The Mythology and Folklore Database
J12L - The hypocritical murderer.
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
The murderer pretends to mourn the victim along with everyone else. The deception is revealed, and the murderer is pursued. See motif J12.Berezkin category: Avenger heroes: The amerinday cycle
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures
J12 has 13 other sub-motifsJ12. A girl or two sisters wander, usually in search of a suitable groom or husband who has left or lives far away. Along the way or upon reaching their destination, they encounter false suitors. (Traditions in which two heroines travel rather than one are highlighted in bold (motif j13). J12a. A girl or two sisters come to an old woman who invites them to marry her son. In reality, he is a worm, a snake or a penis, which his mother hides in a vessel during the day. The girl (sisters) do not allow him to approach them and run away. See motif J12. J12b. A honey groom or a skilled honey gatherer is attractive to a girl. J12c. A girl meets her fiancé at a dance and then follows in his footsteps. See motif J12. J12d. After a girl marries a worthy suitor, the rejected suitor or his relatives kill the rival. See motif J12. J12E. The false bridegroom - skunk. See motif J12. J12F. False groom - eagle owl/owl. See motif J12. J12G. The false bridegroom is a bird that lives on or near water. See motif J12. J12H. The false groom - the opossum. J12I. A desirable marriage partner secretes beads instead of saliva or excrement. See motifs J12 and M57. J12j. A girl or sisters end up with a false groom who plays the role of a jester in the chief's house. See motif J12. J12k. Desirable and undesirable marriage partners live in the same house. The undesirable partner is a servant or junior partner, usually pretending to be the master. J12l. The murderer pretends to mourn the victim along with everyone else. The deception is revealed, and the murderer is pursued. See motif J12. J12m. A woman or two sisters come to two men and become wives of one of them. The other kills or tries to kill his rival or the women. As a result, the women turn into waterfowl. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of J12's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| B36C | 96.90% | Animals receive meat and fat rendered from a certain creature or obtained in some other way. Some received a lot, others remained thin. |
| J27A | 91.29% | One of the babies is abandoned and lives in a river, forest, etc.; the other remains at home; after the abandoned brother returns home, the brothers kill their father or his men. See motifs J19, J25. |
| M61A3 | 90.37% | The character tells each of two different species of fish how the other allegedly used to be hostile or offensive towards the former. Fish kill each other and the character prepares them to eat. |
| M32A | 89.26% | character's insides or pieces of flesh fall out of his back. He eats them, mistaking them for regular meat and fat. |
| M55 | 89.11% | A human or weaker animal character takes a stronger character to sleep in a supposedly dangerous place where hot coals, sticks, etc. can fall on those lying at night; when A strong character falls asleep, his companion burns or hits him, pretending that both of them have suffered equally. |
| L75 | 88.56% | One of two brothers is the embodiment of evil; at birth, he cuts open his mother's body, killing her. |
| J41B | 88.19% | The son returns, finds his mother, who was humiliated and tortured in his absence, and burns his tormentor and his men, summoning fire and heat with magic. |
| M29J | 88.14% | See the motives in square brackets. |
| B42A | 88.07% | Hunters chase a bear across the sky and kill it in August-October. The bear's blood or fat falls to the ground in the form of dew or colours the foliage red. See motif B42. |
| H53 | 87.83% | The wolf participates in the creation of the earth or is the brother of the creator and/or conqueror of the demons of the underworld. He dies and/or is considered the first to die and/or becomes the lord of the land of the dead. |
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 10 traditions: Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Eastern Swamy Cree, Menominee, Potawatomi, Plains Ojibwa, Sanema, Yanomamo (Yanoama): Yanomam, Yanomami, Scythians, Scythe