The Mythology and Folklore Database
L42I - Sister sets out to rescue her brother (geese-swans), ATU 480A*.
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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
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.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-motifsL42. 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. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of L42's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| G25 | 99.96% | Cereal seeds are scattered across the world, fell to the ground, now people grow bread. |
| I132B | 99.96% | A girl comes to the Sun to become his wife, but at the last moment undergoes a metamorphosis (usually turning into a bird). |
| I7B | 99.96% | Lightning – a crack in the sky through which the heavens are visible for a moment. |
| K102C | 99.96% | The enemy seizes the object that makes the hero invulnerable and kills him. The hero is revived. Changing his appearance, he provokes the enemy to put the magical object on the ground, seizes it again and kills the enemy. |
| K150 | 99.96% | A magical horse (rarely: dog) eats (hot) coals, nails, etc., or attempts are made to feed these to the horse. |
| K38E2 | 99.96% | Returning from the underworld to earth, the princess places the objects surrounding her (clothes, house, "kingdom") into a small object (egg, ball of yarn, etc.), which she takes with her. |
| K56AC | 99.96% | A girl finds herself in a forest hut, where a bear arrives. He orders her to make him a bed out of stones and logs. |
| L103B1 | 99.96% | The hero or heroine flees from a demon on the back of a domestic animal (often a bull). When the demon approaches, the animal releases a stream of manure or intestinal gas into its face, and it stops the chase. |
| M38D4 | 99.96% | Several characters that embody small objects (and a squirrel with them) travel together. The needle penetrates the body of a large animal and kills it. (In the Baltic-Finnish texts, the needle first finds items that others find useless, but after the animal was caught, everything found turned out to be in demand for cooking meat). |
| M39A5A1 | 99.96% | Realizing that a son or wife, by telling the truth, will cause trouble for the family, the mother or husband makes them believe in the invasion of chickens (geese, crows), in the rain of stones, in the rain, from which they go blind, etc. In all cases, gullible people are planted in a hole covered with skin, in a barrel, etc., and let in the skin of poultry pecking grain (in Kyurins, chickens bite grain in the yard). See M39a5a motif. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 15 traditions: Croatians, Croats; Italians of Dalmatia (if the motif is absent among other Italians), Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Karelians, Vepsians, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Mari (Cheremis), Mordvins, Chuvash, Komi (Zyrians and Permyaks), Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Russian Federation