The Mythology and Folklore Database
N27 - Bird's milk
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
Bird milk (variant: chicken, pigeon, hawkish, etc.) milk is mentioned in fairy tales, riddles, paroemias and conspiracies as something very rare and difficult to obtain or non-existent actually.Berezkin category: Fabulous and epic formulas
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 13, Formulae
N27 has 3 other sub-motifsN27. Bird milk (variant: chicken, pigeon, hawkish, etc.) milk is mentioned in fairy tales, riddles, paroemias and conspiracies as something very rare and difficult to obtain or non-existent actually. N27a. It is said that somewhere there is (or was) even bird’s milk N27b. It is said that someone is only lacking bird’s milk or that somewhere the only thing missing is bird’s milk N27c. It is claimed that the bird has no milk and/or breasts Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of N27's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| I95 | 99.87% | The Pleiades are a sieve or riddle for sifting agricultural products. See motif I95. |
| N14 | 99.69% | fairy-tale text ends with a formula stating that the narrator attended a feast and/or wedding arranged by the characters of the fairy tale. |
| K27X1 | 99.68% | Having received a difficult task (usually: to bring an object or creature that has no specific characteristics, such as "something, I don't know what," "a strange wonder," etc.), the hero meets an invisible man who serves others; he is kind to him, and the man becomes his assistant. (This motif is certainly present in some texts of the ATU 465A plot, but it is not specifically highlighted in the definition). (Cf. motif K131B). |
| B32A | 99.65% | The enemies of a hero sailing the sea turn into seals or dolphins. |
| I137 | 99.65% | One of the constellations is associated with footwear, usually with (worn-out) bast shoes. |
| I95B | 99.65% | Orion is a yoke. |
| K35A7 | 99.65% | A character finds a feather, the touch of which brings health and beauty. |
| K38F3 | 99.65% | To kill the dragon, the hero digs a pit and hides in it. When the dragon crawls nearby or over the pit, the hero strikes it with a fatal blow of his sword. |
| M39A2A | 99.65% | fool buys spoons and/or a table, tells the table to go on its own feet, throws away spoons because they rattle. The two episodes are usually combined. |
| M39A3B | 99.65% | fool decides that stumps need hats, puts pots on the stumps. |
See more...
Please log on to view the narratives.
Map of Motif Dispersal
Click here for a clustered map
Drag the map around by clicking and using the mouse, use the wheel to zoom
This motif has been recorded in 36 traditions: Ancient Italy: Latins, Etruscans, Magna Graecia, 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, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Albanians, Balkarians, Ancient Greece, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Vepsians, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Russians: Central part of ethnic territory as in A.D. 1500 (Tver, Yaroslavl, Moscow, Kostroma, Vladimir, Ivanovo, Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan, Tula, Kaluga, Smolensk provinces; in case of absence in other areas also Russians in Vyatka, Perm, Kazan provinces), Persians, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Karachays, Balkar, Ossetians, Svans, Georgians, Kalmyk, Crimean Tatars, Karaims, Anatolia Turks, Azeris (Azerbaijanis), Kurds, Kara Kalpak, Uyghur, 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), Turkmen, Bashkirs, Mari (Cheremis), Chuvash, Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Arabs (literary tradition; incl. One Thousand and One Nights), Urums, Rumei