Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
J40 — Enemy 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
OverviewThe sky is inhabited by creatures that descend to kill people. Usually, the creature carries away a person or many people, or a human head. The hero (usually a close relative of the deceased) avenges the killer and/or returns the kidnapped person (persons; the carried-away body part).
Berezkin category: Avenger heroes: The amerinday cycle
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
J40 has 2 other sub-motifs
RelatedJ40. The sky is inhabited by creatures that descend to kill people. Usually, the creature carries away a person or many people, or a human head. The hero (usually a close relative of the deceased) avenges the killer and/or returns the kidnapped person (persons; the carried-away body part).
J40A. Returning after a long absence, the hero finds his parents or other close relatives in humiliating slavery, orders them to demonstratively show disobedience, and punishes those who humiliated them.
J40b. After the hero comes back after a long absence and finds his parents enslaved, he tells them to demonstrate openly a lack of respect to their masters and punishes those who were cruel with them
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K10G | 93.84% | Finding himself in the nest of a giant bird on a tree or rock, a man descends to the ground with the help of an adult bird (attaching its feathers or wings to himself), and more often - a chick (grabbing its legs, sitting on the chick, attaching its feathers or wings). |
| K41 | 92.55% | A character representing a thunderstorm or a giant bird fights a snake or other large creature living in water or underground. |
| L30 | 87.19% | The one who broke the food taboo experiences terrible thirst and drinks a huge amount of water. |
| I13A | 86.46% | A huge aquatic or celestial serpent, dragon, or snake-like creature with horns on its head. |
| J12D | 85.32% | After a girl marries a worthy suitor, the rejected suitor or his relatives kill the rival. See motif J12. |
| C5A | 83.60% | A bird, various birds, or people who then turn into birds are sent to explore the earth (whether it exists, whether it has dried up, whether there are any survivors, why smoke is rising from the earth, etc.) or with the task of bringing back a piece of solid substance to create dry land. |
| I9 | 83.42% | Each (or at least three) of the four cardinal directions (as well as the zenith and nadir) and/or the objects located there have their own colour. Abbreviations: E: east, S: south, W: west, N: north. (Cf. Podosinov 2000: 143-147). |
| H34B | 82.96% | Somewhere there is or was a river that flowed or, according to the plan, was supposed to flow in two directions at once. |
| L28 | 82.77% | A person who eats unusual or forbidden meat or fish, or touches something forbidden, turns into a reptile or a fish. |
| J25 | 82.41% | Heroes (one, two or one of two), while still infants or embryos, disappear or are thrown away (often into water). To bring them back to the world of humans, they are lured, persuaded or (with difficulty) caught. |
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
40 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 40 traditions: Indian literary tradition (Vedic, Brahman, Purana, Indian Buddhism, Hinduism, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchtantra, Jatakas); iconography of Hindu temples, Ossetians, Kalmyk, Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Uilta (Orok), Nanai, Nivkh, Upper Tanana (Nebesna), Tanacross, Inland Tlingit, Koyukon, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Bella Coola (Nuxalk), Eastern Cree, Menominee, Winnebago, Blackfoot, Arikara, Plains Cree, Crow, Hidatsa, Lower Chehalis, Upper Chehalis, (Lower) Cowlitz, Tillamook, Coos, Kutenai, Karok, Hupa, Chilula, Pomo, Sierra Miwok, Lake Miwok, Plains Miwok, Coastal Miwok, Upland Yuma: Walapai, Havasupai, Yavapai, Tewa (San Juan, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Tesuque, Nambe; Hano), Tiwa (Taos, Picuris; Sandia, Isleta), Towa (Jemez), Yuma proper (Quechan), Mohave, Maricopa, Tepehua, Totonac, Tzotzil, Mai Huna (Coto, Orejon), Barasana, Taibano, Macuna, Caraja
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 Š 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.
Š 2024â2026 Crecganford / Jonathan Fielder-White. All rights reserved.