Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
J61 — Descends on a feather.
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 character has the ability to move or hover in the air like a feather or a fluff.
Berezkin category: Avenger heroes: The amerinday cycle
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| H19 | 99.49% | The raven hides game animals in a pen or cave or scares them away from hunters. See motif H18. |
| M49A | 99.05% | hero needs to penetrate unnoticed into the locus of dangerous creatures; he meets an old woman (usually a shaman, a doctor) going there, puts on her skin, and penetrates into dangerous ones in her guise creatures. |
| L33 | 98.98% | The stone rolls after the character, trying to crush him. |
| L97 | 98.02% | Seeing a character who is unable to move (nailed to the ground, his lower body rooted to the ground, petrified, completely absent), the hero himself manages to avoid a similar fate. |
| F68 | 97.91% | A woman pretends to be dead or actually dies. Her (former) lover comes to her grave. She goes with him, trying to avoid exposure, puts on men's clothes, but is eventually recognised. |
| M29C | 97.91% | See the motives in square brackets. |
| L1B1 | 97.90% | A woman comes into conflict with her brothers and turns into a dangerous demon. |
| K27B | 97.68% | Test: smoke a huge or poisonous pipe or breathe in clouds of poisonous smoke. See motif K27. |
| M22A | 97.60% | In a foreign house, in a foreign country, where the hero finds himself, the crane or heron is a watchman who must raise the alarm in case of strangers appearing. |
| J40B | 97.54% | 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 |
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: Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Aleuts, Inland Tlingit, Athna, Bering Strait Inupiat (incl. King Island), North Alaskan Inupiat, Tlingit, Haida, Bella Coola (Nuxalk), Menominee, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Mandan, Omaha, Ponca, Pawnee, Kiowa Apache, Chilkotin, Western Sahaptin (Upper Cowlitz, Klikitat, Tenino, Umatilla, Yakima, Wallawalla), Klamath, Modoc, Upland Yuma: Walapai, Havasupai, Yavapai, Serrano, Western Apache (White Mountain, San Carlos), Yuma proper (Quechan), Mohave, Maricopa, Papago, Kodiak
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How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
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