The Mythology and Folklore Database
C6F - Retrieving a drowned person.
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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
The characters attempt to retrieve a living creature or part of its body that has sunk to the bottom of the water. See motif C6.Berezkin category: Disasters
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures
C6 has 17 other sub-motifsC6. In texts with an emphasis on authenticity, characters dive or otherwise descend into the underworld to bring back to earth something desirable that is located at the bottom (deep below) (aka "The Earth Diver" motifs) (cf. fairy tale motif k27x9). C6a. A turtle or toad (frog) brings a desired object from the bottom or from the underworld. C6b. The desired object is brought up from the bottom by a muskrat (rarely a beaver or otter). C6c. The bird dives and brings up the desired object from the bottom. See motif C6. C6c1. Two or more different birds (in Siberia, often a loon and a duck) successively try to retrieve something from the bottom. Only one succeeds. C6c2. Birds must dive to retrieve soil from the bottom, from which land will emerge. The loon cannot reach the bottom, refuses to dive, or tries to hide the soil it has retrieved (usually punished for this). C6c3. The loon dives and brings back a piece of earth (grass, etc.), which turns into land (it is the only or the only successful diver). C6c4. A duck or similar waterfowl dives and brings back a piece of earth, which turns into land (it is the only or the only successful diver). C6d. Land (earth) is formed from a small amount of solid substance (silt, sand, clay, mud) that characters retrieve from the underworld (usually from the bottom of the ocean). C6e. A crustacean retrieves earth from under water or from the underworld. C6f. The characters attempt to retrieve a living creature or part of its body that has sunk to the bottom of the water. See motif C6. C6g. The boar brings earth from the bottom and/or scatters it on the water. C6h. The insect brings soil (from the bottom of the sea or from somewhere far away). c6h1. The earth brought from the underworld was found in the belly of a worm or insect, from where it was taken. C6i. A zoomorphic character returns from the underworld covered in mud. He shakes himself off, or the mud is scraped off him, and earth emerges from it. C6i1. There is water everywhere. Earth is raked up from the bottom into a mound, its top rises above the water and turns into dry land. C6j. In the same narrative, the story of the creation of man and the attempt to prevent it follows immediately after the story of obtaining earth from the bottom of the sea or from the underworld. C6j1. An anthropomorphic deity sends someone to fetch earth from the bottom of his enemy. At first, the enemy or both characters sometimes have the appearance of birds. After the enemy brings the earth, a confrontation begins between the two characters, who now always have anthropomorphic appearances. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of C6's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| K11A | 98.58% | Plucked feathers of a (huge) bird turn into actual birds (or their plumage) or humans emerge from them. |
| J58B | 97.65% | With the help of a chain of arrows, the sky or the sun is pulled down or pushed up, or a hole is made in the sky. |
| F82 | 97.48% | The son-in-law resorts to trickery to sleep with his mother-in-law, or the mother-in-law with her son-in-law. Usually, the son-in-law insists that his mother-in-law, rather than his wife, accompany him on a hunt. |
| F21 | 97.30% | While the character copulates with a woman, she turns into a tree or a rock. His penis gets stuck in her. |
| F52 | 97.25% | The first ancestor bird puts pubic hair or part of a woman's genitals on its head; since then, birds of this species have had a crest. |
| K58A | 97.05% | The character brings water for irrigation or a fish river to the place where the girl agrees to meet him, and does not bring water if she refuses. (The parallel between the myths of Peru and Oregon was first noted in Lehmann-Nitsche 1935a; 1936). |
| M103 | 97.05% | One character asks another how her (his) children acquired valuable qualities (became beautiful, obedient, etc.). The other replies that children must be baked in ashes, kept in fire, burned, etc. The first character does so, and her or his children die or are maimed. |
| F61 | 97.04% | A male character pretends to be sick, weak, unconscious; a woman carries him on her back, he copulates or tries to copulate with her on the go. |
| J53A1 | 96.84% | The children of the murdered man kill the murderer's children, luring them to a place where they perish from heat or smoke. |
| K42 | 96.59% | A young bird woman energetically searches among a group of men for one she likes, takes him by force and makes him her husband; she turns into a monster, pursues and kills men, but is ultimately killed herself. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 12 traditions: Bushmen (all groups), Southeast Australia: Kamilaroi, Yualarai (Ualarai, Euahlayi), Milpulo (Mailpurgu), Wuradjeri (Wiradjurim, Wiradjeri, Wurundjeri, Yarra, Yarra Yarra), Wongaibon (Wonghibon), Noongahburrah (Narran, Narran River), Kurnai, and many others (see file 0.doc), Bella Coola (Nuxalk), Shuswap, Thompson (Nlaka'pamux), Western Sahaptin (Upper Cowlitz, Klikitat, Tenino, Umatilla, Yakima, Wallawalla), Nez Perce, Takelma, Okanagon, Sanpoil, Makiritare (Yecuana), Pemon: Arekuna (incl. Kamarakoto), Taulipang (Taurepan), Upper Chinook: Wasco, Wishram, Clackamas, Kathlamet