Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

A39 — Every day a new sun.

10 Myths, legends and folktales
10 Unique narratives for motif A39
8 Cultures & traditions where A39 is told
2 Sub-motifs of motif A39
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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

Overview

Suns are born and die, and every day a new one rises in the sky.

Berezkin category: The Sun and Moon

This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 1, Sun and Moon.

A39 has 2 other sub-motifs

Related

A39.  Suns are born and die, and every day a new one rises in the sky.
A39a.  Each of the calendar segments (usually months) that make up the year is represented by a special object or creature.
A39B.  The full moon and the crescent moon are different characters.

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of A39’s motifs

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny
MotifSimilarityMotif summary
I98A92.21%The Pleiades (in Tajikistan – Giady) – hen, brooding hen with chicks, chicks, rarely – rooster.
B98A89.38%The bat becomes an outcast among other creatures (usually after trying to join either the animals or the birds).
K32D88.93%As a result of the antagonist's intrigues, a noble girl (young woman) or boy (young man) is turned into a servant or servant, sent to graze cattle or chase birds in the field. Everything is revealed – usually after people hear a song in which the hero or heroine tells about the substitution. Most often, the hero or heroine goes to relatives or (less often) to the groom. The deceiver accompanies her or him and is accepted as a relative or bride. The deceiver is executed. Comoros: the deceiver becomes the mistress, turning the girl's parents into peacocks.
B9888.83%The bat (rarely: ostrich) tries to join either the beasts or the birds, or finds itself excluded from both.
M12488.78%The character buries the tail (head, ears) of a domestic animal, claiming that it has fallen into the ground. Usually, he asks others to pull on the tail (head), and when it "breaks off," he accuses others of stealing the animal.
M11887.64%The character obtains valuables or finds refuge inside an animal, tree, or building. Later, he himself, or more often someone else following his example, destroys the source of the valuables or makes access to it impossible or too dangerous.
L106B87.36%A girl, a young girl or (rarely) a boy loses an everyday object, usually carried away by water or wind. In search of the lost object, she (he) encounters powerful characters, returns the object and/or receives valuables. Traditions recorded only in Roberts 1994: 103-110 are highlighted in italics.
L108B87.00%To prevent his victim from recognising him, the predator, the cannibal, makes his voice thinner by mechanical means - he smears his throat (tongue) with fat, cauterises it with a hot stone or iron, exposes it to ant bites, consults a blacksmith, etc.
M11286.98%A zoomorphic character refuses to dig, clean or fill a source of drinking water and is forbidden to use the water. {List of African variants in Paulme 1977. In cases where the protagonist is a kite, hawk, buzzard, saker (and possibly also an eagle), it is most likely the same bird - Buteo buteo from the hawk family}.
L10886.72%Each time the departed character returns, he or she sings a song or gives a signal to a relative (usually a child) or friend who remained at home, who then lets him or her in. The antagonist pretends to be the departed person, imitating his or her voice, showing his or her hand, etc. Cf. motif L27a.

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Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

8 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 8 traditions: Zande (Azande, incl Nzakara), Bia: Anyi, Agni, Baule, Nsema, Central Australia: Kaitish, Warramunga, Arunta (Aranda), Loritja (Kukatja), Pijandjara (Pitjantjara), Adnjamatana (Andjamathana, Wailpi), Aluridja, Walpiri (Walbiri), Aluridja, Matuntara (Maduntara), Nambutji, Wamma (=Wommana?), Early Chinese written sources, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Macedonians, Balkarians, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Estonians

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