Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
C25C — The Big Dipper and the end of the world.
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
OverviewA change in the configuration of a certain constellation (usually the Big Dipper) or its disappearance from the sky will signal a global catastrophe.
Berezkin category: Disasters
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 2, Moon spots, stars, constellations.
C25 has 3 other sub-motifs
RelatedC25. If a certain event occurs, the world will be destroyed.
C25a. In the sky, on the moon, somewhere outside our world, a character (usually an old woman) cooks soup. The fate of the universe depends on his (her) behaviour.
C25b. In the sky, on the moon (rarely â on the sun), somewhere outside our world, a certain character spins, weaves, knits, embroiders or makes bast fabric.
C25c. A change in the configuration of a certain constellation (usually the Big Dipper) or its disappearance from the sky will signal a global catastrophe.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K27P1 | 89.33% | The father-in-law (less often the mother-in-law) orders the hero to kill or tame a dangerous animal or not to kill a certain animal while hunting. This animal is himself or his daughter (wife). |
| L17A | 89.27% | A character or creature has an eye or a second pair of eyes on the back of the head or on the back. Cf. motif L17b, "mouth on the back of the head". |
| J51 | 88.76% | The character is dismembered or eaten; he is revived from his remains, but since one of his bones was broken, swallowed or carried away (or a drop of blood or a piece of flesh was lost), the revival fails, or the character remains defective in some way. |
| K66C | 87.43% | A bear (lion) takes a woman away, or a she-bear takes a man away. They have children who are either human or bear-like in appearance. Less commonly, a woman gives birth to a son in a den because she was pregnant at the time of her abduction by the bear. |
| L57A | 87.37% | The enemy takes possession of part of the character's body (remains). Another (usually resorting to trickery) returns what is missing, and the character comes back to life or recovers. |
| J23 | 87.35% | People in general or older brothers (siblings, older sister) disappear one after another. A woman raises a boy or twins from infancy. Sometimes, left alone, she miraculously conceives a son or finds a baby. He defeats the antagonists, usually reviving or freeing the missing ones. |
| K102A2 | 87.00% | The mother seeks to destroy her son (children) because he interferes with her love affair. Cf. motif L86: Children flee from their demon mother. |
| M84 | 86.18% | A person, animal, fish, or (rarely) a large fruit is killed and eaten. After a meal, what is eaten revives, usually after the bones (seeds) are put together. Cf. motive C16. |
| L103 | 86.00% | The fugitive throws or creates objects behind him, which the pursuer, wasting time, collects, eats or destroys, even though they do not hinder his progress. |
| K25A6 | 85.96% | A woman from another world agrees to live with a man in his earthly world, but leaves him when she learns that he has broken a taboo (often his infidelity). Cf. motif F94 (the hero betrays his magical wife in her world); motif K12B (the hero visits his world alone, contrary to the warning of his magical wife). |
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
18 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 18 traditions: Gondi (mostly Northern Gondi), France, Western Sami, Eastern Sami (including Skolts), Western Ukrainians, Ingush, Tats, Kazakh, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Khakas, Central Yakuts (Sakha), Tagish, Tahltan, Pawnee, Lkungen (Straits; including Samish, Songish, Sooke, Lummi), Klallam, Jicarilla, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians
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