The Mythology and Folklore Database
I22F - Talking trees.
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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
The character must pass small objects (trees, logs, blades) that constantly collide and diverge, fall and rise.Berezkin category: Supernatural objects, objects and creatures
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 8, Queer and monstrous beings, creatures, objects and loci, folk beliefs related to particular phenomena and objects
I22 has 10 other sub-motifsI22. There are objects that, while remaining in place, move constantly or periodically (collide and diverge, fall and rise, open and close, rotate). I22a. The sky constantly beats against the earth like the lid of a boiling cauldron. I22b. Migratory birds (or shamans in the form of birds) fly from our world to another; the path lies through a narrow opening between jutting rocks, or the sky strikes the earth, crushing those who fly through; and/or at the passage to the other world there is a character who feeds on birds; and/or in the world on the other side of the pulsating barrier there is the mistress of the birds. I22b1. Some migratory birds (shamans in the form of birds) die on the border of our world. I22c. The character safely slips, sails or flies through the opening, which then slams shut, but the edge of the stern of the boat, the tail of an animal or bird, the body of a riding animal, the hero's companion or his own heel is crushed, torn off, etc. I22d. To obtain a miraculous life-giving (healing) remedy, one must penetrate the space behind the shifting rocks. I22e. The deceased, travelling to the afterlife, must pass by colliding rocks or other moving obstacles. I22f. The character must pass small objects (trees, logs, blades) that constantly collide and diverge, fall and rise. I22g. Mountains (rocks) are mentioned that constantly collide and diverge, or a crevice or gap in a vertical rock that opens and closes. Cf. motif I22g1, Colliding rocks. I22g1. In another world, the hero sees many strange things, including colliding stones (but they do not block his path). I22h. The character must jump over a gap (abyss) beneath his feet, which alternately widens and narrows, or a river whose banks converge and diverge. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of I22's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| J54 | 93.16% | The heroes of the narrative exterminate animals or demons of a certain species. This species could have disappeared altogether if one or more individuals (often a pregnant female) had not been saved. {This motif does not include aetiological endings, according to which the current creatures of a certain species originate from a dismembered original creature}. |
| K10 | 90.67% | A monstrous bird (bat) attacks people, heroes engage in battle with it. See motifs K10A – K10G. |
| L46 | 90.06% | The character walks, climbs or descends upside down, or sees the world turned upside down. |
| E8 | 89.45% | The first humans or the wife of the first ancestor were made of wood. |
| F9E1 | 89.21% | A woman's womb is dangerous because it contains a toothy or stinging animal (not just its mouth) or many such creatures. |
| B54 | 89.20% | Wood chips, branches or pieces of bark that have fallen or been thrown into the water turn into fish and aquatic animals. |
| J37 | 88.93% | Transforming into a powerful bird or creating one, the hero lifts his opponent into the air and carries him away. |
| I17 | 88.71% | Creatures without mouths, anuses, or genitals, unable to give birth, live underground, in the sky, across the sea, or in certain areas. (Traditions describing women unable to give birth are marked with an asterisk*). |
| L48 | 88.71% | The hero (usually somewhere on high ground - on a tree, rock, at the edge of a precipice or well) kills and/or throws one of his opponents down from there. The other opponents do not recognise their comrade and believe that the slain man is the hero they are pursuing. |
| M11 | 88.63% | The character gives others food extracted from his or someone else's body or contaminated with bodily secretions, without revealing the source of the food. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 25 traditions: Ontong Java, Nukumanu, Takuu, Nukuria, Batak (Toba, Dairi), France, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Western Ukrainians, Cherkassians, Adyghe, Kabardin, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Mansi, Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Upper Tanana (Nebesna), Tanacross, Athna, Koyukon, Beaver, Twana (Skokomish), Lower Chehalis, Upper Chehalis, (Lower) Cowlitz, Bribri, Cabecar, Terraba; Chiriqui (AD 800-1500) iconography, Sicuani, Kandoshi (Murato, Maina); Iquito, Barasana, Taibano, Macuna, Bolivian Guarani: Chiriguano (including assimilated Chane Arawaks), Pauserna (=Guarasu), Guarayu, Tapiete, Mundurucu, Curuaia, Paresi, Craho, Mataco, Papua-New Guinea Southern Lowland Papuan groups (Trans New Guinea and unclassified): Gimi, Kiwai, Bina, Mawabula, Mawatta, Keraki, Gambadi (incl. Kwavaru), Purari River delta, Masingara, Wiram (=Suki), Ngain, Daga, Elema