The Mythology and Folklore Database
M116 - The undead father helps with advice, ATU 981.
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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
People must kill their fathers (or mothers; Nyoro: deprive them of power and property; Baluchi: do not take them with you on a journey). One young man hides his father, and his wise advice helps to avoid trouble.Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures
M11 has 4 other sub-motifsM11. The character gives others food extracted from his or someone else's body or contaminated with bodily secretions, without revealing the source of the food. M11a. The character gives others the fish extracted from his body. M11b. A woman feeds a man with good-quality meat or fat, which she cuts from her own flesh or extracts from her body, and stops doing so when he learns about the source of the food. M11c. Without harming himself, a male character cuts off, pierces, roasts, holds over a fire, etc. a part of his body (or his wife's body). The character cooks the meat, fat, etc. obtained in this way and treats his guest to it. This food is not perceived as unclean (cf. motifs M11B and M38). m11d. The character makes food taste good by adding salt to it. Another character learns that the cook extracts this salt from his own body (it is contained in his bodily secretions). Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of M11's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| M137 | 99.69% | A weaker predator tries to imitate a stronger one, but cannot perform the actions that the strong one performs easily. |
| K103 | 99.33% | A domestic animal (horse, cow, bull, goat, ram, sheep) helps an orphan, a lonely child, or an unfortunate young woman. |
| M57D | 99.27% | A person consistently receives magical items that bring wealth. Others replace them or take them away. A person returns what has been taken - usually by receiving another wonderful object (baton, whip) that hits the kidnappers. |
| L96 | 99.18% | The character has the ability to transform into animals or objects. Sold in this form, he achieves his goal and becomes human again. |
| K119A | 99.08% | An animal saves a human, does him a favour, and he humiliates or kills it. See motifs K119, M161. |
| M114 | 99.08% | The character is asked to make (or actually makes) a rope or other object out of sand, ash, smoke, etc. |
| K2B | 98.87% | The occupations or names of the hero's companions are unusual and different for each one, but their specific abilities, which can be inferred from these names, are insignificant for the development of the plot. Cf. motif K66, "Heroes with different abilities". |
| I13C | 98.84% | Reptiles possess a treasure that humans take or try to take. Usually it is a crown, a precious stone, or horns on a snake's head. |
| K160A | 98.83% | A woman living in the house of a supernatural character hides a man who has come to her and asks the character questions, the answers to which the man must find out. |
| M91B1 | 98.81% | A man is going to sell a pet skin. On the way, he gets big money by deception or by chance. Usually, upon return, a person says that he received money for the skin, after which others slaughter their livestock and try unsuccessfully to sell the skins for money they are not worth. (In India, the hero sometimes supposedly sells not skin, but beef, which is forbidden to brahmanas). |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 52 traditions: Arabs of Levant (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan); Bedouins of Sinai, Algeria Arabs, Ganda, (Ba)Nyoro, Nyankole, Masaba (Gisu), Luia (=Luyia, Haya, Luhya, Bantu Kawirondo; incl. Vugusu, Maragoli), Bemba (Wemba, Babemba; incl Ambo, Lala, Lamba, Bisa), Holoholo, Kaonde, Songhai, Shan, Ahom, Khampti, Koreans, Ireland, Spain, Spaniards, Maltese, Sicily, Sicilians, Sardinia, Corsica, Sardinians, Corsicans, France, Dutch, Flemish, Poles, Slovakians, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Macedonians, Balkarians, Croatians, Croats; Italians of Dalmatia (if the motif is absent among other Italians), Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Finns, Swedes, 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), Uzbek, Tajik, Baluch, Abaza (Abazins), Nogai, Georgians, Crimean Tatars, Karaims, Gagauz, Azeris (Azerbaijanis), Kurds, Uyghur, Hui (Dungan) of Xinjiang, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan (Dungan texts from Southern and Eastern China are clustered with the Chinese ones), Turkmen, Bashkirs, Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Mongols (Khalkha), Japanese folklore outside of Ryukyu, Udeghe, Plains Ojibwa, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Frisians, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria