The Mythology and Folklore Database
F70E1 - Daughter in the role of son, AT 884B.




36 Myths, Legends and Folktales
35 Unique Narratives for Motif F70E1
20 Cultures & Traditions where F70E1 is told
100 Mythemes Indexed
8 Sub-Motifs of Motif F70E1


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

An old man needs a son to do men's work. (Only the youngest) daughter takes on this task (successfully passing the test set by her father), pretending to be a man.

Berezkin category: Gender and sex

This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures


F70 has 8 other sub-motifs


F70.  A woman falsely accuses a man of assaulting her.
F70a.  Accusing a man or young man of assaulting her (usually sexually), a woman presents fabricated material evidence (tearing her clothes, scratching her body, etc.). See motif F70.
F70b.  A woman takes revenge on a man who rejected her love (but does not necessarily pretend that the man tried to force himself on her).
F70c.  A young man loses his male organ, but restores it with magic (and marries happily). Cf. ATU 750K. In ATU 318, this episode is described as one of many possible ones related to the theme of the unfaithful wife.
F70d.  A girl pretends to be a man or a eunuch, or a girl hides a disability, or a man pretends to be a girl. Someone reveals a secret. At the last moment, the hero or heroine magically gets rid of the disability (acquires male or female nature), the informer is disgraced (executed).
F70e.  A girl pretends to be a man, magically acquires male nature and lives with his wife. Cf. motif K137 (in Uther 2004, plot 514 mistakenly includes a Karakalpak text with our motif K137).
F70e1.  An old man needs a son to do men's work. (Only the youngest) daughter takes on this task (successfully passing the test set by her father), pretending to be a man.
F70e2.  The father sends his daughters or sons on a difficult task one by one. At the very beginning of the journey, their courage is put to the test. Only the youngest son or daughter passes the test. Usually, the father stands in their way, taking the form of an enemy or a predator, but only the youngest son or daughter bravely enters the fight.
F70f.  Finding themselves in a deserted place, people accidentally change their gender.

 Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of F70's motifs?



Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns

MotifSimilarityMotif Summary
K9799.93%A man prepares to kill a large bird, but does not kill it. When the bird later carries him, it pretends to leave him on a rock or throw him down. In doing so, it makes it clear how frightened it was. Either the bird first drops and catches the man, and later he makes her experience fear herself (the Volyn variant is slightly different).
C33A99.87%Throughout the year, someone tries to saw through or break the chain or rope that holds him or another character. On a certain day of the year, when the chain has become completely thin, it is restored to its former state, or the pole to which the chain is attached is reinserted into the ground. Cf. motif G8d.
I499.72%When a vehicle moves across the sky, thunder rumbles.
K85D99.70%Covered with skins (coated with resin and sprinkled with sand, etc.), the mighty horse becomes invulnerable to the bites of other horses.
K56A499.70%When a kind girl returns home, an animal or bird (usually a dog) announces that she is well, but when an unkind girl returns or when her dead body is brought back, the dog (rooster, crow) announces that something is wrong with her.
K27Q199.69%The hero is sent to bring lioness milk in a wineskin made from a lion skin (usually from a lion cub's skin).
K2A399.68%The hero's companions leave him on the mountain, destroying the rope (chain) by which he climbed up or which he lowered down.
F87A99.67%A snake crawls onto the clothes of a girl bathing, climbs down in exchange for a promise to marry him, and takes her to the underwater world. She is happy there and gives birth to children. Together with them, she visits her relatives. They call the snake out of the water and kill it. After that, the wife transforms her children and/or herself into birds.
K8599.67%The antagonist owns the fastest horse. The hero obtains an even faster horse (usually the brother or sister of this horse), which is the only one that surpasses the antagonist's horse and usually orders the antagonist to throw off his rider.
L110C99.67%An elderly couple makes a child out of clay (wood, straw, dough). The doll comes to life and eats everyone it sees. Usually a goat (ram) breaks it, and those who have been swallowed come out alive.

 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 20 traditions: Arabs of Sudan, Sudanese, Poles, Kashubians, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Albanians, Balkarians, Western Ukrainians, 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), Uzbek, Tajik, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Ossetians, Georgians, Gagauz, Azeris (Azerbaijanis), Turkmen, Mari (Cheremis), Wallons, Picardie, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio)


Please log on to view the narratives.