Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
B57A — Red sunset – an indication of what has happened.
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
OverviewSeeing the reddened sky, the character understands that another's blood has been spilled, or that another has spilled red liquid. See motif B57.
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.
B57 has 1 other sub-motifs
RelatedB57. Blood spurting from a killed or wounded person or animal colours the sky (dawn, northern lights) or other natural objects (moon, vegetation) red.
B57a. Seeing the reddened sky, the character understands that another's blood has been spilled, or that another has spilled red liquid. See motif B57.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| B42S | 97.97% | The Big Dipper or Polar Star – a small animal (ermine, marten, forest marmot) or anthropomorphic character with animal features, struck by a spear or arrow. |
| K18C | 97.75% | The man in whose arms the boy urinates will be recognised as his father. See motif K18. |
| K19E | 96.78% | Returning from the sky to earth, a woman or two sisters encounter a male wolverine who tries to capture them. Usually, the women who have descended first find themselves in a tree. Some animals cannot or will not help them descend to the ground. The wolverine descends to take the sisters as wives; they run away from him. See motif K19B. |
| M93 | 95.95% | When falling asleep or going to do something else, the character tells a certain part of his body to wake him up in case of danger. The organ did not give a signal or the character himself did not listen to it, as a result, the misfortune happened. |
| K67 | 95.75% | At night, one person intends to throw another person's shoes or clothes into the fire, but ends up burning his own shoes or clothes. Usually, the father-in-law throws his son-in-law's shoes into the fire at night in order to freeze him out, but the son-in-law has already switched shoes, so the father-in-law burns his own. |
| B42O1 | 95.74% | The Big Dipper is identified with the fisher (Mustela pennati). |
| M53B | 95.26% | Trickster claims he's carrying songs in his bag. See M53 motif. |
| K32B1 | 94.92% | The man's mother-in-law takes on the appearance of her daughter to take her place. See motif K32. |
| D4C1 | 94.15% | Animal-people come to steal summer from its owners. One of them, in the guise of an elk or caribou, distracts the owners' attention or floats a log or stump down the river, which the owners of summer mistake for an elk and rush after. |
| A38A | 93.19% | The sun is caught in a loop made of a woman's pubic hair. |
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
12 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 12 traditions: Semang, Senoi, Karelians, Hare (K'ahsho Got'ine), Kaska, Upper Kuskokwim (Kolchan), Bering Strait Inupiat (incl. King Island), North Alaskan Inupiat, Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Menominee, Plains Ojibwa
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