Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
B52B — Concealing the earth.
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 character regurgitates the earth hidden (usually in his mouth), thereby creating mountains, swamps, and other inconveniences. See motif B52.
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.
B52 has 3 other sub-motifs
RelatedB52. The floodwaters formed a rugged landscape.
B52a. Flying over the world, a bird (usually a vulture) dries the earth after a flood with its wings or otherwise gives it its present appearance.
B52b. The character regurgitates the earth hidden (usually in his mouth), thereby creating mountains, swamps, and other inconveniences. See motif B52.
B52c. When the earth and sky were created, they turned out to be different sizes. The earth was compressed, and mountains appeared. See motif B52.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| H48 | 99.33% | Illnesses â female sisters (less often male brothers), usually children of an evil spirit. |
| K25A2 | 99.30% | An anthropomorphic character flies away or tries to fly away, attaching feathers shed by birds flying in the sky to his body. |
| L94A | 99.13% | When a person leans over the water, a demon grabs him by the beard and releases him on the promise that he will fulfil his demand. |
| J63 | 99.06% | Enemies arrive and tie up the husband. The wife agrees to live with the new man, while the former lies bound. One character (usually the daughter) refuses to free him, while another (usually the son) frees him. The husband kills the enemies and usually brutally executes (the daughter and) his wife. |
| K73B6 | 98.99% | The wife of a powerful character gives birth to wonderful children. Her jealous sisters conspire to make her husband order her to be disposed of (usually by locking her and the child in a barrel and throwing it into the water). The boy immediately grows up and rescues his mother and himself. He himself (in the form of a bird, animal, insect, or flying in on a miraculous object) or his puppy brother enters his father's lair and, eavesdropping on the conversation, learns of the existence of miraculous objects. Upon returning, he obtains them or already possesses them and demonstrates them to his father when they meet (the objects may include the young man's brothers). |
| K15B | 98.67% | By secretly switching the vessels containing living and dead (giving and taking away strength) water (rarely: oil, etc.), from which the combatants drink during a duel, the hero defeats his opponent. |
| K66D | 98.57% | A boy who grew up (was conceived) in a bear's den (lion's cave) becomes a bogatyr. |
| K62A1 | 98.25% | A man saves (spares) and nurses a wounded bird. Having regained its strength, the bird puts him on its back and carries him to a distant land or to the sky. |
| I98B | 98.17% | The Pleiades â ducks, nest or wild duck egg. |
| B109 | 98.16% | A man grows fur and becomes a bear (the origin of bears). |
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
25 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 25 traditions: Oraon (Kurukh), Poles, Lithuanians, Livonians, Finns, Karelians, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Mari (Cheremis), Mordvins, Chuvash, Udmurt, Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Khakas, Southern Selkups, Northern Selkups, Kets, Chuvans, Russian-speaking Creols of Markovo, Arabs (literary tradition; incl. One Thousand and One Nights), Southern Altai: Teleut, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Early Russian written sources, Terek Cossacks, Russian Federation
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