The Mythology and Folklore Database
L65B2 - Dogs with talking names.




41 Myths, Legends and Folktales
41 Unique Narratives for Motif L65B2
21 Cultures & Traditions where L65B2 is told
0 Mythemes Indexed
12 Sub-Motifs of Motif L65B2


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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

The hero's dogs have names that speak of their strength and agility (Wind, Ironbreaker, etc.).

Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits

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


L65 has 12 other sub-motifs


L65.  An infant or small child turns out to be a demon and kills people.
L65a.  A daughter is born, or people find a girl; she is a monster or turns into a monster and devours everyone. Her brother escapes (usually leaves, marries, returns), and she pursues him unsuccessfully.
L65a1.  A demonic character successively devours parts of the horse on which the hero arrived, each time returning to the hero and then leaving to devour another part. (Often asks whether the hero arrived on a three-legged, two-legged or one-legged horse).
L65a2.  A man shoots off (damages) the finger of a demonic creature, and then sees that his sister, lying in her cradle, has lost her finger.
L65b.  A demonic woman, less often her lover or another monster, is ready to kill or kills the hero. Dogs (or animals and birds that replace them – lions, bears, eagles, etc.) come running (flying), rescue the hero and kill the demon.
L65b1.  A man exchanges sheep (goats) for dogs. The exchange seems unequal, but the dogs help him achieve success.
L65b2.  The hero's dogs have names that speak of their strength and agility (Wind, Ironbreaker, etc.).
L65b3.  A character who climbs a tree manages to escape from a demon (who usually tries to knock the tree down).
L65b4.  The character pulls out his tooth to use it as a weapon or tool (often an axe).
L65b5.  Despite obstacles, the young man's dogs or other animals serving him get to the princess just as she is about to be given away to a deceiver.
L65c.  The eldest of three or more sisters turns out to be a cannibal, devouring her younger sisters and other people.
L65c1.  Three or more sisters have the ability to fly and fly away from the cannibal – their older sister or mother. Only the youngest is saved.
L65d.  When the older sister becomes a cannibal, the younger sister (temporarily) escapes. Cf. motifs L1B, L65C.

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Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns

MotifSimilarityMotif Summary
K57A100.00%A noble young man, who treated a lowly servant girl rudely and contemptuously, does not recognise her in the guise of a magnificent beauty and does not understand her hints about the relevant episodes. Or the younger brother responds to the hints of his older brothers after they first beat him and then fail to recognise him in the guise of a handsome hero.
M38C199.91%The character (supposedly) forges a person, rejuvenating or reviving him, the other unsuccessfully tries to imitate him.
K119D99.86%A cat helps a poor young man marry a princess (a girl marry a prince).
M193A99.85%A woman baked a flatbread (pancake, pie, dough figure). It rolled away (ran away). On its way, it encounters various people and/or animals who want to eat it. It rolls away from each of them, but a fox (rarely another animal) eats it.
F73B99.84%The bear (wolf, lion, dragon) believes that the vulva is a wound inflicted on a human being.
M38C99.83%blacksmith (supposedly) forges a person, rejuvenating or revitalizing him.
M9599.80%weaker character asks a stronger character to take the gift to his family and climbs into a basket, bag, etc. A strong character brings and leaves a gift without knowing that brought whoever sent this gift. Usually a girl hides her sisters in a bag (chest), and next time she sits there herself, and the cannibal believes that there are gifts for the girls' parents in the bag and carries the bag.
A32D299.79%A man with a pitchfork in his hands can be seen in the silhouette of the moon's spots.
H6C399.79%Large birds that fly in wedge formations (storks, cranes, swans, geese – German: Zugvögel) are associated with the otherworld (they bring children from there, carry children away to the non-human world, control living and dead water, etc.).
K56A4E99.79%After meeting a supernatural character, a kind person receives valuables, while a greedy person burns to death upon returning home.

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Map of Motif Dispersal

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This motif has been recorded in 21 traditions: England, British, Bretons, Spain, Spaniards, Sardinia, Corsica, Sardinians, Corsicans, France, 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, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Latvians, Estonians, Swedes, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Tats, Armenians, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Mordvins, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Frisians, Transylvanian Saksons, Russian Federation


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