The Mythology and Folklore Database
K61D - From work became a beetle, ATU 501.
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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
A young woman accidentally gives her fiancé, husband or mother-in-law the impression that she works a lot. To prevent the deception from being revealed, she or someone else makes others believe that women's work makes them ugly or turns them into animals. The husband forbids his wife to work.Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 11, Tricks and competitions won thanks to deception, absurd and obscene behavior
K61 has 7 other sub-motifsK61a. In order to find out the exact number, a specific object in a certain set, the name of a specific character, or the reason for a certain phenomenon, the character tries to surprise (or unintentionally surprises) the owner of such knowledge. The latter begins to talk to himself, involuntarily revealing the necessary information to the hero standing nearby. K61a1. A dangerous character mistakes two people sleeping (hiding) in a sack or two people lying with their feet towards each other for a single creature. K61b. In order to learn the names of strangers, the character finds or creates a situation in which they call each other by name aloud. K61c. A demon agrees to help (agrees not to harm) a person on condition that the person guesses his name. At the last moment, the person accidentally learns the demon's name, and the demon disappears or rewards the person. K61c1. A person will die if they cannot find the answer to the demon's question. A person or their acquaintance accidentally learns the answer by overhearing the demon talking to himself or to another demon. See motif C29. K61d. A young woman accidentally gives her fiancé, husband or mother-in-law the impression that she works a lot. To prevent the deception from being revealed, she or someone else makes others believe that women's work makes them ugly or turns them into animals. The husband forbids his wife to work. K61e. 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. K61f. Fearing her husband's wrath, a childless woman pretends to have given birth. Her husband believes that he has a daughter or son, and after some time marries her off (marries him off). During the wedding ceremony, a doll or animal is placed under the veil (in the palanquin), but at the last moment, a supernatural character transforms the supposed bride (groom) into a girl or boy. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of K61's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| M203 | 99.94% | A supernatural being conveys a message to an unknown recipient through a passer-by. By fulfilling the request, the person provokes an unexpected reaction from another supernatural being (usually living in his house). Most of the material was collected by K.Yu. Rakhno. |
| N22 | 99.92% | fairy-tale text ends with a formula that says that if the characters are not dead, they are still alive. {Motive at work, more data}. |
| M193A | 99.91% | A woman baked a flatbread (pancake, pie, dough figure). It rolled away (ran away). On its way, it encounters various people and/or animals who want to eat it. It rolls away from each of them, but a fox (rarely another animal) eats it. |
| M114D | 99.89% | A man eats boiled eggs and leaves without paying. Much later, he returns to repay his debt. The owner demands payment for the chickens that would have hatched from those eggs, become hens, laid eggs themselves, and so on. Someone comes to court and pretends to be boiling seeds for sowing. The judge agrees that chickens cannot hatch from boiled eggs. |
| K128B | 99.89% | The ruler will give his daughter to the one who can herd (gather, train) hares (squirrels, sheep, poultry, partridges) without loss. A poor young man accomplishes the task with the help of a magic device. To have an excuse to refuse, the ruler's family members try to buy one hare (a magic pipe, etc.) so that the suitor cannot fulfil his promise, but as a result they find themselves in a humiliating position. |
| B33A1 | 99.89% | A person (animal, bird) teases or insults March or another calendar month and is punished as a result. |
| K117C | 99.89% | When a character plays a pipe (violin, horn, etc.), people and animals begin to dance against their will. |
| M95 | 99.88% | weaker character asks a stronger character to take the gift to his family and climbs into a basket, bag, etc. A strong character brings and leaves a gift without knowing that brought whoever sent this gift. Usually a girl hides her sisters in a bag (chest), and next time she sits there herself, and the cannibal believes that there are gifts for the girls' parents in the bag and carries the bag. |
| M39G1 | 99.87% | fool does not pull pants or boots over his feet, but jumps in them from above. |
| K38E3 | 99.85% | Among three (less often two or four) loci or objects associated with materials of high but varying degrees of value, the highest belongs to precious stones (usually diamonds, but also glass and crystal). |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 32 traditions: Algeria Arabs, Ireland, Spain, Spaniards, Portuguese, Portugal, Catalan, France, Dutch, Flemish, Poles, Czech, Czechs, Slovakians, Slovaks, Hungarians, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Croatians, Croats; Italians of Dalmatia (if the motif is absent among other Italians), Albanians, Balkarians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Livonians, Estonians, Finns, Karelians, Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, Danish, Western Ukrainians, 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, Azeris (Azerbaijanis), 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), Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Frisians