Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
A39A — Twelve months, ATU 294.
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
OverviewEach of the calendar segments (usually months) that make up the year is represented by a special object or creature.
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
RelatedA39. 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.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| H33 | 99.13% | At first, children walked, had to walk, or could walk immediately after birth. |
| L100B | 99.03% | Having escaped from his pursuers, the young man parts with the girl, intending to return for her soon, but forgets her. When he is about to take another wife, the girl manages to restore his memory with the help of magic, and she marries him. Alternatively, the girl, who has briefly parted from her magical spouse, herself forgets him after an embrace or a kiss in her parents' house. |
| K128 | 98.98% | A character orders the hero to graze animals (or birds) and promises to execute him (deprive him of his reward) if even one animal is lost. Cf. K128B (ATU 570). |
| M39A2C | 98.97% | A fool (or a character pretending to be crazy) sows salt (small objects) like a grain. |
| M182B | 98.95% | Animals ask to be taken for a ride in a sleigh. The sleigh breaks down, and the animals bring unsuitable materials from the forest to repair it. While the owner of the sleigh goes into the forest to look for a replacement for the broken shaft (or leaves to chop wood), the animals eat the horse (bull) and leave a stuffed animal in its place. |
| M199C | 98.94% | A person pretends to throw or is about to throw an object somewhere from which it cannot be retrieved (often into the sky, the clouds, or the sea). The opponent asks them not to do so and to stop the contest. |
| M106G | 98.92% | A man lifts a cow (donkey, ox, wife) onto the roof so that the animal can eat the grass growing there (the wife has gathered turnips, etc.) – usually by throwing a noose around the neck of the wife or animal. |
| M136 | 98.87% | Some people do not know what to do with cutting tools; they try to use tools that are not suitable for these purposes instead. |
| M135 | 98.86% | Two ungulates – usually after the wolf agrees to share the meadow between them – gore the predator from both sides, killing or maiming it. |
| M197F | 98.83% | The dialogue plays on the fact that in youth the beard is black, and in old age it is white. Usually a person explains why his head has turned grey but his beard has not: the beard is 20 years younger. |
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
54 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 54 traditions: Arabs of Levant (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan); Bedouins of Sinai, Kabylia and other Berber of Northern and Central Algeria: Beni Snous, Beni Menacer (incl Zuav), Shaui, etc.), Berbers of southern Tunisia and adjacent part of Libya (Matmata and Ghadames areas), Congo (Koongo, Bacongo; incl Vili, Fioti, (Ma)Yombe, MuKunyi), Ndombo, Luango (Loango), Zombo (Sambo), Laadi (Laari), (Ba)Fioti, Woyo (Kiwoyo), Ronga, Kosa (Xosa, Xhosa), Tiv, Bamum (Bamun), Mungaka (Mgaka, Bali), Beba, Anaguta, Bete (Mbete, Karang), Ekoi, Nyang, Vute (Wute), Jukun, Chamba, Bamileke, Kwotto, Kirri; Denya (Nyang), Loyalty Islands (Uvea, Lifu, Mare), Ireland, England, British, Bretons, Scotland, Scots, Picts, Scotti, Scottish, Spain, Spaniards, Portuguese, Portugal, Basques, Catalan, Maltese, Sicily, Sicilians, Sardinia, Corsica, Sardinians, Corsicans, France, Dutch, Flemish, Poles, Czech, Czechs, Slovakians, Slovaks, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Macedonians, Balkarians, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Slovenians, Slovenes, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Albanians, Balkarians, Latvians, Estonians, Setu, Swedes, Western Ukrainians, Cherkassians, Adyghe, Kabardin, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Ossetians, Ingush, Georgians, Armenians, Kirghiz, Koyukon, Oregon Athabaskans: Lower Umpqua, Tututni (incl Joshua), Upper Coquille, Galice, Tolowa, Shasta; Chimariko, Klamath, Modoc, Yurok, Lima dep: Costa and adjacent Sierra (Spanish, Kechua, and Jacaru-speaking communities, mostly in Pachacamac, Cajatambo, Canta, Huarochirí; Spanish sources of XVI-XVII centuries), Chechens, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), China, Russian Federation, Spain
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