The Mythology and Folklore Database
M134 - Tower of Wolves, ATU 121.
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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
Animals, demons or people stand on top of each other to reach something. The one at the bottom jumps off (leans, jerks), and everyone falls after him.Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 11, Tricks and competitions won thanks to deception, absurd and obscene behavior
M13 has 2 other sub-motifsM13. A person appeals to higher powers with a request, without considering that his words may have a different meaning than he intended. Either a person accidentally utters the wrong word or accidentally and hastily expresses an empty or absurd desire. As a result, something happens that he did not want at all. Cf. motifs I58B and M13A.Most of the references in ATU 775 (Midas' short-sighted wish) are either incorrect or impossible to verify. In connection with this plot, the reference to Uther 2000 is taken into account only for the Lithuanian variant, since there is a summary of the Latvian one, and for the Greek one, since the motif exists in Ancient Greece and among the neighbouring South Slavs. For ATU 750A, the reference to Bäcker 1988 in connection with the "Chinese" is incorrect; these are Manchus, not Chinese, and the stated motif is not present in the text. M13a. A deity and a human meet so that the former can fulfil the latter's request. As a result, the human is turned to stone. Usually (except for the Squamish), one of the supplicants wants eternal life and is turned to stone. See motif M13. M13B. People are promised the fulfilment of two (three, four) wishes. Without thinking, they wish for something they do not want at all. The last wish is spent on returning to the original state. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of M13's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| K88 | 99.20% | Two people set off on a journey or argue about which is stronger: truth or falsehood (stinginess or generosity, etc.). The evil one abandons the good one, crippling or robbing him, but the good one regains his health and achieves success. The villain usually perishes. |
| M114 | 98.88% | The character is asked to make (or actually makes) a rope or other object out of sand, ash, smoke, etc. |
| K103 | 98.64% | A domestic animal (horse, cow, bull, goat, ram, sheep) helps an orphan, a lonely child, or an unfortunate young woman. |
| M91B1 | 98.57% | A man is going to sell a pet skin. On the way, he gets big money by deception or by chance. Usually, upon return, a person says that he received money for the skin, after which others slaughter their livestock and try unsuccessfully to sell the skins for money they are not worth. (In India, the hero sometimes supposedly sells not skin, but beef, which is forbidden to brahmanas). |
| M57D | 98.52% | A person consistently receives magical items that bring wealth. Others replace them or take them away. A person returns what has been taken - usually by receiving another wonderful object (baton, whip) that hits the kidnappers. |
| M39A1 | 98.38% | character misunderstands the first instruction, promises to do the right thing next time; literally follows a memorized rule that does not correspond to the new situation; so multiple times. |
| K2A | 98.25% | The character is sent down to the underworld (into an abyss, a well, etc.). After he sends the treasures (women) he has obtained back up, his envious companions cut the rope, but he manages to return to earth. See motifs K38, K39, K74. |
| M106 | 98.24% | The character calls himself by a fictitious name, which others understand not as a proper name, but as a common noun with a specific meaning. |
| K92 | 98.18% | The father asks his children a question, the answer to which seems obvious (does his daughter love him, who is the eldest in the family, etc.). The youngest daughter (less often – son) gives an unexpected answer, the father drives her away (deprives her of her inheritance), and later becomes convinced of her intelligence and nobility. |
| M130C | 98.17% | When a lion (tiger, bear, elephant, human) is trapped, a mouse or rat frees it (usually by gnawing through the ropes). |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 41 traditions: Ancient Egypt, Egyptian, Algeria Arabs, Arabs of Sudan, Sudanese, Bilin (Blin, Bilen), Somali, Northern Gur (Oti-Volta): Mamprussi, Dagomba, Dagari (Dagara; incl Lodaga), Bassari, Mosi, Nankanse, Konkomba, Moba; Ditammari, Nyende, Bulsa (pl Builsa, Bulo), Akan, Ashanti, Akwapim; Ga (Accra), Kra, Twi (Chwi, Chi), Malayali; Kannikaran, Tamil, Muthuvan, Marvar, Tamils, Kashmiri, Nepali; Tharu, Marathi (incl. Bhamta; incl. Mumbai area), Hindi-speaking peoples and casts (incl. Teli, Parahiya; incl. Chhattisgarhi) of Northern and West-Central India, Assamese, Koreans, England, British, Bretons, Portuguese, Portugal, Catalan, France, Dutch, Flemish, Hungarians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Finns, Karelians, Norwegians, 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), Persians, Nogai, 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), Mordvins, Udmurt, Mongols (Khalkha), Kumaoni (Central Pahari), incl. Garhwali, Wallons, Picardie, Kordofan, Terek Cossacks