Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
B27A — Transformation into thunder and lightning.
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 characters ponder what they should transform into and decide to become thunder and/or lightning.
Berezkin category: The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 3, Cosmogony, the earth and the sky, etiology of the elements, natural and biological phenomena (fire, water, soil, thunderstorms, dream, etc.), cataclysms and cosmic threats, spirits of nature.
B27 has 2 other sub-motifs
RelatedB27. The characters ponder what object or creature they should transform into, and once they have made their choice, they undergo metamorphosis.
B27a. The characters ponder what they should transform into and decide to become thunder and/or lightning.
B27b. The characters ponder what they should transform into and decide to become a celestial object.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| L33B | 97.00% | The character challenges someone who, at first glance, is unable to move (a stump, a boulder, fire) to race or roll over it. The challenged party sets off, crushes or burns the character, or runs away with their property. |
| I60A | 96.61% | The Milky Way – a stripe associated with a longitudinal stripe on an animal's body. |
| M16 | 95.41% | The wife or relatives (often the mother) of the sick person do not care for him. He recovers, and those who treated him badly are punished. Cf. motifs F62 and F96. |
| D9 | 92.37% | The raven or other large dark-coloured bird of prey is the owner, embodiment, spouse, provider or thief of fire, the sun or daylight. |
| M30A | 91.67% | The character flying over the village falls, is tied up, and defecated on him. |
| D13H | 90.11% | Those who have entered the world of the dead should not laugh. |
| L33C | 89.82% | The trickster and the boulder agree to race down the slope. The boulder rolls faster and faster and crushes the trickster. See motif L33. |
| K32C | 89.71% | The deceiver takes the place of the real wife, and the real wife becomes an owl. See motif K32. |
| M123 | 89.71% | A bird of prey or scavenger (raven, owl, hawk, coyote) marries (or attempts to marry) a partner who (or whose brothers) are geese or other waterfowl. The marriage is disrupted or proves unsuccessful. |
| M61A1 | 89.71% | The character (always a raven) provokes a seagull to quarrel with another bird, telling each one that the other was hostile or offensive towards her. |
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: Netsilik, Caribou, Iglulik, Polar Inuit, Baffin Land Inuit, Sierra Miwok, Lake Miwok, Plains Miwok, Coastal Miwok, Harákmbet (=Mashco), Suruí, Gaviâo, Zoro, Arua, Cinta Larga
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