The Mythology and Folklore Database
L81A3 - Demon with a golden spoon.
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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 girl sees a demon in a frightening and repulsive form. When he asks her what she said about him (what she saw), the girl replies that she praised his beauty and manners (she saw him in an attractive form). Usually, the girl eventually tells the truth, and the men hiding in ambush kill the enraged demon.Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures
L81 has 7 other sub-motifsL81. A man who goes in search of fire finds it with a demon. The demon pursues the man, harms him, and kills him. Traditions in which there is only a story about men who are promised fire for a fairy tale (a tall tale) are marked with an asterisk*. L81a. A girl offends a cat (rarely: a dog, a rooster) and the cat takes revenge by causing misfortune to befall the girl (usually by extinguishing the fire, after which the girl falls into the hands of a demon). L81a1. Noticing a red bead (pebble) that has fallen into the hearth, the character thinks it is a coal and does not understand that the fire in the hearth has gone out. L81a2. While the men are away, a demonic character comes to a girl or woman to drink her blood or otherwise torment her. The men notice that the girl is wasting away, but at first they do not know the reason. L81a3. A girl sees a demon in a frightening and repulsive form. When he asks her what she said about him (what she saw), the girl replies that she praised his beauty and manners (she saw him in an attractive form). Usually, the girl eventually tells the truth, and the men hiding in ambush kill the enraged demon. L81b. The hero's rivals abandon him, cutting off his legs (usually leaving a sword at the entrance to his tent, and when the hero rushes out, the blade wounds him). L81c. The legless man lives together with the blind and armless man (or with one of the two). By working together, they are healed. L81d. Two cripples with different physical disabilities quarrel and fight, and as a result become whole and healthy. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of L81's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| K27Z2E | 83.46% | During a meeting (sometimes not in their true form), a young man or woman takes certain objects (jewelry) from the other. One of those who met falls ill. A new meeting leads to the healing of the sick person, the identification of the objects, and a wedding. |
| M39A4C | 79.35% | Fool sells property to birds and believes that they will pay him. Trying to get his money, he finds treasure |
| F3 | 73.06% | A man accidentally eats a magical remedy intended for a woman to become pregnant and gives birth to a child. The child comes out of a tumour on the man's leg, or in some other way, but the man remains alive. |
| K82A | 68.68% | A malevolent woman forces a woman to swallow a snake egg (snake, something else) so that a man will think that the woman is pregnant out of wedlock (rarely: so that snakes will suck the juices out of her). Cf. motif L89. |
| M132A | 68.60% | Another animal thinks that a hornless herbivore has horns and is afraid of it, but these are just ears. |
| M74E | 68.60% | Two characters ask the third to share something edible between them. He bites off a little bit from each of the halves, because one or the other is slightly larger. As a result, it eats everything. |
| F3A | 65.30% | A man carries a child like a woman. |
| K80C1 | 64.46% | Someone brings meat or fruit to another person or keeps it for themselves. At the decisive moment, the food turns into the remains of a (supposedly) murdered person. The owner is executed or is about to be executed. Cf. motif K168A. |
| M38B1 | 64.03% | After the wedding, the wife is silent until her husband says certain words that indicate her origin. {In North Africa, the Pyrenees and the Arabs of Western Asia, the motive is very popular, which suggests that the list of traditions in which it is known may include some records that have so far been supported only with links to pointers, but not by the texts themselves}. |
| E5 | 60.63% | God makes man out of clay. He must wait until it dries, but tries to stand up earlier. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 3 traditions: Algeria Arabs, Lithuanians, Tunisia