Motif
Fragile egg enclosure
fragile_egg_enclosure
A motif of the Sacred Vessel and Container family. Every row below is a tagged passage; each rests on a quote in its source text.
1 occurrences
1 traditions
afro caribbean
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Jamaica Anansi Stories XVII. / PHILOSOPHY. / XVIII. / RIDDLES.; lines 10478-10738 confidence: high
“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, / Humpty Dumpty had a great fall”; the answer is egg, and the king’s horses and men cannot put him together again.
Multiple riddles turn on egg imagery: Humpty Dumpty’s irreparable fall, an egg hatching, and a broken covering that releases a golden ball.
read in the book →