B33F — The old woman-night unravels the yarn.

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.

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.

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")

This motif has been recorded in 20 traditions: Tunisia Arabs, Indian literary tradition (Vedic, Brahman, Purana, Indian Buddhism, Hinduism, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchtantra, Jatakas); iconography of Hindu temples, Punjabi, Seraiki (Multani), Spain, Spaniards, Portuguese, Portugal, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Macedonians, Balkarians, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Albanians, Balkarians, Western Sami, Eastern Sami (including Skolts), Iranian literary tradition (including Avesta, Pahlevi scripts, Sah-nameh, Marzban-nameh); Zoroastrians of Iran, Indian Parsees, Zoroastrianism, Mingrelians (Megrelians), Laz, Armenians, Anatolia Turks, Azeris (Azerbaijanis), Mordvins, Lkungen (Straits; including Samish, Songish, Sooke, Lummi), Klallam, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio)