The Mythology and Folklore Database
M7C - Fish help: offered and rejected
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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
zoomorphic character is waiting to be transported across the water. Animals or fish consistently offer help. The character only accepts the latter's help - he was waiting for him to eat.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
M7 has 4 other sub-motifsM7. The character goes to the lower world, to the sky, to the country on the horizon, etc. and waits for someone to give him a ride to his goal. Usually, some animals/birds or celestial bodies follow by, and the last (often the Sun or Month) delivers. M7a. Birds or animals take the character into their boat, but take on a zoomorphic appearance and leave their passenger in the water (after he breaks a ban). (It is significant that the boat or raft only appears to be artifacts, but is actually the bodies of the corresponding birds or animals, or it is an ice floe; cf. Motive M31). M7a1. Person gets to a place from which he is unable to come out. Several (more than two) different celestial bodies rise and move near him or above him. He puts attention to them (and asks their help) M7b. zoomorphic character (usually a fox) finds himself in a place he can't get out of, and consistently asks for help from animals (fish) passing by or approaching him. The latter helps. M7c. zoomorphic character is waiting to be transported across the water. Animals or fish consistently offer help. The character only accepts the latter's help - he was waiting for him to eat. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of M7's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| K12B | 95.36% | The hero enters a world beyond the human world and marries there. His wife allows him to visit his former world, but on certain conditions. The hero breaks these conditions, which leads to (irreparable) misfortune. Cf. motif F94 (the hero betrays his fairy wife in her world); K25a6 (the hero visits his world together with his fairy wife). |
| F65A | 93.02% | The spouse leaves the character at the burial site; the (pretend) dead person comes back to life and leaves to be with their lover. |
| I103 | 92.01% | Sirius is associated with a dog or a wolf. |
| H54B | 91.61% | The character's gaze brings death (and destruction). |
| I76B | 91.20% | After a certain amount of time or after performing certain actions, an ordinary mouse turns into a bat. |
| L118 | 90.95% | One character provokes another to stick a part of their body into a split log (between two boards, etc.) and knocks out the wedge. |
| K80A4 | 90.92% | The hair on a character's head turns into grass (thorns, bamboo, bushes). |
| B113 | 90.58% | Due to certain events during the time of creation, women have cold backsides (and men have cold knees, or vice versa). |
| C35B | 90.37% | The frog (toad) prevents more than one sun from shining in the sky. |
| K27G3 | 90.37% | To fell all the trees in the forest, a man fells one (lightly touching it with an axe), after which all the trees fall. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 8 traditions: Kuki, Chiru, Falam (Hallam), Chin (Meitei =Manipuri, Khami, =Kumi), Lakher, Mizo (Lushei), Anal, Pawi (Lai), Purum, Koireng, Milhiem, Kolhen, Mru, Estonians, Western Sami, Eastern Sami (including Skolts), Reindeer Koryak, Maritime Koryak (Alyutor), Lkungen (Straits; including Samish, Songish, Sooke, Lummi), Klallam, Ute