The Mythology and Folklore Database
M141A - And who is the mouse to us?




8 Myths, Legends and Folktales
8 Unique Narratives for Motif M141A
7 Cultures & Traditions where M141A is told
0 Mythemes Indexed
1 Sub-Motifs of Motif M141A


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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

In a gathering of various animals, one of the participants refers to the weakest as insignificant to the others and bearing an ugly name. That one is eaten. This is repeated several times, each time the weakest of the remaining animals is eaten.

Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes

This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 11, Tricks and competitions won thanks to deception, absurd and obscene behavior


M14 has 1 other sub-motifs


M14.  A man brutally murders his wife (rarely: children, fiancée, sister) and/or eats her flesh himself, or brings her flesh to her relatives (if he kills children, he brings the flesh to his wife).
M14a.  To take revenge on his wife or her relatives for (allegedly) causing him offence, the husband roasts his wife alive. See motif M14.

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Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns

MotifSimilarityMotif Summary
I87AB100.00%Strong men or a crowd of people cannot move the body of a dead animal or the leg of a motionless person, but a child or a woman can do it easily. Cf. motif B83.
L15A2100.00%The human body is tempered (in a furnace, etc.) to make it invulnerable, but one place remains unprotected.
H7F299.83%The character embodying death had a body visible to humans. Then death became invisible.
K27ZZ399.83%The father or stepmother (werewolf) pushes/locks the sisters (the girl and her servants) into a pit. The heroine manages to escape and triumphs over her antagonists.
L108F99.83%A character (girl, boy) finds themselves in water, and the antagonist lures them to shore by imitating the voice of their father, brother or sister.
N2699.83%said that the action took place when cultivated plants (wheat, cotton) grew on ice or salt.
N999.83%Two characters discuss the rider's approach. A person with a higher social status explains that what seems like crows are actually clods of earth flying from under the horse's hooves, and what seems like snow, cloud or fog is falling from his foam or his breath.
A32I99.65%A shepherd (shepherd and girl, shepherd and his flock, dogs) can be seen on the lunar disc.
B10899.65%An anthropomorphic character that has fallen apart into pieces turns into snow.
K15699.65%A girl pretends to be a man. To determine who it really is, flowers are placed under the pillow or mattress. If a man is sleeping, they will remain fresh, but if a woman is sleeping, they will wilt by morning (or if a woman is sleeping, the milk left under the bed will sour).

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Map of Motif Dispersal

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This motif has been recorded in 7 traditions: Hungarians, Baluch, Kumyk, Terekemen, Georgians, Kazakh, Bashkirs, Russian Federation


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