The Mythology and Folklore Database
F9G - Brünnhilde, ATU 519.




57 Myths, Legends and Folktales
54 Unique Narratives for Motif F9G
38 Cultures & Traditions where F9G is told
115 Mythemes Indexed
12 Sub-Motifs of Motif F9G


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 Motif Summary  -   Motifs with Simlar Dispersals  -    Map of Myth Distribution   -   List of Traditions  -   Myths



Source Data from Berezkin's Analytics Catalogue, if using this data please acknowledge and link to it here:
Ю.Е. Березкин, Е.Н. Дувакин. Тематическая классификация и распределение фольклорно-мифологических мотивов по ареалам. Аналитический каталог.



Summary of Motif

A powerful woman defeats and kills her suitors. The hero or his assistant defeats her (usually on their wedding night, subduing her with rods or a whip). The hero marries the heroine.

Berezkin category: Gender and sex

This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures


F9 has 12 other sub-motifs


F9.  For various reasons, sexual intercourse with a woman is deadly dangerous for a man, or so it seems to him: Teeth, blades or sharp stones in the vagina or on the inside of the thighs; the vagina is a toothy mouth. See motif F9A.
F9a.  There are teeth, blades or sharp stones in a woman's vagina or on the inside of her thighs; the vagina is a toothy mouth. (Only texts with a focus on authenticity are taken into account, not anecdotes).
F9a1.  A girl or young woman says (pretends) that she has a predatory mouth in her vagina. {Unlike variants characteristic of the circum-Pacific region, the corresponding texts do not suggest that the female womb is actually dangerous}.
F9b.  A biting piranha in a woman's genitals.
F9c.  Snake (in Oceania – moray eel) in the vagina; vagina – snake's mouth; snake crawls out of a woman's mouth and bites off a man's penis during intercourse; woman with a toothy womb is associated with a snake.
F9d.  Small stinging creatures dangerous to the partner are found in the genitals of women or men.
F9e.  Small mammals with sharp teeth are found in a woman's vagina.
F9e1.  A woman's womb is dangerous because it contains a toothy or stinging animal (not just its mouth) or many such creatures.
F9f.  Without the woman's knowledge, the demon regularly kills her suitors on their wedding night.
F9f1.  Inside the woman there is a snake (snakes, scorpions, just poison) that comes out of her mouth. {Motifs F9f1 and K100C are almost identical, but the first can be included in the cosmological-etiological category and is associated with the idea of a dangerous woman, while the second belongs to the adventure category}.
F9f2.  A woman places a piece of flesh from her slain snake lover in her handbag and poses a corresponding riddle. If her husband fails to guess the answer, she has the right to kill him. The husband accidentally learns the secret and kills his wife.
F9g.  A powerful woman defeats and kills her suitors. The hero or his assistant defeats her (usually on their wedding night, subduing her with rods or a whip). The hero marries the heroine.
F9g1.  On her wedding night, the bride-heroine throws herself on her groom to crush him.

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Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns

MotifSimilarityMotif Summary
K33A99.58%Young siblings (most often a brother and sister) leave home. One of them (rarely: several brothers) accidentally breaks a taboo and is transformed into an animal (usually a hoofed animal) or (rarely) a bird; later, the spell is usually broken.
M39A6H99.58%The king tells the commoner to pluck a goose (geese, shear a ram, etc.). He understands correctly: to rob the vizier.
K11499.55%Several brothers leave home immediately after or shortly before their mother gives birth to a girl (usually they want a brother and wait for news about who their mother has given birth to, but accidentally or maliciously a signal is given that a boy has been born). The girl grows up and goes in search of her brothers.
J62C99.38%In order to destroy the young man, the antagonist arouses in his sister (rarely: in him himself) a desire to possess wonderful objects, the attempt to obtain which is deadly dangerous. The young man sets off to obtain the objects.
M16599.35%One zoomorphic character promises another to sew a coat (boots), asks him to bring sheep, eats them, and does not sew anything.
K15799.35%The character lures his opponents out one by one and cuts off each one's head as soon as they appear. Less commonly, a multi-headed opponent sticks out its heads one by one, and the hero cuts them off.
K100G99.34%In order to revive or heal a friend (to heal oneself, to fulfil a vow), the character agrees to sacrifice his son (children). The slain person usually comes back to life, or the person's willingness to make the sacrifice is sufficient to satisfy supernatural forces.
K27R299.29%Task: bring objects (fruit, wood, water, etc.) that perform actions characteristic of humans (sing, dance, yawn, laugh, etc.).
C30A99.20%A man borrows money on the condition that if he fails to repay it by a certain date, he will have to give the lender a certain amount of his own flesh. The lender cannot cut off the flesh, because he is unable to fulfil the formally logical but essentially absurd demand made of him.
M15399.20%A hoofed animal asks a predator to examine its hoof under various pretexts, and then kills or maims it with a kick.

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Map of Motif Dispersal

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This motif has been recorded in 38 traditions: Arabs of Egypt, Berbers of Morocco and adjacent parts of Algeria, Arabs of Sudan, Sudanese, Mongo (Mongo-Nkundu), Nkundu, Ngelima, Ngombe, (Ba)Tetela), Pende, Wu(Kusu), (Ba)Mbala (incl Saie, Kwilu), Northern Gur (Oti-Volta): Mamprussi, Dagomba, Dagari (Dagara; incl Lodaga), Bassari, Mosi, Nankanse, Konkomba, Moba; Ditammari, Nyende, Bulsa (pl Builsa, Bulo), Burmese, Intha, Ireland, Poles, Czech, Czechs, Slovakians, Slovaks, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Lithuanians, Latvians, Finns, Vepsians, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Russians: Central part of ethnic territory as in A.D. 1500 (Tver, Yaroslavl, Moscow, Kostroma, Vladimir, Ivanovo, Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan, Tula, Kaluga, Smolensk provinces; in case of absence in other areas also Russians in Vyatka, Perm, Kazan provinces), Uzbek, Abaza (Abazins), Cherkassians, Adyghe, Kabardin, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Ossetians, Ingush, Armenians, Kalmyk, Crimean Tatars, Karaims, Anatolia Turks, Azeris (Azerbaijanis), Kurds, Kirghiz, Bashkirs, Udmurt, Central Yakuts (Sakha), Arabs (literary tradition; incl. One Thousand and One Nights), Lutsi (Ludza), Frisians


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