The Mythology and Folklore Database
I59B1 - The Milky Way – the road to a distant city.
Please log on to view the narratives.
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
The Milky Way – the road to a distant city, usually with religious significance (Rome, Jerusalem, etc.).Berezkin category: Supernatural objects, objects and creatures
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 2, Moon spots, stars, constellations
I59 has 5 other sub-motifsI59. The Milky Way is associated with agriculture and scattered objects – straw, chaff, less commonly flour, hay, peas. I59a. Astral objects or lunar spots are associated with stories about the theft of various items, the value of which is insignificant (straw, firewood, cabbage, etc.). I59b1. The Milky Way – the road to a distant city, usually with religious significance (Rome, Jerusalem, etc.). I59b2. The Milky Way – St. James' Way. I59b3. The Milky Way – the road of salt traders, "Chumak Way". I59b4. The Milky Way is associated with snow, hoarfrost, and cold. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of I59's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| M90A5 | 99.90% | The story mentions the golden fruits (rarely leaves) of a tree, usually golden apples. |
| M39A2C | 99.81% | A fool (or a character pretending to be crazy) sows salt (small objects) like a grain. |
| L120A | 99.72% | The hero hides in a smithy from the dragon chasing him. When the monster breaks through and rubs the door (with its tongue), the blacksmith (or the hero himself) burns it (usually clamping its tongue with red-hot tongs or throwing a red-hot club into its mouth). |
| K107A | 99.72% | Before reaching their goal, the character must wear out iron shoes or an iron staff. |
| L100B | 99.71% | Having escaped from his pursuers, the young man parts with the girl, intending to return for her soon, but forgets her. When he is about to take another wife, the girl manages to restore his memory with the help of magic, and she marries him. Alternatively, the girl, who has briefly parted from her magical spouse, herself forgets him after an embrace or a kiss in her parents' house. |
| L100F1 | 99.67% | A worker (the young son of the master) arranges things so that the food prepared by the mistress for her lover, who is working in the field, goes to the master, and when the master goes to the man, not knowing that he is his wife's lover, the man thinks that the husband is coming to kill him and flees. |
| M163 | 99.65% | A man arrives in a country where there are many mice (rats, snakes) but no cats. He sells a cat there and receives a reward. |
| M191A | 99.63% | Mice decide to hang a bell around a cat's neck or tail so that they will know when it is approaching. Usually, none of the mice are able to do this. |
| K80B | 99.63% | The mother or stepmother kills the boy (rarely a girl) and usually feeds her husband, i.e. the child's father, his flesh. The boy is reborn, usually (at first) in the form of a bird that tells the story of what happened. Cf. motif K80A. Traditions in which the boy is killed by his own mother are highlighted in bold. |
| K120 | 99.62% | The girl's father (rarely: stepfather) intends to marry her (since she is the only one who meets the requirements for a bride). Usually, the girl manages to avoid the marriage. |
See more...
Please log on to view the narratives.
Map of Motif Dispersal
Click here for a clustered map
Drag the map around by clicking and using the mouse, use the wheel to zoom
This motif has been recorded in 29 traditions: England, British, Bretons, Basques, Sicily, Sicilians, Sardinia, Corsica, Sardinians, Corsicans, 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, Poles, Czech, Czechs, Slovakians, Slovaks, Hungarians, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Slovenians, Slovenes, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Ossetians, Kumyk, Terekemen, Nogai, Armenians, Anatolia Turks, Azeris (Azerbaijanis), Kurds, Kazakh, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Germans: South (Upper German dialects): Alsace (Elsass), Baden-Württemberg, Bawaria, Swabia, Switzerland, Bohemia, Sudeten, Austria, Terek Cossacks, Russian Federation