The Mythology and Folklore Database
M152B - The brave donkey and the cowardly lion, ATU 103C*.
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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
When seeing a herbivorous ungulate (usually a donkey) for the first time, a large predator thinks that it is strong and dangerous. The herbivore's subsequent behaviour usually convinces the predator that its first impression was correct.Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 11, Tricks and competitions won thanks to deception, absurd and obscene behavior
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| K27SS | 99.58% | A strong man must overtake a woman, often an old woman. This is difficult or impossible to achieve. |
| I35A2 | 99.46% | Thunder is heard when stones or large vessels are rolled, dragged or overturned in the sky. |
| M84A | 99.45% | After supernatural characters put the bones of a dead and eaten deer, cow, ram, or goat in its skin, the animal is whole (and usually comes to life). See M84 motif. |
| I35A1A | 99.44% | The character considers himself equal to the deity, imitating him, mocking him or trying to kill him. |
| M127A | 99.37% | In response to a character's request to make him laugh or feed him, a bird sits on a person's or animal's head or on a fragile object. Another person tries to knock the bird down, kills or maims the person on whom the bird has landed, or breaks the object. Alternatively, the bird distracts the person's attention, and during this time the character eats the food that the person was carrying. |
| K27F | 99.37% | An authoritative character demands that the hero obtain a woman. |
| J32A1 | 99.30% | But at night someone tramples the field, steals hay, etc. The hero learns that it is horses doing this. |
| K99 | 99.25% | A person dreams about an upcoming celebration for himself or a member of his family (rarely: he daydreams about it). Either another person buys the dream and becomes the protagonist of the story, or the person who saw it hides its content from everyone, or he is persecuted for excessive conceit, as evidenced by the content of the dream. The meaning of the dream is revealed at the end of the story. Often, the young man ascends to the throne and marries the heiresses of two kingdoms (in the dream, these were two suns or the sun and the moon). |
| M135A | 99.25% | A wolf (or, less commonly, another predator) approaches various (more than one type of) domestic animals (animals and humans) in order to eat them, but, agreeing to fulfil the request, remains hungry and is usually beaten. |
| M149 | 99.19% | A strong enemy is ready to kill the hero (a human or a weak animal). Someone, seemingly unaware of this, loudly announces that the hero's enemy is being sought in order to kill him. The hero is saved. Usually, the enemy asks not to be betrayed, saying that he is a stump, a log, etc. This allows him to be treated as such – thrown, chopped, etc. (ATU data not entered; plot 154 includes several independent motifs; which of them are present in the traditions referred to by ATU cannot be determined without referring to the original sources). |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 16 traditions: Hindi-speaking peoples and casts (incl. Teli, Parahiya; incl. Chhattisgarhi) of Northern and West-Central India, Early Chinese written sources, Portuguese, Portugal, Catalan, Sardinia, Corsica, Sardinians, Corsicans, Hungarians, Lithuanians, Western Ukrainians, Yazgulami, Tajik, Persians, Azeris (Azerbaijanis), Kurds, Kara Kalpak, 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), Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio)