Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

B33E2 — March breaks the bull's horns.

6 Myths, legends and folktales
6 Unique narratives for motif B33E2
6 Cultures & traditions where B33E2 is told
14 Sub-motifs of motif B33E2
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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 severity of the cold in early spring is said to break the horns of large hoofed animals.

Berezkin category: The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment

B33 has 14 other sub-motifs

Related

B33.  There is a female character who embodies the wind or is considered the mother or mistress of the winds.
B33a.  Deciding that it has become (or will soon become) warm, the character believes that winter is over (most often an old woman goes to graze cattle), but dies from the cold or the cattle driven out to pasture perish. Cf. motif I84A ("The frozen son of God").
B33a1.  A person (animal, bird) teases or insults March or another calendar month and is punished as a result.
B33b.  At the border between winter and spring, a bird (usually a thrush) flies away prematurely into the cold and dies, or raises chicks and they die or suffer from the cold.
B33c.  The month on the border between winter and spring (usually March) takes (rarely: buys, steals) a few days from its neighbour.
B33d.  An elderly woman embodies winter, is associated with snow, and/or at the border between winter and spring (autumn) there are several very cold days associated with a certain old woman.
B33d1.  In narrative folklore, the days of the week (most often Friday and Wednesday) are special (female) characters with a more or less pronounced demonic nature.
B33e.  The last cold month regrets that it did not come earlier or that it is too short. In that case, it would have frozen everyone.
B33e1.  It is said that the cold, which is stronger than anything else, can freeze boiling water, a foetus in the womb, etc.
b33e2.  The severity of the cold in early spring is said to break the horns of large hoofed animals.
B33f.  A certain character performs actions that determine the change from dark to light times of day. It always involves yarn, thread, rope, or fabric, which the character unravels or winds up, or with which the hero binds the entity responsible for the daily cycle.
B33f1.  By performing certain actions, the (old) woman determines the daily cycle.
B33f2.  At night, the fire goes out. The young man goes to look for fire and on the way ties up an old woman or an old man (usually a character responsible for the length of night and day).
B33g.  Horsemen or horses represent celestial bodies or different periods of the day.
B33h.  The sun has a mother who lives with him (less often with her) in the same house. Cf. motif K27x6b ("The character goes to the mother of the sun")

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of B33’s motifs
No dispersal data found for motif 'b33e2'.

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny
MotifSimilarityMotif summary
A10.00%Another sun — less powerful or less favourable to humans — existed before the appearance of the current one.
A100.00%The sun gets its sparkling eyes (eye) from an animal.
A11A0.00%The visible sun or moon are their eyes; if the eyes of the luminaries were not damaged, it would be much brighter and hotter.
A11B0.00%The sun or moon has one eye (usually the second eye is knocked out or sucked out, but sometimes the reason is not explained; among the Munduruku, the sun of the rainy season has lost both eyes, while the sun of the dry season has retained both). See motif 11A.
A11C0.00%The Sun and Moon kill a monster whose eyes shine differently. At first, the Moon takes the brighter eye, but then swaps with the Sun.
A120.00%A creature or creatures regularly (sunrise and sunset, winter and summer, night and day, phases of the moon) or occasionally (eclipses, eschatological catastrophes) attack the luminaries or block their light.
A12A0.00%During an eclipse or under other circumstances, predators attack the luminaries: wolves, bears, jaguars, pumas, dogs, foxes, raccoons. See motif A12.
A12B0.00%During an eclipse or at sunset (marked *), the luminaries are swallowed by a toad or frog.
A12C0.00%Eclipses of the sun, moon or their setting (marked*) are caused by a snake, lizard, dragon, fish or crocodile; these creatures attack the luminaries now or attacked them at the beginning of time. See motif A12.
A12D0.00%Birds attack the sun or moon during an eclipse (covering them with their wings) or (*) cover the sun during sunrise or sunset. See motif A12.

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Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

6 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 6 traditions: Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Ingush, Mari (Cheremis), Mordvins, Komi (Zyrians and Permyaks), Chechens

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