The Mythology and Folklore Database
K19E - Wolverine under a tree.
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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
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.Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures
K19 has 7 other sub-motifsK19. A man or woman marries a star. See motifs K19A, K19B. K19a. A man marries a star woman. K19b. The star man takes an earthly woman as his wife. K19c. A man brings home a small creature with which he makes love at night. The man's mother, sister or wife finds the creature in his bed or purse. K19d. Once in the sky, the husband of the star suffers from the cold. He freezes to death or perishes after touching forbidden fire. K19e. 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. K19f. A star or many stars descend from the sky to work in the fields. See motif K19B. K19g. One star is an old man, the other is a young man; both stars differ in brightness or colour, but it is impossible to determine the age of the star-man by these characteristics (a dim star may be young and vice versa); usually two girls want to marry stars of different types (one bright, the other dim, one red, the other blue, etc.). See motif K19B. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of K19's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| B42S | 99.38% | 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. |
| K32B1 | 99.36% | The man's mother-in-law takes on the appearance of her daughter to take her place. See motif K32. |
| K67 | 99.25% | 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. |
| J41A | 98.85% | 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. |
| D4C1 | 98.68% | 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. |
| B101 | 98.35% | Angry at the birch tree, the character beats or cuts it, leaving stripes on the bark that remain to this day. |
| K18C | 98.26% | The man in whose arms the boy urinates will be recognised as his father. See motif K18. |
| B96 | 97.07% | The heroes' enemy turns into a large commercial fish (usually a sturgeon) or (rarely) a commercial aquatic mammal. |
| M30A | 96.88% | The character flying over the village falls, is tied up, and defecated on him. |
| B57A | 96.78% | Seeing the reddened sky, the character understands that another's blood has been spilled, or that another has spilled red liquid. See motif B57. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 14 traditions: Dogrib, Slavey, Upper Tanana (Nebesna), Tanacross, Tagish, Inland Tlingit, Tsetsaut, Kaska, Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), Malecite, Passamaquoddy, Micmac, Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Eastern Cree, Plains Cree, Assiniboine