The Mythology and Folklore Database
K35C - The Dev in the Well, ATU 677, 677*, 986.
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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 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.Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures
K35 has 13 other sub-motifsK35. The deceiver pretends to be a hero in order to take his place (to possess his woman). (This motif includes all texts with motif K35a3). K35a. In exchange for improving his current situation, the character agrees to have his body injured or branded. K35a1. Setting off on a journey, a person (often against the advice of their horse) picks up a precious feather. Upon learning of this, an authoritative character gives them difficult tasks. K35a2. A man kills an animal with glowing fur. Upon learning of this, an authoritative figure gives him difficult tasks. K35a3. In order to obtain the privileges enjoyed by the hero, the deceiver manages to swap status with him. K35a4. In order to get rid of the hero and take his place, the deceiver pushes him into the sea or leaves him on a distant island. The hero survives and returns. K35a5. An authoritative character leaves an object (a letter) for a little boy, by which he will be able to recognise him when he grows up and comes to him. K35a6. The character illuminates the room with a light-emitting object (usually a feather) that he has found. K35a7. A character finds a feather, the touch of which brings health and beauty. K35b. The hero gives his rivals the food that the king sent them all to get, but what the rivals got turns out to be poisonous, useless, or tasteless, while what the hero brought, regardless of how it looks, gets praised. K35c. 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. K35c1. 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. K35c2. When the ship unexpectedly stops, the hero descends to the bottom of the sea, behaves correctly with the local inhabitants, and returns to the ship. K35c3. For reasons that are not immediately clear, the ship stops in the middle of the sea (rarely: a horse stops in the middle of the road). Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of K35's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| K90B | 99.97% | 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. |
| K85E | 99.64% | Magical horses live in water. |
| I87AD | 99.48% | A giant hides a persecuted person in his mouth – usually (perhaps always) in a tooth cavity; or the person remains alive in the giant's mouth, hiding in a tooth cavity. Cf. motif M21a. |
| K29D | 99.40% | 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. |
| K35C1 | 99.33% | 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. |
| K61E | 99.14% | Seeing an absurd situation, a powerful (supernatural) character laughs and is thereby usually cured of his ailment. For this, the people involved in the situation are rewarded and saved from danger. |
| I35A1 | 99.14% | The character claims the role of the thunder god and imitates him. |
| I68A | 99.10% | Once a year, water briefly acquires unusual properties. |
| K32L | 99.10% | The ruler distributes horses (cows) to his subjects for fattening. Only the heroine returns hers well-fed. |
| E41 | 99.04% | A skilled blacksmith, as a special gift, can take iron heated in a furnace with his bare hands, knead it like dough, and shape it as desired. Usually, he breaks a certain taboo and loses his gift. (The motif was identified and the material collected by Ruslan Doutalieyev). |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 23 traditions: Arabs of Iraq, Iraqi, Punjabi, Seraiki (Multani), Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Albanians, Balkarians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Finns, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Russians: Central part of ethnic territory as in A.D. 1500 (Tver, Yaroslavl, Moscow, Kostroma, Vladimir, Ivanovo, Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan, Tula, Kaluga, Smolensk provinces; in case of absence in other areas also Russians in Vyatka, Perm, Kazan provinces), Uzbek, Baluch, Persians, Karachays, Balkar, Georgians, Armenians, Anatolia Turks, Azeris (Azerbaijanis), Kurds, Hui (Dungan) of Xinjiang, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan (Dungan texts from Southern and Eastern China are clustered with the Chinese ones), Turkmen, Bashkirs, Morocco