The Mythology and Folklore Database
L90 - Mouth to the sky.
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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
One lip (one fang, horn, etc.) of the creature reaches the sky, while the other drags along the ground.Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 8, Queer and monstrous beings, creatures, objects and loci, folk beliefs related to particular phenomena and objects
L90 has 5 other sub-motifsL90. One lip (one fang, horn, etc.) of the creature reaches the sky, while the other drags along the ground. L90a. Describes a house that stands on the legs or a single leg of a bird or small animal and/or rotates (is capable of turning). L90b. One tooth (fang) of the creature touches the sky, the other reaches the earth or the underworld. L90c. One horn of an animal (deer, ram, bull, goat, wolverine) touches the ground, while the other is raised to the sky or reaches the sky. L90d. The hero attaches the upper lip (jaw) of the monster to the sky, and the lower lip to the earth. L90E. Human heads are impaled on stakes outside the house of a dangerous character, and one head is missing (or there is a wall of heads, with one missing). It is assumed that the head of the hero of the story should be there. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of L90's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| K38B | 99.50% | A snake or monster of aquatic-chthonic or indeterminate nature eats or maims the young of a bird or other flying creature – in most cases, the chicks of a huge bird. A man kills the snake (monster). See motif K38. |
| F9F | 99.09% | Without the woman's knowledge, the demon regularly kills her suitors on their wedding night. |
| L125 | 99.00% | After meeting a beautiful woman, a man finds her in a situation where her inhuman nature is revealed. After that, the marriage falls apart. |
| K38C | 98.87% | After the hero helps the bird (usually by doing good to its chicks), it takes him to the place he desires, or instructs its chicks to do so. (This does not involve movement between levels of the universe; in the Sumerian version, the bird gives the hero the ability to move with lightning speed and directs him to his goal). |
| M78G | 98.87% | When the inhabitants of the house fall asleep, a joker (usually a tiny boy) ties them together in pairs so that when they wake up, they quarrel. |
| M195 | 98.62% | The character must guess which of the two horses or cows is older. He does this by knowing the behavioural characteristics of these animals. |
| K139 | 98.55% | A servant is so struck by the beauty of a girl (rarely: a boy) that he lets the meat or bread intended for his master burn. |
| K82 | 98.34% | A man's wife or another woman tries to destroy his sister. |
| F14 | 98.29% | The hero is born as a result of the union of a man with a stone or rock. |
| K77B2 | 98.29% | The goat (goat, ram, etc.) responds to the predator's questions in the sense that parts of its body are weapons and other objects designed to kill the questioner, or that the goat is actually armed. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 61 traditions: Old and New Testament, Ugarit, Phoenicia, Arabs of Egypt, Santali, Turi, Mahli, Bhuiya (now Aryans, originally Munda; Rahman 1955: 203), Baiga, Bhaina, Bhumia (subgroup of Baiga, incl Bharia, formerly Munda, now speak Indo-Aryan languages of neighboring groups), Sora (Savara, Saora), Parenga, Gondi (mostly Northern Gondi), Indian literary tradition (Vedic, Brahman, Purana, Indian Buddhism, Hinduism, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchtantra, Jatakas); iconography of Hindu temples, Bengali, Nepali; Tharu, Balahi; Lambadi (Banjaaa), Lepcha, Slovakians, Slovaks, Hungarians, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Macedonians, Balkarians, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Estonians, Setu, Scandinavians: early written sources ("Edda"; Saxo Grammaticus etc.); Gothland picture stones; Ancient Germans (Late Bronze Age in Scandinavia), Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Tajik, Baluch, Persians, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Ossetians, Ingush, Laks, Kumyk, Terekemen, Tats, Georgians, Armenians, Kalmyk, Gagauz, Anatolia Turks, Azeris (Azerbaijanis), Kazakh, 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), Turkmen, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Bashkirs, Mordvins, Chuvash, Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Oirats (incl Torgouts, Derbets, Oilots), Mongols (Khalkha), Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Khakas, Southern Altai: Altai proper (Altai-Kiji), Telengit, Altaians, Northern Altai: Chelkan, Kumanda, Tubalar, Altaians, Ainu, Nivkh, Forest (Upper Kolyma) Yukaghir, Arabs (literary tradition; incl. One Thousand and One Nights), Salars, Southern Altai: Teleut, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Russian Federation