Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
J18 — A woman falls from the sky.
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 pregnant woman or a woman with a child falls from the sky. She or her newborn daughter dies or undergoes a metamorphosis. Her son or her daughter's son survives and grows up. Cf. motif K9.
Berezkin category: Avenger heroes: The amerinday cycle
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
J18 has 1 other sub-motifs
RelatedJ18. A pregnant woman or a woman with a child falls from the sky. She or her newborn daughter dies or undergoes a metamorphosis. Her son or her daughter's son survives and grows up. Cf. motif K9.
J18a. A cannibal eats a woman and enters her house. The woman's children (daughter and son, or daughter only) run away, climb a tree or climb a rope to the sky. The cannibal pursues them and perishes.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| M29Q | 98.51% | See the motives in square brackets. |
| M65B | 98.17% | Having resorted to deception, the character kills the game, but the thieves take the loot. See M53 motif. |
| J19 | 98.02% | While her husband or brother is hunting, an evil spirit comes to his wife or sister; he kills her or takes her away. Her sons, who were torn from her womb or born at that time, are saved. |
| J12J | 98.00% | A girl or sisters end up with a false groom who plays the role of a jester in the chief's house. See motif J12. |
| K68 | 97.75% | A strong man takes food from a weak man and forces him to work for him (usually a son-in-law mistreats his father-in-law). A boy appears in the house of the wronged man from a clot of animal blood that has been collected. He kills the offender. |
| F93A | 97.74% | A man's penis begins to talk incessantly, falling silent only after his mother-in-law takes it in her hand. |
| M65 | 97.55% | trickster bakes meat obtained by trick, deception; immobilized by sticking to a tree, ground, or stone; at this time, another character (fox, wolf, coyote, birds) eats all the meat. See M53 motif. |
| M24 | 97.50% | turtle goes to war and/or is captured. See M23 motif. Cf. motif K77 “Verlioka”. |
| L91 | 97.15% | Two or four young men go on a journey or return from one. Their path is blocked by a long creature that cannot be bypassed. They burn a passage through it. One eats roasted meat, turns into a snake himself, or dies. See motif L28. |
| K48A | 96.89% | The hero's costume and/or headdress are decorated with live birds or animals. Usually, the antagonist steals the clothes and pretends to be the hero, but the birds and animals on his headdress remain silent or cry out differently. See motif K48. |
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
25 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 25 traditions: Svans, Mansi, Chukchi, Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Western Woods Cree, Huron (incl Wyandot), Five Nations Iroquois (Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga), Tuscarora, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Teton (incl Oglala), Mandan, Arikara, Pawnee, Kiowa, Gros Ventre, Plains Ojibwa, Crow, Hidatsa, Klamath, Modoc, Hopi, Zuni, Amahuaca, Cashinahua, Sharanahua, Yaminahua, Yawanahua, Capanahua)
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