The Mythology and Folklore Database
J19 - The sinister guest: the death of a woman.




43 Myths, Legends and Folktales
43 Unique Narratives for Motif J19
26 Cultures & Traditions where J19 is told
0 Mythemes Indexed
3 Sub-Motifs of Motif J19


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

While her husband or brother is hunting, an evil spirit comes to his wife or sister; he kills her or takes her away. Her sons, who were torn from her womb or born at that time, are saved.

Berezkin category: Avenger heroes: The amerinday cycle

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


J19 has 3 other sub-motifs


J19.  While her husband or brother is hunting, an evil spirit comes to his wife or sister; he kills her or takes her away. Her sons, who were torn from her womb or born at that time, are saved.
J19a.  When a woman is left alone, a demonic character comes to her. He says that in order to perform certain actions, she must give him a certain part of her body, even though this contradicts logic and custom. After that, the character kills her (cuts open her stomach; tears out her tongue).
J19b.  An evil spirit kills a woman by burning through her body.
J19c.  A demonic character comes to a woman and tears out her tongue. She dies (and comes back to life when her tongue is found and returned).

 Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of J19's motifs?



Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns

MotifSimilarityMotif Summary
K25B99.13%A woman climbs a tree trying to catch a porcupine and ends up in the sky.
M7999.13%A person joins the dancers; it turns out that the dancers are reeds or trees in the wind.
K6899.05%A strong man takes food from a weak man and forces him to work for him (usually a son-in-law mistreats his father-in-law). A boy appears in the house of the wronged man from a clot of animal blood that has been collected. He kills the offender.
M29Q98.91%See the motives in square brackets.
J12J98.83%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.
M4898.57%Trickster asks another zoomorphic character to turn him into a creature of his kind, but if he breaks the condition for transformation, he becomes himself again. Usually, a trickster asks a bison or elk to turn it into a bison or elk. The bison (elk) rushes to the trickster, which bounces off in fear. The next time the trickster stays in place, metamorphoses, but regains its former appearance after trying to turn another trickster into a bison, etc.
F93A98.52%A man's penis begins to talk incessantly, falling silent only after his mother-in-law takes it in her hand.
M24A98.34%turtle man goes to war, kills people (usually a woman). He gets caught or killed. In his animal form, he continues to live on. See M24 motif.
M65B98.21%Having resorted to deception, the character kills the game, but the thieves take the loot. See M53 motif.
J1898.02%A pregnant woman or a woman with a child falls from the sky. She or her newborn daughter dies or undergoes a metamorphosis. Her son or her daughter's son survives and grows up. Cf. motif K9.

 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 26 traditions: Sinhalese; Vedda, Nanai, Western Woods Cree, Eastern Cree, Menominee, Sauk (Sak, Mesquakie), Fox, Kickapoo, Five Nations Iroquois (Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga), Blackfoot, Sarsee (Tsuu T'ina), Arapaho, Omaha, Ponca, Iowa, Wichita; Spiro Mound iconography, Kiowa Apache, Gros Ventre, Plains Cree, Assiniboine, Crow, Hidatsa, Natchez (incl Avoyel), Alabama, Koasati, Kawaiisu, Chemehuevi, Western Apache (White Mountain, San Carlos), Wayapi, Emerillon, Bororo


Please log on to view the narratives.