Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
D1A1 — The old woman-fire takes the child away.
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
OverviewBecause a woman offended the fire, its mistress takes her child away.
Berezkin category: Fire and Laughter
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks 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.
D1 has 6 other sub-motifs
RelatedD1. A woman (usually elderly) is the embodiment of fire â alone or together with her husband, the master of fire. Cf. motif D5 (woman possesses fire).
D1a. A girl marries a man whose mother is fire.
D1a1. Because a woman offended the fire, its mistress takes her child away.
D1a2. The house of the person who insulted the fire burns down, but the property inside it or the child of another person (or that person himself) who treated the fire with respect is not harmed.
D1a3. A man marries a woman who is fire. She is mistreated, or her husband does not like her, and the marriage breaks down.
D1a4. Two fires from different dwellings meet and converse.
D1b. The man is the master or embodiment of fire (alone or alongside the woman-fire).
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| A32J | 100.00% | A shaman with a tambourine ascends to the moon and remains there, visible in the silhouette of the lunar spots. |
| B42M1 | 100.00% | The three main stars of the Big Dipper's handle are associated with people of three different nationalities. |
| B64A | 100.00% | Fish and birds fight (usually by shooting arrows at each other). Since then, fish have had many small bones in their bodies and/or birds' legs have taken on their current form. |
| B72D | 100.00% | A woman makes herself wings (beak, tail) from clothing accessories and turns into a bird or a flying creature. |
| B74A | 100.00% | Red cloths are sewn over the character's eyes (threads, eyelids are painted red) or he does it himself. He sees everything in red or his eyes have turned red forever. |
| E13 | 100.00% | The shamanic tambourine is compared or associated with a lake. |
| E1E | 100.00% | The son of the first human couple initially takes the form of a small plant that has grown from the ground, a stalk. |
| K32H2 | 100.00% | A man executes his wife by leaving her to be eaten by ants. |
| K56A1 | 100.00% | The groom, the bringer of prosperity, orders the girl who has come to perform work that she herself is unable to do. The groom's mother performs the work, and the girl is accepted by the groom. See motif K56A. Except for the Ket people: the work is performed by tiny women sitting in or behind the mother-in-law's ear. |
| L42F | 100.00% | The character intended for consumption slips away unnoticed. The master of the house thinks that his wife has eaten him alone and cuts open her stomach. |
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
8 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 8 traditions: Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Forest Nenets, Northern Selkups, Kets, Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Tungus (Evenki) of China (Solon, Birar, Oroqen, Manegir), Evenks, Tungus (Evenki): Russian Far East, Evenks, Northern Khanty (Ostyaks)
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