The Mythology and Folklore Database
K161 - The Released Dragon, (ATU 302C*).
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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 character who has deprived a dragon (demon, thunder) of its freedom orders others not to unlock the dungeon (not to enter a certain room, not to give the chained creature anything to drink, etc.). The prohibition is violated, the chained creature is freed, which leads to disaster. Cf. motif K100f1.Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures
K16 has 1 other sub-motifsK16. Taking the form of a bird, bat, insect, small animal, or fish, the man enters the young woman's home (her father's house). K16a. In an effort to show that he is a good hunter, a man regularly walks in front of a girl, pretending to carry prey. Once he slips, and the imaginary prey turns out to be a scarecrow stuffed with ashes or a bundle of termites. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of K16's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| N15 | 99.72% | fairy-tale text ends with a formula that says that the narrator ate food and/or drinks, but they did not get into his mouth. |
| K27X3A | 99.67% | When a husband sets off on a difficult mission, his magical wife gives him her towel or scarf, instructing him to use only those items (usually so that her relatives will recognise him as their son-in-law). |
| K156A | 99.64% | People suspect that the young man is a girl in disguise. Tests are proposed to determine this, but the girl manages to avoid exposure (for a long time). |
| I4 | 99.57% | When a vehicle moves across the sky, thunder rumbles. |
| K181 | 99.51% | The hero finds a suitable horse in the dungeon (in the basement, in an empty castle, in deep mud, etc.), where it has stood for many years. |
| L19B3 | 99.44% | A creature with 12 heads is mentioned – either singly or at the end of a series of creatures with fewer heads. |
| F70E1 | 99.43% | An old man needs a son to do men's work. (Only the youngest) daughter takes on this task (successfully passing the test set by her father), pretending to be a man. |
| K102A4 | 99.41% | A hostile young character is located behind a water barrier. The young man's sister or mother helps him cross and becomes his lover. |
| L15H | 99.39% | The object in which the character's life is concentrated is enclosed in another, which is enclosed in a third, and so on (like an egg in a duck, a duck in a hare, a hare in a chest). Or the animal in which the character's soul is enclosed transforms into other animals as it flees. There are three or more enclosures or transformations. |
| C32C | 99.39% | Nails (and hair) have special significance for a person's fate, their soul or the world as a whole. (Compound motif). |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 28 traditions: Arabs of Iraq, Iraqi, Sindhi, 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, Slovakians, Slovaks, Hungarians, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Albanians, Balkarians, Estonians, 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), Persians, Ossetians, Ingush, Georgians, Armenians, Crimean Tatars, Karaims, Hui (Dungan) of Xinjiang, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan (Dungan texts from Southern and Eastern China are clustered with the Chinese ones), Bashkirs, Mari (Cheremis), Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Central Yakuts (Sakha), Evens (Lamuts)