The Mythology and Folklore Database
K113A - The bride where the arrow fell.




66 Myths, Legends and Folktales
63 Unique Narratives for Motif K113A
35 Cultures & Traditions where K113A is told
118 Mythemes Indexed
5 Sub-Motifs of Motif K113A


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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

A young man throws an object, shoots an arrow, etc. Where the arrow lands (where the object falls), the young man finds a wife or a means of obtaining one.

Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes

This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures


K11 has 5 other sub-motifs


K11.  Brothers (brother and sister) kill a monstrous bird. Its eyes turn into heavenly bodies (among the Oaxacan Indians) or something else (among the present-day Condors of the Yokuts).
K11a.  Plucked feathers of a (huge) bird turn into actual birds (or their plumage) or humans emerge from them.
K11a1.  Pieces of flesh or feathers from a monstrous/unusual bird turn into present-day birds (or their plumage).
K11b.  The bones of a huge bird are turned into reeds or bamboo for making arrows or sarbacanes.
K11C.  The plucked feathers of a huge bird turn into plants.
K11D.  Pieces of flesh from a huge creature that has fallen apart or been cut into pieces turn into ordinary animals, birds or fish.

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Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns

MotifSimilarityMotif Summary
E9O99.86%A man marries a woman who has the appearance of a frog or toad.
M75B199.85%A person (usually of high status) learns that a poor boy who is born will inherit his property or become king. He tries to stop it, but what he predicted comes true.
J6299.65%The character turns those who come to him into inanimate objects (usually stones). (In variants of the ATU 303 plot, the motif is often absent; original texts are needed).
K13299.64%A small character (usually a rooster) comes to a powerful enemy. Thanks to creatures and objects that he encounters along the way and hides in his body or bag, the character remains unharmed after all attempts to destroy him. Cf. motif L126.
K67B99.63%A character of low social status (without supernatural abilities) takes a job with a character of high social status (with supernatural abilities) on the condition that the employer will not get angry with the employee. By repeatedly annoying the employer, the employee causes him to become angry and, as a result, be severely punished or pay a large sum of money.
L100G99.63%A servant serves his master a roasted bird, one of whose legs has already been eaten. He tells him to look at the chickens, geese, etc., which are standing on one leg. When they run away, it becomes clear that they all have two legs. Usually, the servant says that if the master had scared the roasted goose, it would have shown its second leg too.
M19999.59%A man and a giant (devil, predator, robber) agree to test their strength by crushing a stone. The man squeezes a piece of cheese, an egg, etc., and the giant believes that he is facing a strong man. {ATU 1060 includes variants in which the character squeezes brains (guts, etc.) out of the ground, without specifying this in the definition; where we were able to verify this, we did not include such traditions}.
K75A399.56%Appearing incognito to an authoritative character, the hero works for him as a groom.
K67A99.56%A character of low status annoys characters of high status. Learning of the intention of the characters of high status to drown him or his property (rarely: to strangle him), he arranges for one of them or their property to be drowned instead.
M16199.52%A character gives another a sack that is supposed to contain food, but in fact contains a dog; or frees a girl (boy) from a sack or chest and replaces her with a dog or other dangerous animal. The animal attacks the person who opened the sack.

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Map of Motif Dispersal

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This motif has been recorded in 35 traditions: Arabs of Iraq, Iraqi, Shan, Ahom, Khampti, Nepali; Tharu, Germans: North (Low- and Central German dialects): Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg, Pommern, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony, incl East Frisia and Oldenburg), Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Thüringen, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen, Brandenburg, Rügen, Poles, Czech, Czechs, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Albanians, Balkarians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Finns, Karelians, Western Sami, 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), Yazgulami, Baluch, Ossetians, Georgians, Armenians, Gagauz, Anatolia Turks, Azeris (Azerbaijanis), Talysh, Bashkirs, Mari (Cheremis), Urums, Rumei, Kordofan, Parya of Gissar (Hisor) Valley (Tajikistan), Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Tunisia, Egypt


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