The Mythology and Folklore Database
K99A1 - The condemned riddle-solver is freed.
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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
A man thrown into prison is released and exalted because he alone manages to solve the riddles set by the king or save the princess (king, prince, etc.).Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures
K99 has 5 other sub-motifsK99. A person dreams about an upcoming celebration for himself or a member of his family (rarely: he daydreams about it). Either another person buys the dream and becomes the protagonist of the story, or the person who saw it hides its content from everyone, or he is persecuted for excessive conceit, as evidenced by the content of the dream. The meaning of the dream is revealed at the end of the story. Often, the young man ascends to the throne and marries the heiresses of two kingdoms (in the dream, these were two suns or the sun and the moon). K99a. A young man or woman (often after having a dream) declares that a great future awaits him or her (usually that his or her father, parents, brothers, or sisters will show him or her signs of respect). The young man or woman is expelled, but the prophecy comes true. K99a1. A man thrown into prison is released and exalted because he alone manages to solve the riddles set by the king or save the princess (king, prince, etc.). K99a2. One person has a dream, and another buys it and obtains what was predicted in the dream. K99a3. A person sees the sun, moon and stars (all together or some of them) in a dream. At the end of the story, the meaning of the dream becomes clear: these are people who love or worship him (often two wives and a child). K99b. A girl and a young man agree that he will take her away at night. The young man is late or falls asleep, and the girl is taken away by someone else who happens to be at the appointed place. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of K99's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| M195A | 96.16% | A character sends a long object that either looks the same at both ends or is inside a small object, and asks which end of the object is the top and which is the bottom. The guesser gives the correct answer. |
| L118A | 95.62% | In order to get rid of a dangerous but foolish character, a person performs certain actions, which the character imitates, not realising that he is harming himself. |
| M39E | 95.14% | When reviewing the dispute, the judge asks about the secondary circumstances of the case. The offender is exposed by showing that he knows (or, on the contrary, does not know) about them. |
| K27HH | 94.92% | The character is tasked with quickly separating small particles of different types (usually seeds of different plant species) mixed together in a single vessel, or counting the number of grains, or gathering scattered or already sown grain. |
| L116A | 94.58% | While chasing a roe deer (fallow deer, deer), the hero finds himself in the lair of a demon or wizard; the roe deer is an enchanted person or demon. |
| M91C1 | 94.15% | The character (pretends to) take possession of someone's property (usually setting the owner to be killed instead of him), says that he got everything at the bottom of the river, in the abyss, etc., to him they believe. |
| K27Q | 94.04% | Task: to obtain the milk of a wild animal or milk possessed by a dangerous creature. See motif K27. |
| M153A | 93.86% | A predator is about to eat a human or herbivorous animal. The intended victim asks to be allowed to wash first, and as a result is saved. (Among the Transylvanian Saxons, this involves being baptised with water). |
| K95 | 93.82% | Two people who love each other (usually a man and a woman) die prematurely and are buried in the same grave or nearby. After or during the burial, something unusual happens that is connected with the story (special plants grow in that place, the smoke from the two funeral pyres joins together, the dead turn into two birds, two stars, etc.). |
| M57C | 93.77% | An animal (donkey, bull, horse, goat, bear, leopard) or inanimate object makes gold or food stand out, or a character makes others believe that this is the case. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 45 traditions: Arabs of Levant (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan); Bedouins of Sinai, Arabs of Iraq, Iraqi, Berbers of southern Tunisia and adjacent part of Libya (Matmata and Ghadames areas), Tunisia Arabs, Hausa, Yoruba; incl Ife), Nupe, Bini (Edo), Engenni, Chamba, Dakka, Kukuruku, Dan (=Gio), Guro (=Kweni, incl Gagu, Neio), Toura, Mano, Ngere, Beng, Guro , Akan, Ashanti, Akwapim; Ga (Accra), Kra, Twi (Chwi, Chi), Fula (Fulbe, Fulani, Pular), 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, Indian literary tradition (Vedic, Brahman, Purana, Indian Buddhism, Hinduism, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchtantra, Jatakas); iconography of Hindu temples, Kannada, Lingayat, Halakki, Tamil, Muthuvan, Marvar, Tamils, Bengali, Punjabi, Seraiki (Multani), Koreans, Germans: North (Low- and Central German dialects): Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg, Pommern, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony, incl East Frisia and Oldenburg), Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Thüringen, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen, Brandenburg, Rügen, Slovakians, Slovaks, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Macedonians, Balkarians, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Estonians, Wakhi, Ishkashimi (including Sanglich), Munji, Persians, Ingush, Dargin (Dargwa), incl. Müregin, Khürkilin, Kubachi, Tats, Georgians, Armenians, Anatolia Turks, Azeris (Azerbaijanis), Kurds, Kirghiz, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Bashkirs, Udmurt, Mongols (Khalkha), Central Yakuts (Sakha), Kpelle (incl Kono), Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal), Arabs (literary tradition; incl. One Thousand and One Nights), Lao, Kumaoni (Central Pahari), incl. Garhwali, Russian Federation