkassians, Adyghe, Kabardin, Karachays, Balkar, Ossetians, Ingush, Tats, Georgians, Armenians, Kalmyk, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Bashkirs, Mordvins, Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Mongols (Khalkha), Daur (Daghur), Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Khakas, Shor, Southern Altai: Altai proper (Altai-Kiji), Telengit, Altaians, Northern Altai: Chelkan, Kumanda, Tubalar, Altaians, Udeghe, Dogrib, Slavey, Tlingit, Chechens, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Buryats: Eastern (trans Baikal), i.e. Khori, Russian Federation
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