The Mythology and Folklore Database
L42C - Inside the house, outside the house.




37 Myths, Legends and Folktales
37 Unique Narratives for Motif L42C
18 Cultures & Traditions where L42C is told
0 Mythemes Indexed
16 Sub-Motifs of Motif L42C


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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 character hides from someone stronger, sometimes inside the house, sometimes outside, and the stronger character cannot catch him.

Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits

This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures


L42 has 16 other sub-motifs


L42.  After capturing the character, the enemy brings the prey home or to the place where he intends to eat it. The character runs away and escapes.
L42a.  The cannibal steals fresh corpses from graves.
L42b.  After capturing the hero, the antagonist brings him home and leaves him in the care of a family member. The latter believes the hero's words and follows his instructions. See motif L42.
L42b1.  A character kidnapped by a demon advises him to stack pots, pans and other kitchen items on top of each other and climb up them. He does so, falls and breaks.
L42c.  The character hides from someone stronger, sometimes inside the house, sometimes outside, and the stronger character cannot catch him.
L42d.  A man runs away from a cannibal across the ice, the cannibal pursues him, licks the blood spilled on the ice, his tongue freezes, he dies, or falls to his death after slipping on the ice.
L42e.  A demon catches the hero, carries him home, but the hero escapes on the way. The demon returns, catches the hero again, and this time brings him to his home. Or the demon catches and carries several children, but they escape on the way, leaving only one, whom the demon brings to his home.
L42f.  The character intended for consumption slips away unnoticed. The master of the house thinks that his wife has eaten him alone and cuts open her stomach.
L42g.  The stepmother, and more often the father (usually at the insistence of his new wife), leaves the children in a deserted place or sends them into the forest. They end up in the house of a cannibal or cannibals, all (or at least one of them) survive and achieve success.
L42g1.  Father (stepfather) takes children into the forest and slips away unnoticed. To make the children think he is nearby chopping wood, father hangs a board, pumpkin, etc. on a tree, which bangs against the trunk in the wind.
L42g2.  A person leaves traces behind by dropping seeds, pebbles, etc., or leaving drops of blood. These traces are unintentionally destroyed by birds, animals, wind, etc.
L42g3.  In the forest or in the sky, the character sees a house that is made entirely or partially of edible materials.
L42h.  A cannibal catches the hero and invites other cannibals to a feast. The hero escapes, and the cannibals eat the one who invited them.
L42i.  Creatures from another world carry off a little boy. His sister takes him and safely escapes from their pursuers. Usually the boy has two or three sisters, and only the youngest succeeds.
L42i1.  A boy is rowing a boat. A witch lures him out and carries him away. The boy escapes.
L42j.  The ogre catches children (usually mice), puts them in a bag, orders a tree (pole, crossbar in the house) to bend over, hangs the bag, orders the tree to straighten up again, and leaves. Another character (usually a fox) orders the tree (pole, etc.) to bend over and frees the children.
L42k.  A demonic character regurgitates an axe (adze) to cut down a tree.

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Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns

MotifSimilarityMotif Summary
I55B99.55%The hero chases a deer or elk carrying the sun.
M171B99.44%The character pretends to have brought meat on a shoulder blade and gives it to the hosts to cook. Taking a bare bone without meat out of the pot, he accuses the hosts of stealing the meat.
N598.37%Long trips, hikes, flights, or battles are described using a formula that indicates that characters learn about winter through snow or frost, and summer through warmth, rain, dew or other similar signs.
M38D198.27%bubble-head, the straw leg, the hair-neck are successively dying, trying to act like ordinary people.
K27N3A197.44%In the course of his courtship, the hero enters into a struggle with characters (more than two) who embody the elements, celestial bodies, and parts of the universe.
B7496.67%The eyes of the capercaillie or black grouse turned red from tears.
M108A96.58%A lonely elderly couple adopts a trickster. He steals from them (and runs away).
A32G96.09%On the lunar disc, a character can be seen holding onto a tree or bush and ending up on the moon with them. See motif A32D.
B45B95.40%The bull or cow is the embodiment of cold, the reason why winter is cold.
J27B95.20%An infant is thrown into a lake or river and occasionally comes ashore. In addition to his earthly parents, he has a father (and mother) in the underwater world. He does not want to part with them, nor do they want to let him go.

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Map of Motif Dispersal

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This motif has been recorded in 18 traditions: Anatolia Turks, Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Shor, Northern Altai: Chelkan, Kumanda, Tubalar, Altaians, Central Yakuts (Sakha), Dolgans, Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Tungus (Evenki) of China (Solon, Birar, Oroqen, Manegir), Evenks, Tungus (Evenki): Russian Far East, Evenks, Western Tungus (Evenki), Western Siberia Tungus (Evenki): Sym River, Ket River, Forest (Upper Kolyma) Yukaghir, Southern Altai: Teleut, Buryats: Eastern (trans Baikal), i.e. Khori, Ilimpii Tungus/Evenki, Yerbogachen Tungus/Evenki, Tungus/Evenki of Nercha - Chita area


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