The Mythology and Folklore Database
K8C5 - The bear dies after swallowing a mouse.
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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
A zoomorphic character no larger than a fox allows itself to be swallowed by a bear and kills it by tearing it apart from the inside.Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 11, Tricks and competitions won thanks to deception, absurd and obscene behavior
K8 has 11 other sub-motifsK8a. The character enters the belly of an aquatic creature or a giant creature whose appearance and habitat are not precisely described. He kills the creature from within (K952) and/or returns to the outside without outside help. Upon emerging from the belly, he often finds himself bald (K921). Cf. motifs I81B (Charybdis) and L110 (Devourer). K8aa. A huge bird swallows people. The hero kills it, freeing those who have been swallowed, or, if he himself has been swallowed, he manages to get out alive. K8b. A raven finds itself in the belly of a whale; the woman inside asks it not to touch a certain organ of the whale (usually the heart) or a burning lamp. The raven breaks the prohibition, the woman disappears, and the whale dies. K8c. The character enters the belly of an ordinary land animal, kills it from within (K952) and/or returns to the outside without outside help. Cf. motif M118. K8c1. A tiny man is first accidentally swallowed by a large herbivore, then carried off by a wolf that began to eat the carcass of this animal. K8c2. The mouse is swallowed by a large land animal and comes out by cutting it open from the inside. K8c3. One (zoomorphic) character refuses to use any part of another's body except the one he uses to kill him. K8c4. A small animal (bird, mouse, porcupine, fox) or (rarely) a tiny human being allows itself to be swallowed by a large ungulate (elk, deer, bison, tapir) in order to rip open its belly (and eat it). K8c5. A zoomorphic character no larger than a fox allows itself to be swallowed by a bear and kills it by tearing it apart from the inside. K8d. The character enters the body of an anthropomorphic creature, kills it from within (K952) and/or returns to the outside without outside help. K8e. The character penetrates inside the creature through the anus. K8f. The swallowed one discovers a living deer in the belly of the monster. See motif K8A. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of K8's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| E30 | 98.71% | A man has no wife or a woman has no husband, and uses a wooden substitute as a spouse. |
| F67 | 98.67% | An old woman lives with her (adopted) daughter, niece or daughter-in-law. She (supposedly) turns into a man, marries a girl or tries to do so. |
| M84B | 98.42% | An animal, bird or fish that is killed and eaten comes to life after its bones are thrown into the water. See M84 motif. |
| M42A | 98.06% | The character (usually after losing his own eyes) inserts seeds or berries into his eye sockets and sees again. |
| M53D | 98.00% | The character pretends to be enemies coming; when people run away in fear, the character takes what the deceived people owned. |
| J45 | 97.86% | The character extends his leg (dafla: arm; upper tanana: tail) or neck as a bridge across a water barrier. Usually, those being pursued or walking ahead cross such a bridge to the other side, while the pursuer or those walking behind fall into the water because the character removes his bridge. See motif J44. |
| J40B | 97.58% | After the hero comes back after a long absence and finds his parents enslaved, he tells them to demonstrate openly a lack of respect to their masters and punishes those who were cruel with them |
| J61 | 97.46% | The character has the ability to move or hover in the air like a feather or a fluff. |
| M49A | 96.75% | hero needs to penetrate unnoticed into the locus of dangerous creatures; he meets an old woman (usually a shaman, a doctor) going there, puts on her skin, and penetrates into dangerous ones in her guise creatures. |
| K43A | 96.63% | People leave a boy, a girl, a sister and brother, a young woman or young spouses alone and depart. Someone sympathises with those who have been abandoned and secretly hides fire for them. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 23 traditions: Mansi, Kets, Ainu, Chukchi, Chipewyan, Tahltan, Koyukon, Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Lenape (Delaware), Plains Ojibwa, Western Sahaptin (Upper Cowlitz, Klikitat, Tenino, Umatilla, Yakima, Wallawalla), Quileute, Chemakum (Hoh), Shasta; Chimariko, Maidu, Nisenan, Konkov, Achomavi, Shipibo, Conibo, Setebo, Kayabi, Mocovi; Kechua of Santiago del Estero with probable Guaikuruan substratum; Abipon, Upper Chinook: Wasco, Wishram, Clackamas, Kathlamet, Yughs