The Mythology and Folklore Database
K18C - A boy urinates on his father's hands.
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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 man in whose arms the boy urinates will be recognised as his father. See motif K18.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 |
|---|---|---|
| B42S | 99.04% | The Big Dipper or Polar Star – a small animal (ermine, marten, forest marmot) or anthropomorphic character with animal features, struck by a spear or arrow. |
| K19E | 98.26% | Returning from the sky to earth, a woman or two sisters encounter a male wolverine who tries to capture them. Usually, the women who have descended first find themselves in a tree. Some animals cannot or will not help them descend to the ground. The wolverine descends to take the sisters as wives; they run away from him. See motif K19B. |
| B57A | 97.75% | Seeing the reddened sky, the character understands that another's blood has been spilled, or that another has spilled red liquid. See motif B57. |
| K67 | 97.35% | At night, one person intends to throw another person's shoes or clothes into the fire, but ends up burning his own shoes or clothes. Usually, the father-in-law throws his son-in-law's shoes into the fire at night in order to freeze him out, but the son-in-law has already switched shoes, so the father-in-law burns his own. |
| K32B1 | 97.25% | The man's mother-in-law takes on the appearance of her daughter to take her place. See motif K32. |
| D4C1 | 97.02% | Animal-people come to steal summer from its owners. One of them, in the guise of an elk or caribou, distracts the owners' attention or floats a log or stump down the river, which the owners of summer mistake for an elk and rush after. |
| J41A | 95.21% | The son returns and finds his mother, who has been humiliated and tortured in his absence. The son turns his mother (and usually himself as well) into a bird of a certain species. |
| K27N3C1 | 95.13% | The inhabitants of the polar bear village – relatives of his wife – set the hero difficult tasks and trials. |
| B101 | 94.80% | Angry at the birch tree, the character beats or cuts it, leaving stripes on the bark that remain to this day. |
| M30A | 94.80% | The character flying over the village falls, is tied up, and defecated on him. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 12 traditions: Meo (Hmong) of Thailand, Laos and Northern Vietnam, Svans, Beaver, Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Eastern Cree, Naskapi, Montagnais, Plains Cree, Plains Ojibwa, Assiniboine