μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Insects from body of slain monster. Usually the monster is burnt; sometimes the insects come from his head, sometimes from his body as it burns. (Cf. A1716.1.)

Mythological motifs. · Creation of animal life. · Creation of insects. · Creation of insects. · view the constellation · filed as A2001

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“When all had frozen over except the small hole where the ogre was jumping, it froze so quickly after he had gone in, that he could not get out again when he came up. Then he saw the man on the tree, and asked him to pull him out; but the man only sang louder, so that the ogre was held fast. The man now began to cut some dry wood to build a fire over the ogre’s head, telling him at the same time that he was going to save him.”

— Tales of the North American Indians, Tale 72 · served from our shelf  receiptuncorrected OCR — being verified against the scan

Attested across traditions
Scholars’ trail — 7references

The index’s own references — the collections where scholars sighted this story-shape, tradition by tradition. Titles on our shelf are live links; the rest is the frontier, not yet shelved.

  • PersianCarnoy 288
  • SiberianHolmberg Siberian 386
  • ChineseEberhard FFC CXX 23, 128
  • JapaneseIkeda
  • N. Am. Indian*Thompson Tales 354 n. 275.
  • general *Dh I 279, III 152ff., 164ff., 170ff. (dragon)
  • general *Fb "myre", "myg"
Within the index

Filed under Creation of insects.

1 finer motif beneath it
Insects from brains, blood, and bones of slain helpful animal
Filed beside it
Origin of insects from various experiences of saintOrigin of insects: released from sack. God places them in a sack and gives it to hare to carry to stream. He must not look in the sack. When he does so the insects escape. The hare laughs and this is the cause of his split lipInsects from devil's post-hole. Devil is given enough land to dig a post-hole. From this come all kinds of insects. To stop them a burning log is put in the hole. Insects therefore hate smokeOrigin of insects: God throws sand on lazy shepherds. (Cf. A1716.1)Origin of insects: monstrous births from brother-sister incest
Travels with
Animals from different parts of body of slain giant. Giant person, cow, ox, etcCreation of antMosquitoes from bones of slain demon flung into the air. (Cf. A2001.)Mosquitoes from ashes of bad woman. (Cf. A2001.)Snake from blood of slain monster. Medusa. (Cf. A1724, A2001.)
Carried in tale types

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