Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
B38D — Raven and owl.
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 Raven and the Owl paint each other.
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.
B38 has 5 other sub-motifs
RelatedB38. The character decorates birds or animals, or they decorate each other. Some are dissatisfied with the result.
B38a. Two birds agree to paint each other. One of them does not become more beautiful as a result and often becomes uglier. See motif B36A.
B38b. Two quadrupeds (or a quadruped and another creature) adorn each other themselves or are adorned by someone else.
B38c. The raven and the loon paint each other.
B38d. The Raven and the Owl paint each other.
B38e. The character kicks a loon or other waterfowl. Since then, it has had a flattened tail and finds it difficult to walk on land.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| B38A | 91.15% | Two birds agree to paint each other. One of them does not become more beautiful as a result and often becomes uglier. See motif B36A. |
| L102A | 90.37% | A seagull kidnaps a girl or woman, but she manages to return to people. |
| A44 | 88.67% | A character fleeing from pursuit, wronged or suffering on earth, asks the Moon to take him to her, or climbs up to the moon himself using a ladder or rope that has descended from there. |
| E9A | 87.84% | Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife, helper) has the image of a fox. |
| B38 | 86.88% | The character decorates birds or animals, or they decorate each other. Some are dissatisfied with the result. |
| E1D | 85.20% | (The first) boat is made of obviously unsuitable material. |
| G29 | 84.37% | The character consists of various artefacts of domestic and industrial use or transforms into them. |
| L5F | 83.55% | Head, face or skull – a woman's husband, fiancé or son; not dangerous to her, brings wealth, saves from hunger, etc. |
| M60 | 83.23% | After injuring a demon (robber), the hero goes to his locus. There he, or (rarely) his assistant, pretends to be a doctor and finishes off an opponent. |
| B64B | 82.22% | Two types of fish shoot arrows at each other. Since then, the fish have had many small bones in their bodies, or some of their bones have split in two. |
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
8 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 8 traditions: Karachays, Balkar, Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Tungus (Evenki) of China (Solon, Birar, Oroqen, Manegir), Evenks, Tungus (Evenki): Russian Far East, Evenks, Asiatic Eskimo (Sirenek, Naukan, Chaplino), Baffin Land Inuit, Labrador Inuit (Koksoagmiut), Japan
If you wish to get access to data for projects and research, then please contact us, we do our best to help
How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
0009-0006-1672-4451
Where applicable, users should also cite the relevant original sources, catalogues, and classification systems, including Berezkin, ATU, Thompson, and other cited authorities, alongside the page accessed and the last time accessed.
Editorial annotations and database enhancements © Jonathan Fielder-White licensed under CC BY 4.0. Berezkin-derived narrative and metadata licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Full rights information can be found here.
All rights are reserved in the database structure, selection, arrangement, metadata, classifications, software, interface design, and original editorial content.
Important: The Folklore Database expressly reserves all rights in relation to text and data mining, automated extraction, scraping, machine learning, dataset creation, and the training, development, validation, or improvement of artificial intelligence technologies or systems. No part of this website or database may be scraped, copied, reproduced, harvested, downloaded in bulk, or otherwise used for AI training or commercial data extraction without prior written permission.
Designed and Developed by Jon Fielder-White.
© 2024–2026 Crecganford / Jonathan Fielder-White. All rights reserved.