Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
I68A — The night of magical water.
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
OverviewOnce a year, water briefly acquires unusual properties.
Berezkin category: Supernatural objects, objects and creatures
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 8, Queer and monstrous beings, creatures, objects and loci, folk beliefs related to particular phenomena and objects.
I68 has 2 other sub-motifs
RelatedI68. At a certain moment, a crack or window opens in the sky (rain pours through it, it is possible to see what is happening in heaven, perhaps communication with the celestials).
I68a. Once a year, water briefly acquires unusual properties.
I68b. On a certain night of the year, any wish that is expressed or conceived will come true. Cf. motif M13.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K32L | 100.00% | The ruler distributes horses (cows) to his subjects for fattening. Only the heroine returns hers well-fed. |
| K61E | 99.30% | Seeing an absurd situation, a powerful (supernatural) character laughs and is thereby usually cured of his ailment. For this, the people involved in the situation are rewarded and saved from danger. |
| K90B | 99.26% | The antlers of a deer or the tusks of an elephant, which a snake or dragon is trying to swallow, get stuck in its mouth. |
| K35C | 99.10% | The dev (ajdaha, sea king) did not kill the man who descended to him, as people assumed, but rewarded him because he greeted him and/or answered his question correctly. |
| K35C1 | 99.01% | The young man is not killed, but rewarded, because he answered correctly (evasively) the question of a powerful character â which of the two women he should marry, which is more beautiful, which object or material is more valuable, etc. |
| K85E | 98.51% | Magical horses live in water. |
| K119E | 98.44% | The poor young man who was helped by an animal assistant, who presented him to the king as a rich man, is a miller or a miller's son. |
| I35A1 | 97.85% | The character claims the role of the thunder god and imitates him. |
| I87AD | 97.30% | A giant hides a persecuted person in his mouth â usually (perhaps always) in a tooth cavity; or the person remains alive in the giant's mouth, hiding in a tooth cavity. Cf. motif M21a. |
| E41 | 97.25% | A skilled blacksmith, as a special gift, can take iron heated in a furnace with his bare hands, knead it like dough, and shape it as desired. Usually, he breaks a certain taboo and loses his gift. (The motif was identified and the material collected by Ruslan Doutalieyev). |
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
11 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 11 traditions: Czech, Czechs, Macedonians, Balkarians, Western Ukrainians, Abaza (Abazins), Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Karachays, Balkar, Kumyk, Terekemen, Armenians, Kurds, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians
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