The Mythology and Folklore Database
M78B - Too many kids
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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
Wishing a baby, a childless woman gives birth to many tiny boys. She or her husband kill them or throw them away, but she stays alone and helps their parents.Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures
M78 has 7 other sub-motifsM78. A tiny little man performs a series of tricks, mocks people he meets and opponents. M78a. A tiny little man emerges from the severed tail of a goat or sheep. M78b. Wishing a baby, a childless woman gives birth to many tiny boys. She or her husband kill them or throw them away, but she stays alone and helps their parents. M78c. A tiny little man emerges from a severed finger. M78d. A tiny boy (rarely a girl) comes from a pea (bean, seed) or from a spool of goat droppings, he is almost as tall as a pea. Or he was born after his mother ate a pea. M78e. A tiny boy comes from an animal's ear, compared in size to an ear, his name is “ear”. M78f. When a woman falls asleep, a joker (usually a tiny boy) places an embryo or the entrails of an animal or something similar next to her to make the woman herself or others think she has a miscarriage or that her viscera has fallen out. M78g. When the inhabitants of the house fall asleep, a joker (usually a tiny boy) ties them together in pairs so that when they wake up, they quarrel. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of M78's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| K93A | 99.79% | When lying down with a woman, a man places a sharp or pointed object between her and himself as a sign that he will abstain from sex during the night (sometimes the woman places the sword herself). |
| K35A1 | 99.46% | Setting off on a journey, a person (often against the advice of their horse) picks up a precious feather. Upon learning of this, an authoritative character gives them difficult tasks. |
| L100E | 99.43% | Before entering, the guest notices the mistress with her lover in the house. When the husband arrives, the guest pretends to be clairvoyant and shows the husband where the lover is hiding and where the food prepared for him is. |
| B33A | 99.35% | Deciding that it has become (or will soon become) warm, the character believes that winter is over (most often an old woman goes to graze cattle), but dies from the cold or the cattle driven out to pasture perish. Cf. motif I84A ("The frozen son of God"). |
| C33A | 99.25% | Throughout the year, someone tries to saw through or break the chain or rope that holds him or another character. On a certain day of the year, when the chain has become completely thin, it is restored to its former state, or the pole to which the chain is attached is reinserted into the ground. Cf. motif G8d. |
| K97 | 99.12% | A man prepares to kill a large bird, but does not kill it. When the bird later carries him, it pretends to leave him on a rock or throw him down. In doing so, it makes it clear how frightened it was. Either the bird first drops and catches the man, and later he makes her experience fear herself (the Volyn variant is slightly different). |
| M153 | 99.10% | A hoofed animal asks a predator to examine its hoof under various pretexts, and then kills or maims it with a kick. |
| K152 | 99.06% | A man saves a devil who is suffering from the proximity of a certain character or object. To reward his saviour, the devil promises to possess a princess and leave her when the man comes to treat her. The devil either breaks his promise or warns the man not to try to cure those whom the devil will possess later. The man informs the devil that the character or object he fears so much is approaching again. The devil flees and never returns. |
| K118 | 99.02% | Upon leaving, the character allows another to take charge of the house, but not to look into a certain room or container. The other violates the prohibition. |
| K27R2 | 99.00% | Task: bring objects (fruit, wood, water, etc.) that perform actions characteristic of humans (sing, dance, yawn, laugh, etc.). |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 13 traditions: France, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Slovenians, Slovenes, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Persians, Cherkassians, Adyghe, Kabardin, Laks, Armenians, Crimean Tatars, Karaims, Anatolia Turks, Kazakh, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio)