Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
C35 — The cosmic marriage will not take place.
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
OverviewIt becomes known that if characters representing natural phenomena and parts of the universe marry, it will lead to disaster. The marriage is broken off.
Berezkin category: Disasters
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.
C35 has 2 other sub-motifs
RelatedC35. It becomes known that if characters representing natural phenomena and parts of the universe marry, it will lead to disaster. The marriage is broken off.
C35a. A zoomorphic character gives wise advice concerning the state of the Sun. The advice is accepted, but the advisor is punished by the Sun or is henceforth pursued by the Sun.
C35b. The frog (toad) prevents more than one sun from shining in the sky.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| C35B | 98.12% | The frog (toad) prevents more than one sun from shining in the sky. |
| K27G3 | 98.12% | To fell all the trees in the forest, a man fells one (lightly touching it with an axe), after which all the trees fall. |
| K73A2A | 98.12% | After hiding or discarding a newborn baby, ill-wishers replace it with a piece of wood and/or inform the father that his wife has given birth to a piece of wood. |
| F28A4 | 98.01% | The fruits or stems of plants are penises. |
| K103A | 97.44% | A suddenly grown plant (tree, vine, lotus) bends (raises its branches, etc.), allowing only the hero or heroine to climb it or pick its fruits (flowers). |
| L37B1 | 96.88% | To cure a sick person or rid a house of other misfortunes, one must kill (catch, expel) a toad, frog or snake hiding in the house (in the garden, under the roots). |
| K73A6 | 96.79% | Malicious women kill (throw away) her wonderful children. Trees (flowers) grow from their remains, later reincarnating into humans. |
| F28A2 | 96.22% | The owner of the field, either intentionally or having misheard the question, replies that he grows penises. After that, penises grow in the field instead of crops. |
| M75B3 | 95.67% | Enemies are shown a life-size or larger image of a horse or bull. Not realizing that this is a ruse, they bring the figure to their own territory and are defeated as a result. |
| I110A | 95.65% | Orion (rarely - another constellation) - plough. |
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: Malagasy, Northern Gur (Oti-Volta): Mamprussi, Dagomba, Dagari (Dagara; incl Lodaga), Bassari, Mosi, Nankanse, Konkomba, Moba; Ditammari, Nyende, Bulsa (pl Builsa, Bulo), Stieng, Chrau, Sre (Koho), Maa, Mnong, Bhuiya (now Aryans, originally Munda; Rahman 1955: 203), Baiga, Bhaina, Bhumia (subgroup of Baiga, incl Bharia, formerly Munda, now speak Indo-Aryan languages of neighboring groups), Gondi (mostly Northern Gondi), Maria, Muria, and other South-Central Dravidians: Binjhwar, Bacop, Bhattra, Bom, Jhoria (=Jhodia), Gadaba (in Koraput, neighbors of Munda-speaking Gadaba), Duruwa (Parji), Mehtar; Pardhan, Ancient Italy: Latins, Etruscans, Magna Graecia, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Macedonians, Balkarians, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Ancient Greece, Lithuanians, Swedes, Armenians, Arabs (literary tradition; incl. One Thousand and One Nights), Early Russian written sources, China
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