The Mythology and Folklore Database
B40A - The one who lost his horns.
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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
Nowadays, hornless animals lose their horns or are deprived of the opportunity to grow them. See motif B40.Berezkin category: The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 7, Etiology of plants and animals and of their peculiar features, particular animals as protagonists of cosmological stories, metamorphoses, weather and calendar
B40 has 2 other sub-motifsB40. The hare/rabbit is a false deer, a former deer, a brother of the deer, a former or failed owner of antlers, its ears are false antlers. B40a. Nowadays, hornless animals lose their horns or are deprived of the opportunity to grow them. See motif B40. B40b. The horse changes with the cow, gives up its horns and/or gets teeth. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of B40's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| K27N | 92.83% | A young man must complete difficult tasks or win a competition in order to obtain permission to marry. The person giving the tasks is indicated in square brackets. See motif K27. |
| K27 | 92.76% | The character receives tasks that are deadly dangerous or can only be accomplished with supernatural abilities or helpers; the hero completes the tasks and/or miraculously survives. The confrontation between the characters unfolds as a game or competition in which the loser loses their life or status. |
| I36 | 92.26% | Thunder and lightning (two thunders, two lightnings) – characters related by kinship, marriage or property. |
| C19 | 91.89% | The missing, hidden, concealed or stolen sun (daylight) reappears. See motif C18 |
| B125 | 91.10% | The absence or presence of certain organs in animals (less often in plants) and the peculiarities of these organs are caused by the fact that during the era of creation, one species exchanged with another or, having borrowed a foreign organ, refused to return it. In some cases, a reverse exchange and return to the original state is described, as well as the transfer of part of one's body to another animal without compensation. Instead of one of the animals, there may be a human or a deity. |
| E9 | 91.10% | The character notices that someone is running the house in his absence and catches the person doing so by surprise. |
| M30 | 89.36% | character who has no natural wings or can't fly long distances rises into the air, but falls or, having lost its wings, stays where he can't return from. (The motive includes several options, but even when taken together, they don't cover the whole world. Texts with M25 and M28 motifs are counted as including the M30 motif). |
| I73 | 88.94% | Stars (rarely suns and moons) – sparks, hot coals. |
| A4 | 88.50% | The Sun is a woman (the Moon is usually a man, sometimes also a woman, see motif A6; highlighted in bold italics in the list of ethnic groups below). |
| K25 | 88.05% | A man consciously marries a woman who belongs to the non-human world. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 37 traditions: Malawi (incl Nyanja, Banyanja, Manganja), Tumbuka (incl Henga), Nsenga, Matengo, (Ba)Wenda, Swahili, Midjikenda (incl Giryama), Nyika, Duruma; Ngindo, Kiluguru and other Islamic groups of the Eastern Coast of Africa, Bemba (Wemba, Babemba; incl Ambo, Lala, Lamba, Bisa), Holoholo, Kaonde, Fang (Pangwe), Eton, Bafia, Batanga, Benga, Bube (Bubi), Buheba, Yaunde (Ewondo), Yebekolo, Koko, Bulu, Beti (Beti-Bulu), Sekiani, Eghap, Mandingo (Manden, incl San, Samo), Kagoro, Bambara (Bamana), Malinke, Kassonke, Diula, Bia: Anyi, Agni, Baule, Nsema, Hadza, Bhuiya (now Aryans, originally Munda; Rahman 1955: 203), Baiga, Bhaina, Bhumia (subgroup of Baiga, incl Bharia, formerly Munda, now speak Indo-Aryan languages of neighboring groups), Sora (Savara, Saora), Parenga, Kuki, Chiru, Falam (Hallam), Chin (Meitei =Manipuri, Khami, =Kumi), Lakher, Mizo (Lushei), Anal, Pawi (Lai), Purum, Koireng, Milhiem, Kolhen, Mru, Early Chinese written sources, Poles, Hungarians, Ancient Greece, Lithuanians, Western Ukrainians, 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), Mansi, Oirats (incl Torgouts, Derbets, Oilots), Mongols (Khalkha), Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Chipewyan, Tutchone, Tagish, Inland Tlingit, Caribou, Labrador Inuit (Koksoagmiut), Tillamook, Alcea, Yurok, Choctaw, Chicasaw, Cherokee, Maidu, Nisenan, Konkov, Huichol, Tojolabal, Chuj, Jacalteca, Kanjobal, Mocho (incl Tuzantec), Acatec, Tzotzil, Paresi