The Mythology and Folklore Database
M81E - Don't herd cattle on giant land, ATU 314A, 321
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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
young man undertakes to herd cattle and is warned not to cross the borders of a giant, dragon, witch, etc. The young man violates the ban and kills a giant.Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures
M81 has 8 other sub-motifsM81. Wandering, the hero finds himself in a place where blind or blind (two or more) live. M81a. The hero meets two blind women and makes them sighted. These women are birds (geese, ducks, hazel grouses, partridges). M81b. The character is warned not to try to reach an arrow if it gets stuck in a tree. He breaks the ban and gets into trouble. M81c. A person goes to heaven or (rarely) to the lower world, where he meets blind people (one or two), usually makes them sighted, and returns to earth himself. M81d. A person meets (most often in the sky) one or two blind people and restores their sight. M81e. young man undertakes to herd cattle and is warned not to cross the borders of a giant, dragon, witch, etc. The young man violates the ban and kills a giant. M81e1. A young man lives with an old man whose eyes or eyes were carried away by a giant. The young man goes to the giant, kills him, brings his eyes, the old man sees the light. M81e2. By playing an instrument or otherwise, a character is able to attract an animal or person far away from him. M81f. blind beggar robs an honest man. He watches him and, when he enters the house, takes everything the blind man has accumulated. He often takes money accumulated by other blind people as well. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of M81's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| M95 | 99.91% | weaker character asks a stronger character to take the gift to his family and climbs into a basket, bag, etc. A strong character brings and leaves a gift without knowing that brought whoever sent this gift. Usually a girl hides her sisters in a bag (chest), and next time she sits there herself, and the cannibal believes that there are gifts for the girls' parents in the bag and carries the bag. |
| M199G1 | 99.85% | A human (a weaker animal) deceives a strong giant (a demon, a stronger animal). One of the episodes: both carry a tree, the strong man takes hold of the top (by the crown), the man supposedly takes hold of the crown (by the top), but instead sits on the tree carried by the strong man or walks along pretending to support the branches. |
| M193A | 99.83% | A woman baked a flatbread (pancake, pie, dough figure). It rolled away (ran away). On its way, it encounters various people and/or animals who want to eat it. It rolls away from each of them, but a fox (rarely another animal) eats it. |
| K61D | 99.79% | A young woman accidentally gives her fiancé, husband or mother-in-law the impression that she works a lot. To prevent the deception from being revealed, she or someone else makes others believe that women's work makes them ugly or turns them into animals. The husband forbids his wife to work. |
| B33E1 | 99.77% | It is said that the cold, which is stronger than anything else, can freeze boiling water, a foetus in the womb, etc. |
| I114 | 99.77% | Describes a ram or sheep with golden wool or the skin of such a ram. |
| L73A | 99.77% | The fugitives make sure that darkness spreads behind them, hindering their pursuers (while light pours in front of them). |
| A32D1 | 99.77% | Cain and Abel are associated with the moon, usually distinguishable (both or only Cain) in the silhouette of lunar spots. |
| B122 | 99.76% | Birds (cranes/storks, geese or crows) carry children away to another world or bring them back from there. See motif H6c3, "The Immortal Stork". |
| K61A1 | 99.76% | A dangerous character mistakes two people sleeping (hiding) in a sack or two people lying with their feet towards each other for a single creature. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 40 traditions: Algeria Arabs, Dards (Kalash, Kho, Kohistani, Shina, Pashai), Ireland, England, British, Bretons, Scotland, Scots, Picts, Scotti, Scottish, Basques, Sicily, Sicilians, France, 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, Poles, Czech, Czechs, Slovakians, Slovaks, Hungarians, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Croatians, Croats; Italians of Dalmatia (if the motif is absent among other Italians), Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Albanians, Balkarians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Danes, Danish, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Karachays, Balkar, Ossetians, Tats, Georgians, Armenians, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Khakas, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Bhutan, Transylvanian Saksons, Russian Federation