The Mythology and Folklore Database
L65B1 - Exchanging sheep for dogs.
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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 man exchanges sheep (goats) for dogs. The exchange seems unequal, but the dogs help him achieve success.Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures
L65 has 12 other sub-motifsL65. An infant or small child turns out to be a demon and kills people. L65a. A daughter is born, or people find a girl; she is a monster or turns into a monster and devours everyone. Her brother escapes (usually leaves, marries, returns), and she pursues him unsuccessfully. L65a1. A demonic character successively devours parts of the horse on which the hero arrived, each time returning to the hero and then leaving to devour another part. (Often asks whether the hero arrived on a three-legged, two-legged or one-legged horse). L65a2. A man shoots off (damages) the finger of a demonic creature, and then sees that his sister, lying in her cradle, has lost her finger. L65b. A demonic woman, less often her lover or another monster, is ready to kill or kills the hero. Dogs (or animals and birds that replace them – lions, bears, eagles, etc.) come running (flying), rescue the hero and kill the demon. L65b1. A man exchanges sheep (goats) for dogs. The exchange seems unequal, but the dogs help him achieve success. L65b2. The hero's dogs have names that speak of their strength and agility (Wind, Ironbreaker, etc.). L65b3. A character who climbs a tree manages to escape from a demon (who usually tries to knock the tree down). L65b4. The character pulls out his tooth to use it as a weapon or tool (often an axe). L65b5. Despite obstacles, the young man's dogs or other animals serving him get to the princess just as she is about to be given away to a deceiver. L65c. The eldest of three or more sisters turns out to be a cannibal, devouring her younger sisters and other people. L65c1. Three or more sisters have the ability to fly and fly away from the cannibal – their older sister or mother. Only the youngest is saved. L65d. When the older sister becomes a cannibal, the younger sister (temporarily) escapes. Cf. motifs L1B, L65C. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of L65's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| B33B | 100.00% | At the border between winter and spring, a bird (usually a thrush) flies away prematurely into the cold and dies, or raises chicks and they die or suffer from the cold. |
| M114I1 | 100.00% | A man replies that his father (brother, etc.) hunts: he kills (discards) those he sees, and leaves (brings back) those he does not see (those not killed). This refers to lice or fleas. |
| M39G2 | 99.99% | Numskulls try to shovel nuts with a pitchfork. F stranger shows them how to do this work more easily with a shovel (a basket) |
| B104A | 99.98% | The son was about to eat some meat (chicken). At that moment, his father came in, and the son hid the meat so as not to share it with him. When his father left and the son took out what he had hidden, the meat turned into a toad (snake) and jumped on his face. |
| K25A4A | 99.98% | A young woman finds herself in the power of a water creature, and when she comes ashore, she is chained. To free the woman, the chain must be broken. |
| K33A2 | 99.98% | A brother takes his sister to her fiancé. She cannot hear her brother's words, and the witch distorts them (as if the brother is telling his sister to throw herself into the water, to blind her, etc.). Having got rid of the heroine, the witch replaces her with her own daughter. |
| M38C3 | 99.98% | A conceited smith attempts to rejuvenate an old woman (man). His magic helper tries to save the victim but all that he do is to transform the woman into an animal, usually a monkey |
| L9G | 99.97% | A man's hair or beard of an unusual colour is a sign of his demonic nature. |
| I37D1 | 99.95% | St. Peter secretly eats bread, and when Christ asks him what he is doing, he chokes, spits out the crumbs, and they turn into mushrooms. |
| I59B2 | 99.95% | The Milky Way – St. James' Way. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 15 traditions: England, British, Bretons, Scotland, Scots, Picts, Scotti, Scottish, Portuguese, Portugal, Maltese, France, Germans: North (Low- and Central German dialects): Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg, Pommern, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony, incl East Frisia and Oldenburg), Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Thüringen, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen, Brandenburg, Rügen, Slovakians, Slovaks, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Lithuanians, Finns, Swedes, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Frisians, Transylvanian Saksons, Russian Federation