The Mythology and Folklore Database
M38D4 - The Hunting Needle, ATU 90
Please log on to view the narratives.
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
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).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
M38 has 20 other sub-motifsM38. Person sees how others act using magic or according to their animal nature. He or she imitates their actions and gets into trouble. Actions are not heroic deeds, competitions or tests and refer to everyday activity, mostly to providing and cooking food M38a. On a visit, the character sees how the owner acts with magic or techniques that suit his nature (in Africa, too, deception). He imitates their actions but fails. Actions are not tests or competitions and are not related to performing feats. This is mainly getting or preparing food. M38a1. The character imitates the sisters' sons-in-law or husbands, or the wife's brothers (shoshone's) or wives (comox and chalkomel). {ATU combines a motive with another}. M38a2. The hen (other bird) cooks her own eggs and serves them to other animal persons (who imitated her with disastrous consequences) M38b. The first wife, rejected or taken later than others, performs certain actions with the help of magic. Other wives try to imitate her but are killed, maimed, or disgraced. M38b1. After the wedding, the wife is silent until her husband says certain words that indicate her origin. {In North Africa, the Pyrenees and the Arabs of Western Asia, the motive is very popular, which suggests that the list of traditions in which it is known may include some records that have so far been supported only with links to pointers, but not by the texts themselves}. M38b2. Each of the three brothers comes to his father with his wife (fiancée). The younger brother or his fiancée is considered worthless, but the girl turns out to be a sorceress and surpasses the brides of her older brothers in everything. M38b3b. Mighty bird (more rare other creature/mythological person) helps a man (rare: a woman) because he (she) warms/covers from bad weather its/hers nestlings (children) M38c. blacksmith (supposedly) forges a person, rejuvenating or revitalizing him. M38c1. The character (supposedly) forges a person, rejuvenating or reviving him, the other unsuccessfully tries to imitate him. M38c2. To shove a horse or donkey, Jesus (the saint) cuts off his leg, nails a horseshoe to his hoof, and attaches his leg back. The other character tries to imitate in vain. M38c3. 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 M38d. Two or more characters, which are small objects or small animals, live or travel together and die one by one while committing protozoa actions. M38d1. bubble-head, the straw leg, the hair-neck are successively dying, trying to act like ordinary people. M38d2. Several characters (usually three), which are small objects, go traveling and must cross the river. This fails. M38d3. The character, who is a lump of earth (oatmeal, salt), blurred in the rain or after going to get water. M38d4. 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). M38d5. Two or three types of cereals talk to each other, act together, etc. M38d6. Several characters embody small objects and die one at a time. The last one left laughs and rejoices so much that he bursts with laughter (breaks his head, etc.). M38d7. Person who represents something fat (a sausage, a piece of fat, etc.) prepares a rich soup adding to it its own fat. Another person tries to repeat the trick and dies M38e. mushroom (pumpkin) thinks that it is as durable as a tree. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of M38's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| G25 | 100.00% | Cereal seeds are scattered across the world, fell to the ground, now people grow bread. |
| I132B | 100.00% | A girl comes to the Sun to become his wife, but at the last moment undergoes a metamorphosis (usually turning into a bird). |
| I7B | 100.00% | Lightning – a crack in the sky through which the heavens are visible for a moment. |
| K102C | 100.00% | 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 | 100.00% | A magical horse (rarely: dog) eats (hot) coals, nails, etc., or attempts are made to feed these to the horse. |
| K38E2 | 100.00% | 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 | 100.00% | 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 | 100.00% | 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. |
| M39A5A1 | 100.00% | 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. |
| M60A3 | 100.00% | Avenging the seized property (a pet or a bird), the hero repeatedly comes to the offender in different guises (girl, doctor, etc.) and brutally mocks him. |
See more...
Please log on to view the narratives.
Map of Motif Dispersal
Click here for a Buckminster Fuller Airocean / Dymaxion Projection map
Drag the map around by clicking and using the mouse, use the wheel to zoom.
Click on an option below for one of three map textures available:
This motif has been recorded in 4 traditions: Setu, Finns, Karelians, Mari (Cheremis)