Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
B44F — The fox wants daylight.
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
OverviewIn the dispute over whether the world should be bright, the fox is on the side of light (almost always against the bear).
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.
B44 has 7 other sub-motifs
RelatedB44. The first ancestors (usually human-animals) argue about how long the year, winter, night, or other periods of time should last, and whether cold and darkness should be replaced by warmth and light.
B44a. Characters argue about the number of discrete units of time that determine the duration of a certain period of time (most often winter or night). See motif B44.
B44b. The number and/or nature of the alternation of fingers, claws, feathers, hairs, and stripes on animal skins determines the number of time intervals in the calendar or daily cycle. See motif B44.
B44c. The characters argue about whether there should be darkness or light, cold or warmth on earth. See motif B44.
B44d. Night and day alternate because the slain beast was black and white, spotted.
B44e. First ancestors (usually birds or animals) argue with each other about the length of time periods in the calendar or daily cycle, or about the desirability of the dominance of cold and dark or warm and light times. See motif B44.
B44f. In the dispute over whether the world should be bright, the fox is on the side of light (almost always against the bear).
B44f1. In the dispute over whether the world should be light (warm), the bear is on the side of darkness (and cold); or the world is plunged into darkness because the bear hides the sun in his house.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| I46D | 97.18% | Rainbow â a hunting loop, a trap. |
| E15A | 96.87% | The bow of the boat is modelled on a bird's breastbone. |
| A43 | 95.90% | The character runs away in a hurry and undergoes a metamorphosis, turning into a bird or rising into the sky. He is missing one trouser leg, or a shoe on one foot, or one mitten. |
| K51A | 95.72% | One woman comes to another in the absence of a man and kills her by pushing her rival's head into boiling liquid or pouring boiling water or hot fat into her ear. See motif K51. |
| E9A | 94.28% | Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife, helper) has the image of a fox. |
| E15B | 94.28% | Bird women sew the birch bark covering of the hero's boat. See motif E15. |
| E9AA | 94.28% | A man searches for a missing woman, who is a fox by nature, and comes to the burrow where she has hidden. Various bird or animal women come out of the burrow and offer themselves in place of the fox. Then they let him inside. |
| F51C | 94.28% | Upon learning that her unknown lover is her own brother, the girl shows him her genitals or bare breasts, offering him what he so desired. After that, she runs away, and he rushes after her. |
| H37A | 94.28% | A character gives another the ability to easily light a fire. The latter uses it unnecessarily and loses it. |
| K25A3 | 94.28% | The magical bird-wife flies away when she makes herself new feather clothing from feathers collected on the ground. |
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
11 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 11 traditions: Southern Altai: Altai proper (Altai-Kiji), Telengit, Altaians, Northern Altai: Chelkan, Kumanda, Tubalar, Altaians, Ainu, Dogrib, Slavey, Tutchone, Koyukon, Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), Copper, Netsilik, Iglulik, Labrador Inuit (Koksoagmiut)
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