The Mythology and Folklore Database
K65A - Spirits fall from the sky.
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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
After being thrown from a height or expelled, various creatures end up in different locations, acquiring corresponding functions and names.Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 3, Cosmogony, the earth and the sky, etiology of the elements, natural and biological phenomena (fire, water, soil, thunderstorms, dream, etc.), cataclysms and cosmic threats, spirits of nature
K65 has 10 other sub-motifsK65. Having been cast out, discarded, or born of the first ancestors, creatures of a certain category acquire individuality, transforming into spirits who are the masters of various loci. K65a. After being thrown from a height or expelled, various creatures end up in different locations, acquiring corresponding functions and names. K65b. Spirits (deities) or unpleasant animals (snakes, frogs, worms, etc.) are generated by the same first anthropomorphic pair or the same pair of first ancestors as humans (deities). K65c. A woman (rarely a man) hides some of her children (less often, all of them) or some of her domestic animals from God. According to God, the hidden children become either poor people or creatures of a non-human nature, and the hidden domestic animals become wild. K65c1. A woman gives birth to many children, but hides some of them from God. Those who are hidden become the progenitors of people of low social status, and those who are shown become the progenitors of people of high status. {The definition of plot 758 in Uther 2004 largely coincides with ours, but the references also include traditions in which children hidden from God become spirits rather than people of low status}. K65c2. A woman or female animal gives birth to several sons, including a human and a tiger. K65c3. A woman (alone or with her husband) hides some of her children from God because she is ashamed of having given birth to so many offspring. K65d. The first human couple initially only have miscarriages, or their children are spirits or unpleasant and dangerous animals. After performing a formal marriage ceremony or repeating it according to new rules, the woman gives birth to real people or gods. K65e. A woman is invited into the non-human world, where she delivers a child for one of the creatures (or serves as a nanny for a certain period of time, baptises the child). Then she returns to the human world. K65e1. A woman delivers a baby (baptises a child) for a creature that in the human world has the appearance of a toad or frog. K65f. Once in the locus of demons, a person sees them in their true form. Upon returning, the person sees the demon again, which ordinary people are incapable of doing. The demon blinds him. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of K65's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| K100F2 | 98.98% | A captured supernatural character breaks his chains and escapes to freedom after being given water (or wine, etc.) to drink. |
| M120A | 98.88% | The character pretends to be a mourner and eats (treats the body disrespectfully) the deceased. |
| H46 | 98.87% | A character (usually God) is about to deprive people of their food (most often grain), but does not do so for the sake of the dog (and/or cat; rarely for the sake of birds). Either God gave the ear of corn to the dog, and the man took it for himself. |
| H51 | 98.61% | The horse is a predator or is associated with God's enemy. |
| L103B | 98.51% | A girl (boy, children) falls into the hands of a demonic creature. An animal or bird offers to carry her away and runs off. Usually, animals of different species do this, but only the last one manages to escape pursuit. |
| K38E | 98.50% | Locations or objects made of three (rarely four) materials of varying degrees of value, but all valued positively (copper, silver, gold; silver, gold, diamonds, etc.) are mentioned. |
| J62 | 98.49% | The character turns those who come to him into inanimate objects (usually stones). (In variants of the ATU 303 plot, the motif is often absent; original texts are needed). |
| M161 | 98.47% | A character gives another a sack that is supposed to contain food, but in fact contains a dog; or frees a girl (boy) from a sack or chest and replaces her with a dog or other dangerous animal. The animal attacks the person who opened the sack. |
| M39A3 | 98.43% | fool kills a man, throws him into a pond, well, etc. A clever man throws a goat there. A fool searches for a corpse in the pond, asks if the victim had horns, etc. Everyone is obviously crazy, and the murder charge has been denied. {The Buryat and Yakut versions may be recent Russian borrowings. The ATU 1581B definition also includes an episode where a human corpse was replaced with a goat carcass, but most of the texts that have been verified do not contain this motive}. |
| H55 | 98.41% | A person going to the other world sees people who are punished or rewarded for their actions in life. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 20 traditions: Yao, Makua, Mindanao and Sulu: Blaan (Bilaan), Bagobo, Bukidnon, Cotabato, Hiligáynon, Binukid, Magindaan (=Magindanao: main Muslim population), Mandaya, Mansaka, Manobo (Agusan, Ata, Dibabawon, Sarangani, Ilianen), Maranao, Samal, Subanon (=Subanun), Subanen, Tboli, Andamanese, Poles, Macedonians, Balkarians, Estonians, Karelians, Vepsians, Western Sami, Swedes, Danes, Danish, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Russians: Central part of ethnic territory as in A.D. 1500 (Tver, Yaroslavl, Moscow, Kostroma, Vladimir, Ivanovo, Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan, Tula, Kaluga, Smolensk provinces; in case of absence in other areas also Russians in Vyatka, Perm, Kazan provinces), Mari (Cheremis), Mordvins, Chuvash, Udmurt, Komi (Zyrians and Permyaks), Southern Selkups