The Mythology and Folklore Database
M49 - A hero in someone else's skin
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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
The hero meets a character from the enemy camp and, taking on his form, penetrates enemies. Usually, the hero kills the person he meets and puts on his skin.Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures
M49 has 1 other sub-motifsM49. The hero meets a character from the enemy camp and, taking on his form, penetrates enemies. Usually, the hero kills the person he meets and puts on his skin. M49a. hero needs to penetrate unnoticed into the locus of dangerous creatures; he meets an old woman (usually a shaman, a doctor) going there, puts on her skin, and penetrates into dangerous ones in her guise creatures. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of M49's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| K27O3 | 98.12% | Two groups of characters compete in overcoming trials or play a game, divided into two teams (at least two episodes with different characters on both sides). The participants are either anthropomorphic but possess different unusual abilities, or they are different animals (natural phenomena, elements, etc.). Cf. motif K27xy (Characters with different properties in opposing camps). |
| M29X1 | 96.39% | See the motives in square brackets. |
| K27A | 95.94% | Test: spend the night in the cold (the antagonist tries to destroy the hero in this way). See motif K27. Compare motif M35: two zoomorphic characters compete to see which of them will sit out the night in the cold. |
| K27XY | 95.85% | Several men (animals), each of whom can do something better than the others, work together to accomplish difficult tasks set before them by their opponents. The competition is not intended to find a worthy suitor for a girl or to get rid of an unwanted suitor. Cf. motif K27o3 (Competition between two teams). |
| B85 | 95.78% | The wind blows too strongly, it is forced to calm down. |
| B42H | 95.24% | Orion's Belt – game, another star or group of stars within or outside Orion – hunter. |
| F10 | 95.20% | A woman has a second mouth (usually in her vagina) with sharp teeth. A man inserts or throws a stone, bone, stick, etc. into this mouth, knocking out the teeth or extracting toothy animals from it in this way. |
| K21 | 94.83% | A girl ends up in the sky and gets married there. |
| I23 | 94.48% | The door of the house opens and slams shut by itself, crushing those entering or leaving. See motif I22. |
| B44E | 94.35% | First ancestors (usually birds or animals) argue with each other about the length of time periods in the calendar or daily cycle, or about the desirability of the dominance of cold and dark or warm and light times. See motif B44. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 67 traditions: Arabs of Sudan, Sudanese, Mbundu (Umbundu, Kimbundu, Chimbundu, Ovimbundu), Kwanyama, Owambo (=Ambo), Akan, Ashanti, Akwapim; Ga (Accra), Kra, Twi (Chwi, Chi), Gilbert Islands, Nauru, Banaba (Ocean island), Shan, Ahom, Khampti, Northern Munda of Kharwar branch: Birhor, Ho, Mundari, Kol, Asur (including Agaria, Kol, Birjhia), Bhumij, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Yazgulami, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Karachays, Balkar, Nogai, Kalmyk, Anatolia Turks, 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), Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Mongols (Khalkha), Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Udeghe, Oroch, Nivkh, Chukchi, Koyukon, North Alaskan Inupiat, Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Montagnais, Menominee, Winnebago, Omaha, Ponca, Iowa, Kiowa Apache, Plains Cree, Plains Ojibwa, Assiniboine, Chilkotin, Shuswap, Thompson (Nlaka'pamux), Lushootseed (Puget Sound: Puyallup, Nisqualmi, Snuqualmi, Duwamish, Muckleshoot, Snohomish, Skagit), Nez Perce, Tillamook, Takelma, Oregon Athabaskans: Lower Umpqua, Tututni (incl Joshua), Upper Coquille, Galice, Tolowa, Alcea, Okanagon, Sanpoil, Shasta; Chimariko, Karok, Achomavi, Yana, Kawaiisu, Tubatulabal, Northern Paiute (=Paviotso), Western Shoshone, Gosiute, Upland Yuma: Walapai, Havasupai, Yavapai, Chemehuevi, Serrano, Hopi, Zuni, Yuma proper (Quechan), Mohave, Maricopa, Pima, Bribri, Cabecar, Terraba; Chiriqui (AD 800-1500) iconography, Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal), Mustang, Chechens, Kordofan, Bhutan, Morocco