The Mythology and Folklore Database
K183 - Which fish swallowed it?
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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 character cuts open the bellies of aquatic creatures (birds of prey) or looks into their throats to find the swallowed person or part of their body.Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures
K18 has 5 other sub-motifsK18. A boy is born whose father (rarely mother) is unknown. He chooses his true father (mother), who usually occupies the lowest social position. Usually, a group of men or women gather together, each of whom wants the boy to choose him or her. K18a. The boy's father is recognised as the man whose bow or arrows he chooses. See motif K18. k18aa. A girl becomes pregnant without her knowledge through contact with the bodily secretions of a male character or with objects that he has touched (i.e. not as a result of sexual intercourse, not as a result of the simple desire of the father of her future child, and not through mystical contact with a deity). The story ends with the happy union of the girl and the father of her child. K18b. Men or women approach the little boy one after another or take him in their arms. The person who makes the boy stop crying is recognised as his parent. See motif K18. K18c. The man in whose arms the boy urinates will be recognised as his father. See motif K18. K18d. A young man releases or saves a fish (frog, snake, supernatural creature), it grants his wishes, and he marries a princess. {References to ATU are not entirely reliable. In particular, Uther 2004 includes a Corsican variant (Massignon 1984, No. 66), in which the main part of the plot is missing. References to Balkan variants probably correspond to the definition of the plot, since it does exist among the Bulgarians}. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of K18's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| H37 | 96.93% | A magical item that makes hunting or fishing easy and reliable falls into the hands of a character who is unable to control it or abuses it. |
| F40A | 96.37% | A male character, androgynous, with a monstrous penis, single-handedly possesses all women, rules over them or leads away the first women. |
| G13 | 96.32% | Before the advent of cultivated plants, people ate rotten or soft wood (ceiba – Ceiba L., balsa – Ochroma (Bombax) Sw.); some people eat rotten wood. |
| M75 | 95.65% | The character attracts and catches corpse eaters (usually birds) and as a result obtains valuables or returns something valuable (fire, woman, animals, etc.). |
| G13C | 95.33% | Before the advent of cultivated or edible wild plants, people ate what is now considered unfit for consumption: (rotten) wood, bark, earth, stones, mushrooms. |
| F34 | 94.80% | A woman takes a large land animal as her lover. Her husband, brother or (adopted) children kill or maim the lover and (sometimes) the woman herself. Sometimes there is mention of a group of women and their husbands. (Unlike motif K102, "The Demon's Mistress," the lover is not dangerous to the hero and plays a passive role, and the woman, if she becomes hostile and dangerous, does so only after the lover's death. Unlike motif K76, the woman and her husband/lover of non-human nature are clearly evaluated negatively). |
| K19A | 94.70% | A man marries a star woman. |
| D7 | 94.40% | The frog or toad possesses the first fire, steals it from its original owner, and tries to extinguish it or save it from dying out. See motif D4. |
| M72 | 94.04% | The character puts his hand into the anus of a tapir or other large herbivore and is unable to pull it out. The animal rushes to run and drags a person with it for a long time. |
| F9E1 | 93.96% | A woman's womb is dangerous because it contains a toothy or stinging animal (not just its mouth) or many such creatures. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 16 traditions: Ugarit, Phoenicia, Tuvalu (Ellice), Eyak, Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Plains Ojibwa, Lower Chinook (Chinook proper), Sicuani, Napo (Quijo), Kanelo (“Jungle Kechua”), Karijona, Yagua, Tacana, Bakairi, Kuikuro, Kalapalo, Calapalo, Kamayura