The Mythology and Folklore Database
H7G1 - Death is more just and richer than God.
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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 man (usually looking for a godfather for his newborn son) rejects God (the saints) and the devil, but praises Death: it treats everyone without prejudice (or is richer than everyone else).Berezkin category: Paradise Lost
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 4, Origin of death, diseases and hard life
H7 has 16 other sub-motifsH7. Death (as well as illness and old age) is a special character, distinct from the lord of the underworld. It takes away a person's soul or otherwise causes their death. H7a. Having received knowledge from Death (rarely: Happiness or a certain spirit) about whether the sick person will be healed or not, whether she is going to take his soul, the person will know whether he will recover. U.nyak praises him for his impartiality; U.t himself; the poor man scolds the doctor, becomes rich. Usually he sees where exactly Death (spirit, etc.) is near the bed, whether it is going to take his soul, whether the person will recover. U. praises him for his impartiality; U. himself; the poor man scolds the sick man, and on this basis knows what will happen to him. H7b. A person asks Death (a spirit) to climb a tree or sit on a bench, to which they stick and can only be freed with his permission. H7b1. Having received a magic bag, into which any creature can be forced against its will at the owner's discretion, a person gains power over Death or devils. H7b2. A man named Poverty makes Death swear that it will never come to him. Therefore, poverty is inevitable in the world. H7c. Death promises to take a man after he finishes his prayer or song (formerly ATU 1199B). The man breaks off his prayer (song) in the middle, and Death cannot take him. H7c1. The trickster first deceives Death (the devil), and then, also by deception, enters paradise. H7d. A man calls Death, and when it comes, asks it to help him lift a bundle of firewood or pull a cart with firewood. H7e. In the past, people knew when they would die, so before their death they stopped doing their work or performed their duties half-heartedly. H7f. God gives instructions that certain categories of people must die and suffer. The character who receives the instructions, caring for the people, passes on other orders to the executors. H7f1. Death devours the dead and thus satisfies its hunger. H7f2. The character embodying death had a body visible to humans. Then death became invisible. H7g. A person sees many burning candles or lamps. When one of them burns out, someone dies. H7g1. A man (usually looking for a godfather for his newborn son) rejects God (the saints) and the devil, but praises Death: it treats everyone without prejudice (or is richer than everyone else). h7g2. Knowing that Death is approaching, a person hopes that it will seek him on land, so he settles on the surface of the water or under the water. But Death finds him. H7h. Despite the warning, man goes to where Death is at that moment. Death enters his body or follows him, and since then, people have been mortal. H7i. Old Age, Illness, or Hunger are special characters, but Death is not mentioned. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of H7's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| L43 | 92.53% | Characters dangerous to the hero (demons, robbers, merchants) mistake excrement, insects, snakes and other disgusting things (not intended for food) for something pleasant (edible). |
| B102 | 91.97% | Clouds are formed from smoke rising from the ground. |
| I102 | 90.91% | The Milky Way – a tree, the trace of a tree. |
| C24 | 89.54% | Someone is gnawing or chopping at the pillar supporting the sky or the earth; certain creatures are trying to destroy the barrier separating their world from the world of humans; if the work is completed, humans will perish. |
| H28B | 88.33% | Shorn hairs on animal skins or ash and smoke from burnt skins covered with wool turn into blood-sucking insects. |
| M38A1 | 87.17% | The character imitates the sisters' sons-in-law or husbands, or the wife's brothers (shoshone's) or wives (comox and chalkomel). {ATU combines a motive with another}. |
| J15 | 87.04% | Having set out in search of their husband, relatives, etc., a woman, girl or children accidentally take the wrong road and encounter creatures that kill or harm them. |
| F20 | 86.86% | After copulation, the man and woman are unable to break their embrace. |
| B15 | 86.34% | The river flows from the organs of a woman's body. |
| F43A | 86.25% | In the community of the first ancestors, women kill, attempt to kill, or transform men. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 20 traditions: Amhara; Zay, Harari; Silte, Gogot, Ireland, England, British, Bretons, Portuguese, Portugal, Basques, 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, Macedonians, Balkarians, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Norwegians, Cherkassians, Adyghe, Kabardin, Ossetians, Georgians, Armenians, Galicians, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Lutsi (Ludza)