Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
A26 — The sun bird.
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 bird embodies the sun, daylight; it can be caught, released, killed.
Berezkin category: The Sun and Moon
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 1, Sun and Moon.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| A1A | 100.00% | Before the sun appeared, the world was lit by a large bird with bright colours (a parrot or toucan). |
| B25 | 100.00% | Characters who climb trees or vines and then fall turn into wild pigs or other game animals. |
| B75D | 100.00% | The sound of leaves or grass rustling in the wind has been heard since the time of creation. |
| F29A | 100.00% | To kill a woman's lover, who has the appearance of a worm or snake and crawls into her vagina from under the ground, boiling water, resin or hot coals are poured on him. |
| J12C | 100.00% | A girl meets her fiancé at a dance and then follows in his footsteps. See motif J12. |
| K8F | 100.00% | The swallowed one discovers a living deer in the belly of the monster. See motif K8A. |
| B56 | 99.70% | The crocodile/caiman is left without a tongue after swallowing or losing the fire (which it previously possessed); something associated with heavenly fire (lightning, sunbeams, etc.) emerges from the crocodile's severed tongue. |
| F19 | 99.59% | After copulating with a frog, a man's penis is crippled (unless otherwise stated: it becomes long, see motif F18A). |
| M9A | 99.59% | A character who eagerly sucks honey from a hollow and/or gets stuck in a hollow turns into a tree frog. See M9 motif. |
| L78 | 99.50% | In the images, the character has the features of a jaguar and a toad; the toad/frog turns into a jaguar; the toad/frog is the mother or wife of the jaguar. |
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
3 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 3 traditions: Melanesians and Papuans of Bismark Archipelago: New Britain (Paparatava, Lakalai, Kuni, Sulka, Gazelle peninsula), New Ireland, St Matthias Group, Mioko (Melanesians between New Britain and New Ireland), Sanema, Yanomamo (Yanoama): Yanomam, Yanomami
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