The Mythology and Folklore Database
M38E - Mushroom and oak, ATU 293B*
Please log on to view the narratives.
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
mushroom (pumpkin) thinks that it is as durable as a tree.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
M38 has 20 other sub-motifsM38. Person sees how others act using magic or according to their animal nature. He or she imitates their actions and gets into trouble. Actions are not heroic deeds, competitions or tests and refer to everyday activity, mostly to providing and cooking food M38a. On a visit, the character sees how the owner acts with magic or techniques that suit his nature (in Africa, too, deception). He imitates their actions but fails. Actions are not tests or competitions and are not related to performing feats. This is mainly getting or preparing food. M38a1. The character imitates the sisters' sons-in-law or husbands, or the wife's brothers (shoshone's) or wives (comox and chalkomel). {ATU combines a motive with another}. M38a2. The hen (other bird) cooks her own eggs and serves them to other animal persons (who imitated her with disastrous consequences) M38b. The first wife, rejected or taken later than others, performs certain actions with the help of magic. Other wives try to imitate her but are killed, maimed, or disgraced. M38b1. After the wedding, the wife is silent until her husband says certain words that indicate her origin. {In North Africa, the Pyrenees and the Arabs of Western Asia, the motive is very popular, which suggests that the list of traditions in which it is known may include some records that have so far been supported only with links to pointers, but not by the texts themselves}. M38b2. Each of the three brothers comes to his father with his wife (fiancée). The younger brother or his fiancée is considered worthless, but the girl turns out to be a sorceress and surpasses the brides of her older brothers in everything. M38b3b. Mighty bird (more rare other creature/mythological person) helps a man (rare: a woman) because he (she) warms/covers from bad weather its/hers nestlings (children) M38c. blacksmith (supposedly) forges a person, rejuvenating or revitalizing him. M38c1. The character (supposedly) forges a person, rejuvenating or reviving him, the other unsuccessfully tries to imitate him. M38c2. To shove a horse or donkey, Jesus (the saint) cuts off his leg, nails a horseshoe to his hoof, and attaches his leg back. The other character tries to imitate in vain. M38c3. A conceited smith attempts to rejuvenate an old woman (man). His magic helper tries to save the victim but all that he do is to transform the woman into an animal, usually a monkey M38d. Two or more characters, which are small objects or small animals, live or travel together and die one by one while committing protozoa actions. M38d1. bubble-head, the straw leg, the hair-neck are successively dying, trying to act like ordinary people. M38d2. Several characters (usually three), which are small objects, go traveling and must cross the river. This fails. M38d3. The character, who is a lump of earth (oatmeal, salt), blurred in the rain or after going to get water. M38d4. Several characters that embody small objects (and a squirrel with them) travel together. The needle penetrates the body of a large animal and kills it. (In the Baltic-Finnish texts, the needle first finds items that others find useless, but after the animal was caught, everything found turned out to be in demand for cooking meat). M38d5. Two or three types of cereals talk to each other, act together, etc. M38d6. Several characters embody small objects and die one at a time. The last one left laughs and rejoices so much that he bursts with laughter (breaks his head, etc.). M38d7. Person who represents something fat (a sausage, a piece of fat, etc.) prepares a rich soup adding to it its own fat. Another person tries to repeat the trick and dies M38e. mushroom (pumpkin) thinks that it is as durable as a tree. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of M38's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| B87B | 100.00% | The Great Bear – a cart harnessed by a wolf or bear. Usually, the shape of the handle of the dipper is explained by the fact that a wolf or bear attacked an ox harnessed to the cart and took its place. In this case, it is associated with Alcor or the last star of the handle of the dipper – η. |
| K38B3B | 100.00% | A mighty bird (rarely – another creature) helps a person for sheltering (warming) its chicks (offspring, children). |
| M39A5A3 | 100.00% | Realizing that a wife telling the truth will cause trouble for the family, the husband says that the sounds she hears are the screams of her master (official, etc.) who is beaten, dragged to hell, etc. She repeats this to the master (official), who declares her insane. |
| K56A2B | 99.99% | A supernatural character asks a girl to redeem (feed) his (her) children. These are snakes, beetles or wild animals. The girl does everything she is asked and is rewarded. |
| B122 | 99.99% | Birds (cranes/storks, geese or crows) carry children away to another world or bring them back from there. See motif H6c3, "The Immortal Stork". |
| K61A1 | 99.99% | A dangerous character mistakes two people sleeping (hiding) in a sack or two people lying with their feet towards each other for a single creature. |
| A32D1 | 99.98% | Cain and Abel are associated with the moon, usually distinguishable (both or only Cain) in the silhouette of lunar spots. |
| K27F2 | 99.98% | A girl demands that her fiancé get her the same pair of shoes (or other items) as hers. These items either exist in a single copy, or it is not known what they look like. Having become invisible, the hero either steals the items (and the owner has to make new ones herself), or finds out what they look like. |
| N16 | 99.98% | fairy-tale text ends with a formula stating that the narrator had a horse and/or harness made of wax, ice, linen, vegetables, etc. In most cases, the narrator loses them (they melt, they are taken away, eaten, etc.). |
| N35 | 99.98% | Somewhere milk rivers flow with banks made of jelly (porridge) - a sign of abundance (impossible in reality). Cf. H16B motive. |
See more...
Please log on to view the narratives.
Map of Motif Dispersal
Click here for a clustered map
Drag the map around by clicking and using the mouse, use the wheel to zoom
This motif has been recorded in 16 traditions: Bulgarians, Balkarians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Setu, Western Sami, Eastern Sami (including Skolts), Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Cherkassians, Adyghe, Kabardin, Karachays, Balkar, Lkungen (Straits; including Samish, Songish, Sooke, Lummi), Klallam, Arabs (literary tradition; incl. One Thousand and One Nights), Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Lutsi (Ludza)