Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
B68 — Giant hazel grouse.
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 giant hazel grouse became small â it was usually torn into pieces, which turned into the current hazel grouse.
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.
B68 has 2 other sub-motifs
RelatedB68. The giant hazel grouse became small â it was usually torn into pieces, which turned into the current hazel grouse.
B68a. 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.
B68b. A character who, by his appearance, behaviour or unexpected appearance, tried to frighten God (people) and was turned into an animal (with a different appearance than before) for this.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K44B | 100.00% | The hero or heroine returns after a long absence. Seeing (usually from the roof of the house) his or her parents (mother, husband) languishing in poverty, he or she throws food at them, extinguishes the fire, pushes them, etc. At first, they usually do not understand what is going on. |
| A29A | 98.29% | Heavenly and earthly women (demons) pull a man in different directions. As a result, he (or his half) turns into a heavenly object. |
| M84B2 | 98.15% | The character carefully preserves the bones of migratory birds eaten (not fish or animals) and the birds come to life again. (Episodes of reviving a domestic goose or rooster are not taken into account in everyday tales). |
| B42MN | 98.00% | Only one character (rather than several) chases an animal (elk or bear) across the sky, associated with one of the circumpolar constellations, but not with the Pleiades or Orion. (In the Kalevala tradition, there is no identification with stars). |
| M162A | 97.37% | The character pretends to eat his own genitals. Another believes him and castrates himself. |
| I22B1 | 97.35% | Some migratory birds (shamans in the form of birds) die on the border of our world. |
| B72C | 96.90% | Children run after their mother, injure themselves, and their blood stains plants, the ground, and the evening sky. |
| B48A | 96.62% | The bodies of animals, birds or fish contain internal organs or muscles that were originally parts of the bodies of other animals, birds, fish or monsters. Cf. motif B36C. |
| K8C2 | 95.26% | The mouse is swallowed by a large land animal and comes out by cutting it open from the inside. |
| B120 | 94.87% | There are creatures that sleep in winter, and frozen snot hangs from their noses. (Motif identified by Evgenia Korovina). |
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
22 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 22 traditions: Latvians, Finns, Karelians, Western Sami, Swedes, Komi (Zyrians and Permyaks), Mansi, Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Mongols (Khalkha), Khakas, Southern Altai: Altai proper (Altai-Kiji), Telengit, Altaians, Northern Altai: Chelkan, Kumanda, Tubalar, Altaians, Southern Selkups, Kets, Central Yakuts (Sakha), Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Nanai, Negidal, Tlingit, Northern Khanty (Ostyaks), Russian Federation
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 Š 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.
Š 2024â2026 Crecganford / Jonathan Fielder-White. All rights reserved.