The Mythology and Folklore Database
M8A - Birds are hammering the rock: release from the trap
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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
Animals, and more often birds, find it difficult to break through a rock from the outside or inside, make a hole in the tree, in the body of an absorber creature, tear fetters, etc., to help a character or get out of the confined space by yourself. The list includes groups whose texts deal with the exit of the first ancestors to earth from a confined space.Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures
M8 has 4 other sub-motifsM8. Some characters (not humans) are struggling to break a strong barrier that prevents access to the desired location or to a high-value object. See also M8A - M8D motifs; they are included in the M8 motif in the correlation tables. M8a. Animals, and more often birds, find it difficult to break through a rock from the outside or inside, make a hole in the tree, in the body of an absorber creature, tear fetters, etc., to help a character or get out of the confined space by yourself. The list includes groups whose texts deal with the exit of the first ancestors to earth from a confined space. M8b. Animals, and often birds, struggle to break through the rock to get water or honey hidden inside it. M8c. Birds pierce through a layer of clay, wax, resin, etc., that covers the character's eyes or anus. M8d. Birds break through the hard cover on the character's body to reach his entrails. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of M8's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| B29 | 98.63% | People turn into animals, birds or stones, living beings acquire their current characteristics at a general meeting, festival, after a festival, after performing a ritual or after defeating a common enemy. |
| F53 | 97.91% | An unattractive man marries, but hides his face. When he is seen, the marriage is dissolved. |
| B28 | 96.49% | Travelling from one locality to another, the character successively transforms people into birds and animals, into stones, sanctuaries (or transforms monstrous animals into ordinary ones), establishes cultural norms, determines the biological characteristics of creatures, the appearance of the locality, etc. |
| E3 | 96.39% | After the destruction of the previous world, new people (rarely: new earth) are made from the remains of the dead. |
| J12 | 96.33% | A girl or two sisters wander, usually in search of a suitable groom or husband who has left or lives far away. Along the way or upon reaching their destination, they encounter false suitors. (Traditions in which two heroines travel rather than one are highlighted in bold (motif j13). |
| K4 | 96.25% | The character climbs a tree or rock to get a bird, bird eggs, or chicks, climbs into a bird's nest, comes into conflict with another character, and/or cannot climb down. See motifs K1, K2A. Traditions in which the nest destroyer is a woman are highlighted in italics; bold italics indicate those in which the character falls into the trap not through the fault of another person, but by accident, or, having climbed up to destroy the nest, does not fall into the trap at all, although he quarrels with his companion; an asterisk* marks those in which the character remains in the trap (undergoes a metamorphosis). |
| E14A | 95.85% | People kill demons, examine their bodies, make ritual costumes and masks, reproducing the appearance of the slain. |
| L63 | 95.82% | The character eats food with the womb or anus. See motif F9A. |
| C34 | 95.75% | The flood begins after people kill (harm, maim) some kind of creature (usually aquatic). |
| J30 | 95.70% | Before the heroes defeat their antagonists or flee from them, they find or receive the remains or property of the victim. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 34 traditions: Zande (Azande, incl Nzakara), Mon, Palaung (De Ang, Deang), Lahu, Kucong, Nosu, Nisu, Nusu, Sani, Jino, Iranian literary tradition (including Avesta, Pahlevi scripts, Sah-nameh, Marzban-nameh); Zoroastrians of Iran, Indian Parsees, Zoroastrianism, Tagish, Tanana, Wichita; Spiro Mound iconography, Plains Ojibwa, Shasta; Chimariko, Yurok, Caddo, Natchez (incl Avoyel), Maidu, Nisenan, Konkov, Navajo, Tepecano, Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Guajiro, Napo (Quijo), Kanelo (“Jungle Kechua”), Shuar, Achuar (Shiwiar), Aguaruna, Huambiza, Karijona, Tariana, Andoque, Tupari, Makurap, Sakirap, Ajuru (Wayoro), Suruí, Gaviâo, Zoro, Arua, Cinta Larga, Mundurucu, Curuaia, Kamayura, Rikbaktsa, Nambikwara, Paresi, Botocudo, Mataco