Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
B104B — A woman turns into a woodpecker.
Source data for narratives and traditions is drawn from Berezkin’s Analytical Catalogue. If you use this data, please acknowledge and link to it: Ю.Е. Березкин, Е.Н. Дувакин. Тематическая классификация и распределение фольклорно-мифологических мотивов по ареалам. Аналитический каталог.
Summary of motif
OverviewA woman refuses to share bread with Jesus, who has come to her, and he turns her into a woodpecker.
Berezkin category: The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 7, Etiology of plants and animals and of their peculiar features, particular animals as protagonists of cosmological stories, metamorphoses, weather and calendar.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| M134C | 98.86% | A zoomorphic character climbs into a cellar (pantry, garden, etc.) and eats so much that he cannot get out. |
| K72A | 98.58% | The king notices that his prohibition on lighting fires at night has been violated. |
| K33E | 98.52% | Newborn children disappear (die) one after another, but are returned to their wife or husband grown up and in good health. |
| N38 | 98.47% | The character asks others which key is better - lost and found or new. This refers to a forgotten and newfound marriage partner (less often a direct question is asked about this). |
| K120A3 | 98.32% | The character receives a nut containing valuables (beautiful clothes, jewellery, animal helpers, etc.), or (Germans, Latvians) hides the valuables in the nut himself to use them later. |
| K57C | 98.23% | The prince puts a ring on the finger of a beautiful girl, not knowing that she is the very girl who works in his kitchen. The girl slips the ring into the prince's food, and he recognises it. |
| M206 | 98.13% | A guard (nobleman) agrees to let a man pass to an authoritative figure on condition that he gives him half of the expected reward. The man asks for a beating as a reward or expected it from the outset. |
| L4B | 98.11% | The character learns about the violation of the prohibition to enter a certain room, as evidence of this has been preserved on the body of the heroine (hero) or on an object in her (his) hands (often blood on a key or an apple). |
| H7G | 98.09% | A person sees many burning candles or lamps. When one of them burns out, someone dies. |
| K107A2 | 98.02% | A nobleman (king) is forced to promise his daughter or son to a demon (monster, predatory beast). He tries to replace her or him with other girls or boys, but this does not work. |
See the 100 most similar distributions →
Map of motif dispersal
DistributionDrag the map to pan, use the scroll wheel to zoom — choose a texture or projection below
Traditions
7 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 7 traditions: Catalan, Germans: North (Low- and Central German dialects): Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg, Pommern, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony, incl East Frisia and Oldenburg), Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Thüringen, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen, Brandenburg, Rügen, Finns, Karelians, Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, Danish
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How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
0009-0006-1672-4451
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