Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M27 — Returning from Heaven
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 tree or staircase that people took to heaven collapses; on the way back, people fall down. Usually some stay in the sky forever or longer than others.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
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 |
|---|---|---|
| K64 | 95.04% | Finding himself in the dwelling of the master of the herds or the owner of wild animals, the character fears that the master will kill him. To escape to freedom, he clings to the underside of one of the animals leaving the pen or cave. |
| I25 | 94.70% | The path to the house or the entrance to the character's house is guarded by dangerous creatures. The hero appeases them with gifts or words, they let him pass back and forth, sometimes punished for this by the owner. |
| M84A | 94.68% | After supernatural characters put the bones of a dead and eaten deer, cow, ram, or goat in its skin, the animal is whole (and usually comes to life). See M84 motif. |
| B33 | 94.52% | There is a female character who embodies the wind or is considered the mother or mistress of the winds. |
| I95 | 94.02% | The Pleiades are a sieve or riddle for sifting agricultural products. See motif I95. |
| N27B | 93.99% | It is said that someone is only lacking bird’s milk or that somewhere the only thing missing is bird’s milk |
| N27 | 93.97% | Bird milk (variant: chicken, pigeon, hawkish, etc.) milk is mentioned in fairy tales, riddles, paroemias and conspiracies as something very rare and difficult to obtain or non-existent actually. |
| K27X8 | 93.90% | Only the frog (toad) knows the way to the object that is unattainable for ordinary people, which the hero is looking for (and helps him get there). |
| B32A | 93.87% | The enemies of a hero sailing the sea turn into seals or dolphins. |
| I137 | 93.87% | One of the constellations is associated with footwear, usually with (worn-out) bast shoes. |
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
10 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 10 traditions: Shuswap, Thompson (Nlaka'pamux), Lillooet, Lushootseed (Puget Sound: Puyallup, Nisqualmi, Snuqualmi, Duwamish, Muckleshoot, Snohomish, Skagit), Quinault, Okanagon, Sanpoil, Coeur D'Alene, Kalispel (Pend d'Oreille; incl Spokane), Kutenai, Cariri, Upper Chinook: Wasco, Wishram, Clackamas, Kathlamet
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