The Mythology and Folklore Database
L39C - Grown from a seed.




10 Myths, Legends and Folktales
10 Unique Narratives for Motif L39C
8 Cultures & Traditions where L39C is told
32 Mythemes Indexed
4 Sub-Motifs of Motif L39C


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 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 boy (less often a girl) climbs a fruit tree that has just grown (usually from a discarded seed). A cannibal tries to force the boy (girl) to come down to the ground.

Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits

This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures


L39 has 4 other sub-motifs


L39.  By force or deception, the character forces another to climb down from the tree in order to harm him.
L39a.  A supernatural character emerges from the underworld and attacks a man who has climbed a tree.
L39b.  The tree grows from a flatbread (pie, etc.) and usually bears flatbreads instead of fruit.
L39c.  A boy (less often a girl) climbs a fruit tree that has just grown (usually from a discarded seed). A cannibal tries to force the boy (girl) to come down to the ground.
L39d.  A boy climbs a tree to pick fruit. A demonic character asks him to share, but not to throw the fruit on the ground, but to pass it from hand to hand. He grabs the boy and carries him away.

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Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns

MotifSimilarityMotif Summary
M13098.80%The fox and the bird hide from the hunter in the same burrow or hollow. The bird pretends to be dead and as a result is saved – either alone or together with the fox. Cf. motif M130A.
K27Z4B98.64%The husband leaves, meets a swindler and loses everything he has to him. The wife comes disguised as a man, punishes the swindler and rescues her husband.
M198A198.27%Three characters sequentially and without apparent reason determine the characteristics of an object or person they have not seen.
C2998.25%People (God) learn a secret by overhearing (spying on) a character talking to himself or his relatives (or performing actions that should be remembered). The knowledge gained is related to cosmogony or the acquisition of cultural values.
M39A698.13%During the journey, a person allegorically asks someone else to say something, sing, etc., so that time on the road passes faster. He understands instructions literally by doing ridiculous actions.
M198A498.02%Those who listened to the story must answer who they liked more: the husband who let his wife go to another man after the wedding, the robber who did not harm her, or the man who immediately sent her back to her husband.
N3097.86%formula that describes the confusion of feelings: when a character looks in one direction, he cries, and when he laughs or smiles in the other direction.
L9E97.79%The anthropomorphic character has a nose resembling a copper or iron beak.
M91C397.74%A person releases an animal or a bird - supposedly with his wife instructing his wife to cook food, etc. Another does not understand deception and buys an animal.
K16997.70%The hunter spares the hunted animal, noticing that it is a pregnant female and remembering his own pregnant wife.

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Map of Motif Dispersal

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This motif has been recorded in 8 traditions: Algeria Arabs, Dards (Kalash, Kho, Kohistani, Shina, Pashai), Sardinia, Corsica, Sardinians, Corsicans, France, Uzbek, Yagnobi, Tajik, Parya of Gissar (Hisor) Valley (Tajikistan)


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