Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
B92 — Flint turns into flints.
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 character whose body is hard and has broken into small pieces, or (rarely) a small object, turns into flint or other hard stones (the origin of flint).
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 |
|---|---|---|
| K50 | 99.40% | A man approaches the enemy disguised as a woman and kills him at night (usually cutting off his head and taking it with him). |
| M59 | 99.20% | A small animal asks a large one to transport it across the river; consistently rejects all the seats on the carrier's body that he offers; climbs to where the carrier is You can kill when the crossing is over. |
| M59A | 99.15% | After asking a large animal to transport it across the river, a porcupine kills or damages it. See M59 motif. |
| M29R | 99.13% | See the motives in square brackets. |
| M54 | 99.10% | The character lives or stays at someone else's house; then goes far away, falls asleep, but wakes up again in the same house. |
| L80 | 99.08% | A demonic creature or animal is killed, but comes back to life or can come back to life if even a small piece of its flesh or blood is left behind, unnoticed. |
| A42A | 99.05% | Having risen into the sky, the character unsuccessfully performs the role of the sun and as a result falls or is thrown down to earth. |
| H18A | 98.96% | The owner of the hunting animals hides them underground; one of the first ancestors turns into a puppy, which is picked up by the owner's children, and releases the animals. See motif H18. |
| K8C3 | 98.95% | One (zoomorphic) character refuses to use any part of another's body except the one he uses to kill him. |
| F60 | 98.92% | A girl or woman falls ill. A character comes to heal her. The treatment consists of him copulating with her or attempting to do so. |
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
26 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 26 traditions: Danes, Danish, Scandinavians: early written sources ("Edda"; Saxo Grammaticus etc.); Gothland picture stones; Ancient Germans (Late Bronze Age in Scandinavia), Nenets, Sarsee (Tsuu T'ina), Arikara, Kiowa Apache, Crow, Shuswap, Thompson (Nlaka'pamux), Tillamook, Kalapuya, Kutenai, Yurok, Pomo, Sierra Miwok, Lake Miwok, Plains Miwok, Coastal Miwok, Northern Shoshone, Western Shoshone, Gosiute, Eastern Shoshone, Ute, Navajo, Jicarilla, Lipan, Northern and Southern Tehuelche, Upper Chinook: Wasco, Wishram, Clackamas, Kathlamet
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How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
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