The Mythology and Folklore Database
K131A - The hero divides the carcass, ATU 159*.
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
Several animals (often a lion, a falcon, an ant) argue (usually over prey or habitat). The hero resolves their dispute, and they grant him the ability to take on their form (to possess their qualities).Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures
K13 has 3 other sub-motifsK13a. The character's leg (rarely: both legs) is cut off, bitten off, torn off, or damaged. The character ascends to the sky: to the moon; becomes the moon; turns into a star or constellation; becomes the sun; blood flowing from the leg colours the sky. K13b. A man crosses a body of water on the back of a caiman. The caiman bites off his leg. The cripple undergoes a metamorphosis, turning into a constellation or an animal. K13c. The cannibal's daughter takes revenge on her husband for her mother's death and manages to cut off his leg. See motif K13A. K13d. A group of boys reaches the sky, the last one's leg is cut off or torn off. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of K13's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| J51A | 99.97% | To climb a rock or tower, one must stick bones into it and climb them like a ladder. |
| H7G | 99.94% | A person sees many burning candles or lamps. When one of them burns out, someone dies. |
| A32DD | 99.92% | The lunar disc shows the figure or imprint of an anthropomorphic character carrying a bundle of wood or brushwood. |
| B104A | 99.91% | The son was about to eat some meat (chicken). At that moment, his father came in, and the son hid the meat so as not to share it with him. When his father left and the son took out what he had hidden, the meat turned into a toad (snake) and jumped on his face. |
| K25A4A | 99.91% | A young woman finds herself in the power of a water creature, and when she comes ashore, she is chained. To free the woman, the chain must be broken. |
| K33A2 | 99.91% | A brother takes his sister to her fiancé. She cannot hear her brother's words, and the witch distorts them (as if the brother is telling his sister to throw herself into the water, to blind her, etc.). Having got rid of the heroine, the witch replaces her with her own daughter. |
| M38C3 | 99.91% | A conceited smith attempts to rejuvenate an old woman (man). His magic helper tries to save the victim but all that he do is to transform the woman into an animal, usually a monkey |
| I37D1 | 99.91% | St. Peter secretly eats bread, and when Christ asks him what he is doing, he chokes, spits out the crumbs, and they turn into mushrooms. |
| I59B2 | 99.91% | The Milky Way – St. James' Way. |
| B33B | 99.90% | At the border between winter and spring, a bird (usually a thrush) flies away prematurely into the cold and dies, or raises chicks and they die or suffer from the cold. |
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 24 traditions: Kru: Kru proper, Sapo (Sapã), Grebo, Kran (Krahn, Guere-Krahn; incl. Putu, Tchien), Bete, Neyo, Wobe, Devoin (Dey), Belle (Kuwaa), Bassa, Sikon, England, British, Bretons, Scotland, Scots, Picts, Scotti, Scottish, Spain, Spaniards, Portuguese, Portugal, Basques, Catalan, Maltese, 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, Slovakians, Slovaks, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Croatians, Croats; Italians of Dalmatia (if the motif is absent among other Italians), Lithuanians, Latvians, Livonians, Estonians, Western Sami, Danes, Danish, Galicians, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio)