The world was or will be (almost) burned when several suns had (will) appear(ed) simultaneously; or the only sun was too hot (or bright)
Other suns or moons besides present ones had been in the sky and were later annihilated
The Sun is female, the Moon is male or (more rare) also female
Some creature or creatures regularly (sunrise and sunset, summer and winter, lunar phases) or irregularly (solar and lunar eclipses, eschatological events) attack the luminaries or shade their light
During an eclipse or at other circumstances the Sun or the Moon are attacked by a predator animal (a bear, a feline, a canine, a racoon)
Coming together of the Sun and the Moon is the reason of their eclipses
A figure or an imprint of some being or object are seen in the Moon. (For statistical analysis motifs A32A – A32J are also included into A32)
Human being or imprint of human being is seen in the moon
Person who holds some object in his or her hands is seen in the moon (rare: in the sun)
Person who went to fetch water and/or holds in hands a container for liquid is seen in the moon
Person intentionally and with special equipment (usually shooting arrows) attacks the Sun (or several suns if they were many)
A person pursued by an enemy or tyrannized by others asks the Moon to take her or him to the sky. The request is granted and the person is now seen in the Moon
The earth is a female person (alone or together with a male person); she is female being or associated with a woman
Water is the original element, the dry earth appears later
Original earth was small and later increased in size or the fertile soil grew from a small amount of original substance
In the beginning there are only air and water. 1) Person descends from the sky, creates the dry land or a hard support created for her or him grows into the earth. 2) The earth is sent or dropped from the sky, put on the surface of the water. 3) The earth is brought from somewhere (not from the underworld) and put on the water
Female person is incarnation of wind, mother of winds, etc.
Certain stars or constellations are interpreted as hunters, their dogs and game that the hunters pursue
Person beats hares, foxes or other medium size animals who became helpless (usually closed in his house). Tale explains why tips of the animals' ears or tails have a particular color
Originally the sky was close to the earth, then it has risen up
When person or creature shakes himself or itself, shakes his or her bed, clothes, plucks birds, etc., snow falls down to earth
In the beginning of time a bird flies, lays an egg or eggs, different objects and creatures emerge from them or a bird drops some solid substance on the waters and the dry land or an island appear
Alcor (a weak star near the second star of the handle of the Big Dipper) is selected as a particular sky object
A weak star near the second star of the handle of the Big Dipper (the Tibetans: Small Dipper) is interpreted as a dog
In the beginning of time or after the natural disaster brother and sister, mother and son, or father and daughters are the only human beings. They marry and the present day people are their descendents
Being alone and having no other marriage partners, brother and sister agree to marry each other if a highly improbable event or a series of events will take place. Among the events that take place (alternatively or one after the other) are 1) the siblings let two grinding stones roll from two mountains, the brother's stone falls on the sister's one; 2) brother and sister throw two swords from two mountains, both swords get into one sheath; 3) they throw some objects up, the objects get together; 4) they kindle two fires, columns of smoke get together; 5) they put to grow two stems of bamboo, tops of the stems get together
Monsters or ghosts try to invade our world. Powerful person or creature is on guard and prevents the invasion
The fire is personified as an elder man (alone or with his wife, mistress of fire)
To find a person who is hiding somewhere inside the house, another one tries to make her or him laugh
When person laughs, people see his or her monstrous mouth (many teeth, human meat on teeth). They kill the monster or escape from it
Person knows that the deceiver and trickster has one of his teeth broken. To identify him, person makes others laugh and thus open their mouths
Person observes traces of some activity that takes place in his (rare: her) house in his (her) absence and then takes by surprise the responsible one
Magic person reveals his true nature and/or remains with the real people after the object responsible for preserving the non-human appearance (usually an animal skin) is destroyed (usually burned)
People learn from aquatic birds how to make canoes or how to paddle; or the first canoe is a transformed bird or is made of bird bones
First people are born by trees or come out of a tree, flower, reed
Child is born from a tumor or swelling on person's body (on thigh, knee, finger, etc.) or is temporarily placed there or child grows from blood that flew out from a cut
Man takes or attempts to take a wife who is connected with the underwater world (fish, crab, snake, water animal and the like)
For different reasons, sexual contact with a woman is deadly dangerous for a man
There are teeth, blades or sharp stones in woman’s genitals, vagina is the biting mouth. (Only texts that are believed to correspond to reality are considered but not anecdotes and jokes)
Woman has another toothed mouth (usually in vagina) or biting animals in vagina. Man inserts there a stone, bone, stick, etc. breaking or knocking out the teeth or extracting from there dangerous animals
Certain woman or a group of women takes for a paramour a big land animal. Husbands, brothers or (adoptive) children kill or maim paramour and (sometimes) the woman
A woman pretends to be a stranger to have sexual relations with her (grand)son, daughter or brother
Person’s father, grandson, brother, or sister pretends to be a stranger to commit incest (accordingly with the daughter, grandmother, sister, or brother), or a husband shams to be his wife’s brother because he wants to be taken by her as her blood relative. To realize his or her stratagem, the hero imperceptibly runs to another house where the object of his or her interest later comes and takes him or her for a stranger
Person summons with a certain signal a non-human being (usually his or her sexual partner or his or her protégé). Another person spies, uses the same signal or pronounces the same words and kills the being who comes to him (or uses this being sexually himself)
Sister and brother live alone. The brother rejects the incest. The sister makes him take her for unknown girl, marries him
Brother and sister marry each other. When their children get to know about the incest, they kill their parents, or father kills children, or parents suicide, or wife/sister suicides when her husband/brother has died
One of the trees is the principal, original one (emerged before all the other; ancestor of wild or cultivated plants; ocean or rivers inside it; world axis; higher than all the others; overshadows sky)
Person or creature is transformed. Separate parts of its (his, her) body give origin to different objects or creatures (only etiological narratives are considered)
Different body parts of a being turn into people of different ethnic affiliation or such people receive their names and characteristics according to body parts that they got
Demonic person turns into or consists of different household objects or tools (and into elements of a landscape)
The life-medicine is accidentally spilled not on men but on plants which become evergreen, capable for regeneration or producing fruits
Raven is associated with death or contrasted with people as an immortal with mortals (is sent to the medicine of immortality; drinks itself water of immortality; gives instructions concerning funeral rites; etc.)
Killed and destroyed (often burned) person or creature (usually ogre, fierce animal, powerful shaman) turns into a multitude of biting insects or into other small molesting creatures
Snow was edible or something edible was falling from the sky instead of the snow
A woman or child demonstrate no respect for bread soiling it with excrements. For this God punishes all the humanity
Creatures that produce rain and/or thunderstorms are birds or anthropomorphic beings with wings; or (rare) some or all birds are connected with thunder, lightning or rain though Thunder is not a bird
The lightning (and thunder) is (produced with) an object (axe, sword, mirror, belt, stones, skin, etc.) in hands of anthropomorphic being
A tree or post pierces and unites different layers of the universe
Giant water-chthonic or sky serpent or dragon has horns or antlers on its head
There are objects which remaining on the same place are moving permanently or periodically (meet and part. rise and fall down, shut and open, rotate)
The sky is constantly moving up and down in respect to earth
Snake, lizard or worm is a bridge or a rope over the river
A dog is the lord, guard or guide of/to the land of the dead; or dogs live on the way to the land of the dead
There is (or was) a tree on which souls of still unborn babies grow, which leaves transform into people, or which trunk is covered with female breasts or flowers that innumerable babies are sucking
The earth or the sky are identified with a big quadruped mammal or are made of parts of its body
World is supported by fish or fish-like monster or the earth itself is such a monster
Thunder's enemies are evil spirits, reptiles, animals living in burrows. They hide from him in different objects, Thunder destroys these objects
Stars are people, ghosts, anthropomorphic beings (interpretations of unique star objects like Venus or Polaris as persons not considered)
Waters of all rivers on earth run to the precipice where they rush down into the underworld
Milky Way is a path of a person who was walking on snow-shoes
The Pleiades are a group of boys or men, or a group of different people but predominantly males
The Pleiades are a group of girls or women (with children)
The Pleiades are any people (of any ages and sex, combined data of i99-i100a)
Several bright stars of Big Dipper or other constellation are poles which support or stretch an object like skin, shelter, etc.
The earth is the body of a crocodile or a dragon
A giant deer’s or deer-like creature’s antlers reach the upper world, a person climbs them to get there. Or person gets to the sky when he touches the deer’s antler
Heroes avenge the murder or captivity of the male relatives: (grand)father, uncles, or the elder relatives in general, the loss of the males being the most traumatic
A girl (or two sisters) travel, usually in search of a proper marriage partner who lives far away or who has gone away. On her way or after reaching the place of destination the girl gets to some unpleasant suitors
Two sisters (if more, only two play a significant role in the plot) travel and meet an unpleasant suitor or get to an ogre
People (elder brothers, elder siblings, elder sister) disappear (one by one). A lonely woman has a baby or finds a baby or she becomes pregnant magically and gives birth to a boy or twins. The boy grows up, exterminates the antagonists, usually revives and releases those who had disappeared
Baby heroes, embryos or objects from which they emerge are found in a river or lake or come to people out of the water
Person or his helper draws his enemies on the unstable bridge and destroys it. The enemies fall into water, into a precipice
Antagonist perishes falling into the water or trying to cross a water body
Persons shoot arrows (darts) which hit each other’s end forming a chain (rope, ladder). Persons climb by this chain to the sky or (rare) across an obstacle
To climb to the sky, person must first to shoot an arrow that reaches the sky and sticks to it
Hero or his helpers cut or gnaw through bow- and other strings of the enemies, make holes in their canoes in order to forestall pursuit
Person climbs up a tree or rock or descends to a cave to get eggs or nestlings from the bird's nest. Another person remains on the ground. They get into conflict and/or the first person is unable to get back to the ground
Person gets into the belly of ground animal or bird. He kills it from the inside and/or returns to earth by himself (i.e. not extracted by other people)
By trick or by force, a rival or adversary kidnaps hero's wife or bride. The man gets her back
Women who possess supernatural power and usually come from a non-human world (from sky, from under the water, they are winged beings, bird- or animal-persons) take off their clothes (feather skins and the like) or part of it. Because a man hides the clothes (of one of them), their owner(s) have (has) to marry him or help him
A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world
An ordeal: to remain alive after contact with sharp points or blades
Person or animal must eat (drink) enormous quantity of food (beverage) or eat or drink poisonous beverage or food
A task: to sort a large amount or small particles of different kind (usually seeds of different plants) mixed in container or to count such particles or to pick up the spilled grains
The hero must kill and bring an animal of special (often unusual) color or form
A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage
Task-giver asks to bring him dangerous being or object possessed by a moster or deity. Hero fulfills the task. The beast, monster, deity or the object itself kills the task-giver
Maternal uncle or father (or grandfather if he replaces father who is not mentioned) of the young man is his rival or enemy and tries to kill him
Flying person or creature abducts a woman but is ultimately killed or the woman escapes from him
To return or to get his or her son, wife, husband, domestic animal or (rare) object, person must recognize her, him or it among several identical persons, animals or objects
Person must recognize her (or his) son or husband among several identical persons or animals
Two (rare more) persons or creatures think that they are doomed but one whose death is slightly delayed is happy while one who will be killed earlier is in grief
First one, then another man meets a powerful person or persons. The first man is worthy and rewarded with treasure, prestige or the like. The second man (or two men) follows him, behaves in a wrong way and is punished
One man puts another into a box, closes the lid (or ties him to a board, to canoe, etc.) and puts the box adrift. It floats to another land, man is released there, returns home, revenges on his enemy
Person is lured into a trap being invited to lie in a box or a hole to measure it. Being unable to liberate himself from the box etc., the person remains in power of his enemies
One brother marries a girl, another a frog or toad, both bring them to their parents, or one man takes two wives, a woman and a frog. Both wives have to pass a test. Values of the girl are highly assessed, the frog’s poor qualities are revealed
The hero and his companion or companions live together. Every morning one stays at home while another or others go to hunt, etc. A demonic person comes, eats up all the food and beats the cook. Or the man who remained at home comes to the demon himself in search of fire and is maltreated by him. The hero kills or neutralizes the demon
Every time a demon commits an outrage upon one of the men who remains at home. When it is the hero’s turn, he overcomes the demon and follows his track to his world
A girl (usually the youngest of several sisters) does not reject but marries a poor, sick, dirty, old, too young, non-human, etc. man who later demonstrates his supernatural qualities
An (adoptive) son is a snake who turns into handsome man. The snake is the magic spouse of princess, lost and returned
Small objects and animals (rare: animals alone but including those who really are harmless) revenge on a powerful enemy making attack on him in succession (usually they hide in his or her house); the enemy is badly injured, runs away or dies
Objects and/or domestic animals live in a house. When dangerous enemy comes, they attack him, he dies or escapes (all texts with K77A and K77B included)
A girl and her rival (a witch, a frog) marry two brothers. Both daughters-in-law have to bring presents from their kinsfolk. The girl finds her brother, brothers or sister who were lost or died in the beginning of the tale and they give her valuables. Presents brought by the rival are worthless
A girl becomes separated with her brothers (or brother) who die, remain in a tree, on a hill, ascend to the sky, etc. Usually after being happily married, the girl once again meets her brothers who have acquired a non-human nature
A woman is abandoned by her magic husband. She finds him and becomes his wife again
An enemy asks house utensils or personal objects where their master hid himself or herself or what direction he or she ran away. One of the objects, not treated by the master in a proper way, betrays him or her
To escape from a demonic person, a group of men who are relations of a girl ascend to the sky and remain there
Pursued by a demon, persons hide their younger brother or sister or children in a pit under the hearth
A bodiless head, face, or skull is a woman's husband, suitor or son. He is not dangerous but a good provider, saves people from hunger, etc.
The only vulnerable spot is near the surface of person’s or creature’s body and not in his inner organs
Life of a person or creature is preserved outside of his (her, its) body. Person or creature dies after the corresponding object is destroyed
Hero's life is in certain object, usually in his weapon. When antagonist steals the object, the hero dies but revives after his friends or brothers find the object and bring it back
An ogre or ogress catches a person and carries his or her prey home but the person escapes on the way or immediately after reaching the ogre's house
A monster or a big animal dies when fire is kindled in its belly
A man does not share food with his wife or kinsfolk. He or his food is transformed (turns into a bird, into worms, etc.) in punishment
A baby or small child proves to be a demon, devours or injures people
The eldest of three or more sisters becomes a cannibal and devours her sisters and other people
Running away from a dangerous being, person throws small objects behind him or her which turn into mighty obstacles on the way of the pursuer
Running away from a dangerous being, person throws a comb (a brush) that turns into mighty obstacle (usually a thicket) on the way of the pursuer. (In South America the motif is probably of European origin)
Running away from a dangerous being, person throws objects that turn into mighty obstacles on the way of the pursuer. One of the thrown objects is a whetstone which turns into a mountain
One-sided people have one leg and/or also one arm, one half of a head, etc. The second leg is not cut or burned off, preserved as a stump but is absent completely
A demonic being swallows a multitude of people and animals. When it is killed and cut open, the swallowed ones come out alive or are revived
The sky dwellers fish human beings who live on earth with a line and a hook
Person crosses a water or air space along the chain of many animals, birds or fish
Animal who does not swim well suggests animals who live in water to count their number. For this, they should make a chain and he would run along it. It is but a trick to cross a body of water
Not to return home empty-handed, a hunter or (rare) a fisherman cuts off a piece of flesh from his body (usually from his calf) or (more rare) extracts his blood or entrails. Usually he brings his flesh or blood to other people pretending that is a good game or fish; or a woman cuts off a piece of flesh from her calf to feed her husband
Person pursued by an enemy asks somebody whom he meets to help him. The helper hides him
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is raven
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is fox, jackal or coyote
Person sees how others act using magic or according to their animal nature. He or she imitates their actions and gets into trouble. Actions are not heroic deeds, competitions or tests and refer to everyday activity, mostly to providing and cooking food
A man falls asleep or pretends to be sleeping or dead. Animals take him for dead: mourn, carry to bury, are going to eat up, etc. The man kills a lot of animals or obtain valuables otherwise
A small child cries and becomes satisfied only when he gets a particular object to play with. This object is of high value and is hidden in the house. As soon as the object is given to him, the child or a person related to him carry it away
Hero comes across a (animal-)person from an enemy group and takes his or her appearance, usually dressing himself in a skin of his victim; after this he penetrates the enemy camp
A man tries to join a group of persons who are or become stars (usually the Pleiades) but suffers a reverse; or he pursues the stars to have sexual contact or to be reintegrated with members of his family
An animal (ass, cow, horse, goat, bear, leopard) extracts gold or food from its body or person makes others believe that it is so
Hero wounds dangerous enemy (a monster, a robber) and then, in guise of a doctor, comes to him and kills his patient instead of curing him
An animal or a supernatural creature is wounded but escapes. Local doctors are helpless. The hero or his companion, masked as a doctor, comes to the wounded one and either cures or kills him.
Person pretends that a person (often his or her mother, spouse or lover) who recently died is alive, claims that the death of the false alive resulted from negligence of others and gets a reward
One person or animal suggests another to slide downhill to kill or harm him or her
Animal person puts his tail (penis) down and waits in hope to get something edible. The tail (penis) is torn or cut off, the person escapes or dies
People are ordered to kill their fathers or (rare) mothers (the Nyoro: to deprive them of power and property; the Baluch: not to take them setting off for the journey). An old man concealed by his son helps to resolve difficult problem
Trickster pretends to be dead, sick or weak and is picked up by those who carry something edible in a cart (sledge, boat, bag, etc.). The trickster secretly eats the food, often after throwing it out of the cart (sledge, etc.)
Stars of the handle of the Big Dipper are identified with the hunters, the dipper itself with the game (bear or elk) or a neat-barn ravaged by bear
Magic wife abandons her mortal husband when she finds her clothes (often, her feathers if she is a bird-woman), makes herself the new clothes, receives them from her kin or her husband gives her her clothing believing that she will not abandon him. (Versions with magic wife abandoning her husband because she feels herself offended is not alternative to the “found clothes but in most of the texts these motifs are not combined)
When the elder sister becomes a cannibal, the younger one (temporarily) escapes. Cf. motifs L1B, L65C
A fugitive turns in succession into different animals or objects. A pursuer does the same, every time becoming an animal or a person who is dangerous for the fugitive in his given guise
A human being and a dog together are seen in the moon
Person is suggested to fulfill tasks that are mortally dangerous or cannot be fulfilled without supernatural helpers or capacities. The person fulfills the tasks and remains alive. A contest between persons has form of a competition or game in which the loser is deprived of his status or life
Ursus major (seven stars or only four stars of a dipper) is identified with the game animal or anmials (usually pursued by the hunter)
Person who gives difficult tasks or tests to the hero or heroine lives in the sky but is not associated with the Sun, Moon, Thunder or Wind
An animal person (usually a fox or a jackal) threatens to cut down a tree on which mother bird (squirrel) made its nest unless she will throw down one of her nestlings (squirrel children) or eggs. Another bird lets the mother bird know that the predator is unable to realize his threat
The ginseng roots are boys or girls who help the hero
Coniferous or some other trees or shrubs (subshrubs) became evergree when the life elixir was spilled on them by chance
The elder brother is a hunter, the younger brother (rare: sister) stays at home. When the elder gets to know that the bird-maidens visit the younger, he instructs him what he should do to catch one of the girls. The elder brother marries her but she finds her feathered clothes and flies away (in many versions the younger brother is a simpleton and tells his sister-in-law where her clothes are hidden). The elder brother goes away in search of his lost wife
Being on a visit to other people or (more often) animals, an (animal)-person sees them act using magic or according to their animal nature. Back at home, he imitates their actions and gets in trouble. Actions are not heroic deeds, competitions or tests and mostly refer to providing and cooking food
Person’s (demonic) nature becomes clear when he or she laughs and shows his or her teeth
Because of its stupidity or unsocial behavior, the bear suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
Person who remained alone in a house or got into the house of dangerous creatures hides turning into a needle or other weaving or spinning tool
In the beginning of time, a bird flies and drops some solid substance on the waters and the dry land or an island appear. Sometimes the precise nature of the substratum on which the solid piece falls is not defined
Being alone and having no other marriage partners, brother and sister agree to marry each other if a highly improbable event will take place: a thread that is far from a needle has to enter the needle’s eye.
A man sets off for a confrontation with dangerous adversary. On his way, he is suggested to fulfill difficult tasks and does it successfully. Usually the same tasks had been suggested before to another man who failed to fulfill them and was killed or imprisoned by the adversary
Being irresponsible and light-minded, animal person slides downhill and dies or gets into trouble (falls on sharp pole, into the water, etc.)
After the first death the road to the realm of death remains open; certain person makes a road to the realm of death; the first person who had died becomes the ruler of the guard of the realm of death
The river bed follows the way of a snake, fish, dragon or crab; pieces of the snake’s body turn into rivers; a river is a snake
A girl or young woman sets off to find or return her fience or her husband or she escapes from a fanger and ultimately marries happily
A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife
Rivers (lakes) of blood (also of puss, bones, sweat or water used for washing of corpses) are mentioned in narratives (in different context)
Beings (any besides birds) with even but not more than ten number of heads are described in tales or represented in art. Beings that with even number of heads named in a row with other multi-headed beings and the highest number is even or bigger than ten are not considered
Monstrous bird (giant bat) predates on humans. Heroes fight with it
An evil spirit kills a woman burning her belly through
A slow and a fast animals (or not flying bird) agree to race. The slow one imperceptibly sticks to the fast one’s body (or to a vehicle) and getting to the finish pretends to come there simultaneously with the fast one or before him
Birds, animals or fish compete as about who is the fastest or can fly higher than others. A weak one imperceptible sticks to the body of the fastest or strongest and wins
Being smart and persistent, the turtle (toad, frog) overcomes strong adversaries
The formula that describes the confusion of feelings: when a person looks in one direction, he or she cries, when in another – begins to laugh or smile; or one eye of a person laughs and another laughs; or person laughs looking at one object and weeps looking at another; or one of two persons who share the same fate laughs and another smiles, etc.
The hero must bring a small object (often a finger ring) from the bottom of a deep waterbody (often the sea)
Initially, the Moon was as bright and hot as the Sun
At the terminal part of the narrative the antagonist of the hero descends into the underworld
In a certain time in the past three or more suns were on the sky simultaneously
A girl is promised to a man who would know her name or whose finger would fit her ring, or who would guess a material from which certain object is made or grown. Person finds a correct answer by deception
It should be guessed the nature of a big animal or its skin, the content of a box. The correct answer is that the animal is a louse (or a flea), a louse is in the box
The elder brother is a hunter, the younger one is a housekeeper. When the elder brother gets to catch the winged maiden, the younger foolishly gives her winged back and she flies away. The elder brother sets off to return his wife
The antagonists acquire person’s organ or body part (his remains) . Another person gets back what has been stolen and the first one revives (becomes strong again)
The sea-gull abducts a girl or a woman but she gets to return to the people
The bear (lion) takes a woman for sexual partner or the she-bear takes a man. They have children who look like humans or bear cubs. More rare the woman gives birth to her son in the bear den because being abducted by the bear she was pregnant
A woman becomes the wife of an animal (rare: other non-human being). Her husband cares for her but ultimately the animal, the woman, her children or her relations are killed, she turns into an animal herself, animals and humans become enemies, etc.
A girl (a woman, a group of women) intentionally takes a penis-being, a snake, an eel, a lizard, a worm, a big water animal or water monster or a big terrestrial mammal for paramour. People kill or maim the paramour, the woman and/or her progeny or she is transformed herself into an animal. She is blamed for her behavior
Person does not know that he or she eats or cooks the meat of the member of his or her household (blood relation, more rare a spouse or servant) or serves it to his or her friends, or uses her or his bones for everyday needs, or slowly kills him ort her
Persons climbs a tree and thanks to this escapes from a demon (who usually tries to fell the tree)
People (elder brothers, elder siblings, elder sister) disappear (one by one). A lonely woman has a baby or finds a baby or she becomes pregnant magically and gives birth to a boy. The boy grows up, exterminates the antagonists, usually revives and releases those who had disappeared
Persons avenge the death of their father, mother or other relatives who are one (rare two) generations older than they
Person decorates different birds (rare: fish), share fat between anomals. Since then, the corresponding species acquire present characteristics
Three stars of Big Dipper’s handle are three persons. Four stars of the Dipper itself are objects of animals (one or several)
In the beginning of time or after the natural disaster brother and sister are the only human beings. They marry and the present day people are their descendents
An object that contains certain person’s soul / death is inside other object, the latter is in the third one (etc.). The last receptacle of the life is a needle, the hero breaks it