Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
I92 — The rainbow changes gender.
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 person who has come into contact with a rainbow in a certain way (walked under it, drunk water where the rainbow drinks, etc.) changes their gender.
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.
I92 has 2 other sub-motifs
RelatedI92. A person who has come into contact with a rainbow in a certain way (walked under it, drunk water where the rainbow drinks, etc.) changes their gender.
I92a. A person who jumps or steps over a rainbow changes their gender.
I92b. Where the ends of the rainbow reach the ground, there is treasure.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| I22D | 99.80% | To obtain a miraculous life-giving (healing) remedy, one must penetrate the space behind the shifting rocks. |
| M39A4G | 99.80% | Fool sells property to the dogs and believes that they will pay him. Trying to get his money, he finds treasure |
| K56A4D | 99.68% | A stepmother sends her stepdaughter to a house in the forest, giving her ashes, sand, etc. instead of food. The stepdaughter turns them into flour, groats, etc. |
| K35A5 | 99.65% | An authoritative character leaves an object (a letter) for a little boy, by which he will be able to recognise him when he grows up and comes to him. |
| M39I | 99.65% | After going broke, a person decides to hang himself, but finds gold (specially put by the father where his son hangs). |
| K92B | 99.64% | A daughter tells her father (rarely her brother) that she loves him like salt (or that salt is more important than him, etc.). He sends his daughter away (gets angry with his sister), but then realises she is right. |
| K120 | 99.62% | The girl's father (rarely: stepfather) intends to marry her (since she is the only one who meets the requirements for a bride). Usually, the girl manages to avoid the marriage. |
| M191A | 99.61% | Mice decide to hang a bell around a cat's neck or tail so that they will know when it is approaching. Usually, none of the mice are able to do this. |
| K33A7 | 99.59% | After the death of a woman, her daughter or son advises her father to marry a neighbour, teacher, etc., who usually persuades the teenager to give such advice. After marrying the widower, the new wife begins to tyrannise her stepdaughter or stepson. |
| K120A5 | 99.55% | To obtain a woman, a man lures her onto a ship (boat, flying machine, etc.) and takes her away. |
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
41 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 41 traditions: Arabs of Levant (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan); Bedouins of Sinai, Yoruba; incl Ife), Nupe, Bini (Edo), Engenni, Chamba, Dakka, Kukuruku, England, British, Bretons, Spain, Spaniards, Basques, Catalan, Aragon, France, 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, Poles, Slovakians, Slovaks, Hungarians, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Macedonians, Balkarians, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Croatians, Croats; Italians of Dalmatia (if the motif is absent among other Italians), Slovenians, Slovenes, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Albanians, Balkarians, Western Ukrainians, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Karachays, Balkar, Ossetians, Georgians, Armenians, Crimean Tatars, Karaims, Gagauz, Anatolia Turks, Kurds, Bashkirs, Mari (Cheremis), Chuvash, Udmurt, Khakas, Choco: Embera, Nonama (Waunana), XVI century Dabaiba, pre-Columbian iconography of Sinu, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Lebanon, Russian Federation
If you wish to get access to data for projects and research, then please contact us, we do our best to help
How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
0009-0006-1672-4451
Where applicable, users should also cite the relevant original sources, catalogues, and classification systems, including Berezkin, ATU, Thompson, and other cited authorities, alongside the page accessed and the last time accessed.
Editorial annotations and database enhancements © Jonathan Fielder-White licensed under CC BY 4.0. Berezkin-derived narrative and metadata licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Full rights information can be found here.
All rights are reserved in the database structure, selection, arrangement, metadata, classifications, software, interface design, and original editorial content.
Important: The Folklore Database expressly reserves all rights in relation to text and data mining, automated extraction, scraping, machine learning, dataset creation, and the training, development, validation, or improvement of artificial intelligence technologies or systems. No part of this website or database may be scraped, copied, reproduced, harvested, downloaded in bulk, or otherwise used for AI training or commercial data extraction without prior written permission.
Designed and Developed by Jon Fielder-White.
© 2024–2026 Crecganford / Jonathan Fielder-White. All rights reserved.