The Mythology and Folklore Database
K1B - Trap: abandoned woman.




39 Myths, Legends and Folktales
39 Unique Narratives for Motif K1B
19 Cultures & Traditions where K1B is told
68 Mythemes Indexed
9 Sub-Motifs of Motif K1B


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

A woman is lured onto a tree, rock or island and left there.

Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes


K1 has 9 other sub-motifs


K1A.  A young man or man finds himself in a place where he is unable to move, but which is isolated from the ground: the top of a tree, a rock, a cave, a burrow, an island. This happens through someone else's fault: the antagonist lures or traps the hero, or (less often) leaves him no other option but isolation. After some time, the hero either finds a way to salvation himself, or is saved by someone else (often a bird or animal), or (rarely) undergoes a metamorphosis and no longer returns to his normal life. For texts with a fairy-tale episode in which the hero is sent down to the underworld and abandoned there, see motif K2A.
K1B.  A woman is lured onto a tree, rock or island and left there.
K1c.  A man is abandoned on an island but survives. After some time, the person who abandoned him comes to look at his bones. The abandoned man sails away in his boat, leaving him to die.
K1d.  The hero's wife's brothers try to kill him by leaving him on an island.
K1e.  The character is abandoned on an island or on the other side of a river or sea. See motif K1A.
K1f.  One man traps another, driven by jealousy or the desire to possess his rival's wife. See motifs K1A, K1E, K2A.
K1g.  The hero turns into a deer or creates a deer to gore the relative who sent him into a trap.
K1h.  The character finds himself inside a tree trunk or inside a rock; someone frees him by making a hole from the outside.
K1i.  Near the cliff, at the bottom of the pit, or in the underworld, a tree, reed, or vine grows, which the character uses to descend or climb to the ground.
K1j.  The abandoned one turns into a bird and returns home faster than the one who abandoned him.

 Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of K1's motifs?


No dispersal data found for motif 'k1b'.

Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns

MotifSimilarityMotif Summary
A10.00%Another sun — less powerful or less favourable to humans — existed before the appearance of the current one.
A100.00%The sun gets its sparkling eyes (eye) from an animal.
A11A0.00%The visible sun or moon are their eyes; if the eyes of the luminaries were not damaged, it would be much brighter and hotter.
A11B0.00%The sun or moon has one eye (usually the second eye is knocked out or sucked out, but sometimes the reason is not explained; among the Munduruku, the sun of the rainy season has lost both eyes, while the sun of the dry season has retained both). See motif 11A.
A11C0.00%The Sun and Moon kill a monster whose eyes shine differently. At first, the Moon takes the brighter eye, but then swaps with the Sun.
A120.00%A creature or creatures regularly (sunrise and sunset, winter and summer, night and day, phases of the moon) or occasionally (eclipses, eschatological catastrophes) attack the luminaries or block their light.
A12A0.00%During an eclipse or under other circumstances, predators attack the luminaries: wolves, bears, jaguars, pumas, dogs, foxes, raccoons. See motif A12.
A12B0.00%During an eclipse or at sunset (marked *), the luminaries are swallowed by a toad or frog.
A12C0.00%Eclipses of the sun, moon or their setting (marked*) are caused by a snake, lizard, dragon, fish or crocodile; these creatures attack the luminaries now or attacked them at the beginning of time. See motif A12.
A12D0.00%Birds attack the sun or moon during an eclipse (covering them with their wings) or (*) cover the sun during sunrise or sunset. See motif A12.

 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 19 traditions: Herero (Herrero), Ponape, Ngaik, Mwoakil (Mokil), Kusaie (Kosrae), Maria, Muria, and other South-Central Dravidians: Binjhwar, Bacop, Bhattra, Bom, Jhoria (=Jhodia), Gadaba (in Koraput, neighbors of Munda-speaking Gadaba), Duruwa (Parji), Mehtar; Pardhan, Shor, Aleuts, Wawenock, Abenaki, Penobscot, Five Nations Iroquois (Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga), Comox, Pentlatch, Pima, Yupa (Yukpa), Colorado (Tsachila), Siona, Secoya, Coreguaje, Barasana, Taibano, Macuna, Mundurucu, Curuaia, Rikbaktsa, Mocovi; Kechua of Santiago del Estero with probable Guaikuruan substratum; Abipon, Ayoreo, Papua-New Guinea Southern Lowland Papuan groups (Trans New Guinea and unclassified): Gimi, Kiwai, Bina, Mawabula, Mawatta, Keraki, Gambadi (incl. Kwavaru), Purari River delta, Masingara, Wiram (=Suki), Ngain, Daga, Elema, Argentina


Please log on to view the narratives.