Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
C31A — Lights or fire promised to the devil.
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
OverviewThe master (mistress) of the underworld receives (should receive) heavenly lights or fire. Due to a trick or accident, they are not given to him or are returned.
Berezkin category: Disasters
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 3, Cosmogony, the earth and the sky, etiology of the elements, natural and biological phenomena (fire, water, soil, thunderstorms, dream, etc.), cataclysms and cosmic threats, spirits of nature.
C31 has 3 other sub-motifs
RelatedC31. The hedgehog is wiser or more cunning than all the gods and animals; it possesses knowledge that is vital for human existence.
C31a. The master (mistress) of the underworld receives (should receive) heavenly lights or fire. Due to a trick or accident, they are not given to him or are returned.
C31b. The owl is wiser and more intelligent than other living creatures.
C31c. The bat turns out to be smarter and wiser than other living creatures.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K62A | 99.71% | A mouse (rat, mole, etc.) and a bird quarrel after failing to divide their winter supplies. (This episode usually serves as the beginning of a story about a war between birds and animals). |
| H7F | 99.15% | God gives instructions that certain categories of people must die and suffer. The character who receives the instructions, caring for the people, passes on other orders to the executors. |
| B110 | 99.03% | A character who is dragged along the ground or who runs, falls apart or hits the ground with different parts of his body. This determines the characteristics of the landscape and flora. |
| B3C | 98.67% | When the creator, having created the land, lies down to rest, the antagonist tries to drown him, dragging him to the edge of the earth. As a result, the earth expands, and the antagonist is unable to reach its edge. |
| K25A2 | 98.64% | An anthropomorphic character flies away or tries to fly away, attaching feathers shed by birds flying in the sky to his body. |
| E36 | 98.06% | The human body was or could have been covered with a protective layer (bone, rarely wool), but it has only been preserved on the nails (head). |
| H6C1 | 97.98% | To obtain the desired object, the character grabs the young or the female bird (snake, crab) and promises to release them if the father (mother, male) bird delivers the desired object. |
| K73B6 | 97.79% | The wife of a powerful character gives birth to wonderful children. Her jealous sisters conspire to make her husband order her to be disposed of (usually by locking her and the child in a barrel and throwing it into the water). The boy immediately grows up and rescues his mother and himself. He himself (in the form of a bird, animal, insect, or flying in on a miraculous object) or his puppy brother enters his father's lair and, eavesdropping on the conversation, learns of the existence of miraculous objects. Upon returning, he obtains them or already possesses them and demonstrates them to his father when they meet (the objects may include the young man's brothers). |
| L120B | 97.73% | The hero fights the serpent and calls for help, but no one hears him. Then he throws an item of his footwear or clothing, and his awakened brothers or his horse come to his aid. |
| I98B | 97.25% | The Pleiades â ducks, nest or wild duck egg. |
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
9 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 9 traditions: Latvians, Setu, Norwegians, Swedes, Kazakh, Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Khakas, Buryats: Eastern (trans Baikal), i.e. Khori
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