The Mythology and Folklore Database
K77B1 - Wolf's Head, ATU 125.
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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
When they see predators, domestic animals consciously or accidentally behave in such a way that the predators flee in fear.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
K77 has 5 other sub-motifsK77a. Various objects and animals (rarely: only animals, but including those that are safe in reality) defeat a strong enemy (usually joining the hero who is going to take revenge on the strong enemy for an insult and hiding in the house where the enemy is supposed to appear), attacking him in turn; he dies or flees. Either someone or the attacked character himself places objects in his dwelling that then harm that character. K77b. Having left their owners, domestic animals find an empty house or build a house. Robbers or predatory animals come there. Domestic animals attack or simply scare them away. Predators do not understand who they are facing and flee. K77b1. When they see predators, domestic animals consciously or accidentally behave in such a way that the predators flee in fear. K77b2. The goat (goat, ram, etc.) responds to the predator's questions in the sense that parts of its body are weapons and other objects designed to kill the questioner, or that the goat is actually armed. K77b3. Goats encounter a wolf. One goat has one stomach, the second has two, the third has three, and so on. The goat with the most stomachs kills or scares away the wolf. K77c. Various objects and/or animals hide in the house where a strong enemy is expected to appear. They take turns attacking or frightening him, and he either dies or flees. See motifs K77a and K77b. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of K77's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| K96 | 98.96% | Several (more than three) brothers marry or must marry in such a way that their wives are sisters. |
| M127A | 98.85% | In response to a character's request to make him laugh or feed him, a bird sits on a person's or animal's head or on a fragile object. Another person tries to knock the bird down, kills or maims the person on whom the bird has landed, or breaks the object. Alternatively, the bird distracts the person's attention, and during this time the character eats the food that the person was carrying. |
| M99A | 98.79% | The character is going to build a house (tower, etc.) from the bones or feathers of birds. |
| I35A2 | 98.40% | Thunder is heard when stones or large vessels are rolled, dragged or overturned in the sky. |
| K27SS | 98.31% | A strong man must overtake a woman, often an old woman. This is difficult or impossible to achieve. |
| J32A1 | 98.30% | But at night someone tramples the field, steals hay, etc. The hero learns that it is horses doing this. |
| K35A | 98.27% | In exchange for improving his current situation, the character agrees to have his body injured or branded. |
| I87AA | 98.26% | Describes a giant bull (rarely: horse): head in one field, body in another; a bathhouse on its tail, a lake on its back; people standing at its head and tail have to walk a long way to meet each other; etc. Usually the bull is killed and eaten (by people in Baltic-Finnish traditions and in Olonets antiquity; by birds in most southern traditions). |
| K126 | 98.21% | A predatory beast or demon eats the hero's horse, but in return is forced or voluntarily helps him. |
| B33 | 98.15% | There is a female character who embodies the wind or is considered the mother or mistress of the winds. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 42 traditions: Berbers of southern Tunisia and adjacent part of Libya (Matmata and Ghadames areas), Algeria Arabs, Swahili, Midjikenda (incl Giryama), Nyika, Duruma; Ngindo, Kiluguru and other Islamic groups of the Eastern Coast of Africa, Hausa, Northern Munda of Kharwar branch: Birhor, Ho, Mundari, Kol, Asur (including Agaria, Kol, Birjhia), Bhumij, Maria, Muria, and other South-Central Dravidians: Binjhwar, Bacop, Bhattra, Bom, Jhoria (=Jhodia), Gadaba (in Koraput, neighbors of Munda-speaking Gadaba), Duruwa (Parji), Mehtar; Pardhan, Marathi (incl. Bhamta; incl. Mumbai area), Portuguese, Portugal, Basques, Catalan, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Macedonians, Balkarians, Albanians, Balkarians, Lithuanians, Estonians, Finns, Karelians, Western Sami, Swedes, Western Ukrainians, 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, Tajik, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Ossetians, Kalmyk, Crimean Tatars, Karaims, Anatolia Turks, Azeris (Azerbaijanis), Uyghur, 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, Mari (Cheremis), Chuvash, Udmurt, Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Oirats (incl Torgouts, Derbets, Oilots), Mongols (Khalkha), Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Galicians