The Mythology and Folklore Database
K45B - A woman becomes an aquatic animal.

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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 man and a woman belonging to different generations (father – daughter, son – mother) come into conflict, as a result of which the woman turns into a marine mammal, the mistress of marine mammals, or a frog.

Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes

This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 7, Etiology of plants and animals and of their peculiar features, particular animals as protagonists of cosmological stories, metamorphoses, weather and calendar

K45 has 2 other sub-motifs K45.  A man and a woman belonging to different generations (father – daughter, son – mother) come into conflict. The man sails away from the woman in a boat or on a raft, or leaves her on a sledge. When she tries to grab the edge of the boat (raft, sled), he cuts off her fingers. (The common motif among the Warrau and Eskimos was first noted by O. Zerries [Zerries 1954: 346, 376]). K45a.  A man sails away from a woman or girl in a boat or on a raft. When she tries to grab the edge of the boat (raft), he cuts off her fingers. The fingers turn into aquatic animals. K45b.  A man and a woman belonging to different generations (father – daughter, son – mother) come into conflict, as a result of which the woman turns into a marine mammal, the mistress of marine mammals, or a frog.  Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of K45's motifs?

Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Motif	Similarity	Motif Summary
K45	99.95%	A man and a woman belonging to different generations (father – daughter, son – mother) come into conflict. The man sails away from the woman in a boat or on a raft, or leaves her on a sledge. When she tries to grab the edge of the boat (raft, sled), he cuts off her fingers. (The common motif among the Warrau and Eskimos was first noted by O. Zerries [Zerries 1954: 346, 376]).
F91	98.68%	A man finds or breeds monstrous worms to eat his wife.
K45A	98.68%	A man sails away from a woman or girl in a boat or on a raft. When she tries to grab the edge of the boat (raft), he cuts off her fingers. The fingers turn into aquatic animals.
F9E	98.36%	Small mammals with sharp teeth are found in a woman's vagina.
I123	98.36%	Altair with a small neighbouring star from the constellation Aquila or Vega with a similarly faint star are considered to appear during or immediately after the winter solstice, although they are actually visible before that.
K51A	97.93%	One woman comes to another in the absence of a man and kills her by pushing her rival's head into boiling liquid or pouring boiling water or hot fat into her ear. See motif K51.
M123C	97.80%	A non-migratory bird sets off south with migratory birds, but is unable to reach its destination.
E15B	97.33%	Bird women sew the birch bark covering of the hero's boat. See motif E15.
E9AA	97.33%	A man searches for a missing woman, who is a fox by nature, and comes to the burrow where she has hidden. Various bird or animal women come out of the burrow and offer themselves in place of the fox. Then they let him inside.
F51C	97.33%	Upon learning that her unknown lover is her own brother, the girl shows him her genitals or bare breasts, offering him what he so desired. After that, she runs away, and he rushes after her.

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Map of Motif Dispersal

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Terrain Minimal Countries

This motif has been recorded in 12 traditions: Chukchi, North Alaskan Inupiat, Netsilik, Caribou, Iglulik, Polar Inuit, Baffin Land Inuit, West Greenland, Labrador Inuit (Koksoagmiut), Cuna; XVI century data on Eastern Panama, Warao, Greenland

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