The Mythology and Folklore Database
K119E - The Miller: A Success Story.




23 Myths, Legends and Folktales
23 Unique Narratives for Motif K119E
12 Cultures & Traditions where K119E is told
80 Mythemes Indexed
5 Sub-Motifs of Motif K119E


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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

The poor young man who was helped by an animal assistant, who presented him to the king as a rich man, is a miller or a miller's son.

Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes

This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 9, Identification of protagonists of the stories with particular animals or persons with particular qualities


K11 has 5 other sub-motifs


K11.  Brothers (brother and sister) kill a monstrous bird. Its eyes turn into heavenly bodies (among the Oaxacan Indians) or something else (among the present-day Condors of the Yokuts).
K11a.  Plucked feathers of a (huge) bird turn into actual birds (or their plumage) or humans emerge from them.
K11a1.  Pieces of flesh or feathers from a monstrous/unusual bird turn into present-day birds (or their plumage).
K11b.  The bones of a huge bird are turned into reeds or bamboo for making arrows or sarbacanes.
K11C.  The plucked feathers of a huge bird turn into plants.
K11D.  Pieces of flesh from a huge creature that has fallen apart or been cut into pieces turn into ordinary animals, birds or fish.

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Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns

MotifSimilarityMotif Summary
I35A199.50%The character claims the role of the thunder god and imitates him.
K35C199.50%The young man is not killed, but rewarded, because he answered correctly (evasively) the question of a powerful character – which of the two women he should marry, which is more beautiful, which object or material is more valuable, etc.
I92A99.27%A person who jumps or steps over a rainbow changes their gender.
J32A99.22%When dying, a person orders that someone spend the night at his grave or bring something to the grave.
N1898.98%fairy-tale text ends with a formula stating that the narrator received food, drinks, money or other real world items from the characters described, but lost them against their own free will because of meeting dogs or people (robbers, boys, children or a neighbor).
K35C98.95%The dev (ajdaha, sea king) did not kill the man who descended to him, as people assumed, but rewarded him because he greeted him and/or answered his question correctly.
K156B98.93%People suspect that the young man is a girl in disguise. She manages to avoid exposure thanks to a dog (rarely a cat) who learns how to determine his mistress's true gender and tells her about it.
K85E98.82%Magical horses live in water.
K90B98.75%The antlers of a deer or the tusks of an elephant, which a snake or dragon is trying to swallow, get stuck in its mouth.
K29D98.74%To catch an animal or supernatural character, the water in a reservoir is replaced with wine, honey, etc., or containers with alcohol are left in plain sight. The creature, having lost control of itself, is captured.

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Map of Motif Dispersal

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This motif has been recorded in 12 traditions: Dards (Kalash, Kho, Kohistani, Shina, Pashai), France, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Western Ukrainians, Persians, Georgians, Armenians, Anatolia Turks, Kurds, Wallons, Picardie


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