Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
D1A3 — The fire wife.
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 man marries a woman who is fire. She is mistreated, or her husband does not like her, and the marriage breaks down.
Berezkin category: Fire and Laughter
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.
D1 has 6 other sub-motifs
RelatedD1. A woman (usually elderly) is the embodiment of fire â alone or together with her husband, the master of fire. Cf. motif D5 (woman possesses fire).
D1a. A girl marries a man whose mother is fire.
D1a1. Because a woman offended the fire, its mistress takes her child away.
D1a2. The house of the person who insulted the fire burns down, but the property inside it or the child of another person (or that person himself) who treated the fire with respect is not harmed.
D1a3. A man marries a woman who is fire. She is mistreated, or her husband does not like her, and the marriage breaks down.
D1a4. Two fires from different dwellings meet and converse.
D1b. The man is the master or embodiment of fire (alone or alongside the woman-fire).
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| G9A | 100.00% | The field that was cultivated the day before turns back into virgin soil by morning. |
| C12B | 95.59% | All people or individual ethnic groups, lineages, families are considered descendants of dogs (with which a man mated). |
| A11B | 95.33% | The sun or moon has one eye (usually the second eye is knocked out or sucked out, but sometimes the reason is not explained; among the Munduruku, the sun of the rainy season has lost both eyes, while the sun of the dry season has retained both). See motif 11A. |
| G15 | 93.55% | In another world or in the past, products or materials used by humans look or looked like people. |
| L58 | 93.33% | A man refuses to give food to his closest relatives or spouse; as punishment, he or his food changes its nature. |
| I80 | 93.13% | A character who finds himself in the locus of a deity responsible for atmospheric phenomena violates certain prohibitions or instructions, thereby causing excessively strong thunderstorms, rain, snowfall or wind. |
| B80 | 92.32% | The process of creation includes measuring the dimensions of the earth or the world as a whole. |
| A23 | 90.95% | The first ancestors come together to choose who will become the sun, to raise the sun to the sky, to see the sun rise for the first time, and to name the sun correctly. See motif A22. |
| A11A | 90.92% | The visible sun or moon are their eyes; if the eyes of the luminaries were not damaged, it would be much brighter and hotter. |
| E33 | 90.77% | People arise from grains, seeds, dough. |
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
4 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 4 traditions: SW Arunachal Pradesh: Sherdukpen, Tawang (Monpas), Aka (Hrusso), Miji, Lillooet, Siona, Secoya, Coreguaje, Mai Huna (Coto, Orejon)