The Mythology and Folklore Database
M141B - Animals flee from the end of the world, ATU 20C.
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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
An insignificant event (a falling leaf, acorn, etc.) is taken by an animal as the beginning of a catastrophe (the end of the world, war, the falling of the sky, etc.) and it flees. Other animals join the fleeing animal.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
M14 has 1 other sub-motifsM14. A man brutally murders his wife (rarely: children, fiancée, sister) and/or eats her flesh himself, or brings her flesh to her relatives (if he kills children, he brings the flesh to his wife). M14a. To take revenge on his wife or her relatives for (allegedly) causing him offence, the husband roasts his wife alive. See motif M14. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of M14's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| K81 | 99.55% | For a minor offence or on false charges, a young woman is maimed and expelled from her home (rarely: she is killed or maims herself). The cripple miraculously recovers (the dead woman is resurrected). |
| E31C | 99.52% | Several men, each possessing a unique skill, bring a (kidnapped) girl from a distant country. |
| L42G | 99.51% | 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. |
| K113 | 99.50% | Young men (usually three brothers) find wives (usually by shooting arrows or other objects at random, see motif K113A). The wife of the youngest brother is initially ugly or appears in the form of an animal (often a frog or snake), but turns out to be a beauty and a sorceress. Alternatively, the girls choose their husbands, and the wife of the youngest brother is a sorceress. |
| M39A1 | 99.49% | 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. |
| M158 | 99.47% | A human and an animal (devil) or two animals decide to cultivate a field and divide the harvest so that one gets the above-ground part and the other gets the underground part. One of the characters (always) loses out. |
| K132 | 99.46% | A small character (usually a rooster) comes to a powerful enemy. Thanks to creatures and objects that he encounters along the way and hides in his body or bag, the character remains unharmed after all attempts to destroy him. Cf. motif L126. |
| K80A | 99.42% | An object or creature that has emerged from the remains, jewellery, etc. of the murdered person tells about the murder, exposing the criminal. The East Slavic texts in this section were mainly provided by K.Y. Rakhno. |
| K80C | 99.38% | Before dying, the murderer's victim turns to birds (stars, animals, plants, etc.). Later, seeing these birds (the moon, the sun, this plant, etc.), the murderer recalls his deed aloud or otherwise gives himself away. Or the birds, being the only witnesses to the crime, lead the investigators to the murderers. |
| K73A5 | 99.32% | Malicious women replace the newborn with a kitten (telling the father that his wife has given birth to a kitten). See motifs K73, K73A. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 44 traditions: Arabs of Egypt, Arabs of Sudan, Sudanese, Kosa (Xosa, Xhosa), Tswana (Chwana), Suto (Soto; incl Pedi, Mbire), Ewe, Khmer, Indian literary tradition (Vedic, Brahman, Purana, Indian Buddhism, Hinduism, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchtantra, Jatakas); iconography of Hindu temples, Ireland, England, British, Bretons, Portuguese, Portugal, Catalan, Aragon, Dutch, Flemish, 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, Hungarians, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Slovenians, Slovenes, Lithuanians, Latvians, Finns, Vepsians, Norwegians, Danes, Danish, Tajik, Ossetians, Georgians, Kalmyk, Anatolia Turks, Kazakh, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Bashkirs, Mari (Cheremis), Mordvins, Chuvash, Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Tungus (Evenki) of China (Solon, Birar, Oroqen, Manegir), Evenks, Tungus (Evenki): Russian Far East, Evenks, Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal), Northern Khanty (Ostyaks), Galicians, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Frisians, Russian Federation