Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
B45B — The bull of cold.
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 bull or cow is the embodiment of cold, the reason why winter is cold.
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.
B45 has 2 other sub-motifs
RelatedB45. The arrival of warm (bright, abundant) or cold (hungry, dark) times is associated with the marriage of a certain character who brings cold, warmth, abundance, etc.
B45A. The alternation of seasons and/or differences between the climates of different localities are explained by the struggle between characters associated with warmth and those associated with cold. See motif B45.
B45b. The bull or cow is the embodiment of cold, the reason why winter is cold.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| M108A | 99.17% | A lonely elderly couple adopts a trickster. He steals from them (and runs away). |
| B68A | 99.15% | Birds quarrel, and the one who claimed high status cripples the weak one. For this, the others order her to carry the crippled one on her back. |
| B38E | 99.07% | The character kicks a loon or other waterfowl. Since then, it has had a flattened tail and finds it difficult to walk on land. |
| M91D | 98.10% | The character deceives others by passing off the dead as alive, directing suspicions of murder to innocent people, etc. When a shaman (less often a shaman) is ready to discover the truth, he succeeds in it kill and avoid being charged with murder. |
| M171B | 97.88% | The character pretends to have brought meat on a shoulder blade and gives it to the hosts to cook. Taking a bare bone without meat out of the pot, he accuses the hosts of stealing the meat. |
| N5 | 97.52% | Long trips, hikes, flights, or battles are described using a formula that indicates that characters learn about winter through snow or frost, and summer through warmth, rain, dew or other similar signs. |
| B74 | 97.34% | The eyes of the capercaillie or black grouse turned red from tears. |
| J27B | 97.20% | An infant is thrown into a lake or river and occasionally comes ashore. In addition to his earthly parents, he has a father (and mother) in the underwater world. He does not want to part with them, nor do they want to let him go. |
| I56A | 96.61% | When a person who has entered another world touches the local inhabitants, they become ill or die. |
| I56 | 96.51% | Moving between worlds, the same living person is visible to some and invisible to others. |
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: Kazakh, Oirats (incl Torgouts, Derbets, Oilots), Mongols (Khalkha), Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Southern Altai: Altai proper (Altai-Kiji), Telengit, Altaians, Northern Altai: Chelkan, Kumanda, Tubalar, Altaians, Nenets, Central Yakuts (Sakha)
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