batch.motif.comparative-golden-bough-volume-2-frazer-gutenberg-l6847-l6926
---
record_id: batch.motif.comparative-golden-bough-volume-2-frazer-gutenberg-l6847-l6926
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
passage_locator:
label: 'The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (Vol. 2 of 2) / CONTENTS;
lines 6847-6926'
start: '6847'
end: '6926'
translation: 'The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (Vol. 2 of 2)'
notes: Generated from OpenAI Batch run motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority;
human review required.
canonical_text:
quote: ''
summary: The passage surveys Slavonic and Teutonic tales in which a being's death,
life, strength, heart, or soul is kept outside the body, often inside nested objects,
animals, plants, or remote places. The external object is found, damaged, extinguished,
burnt, uprooted, or destroyed, causing the being's weakness or death. A related
Oldenburg tale presents flowers that flourish or wither with the lives of royal
children.
language: English
quote_policy: summarized
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: In a Russian tale, Koshchei the Deathless says his death is inside an egg,
which is inside a duck, inside a hare, inside a casket, under an oak; when the
prince breaks the egg, Koshchei dies.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: Other Russian variants place a fatal object in an egg, a rose-tree, or a cauldron-held
heart, and damaging or moving the object affects the owner.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:3
text: A Bohemian tale places a warlock's strength in an egg nested in a duck and
stag under a tree; a seer obtains and sucks the egg, and the strength passes to
him.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:4
text: A Serbian tale has True Steel's strength in a bird inside a heart inside a
fox inside a mountain; when the bird is burnt, True Steel dies.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:5
text: A South Slavonian dragon says its strength is inside a pigeon, inside a boar,
inside a dragon, in a lake under a city.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:6
text: In a Transylvanian Saxon tale, bullets cannot harm a witch because her life
is a light burning in an egg inside a duck on a pond in a mountain; smashing the
egg and extinguishing the light ends her life.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:7
text: In a German tale, the cannibal Soulless keeps his soul in a box on a rock
in the Red Sea; when a soldier removes and throws away the soul, Soulless dies.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: obs:8
text: In an Oldenburg story, each royal child has a life-flower in the king's garden
that blooms while the child lives and withers when the child dies.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: obs:9
text: In another German tale, an old warlock says his heart is in a bird flying
in a fortified church beyond a moat; squeezing and killing the bird makes the
warlock sicken and die.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: Koshchei the Deathless
description: A Russian warlock whose death is kept outside his body in nested containers
ending in an egg.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: Prince in the Koshchei tale
description: A prince who obtains and breaks the egg containing Koshchei's death.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: Russian enchantress
description: An enchantress whose death is in a blue rose-tree in a blue forest.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: Prince Ivan
description: A prince who uproots the rose-tree containing the enchantress's death
and throws it into the cellar.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: Bohemian warlock
description: A warlock whose strength lies in an egg nested within a duck and stag
under a tree.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: fig:6
name_or_label: Bohemian seer
description: A seer who finds and sucks the egg containing the warlock's strength.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: fig:7
name_or_label: True Steel
description: A fabulous Serbian being whose strength is in a bird nested inside
a heart and fox in a mountain.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: fig:8
name_or_label: South Slavonian dragon
description: A dragon who says its strength is hidden in a nested chain ending in
a pigeon.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: fig:9
name_or_label: Transylvanian Saxon witch
description: A witch whose life is a light in an egg within a duck on a pond in
a mountain.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: fig:10
name_or_label: Young man in the Transylvanian Saxon tale
description: A young man who obtains and smashes the egg, putting out the witch's
life-light.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: fig:11
name_or_label: Soulless
description: A German cannibal whose soul is kept in a box on a rock in the Red
Sea.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: fig:12
name_or_label: Soldier in the Soulless tale
description: A soldier who obtains the box, removes the soul, and throws it away.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: fig:13
name_or_label: Oldenburg royal children
description: A king's three sons and daughter, each associated with a life-flower
in the king's garden.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: fig:14
name_or_label: Old German warlock
description: An old warlock whose heart is in a bird flying inside a fortified church.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: fig:15
name_or_label: Damsel and her lover
description: The damsel and the young man who catches and squeezes the bird containing
the warlock's heart.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
roles:
- id: role:1
label: external-life holder
assigned_to:
- fig:1
- fig:3
- fig:5
- fig:7
- fig:8
- fig:9
- fig:11
- fig:14
basis: These figures have their death, life, strength, heart, or soul located outside
the body in a remote object, animal, plant, or place.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:9
- id: role:2
label: finder or destroyer of life-token
assigned_to:
- fig:2
- fig:4
- fig:6
- fig:10
- fig:12
- fig:15
basis: These figures obtain, uproot, suck, extinguish, throw away, squeeze, or destroy
the external object tied to another being's life or strength.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:9
- id: role:3
label: life-linked persons
assigned_to:
- fig:13
basis: The royal children are each linked to a flower that blooms or withers according
to the child's life or death.
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: egg containing death, strength, or life-light
literal_form: egg
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:5
- fig:6
- fig:9
- fig:10
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:3
- ev:6
- id: sym:2
label: nested animal containers
literal_form: hare, duck, stag, fox, bird, boar, pigeon, dragon
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:5
- fig:7
- fig:8
- fig:9
- fig:14
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:3
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:9
- id: sym:3
label: tree or plant holding life or death
literal_form: oak, rose-tree, tree, life-flower
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:3
- fig:5
- fig:13
taxonomy_refs:
- tree
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:8
- id: sym:4
label: heart outside the body
literal_form: heart in a fox; heart in a bird; prince's heart in a cauldron
associated_figures:
- fig:7
- fig:14
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:4
- ev:9
- id: sym:5
label: remote mountain hiding the life-token
literal_form: mountain
associated_figures:
- fig:7
- fig:9
taxonomy_refs:
- mountain
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:6
- id: sym:6
label: water barrier or water setting
literal_form: lake, pond, moat, Red Sea
associated_figures:
- fig:8
- fig:9
- fig:11
- fig:14
taxonomy_refs:
- water
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:9
- id: sym:7
label: life as burning light
literal_form: light burning in an egg
associated_figures:
- fig:9
taxonomy_refs:
- fire
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: sym:8
label: soul in a box
literal_form: box containing Soulless's soul
associated_figures:
- fig:11
- fig:12
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: sym:9
label: fortified church containing heart-bird
literal_form: church with iron doors and a surrounding moat
associated_figures:
- fig:14
- fig:15
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Koshchei's nested death is broken
summary: Koshchei discloses that his death lies in a nested sequence under an oak;
the prince obtains and breaks the final egg, and Koshchei dies.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
- sym:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: scene:2
label: Slavonic variants of external strength or death
summary: Russian, Bohemian, Serbian, and South Slavonian examples place death or
strength in plants, eggs, animals, hearts, mountains, lakes, or other nested locations.
figure_refs:
- fig:3
- fig:4
- fig:5
- fig:6
- fig:7
- fig:8
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
- sym:3
- sym:4
- sym:5
- sym:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:4
- ev:5
- id: scene:3
label: Teutonic examples of external life or soul
summary: Transylvanian Saxon and German tales place a witch's life in a light within
an egg, a cannibal's soul in a box, royal children's lives in flowers, and a warlock's
heart in a bird within a church.
figure_refs:
- fig:9
- fig:10
- fig:11
- fig:12
- fig:13
- fig:14
- fig:15
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
- sym:3
- sym:4
- sym:5
- sym:6
- sym:7
- sym:8
- sym:9
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:8
- ev:9
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: external soul or external life-token
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: Multiple tales place a being's death, life, strength, heart, or soul outside
the body, and the being dies or weakens when the external token is destroyed,
extinguished, uprooted, sucked, or removed.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:9
confidence: high
cautions: The passage is Frazer's comparative synthesis rather than the full folktales;
individual tale contexts are abbreviated.
- id: motif:2
label: nested containment of the vulnerable life-token
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: Several examples hide the vital object inside a chain of animals, objects,
or remote places, such as egg in duck in hare under oak, bird in heart in fox
in mountain, or pigeon in boar in dragon in lake.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
confidence: high
cautions: Not every example in the passage uses nested containers.
- id: motif:3
label: life-index plant
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The Oldenburg tale describes flowers that bloom while corresponding royal
children live and wither when they die; Russian and Bohemian examples also connect
death or strength with a rose-tree or tree setting.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:8
confidence: medium
cautions: The life-flower example indexes life rather than being explicitly destroyed
to cause death.
comparison_claims:
- id: claim:1
claim: The passage presents Slavonic and Teutonic tales as examples of the same
broad external-soul pattern, in which a life, death, strength, heart, or soul
exists outside the body and can be manipulated to affect the person or being.
claim_level: same_motif
target: Slavonic and Teutonic external-soul folktales surveyed by Frazer
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:3
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:9
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: high
limitations: The passage supports motif similarity, not a claim of historical contact,
borrowing, or common inheritance.
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: lines 6847-6855
quote_or_summary: Russian Koshchei says his death is in an egg inside a duck, hare,
casket, and under an oak; a prince breaks the egg and Koshchei dies.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:2
type: summary
locator: lines 6855-6870
quote_or_summary: Russian variants describe death or vulnerability tied to an egg,
a snake version with a stone in an egg-yolk, a blue rose-tree whose uprooting
sickens an enchantress, and a prince's heart seething in a magic cauldron.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:3
type: summary
locator: lines 6870-6874
quote_or_summary: A Bohemian warlock's strength is in an egg inside a duck inside
a stag under a tree; a seer finds and sucks the egg, and the warlock becomes weak
while the strength passes to the seer.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:4
type: summary
locator: lines 6874-6879
quote_or_summary: True Steel says his strength is in a bird inside a heart inside
a fox in a high mountain; when the fox is killed and the bird burned, True Steel
falls dead.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:5
type: summary
locator: lines 6879-6884
quote_or_summary: A South Slavonian dragon says its strength is in a pigeon inside
a boar inside a dragon in a lake under an emperor's city.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:6
type: summary
locator: lines 6885-6896
quote_or_summary: A Transylvanian Saxon witch cannot be harmed by bullets because
her life is a light in an egg inside a duck on a pond in a mountain; a young man
smashes the egg and extinguishes the light, ending her life.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:7
type: summary
locator: lines 6896-6902
quote_or_summary: In a German story, Soulless keeps his soul in a box on a rock
in the Red Sea; a soldier opens the box, removes the soul, throws it behind him,
and Soulless dies.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:8
type: summary
locator: lines 6902-6905
quote_or_summary: An Oldenburg story says each of a king's children has a life-flower
in the garden that flourishes while the child lives and withers when the child
dies.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:9
type: summary
locator: lines 6905-6926
quote_or_summary: An old German warlock says his heart is in a bird in a secured
church surrounded by a moat; the bridegroom catches the bird, squeezes it, and
when the bird dies the warlock dies too.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
confidence:
extraction: high
motif_candidates: high
comparison_claims: medium
notes: The passage explicitly frames these examples as external-soul stories and
gives enough detail for motif extraction; comparison is limited to the similarity
stated in the passage.
reviewer_status:
status: needs_review
reviewer: ''
reviewed_at: ''
notes: Machine-generated draft from OpenAI Batch; not human-reviewed.
extracted_by: openai_batch:gpt-5.5
extracted_at: '2026-04-28'
notes: |-
No historical-contact or inheritance claim is made beyond the passage's comparative grouping of Slavonic and Teutonic examples.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:comparative-golden-bough-volume-2-frazer-gutenberg__l6847-l6926
passage_sha256=e700fac2977d0f50785534a4520a9a676f8901831fc5156bc37abd5a2b04e147