The Mythology and Folklore Database
B83 - Unliftable weight.
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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
A character attempts to lift a small object or creature, which turns out to be gigantic and unliftable. Cf. motif I87ab.Berezkin category: The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| C29 | 98.59% | People (God) learn a secret by overhearing (spying on) a character talking to himself or his relatives (or performing actions that should be remembered). The knowledge gained is related to cosmogony or the acquisition of cultural values. |
| C31 | 98.48% | The hedgehog is wiser or more cunning than all the gods and animals; it possesses knowledge that is vital for human existence. |
| I128 | 98.24% | The Big Dipper – a ladle, a scoop. |
| F9F1 | 98.03% | Inside the woman there is a snake (snakes, scorpions, just poison) that comes out of her mouth. {Motifs F9f1 and K100C are almost identical, but the first can be included in the cosmological-etiological category and is associated with the idea of a dangerous woman, while the second belongs to the adventure category}. |
| A35A | 98.02% | Moon spots - mud (manure, clay, ash, dough, dirty rag) thrown in the face of the Moon/Moon as a result of a family or love conflict - often by a brother/sister or mother. |
| N30 | 97.91% | formula that describes the confusion of feelings: when a character looks in one direction, he cries, and when he laughs or smiles in the other direction. |
| K100C | 97.81% | A woman (rarely a young man) does not know that inside her (him) there is something dangerous for her (his) marriage partner (usually a snake), or that on her wedding night she will turn into a snake, or that a snake will crawl in on her wedding night. The hero or his companion eliminates the danger. {Motif K100C is similar to F9f1, but the latter belongs to the cosmological-etiological category and is associated with the idea of a dangerous woman, while K100C is adventurous}. |
| M39A6B | 97.59% | The ruler, to whom the master builder went to work, is going to kill or maim him. The master asks to send a person to his house asking him to bring a forgotten instrument or something else. The daughter-in-law understands the true meaning of the request, captivates the messenger and saves her father-in-law. |
| K93B2 | 97.40% | A childless woman conceives a child after eating a fruit (usually an apple; in northern traditions also cabbage, eggs, peas, etc., in India – mangoes). |
| M57D1 | 97.38% | bird consistently gives a person magical objects (or gives one, with which he receives the rest) or consistently fulfills his wishes. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 11 traditions: Algeria Arabs, Macedonians, Balkarians, Lithuanians, Scandinavians: early written sources ("Edda"; Saxo Grammaticus etc.); Gothland picture stones; Ancient Germans (Late Bronze Age in Scandinavia), 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), Ossetians, Georgians, Khakas, Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Flathead, Tajik of Sistan