Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

A7A — Torches in the hands of celestial bodies.

33 Myths, legends and folktales

33 Unique narratives for motif A7A

21 Cultures & traditions where A7A is told

1 Sub-motifs of motif A7A

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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

The light of the sun (moon, Venus) is a burning torch in the hand of a celestial body.

Berezkin category: The Sun and Moon

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

A7 has 1 other sub-motifs

A7. The sun and the moon (month) are two characters, one of which eternally pursues the other across the sky or pursued it when they rose into the sky from the earth.
A7a. The light of the sun (moon, Venus) is a burning torch in the hand of a celestial body.

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of A7’s motifs

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny

Motif	Similarity	Motif summary
M46B	96.31%	The character turns into a tiny object or creature, swallowing or touching which a woman (usually a virgin) becomes pregnant and gives birth to a boy. He steals valuables or gets along with a woman. See M46 motif.
I133	96.09%	Star objects in different parts of the sky are associated with separate parts (as well as items of clothing, jewellery, etc.) of a single anthropomorphic or zoomorphic figure.
M46C	95.70%	The character turns into a needle, a garbage, a small insect. A woman swallows it and becomes pregnant. See M46B motif.
L42A	95.67%	The cannibal steals fresh corpses from graves.
F30A	95.66%	A woman nurses a worm (caterpillar, reptile, fish) instead of a child; people kill the monster.
M46D	95.31%	A small child cries and calms down only after being given a valuable item hidden in the house to play with. After receiving an item, a child or an associated character takes it away.
M68	94.06%	Because of his own stubbornness, the character suffers from an irrepressible gas eruption and scares away the game with a loud sound. Almost starves to death.
K51B	93.56%	The bodies of the slain are left in such a position that it seems as if they are rejoicing – smiling, laughing, dancing.
L79	93.31%	The girl marries a powerful, benevolent character; his first wife is a monster; he kills her or is satisfied that she has been killed by his new wife.
C19A	93.17%	The character (except Quileut: Raven) turns into a child, asks for and receives heavenly bodies to play, or (Chukchi) comes to play with the little daughter of the owner of the stars.

See the 100 most similar distributions →

Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

21 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 21 traditions: Nyamwesi, Sumbwa, Tiv, Bamum (Bamun), Mungaka (Mgaka, Bali), Beba, Anaguta, Bete (Mbete, Karang), Ekoi, Nyang, Vute (Wute), Jukun, Chamba, Bamileke, Kwotto, Kirri; Denya (Nyang), Arnhem Land: Enindhilyagwa (Groote Eilandt), KuTiwi, Yulengor, Mara, Oenpelli, Murngin, Roper River, Maung, Murinbata, Murngin (Duwal), Millingimbi, Goulburn Island, Ngulugwongga, Yirrkalla, Voctoria River Downs, Alawa, Anu, Kunwinjku, Sinhalese; Vedda, Nanai, Bering Strait Inupiat (incl. King Island), North Alaskan Inupiat, Netsilik, Caribou, Iglulik, Polar Inuit, Baffin Land Inuit, West Greenland, East Greenland (Angmassalik, Kulusuk), Labrador Inuit (Koksoagmiut), Bella Coola (Nuxalk), Five Nations Iroquois (Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga), Chilkotin, Chumash, Nivakle (=Chulupi, Ashluslay, Ajlujlay), Papua-New Guinea Southern Lowland Papuan groups (Trans New Guinea and unclassified): Gimi, Kiwai, Bina, Mawabula, Mawatta, Keraki, Gambadi (incl. Kwavaru), Purari River delta, Masingara, Wiram (=Suki), Ngain, Daga, Elema

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