Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
B30A — The slain person turns into a fish.
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
OverviewA fish emerges from the remains of a killed person or creature. At first, it is concentrated in one place, then spreads throughout the water.
Berezkin category: The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 7, Etiology of plants and animals and of their peculiar features, particular animals as protagonists of cosmological stories, metamorphoses, weather and calendar.
B30 has 1 other sub-motifs
RelatedB30a. A fish emerges from the remains of a killed person or creature. At first, it is concentrated in one place, then spreads throughout the water.
B30b. Animals arise from the remains of a killed person.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| J49 | 97.31% | The wife and/or sister of the Moon unsuccessfully tries to climb up to him in the sky or reaches him but returns to earth. |
| G8F | 95.67% | Characters cut down a tree, but the trunk grows back. They manage to finish the job after the splinters are carried away or burned. |
| E34 | 94.87% | The cannibal is killed. From his ashes arise musical instruments taboo for women, used in male rituals. |
| F26 | 89.81% | The transfer of sacred musical instruments (horns, trumpets) from women to men is associated with the onset of menstruation in women. |
| B30B | 89.44% | Animals arise from the remains of a killed person. |
| I43B | 85.97% | The Milky Way is a reptile, fish or chain of fish. |
| F49A | 85.42% | A small animal (mouse, rat, rabbit, two-wombed animal, bird) explains how to give birth. See motif F49. |
| I43A | 85.01% | A giant reptile, serpent, fish, or chain of fish stretches across the earth and/or supports the sky. Usually associated with the Milky Way, sometimes with a rainbow. |
| G8C | 82.11% | The first ancestors try to cut down a tree (less often a high rock) to get useful plants hanging on the branches (at the top) or water or fish in the trunk. The damage disappears as soon as the workers are distracted from their work, or periodically. |
| E40 | 80.83% | The first humans had nostrils facing upwards, into which rain poured. |
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
5 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 5 traditions: Sepik-Ramu stock: Abelam, Yatmul, Aibom, Ayom (incl Tembregak, Asai-river pygmies), Tangu, Porapora (Ambakich), Rao and other groups of Middle Ramu and Upper Keram River tribes; Kwanga, Watam, Kaian, Gamei, Awar; Kire (Lower Ramu), Central Vanuatu: Espiritu Santo, Araki, Aore, Maewo, Malekula, Vao, Efate (Vate), Nguna, Mae, Ambrim, Pentecost, Oba (=Aoba, East Ambae, Lepers'), Omba, Tikopia, Bellona, Rennell, partly Aneytium, Futuna (=Erronan, not to be mixed with Futuna in Western Polynesia), Vaeaka-Taumato, incl Matema, Nifeloli, Nukapu, Nupani, Pileni, Sicuani, Puinave
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How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
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