Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
G1 — The stolen child.
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
OverviewIn order to acquire or regain values (land, soil, cultivated plants, sun, fire, shamanic knowledge, luck), people lure or steal the son or daughter of a certain character.
Berezkin category: Fertility and Agriculture
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.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| L74 | 96.33% | A bear or other powerful character tears off and carries away another character's hand. A third character steals the hand and returns it to the one from whom it was torn off. |
| I15A | 96.02% | Due to ignorance or haste, the mouth of anthropomorphic creatures is first cut vertically. |
| L59 | 95.05% | A woman eats the best food or eats fruit before it is ripe; as punishment, she undergoes metamorphosis. |
| I18 | 94.24% | Visiting the world of people without an anus or mouth (the underworld, if not otherwise), the hero or heroine enters or attempts to enter into sexual relations with the local inhabitants. See motif I14. |
| A20 | 90.31% | The Sun and the Moon (less often the Sun and a star, the Moon and a star) are brothers (sisters, brother and sister) who initially live on earth, but at the end of the story, as teenagers or young adults, ascend to the sky and become celestial bodies. |
| B26 | 89.17% | A person who follows wild animals (temporarily) turns into one of them or their master, or lives with animals that look like humans to him. |
| I17 | 88.16% | Creatures without mouths, anuses, or genitals, unable to give birth, live underground, in the sky, across the sea, or in certain areas. (Traditions describing women unable to give birth are marked with an asterisk*). |
| F36 | 88.08% | (Adopted) children of a woman or man kill the lover (or spouse of non-human nature) of their father or (adoptive) mother. |
| A24 | 87.77% | The first ancestors live in twilight. When they first find themselves in the rays of the sun, they (spontaneously or by someone's will) perish, turning into animals, spirits, or stones. |
| I28 | 87.57% | Wild or domestic animals live inside a mountain, in a cave or in the underground world, or once came out of there into our world; often animals take on human form underground and have an owner. See motif H18. |
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
21 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 21 traditions: Chukchi, Upper Tanana (Nebesna), Tanacross, Tutchone, Tagish, Inland Tlingit, Bering Strait Inupiat (incl. King Island), North Alaskan Inupiat, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw), Huron (incl Wyandot), Five Nations Iroquois (Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga), Lillooet, Lkungen (Straits; including Samish, Songish, Sooke, Lummi), Klallam, Bribri, Cabecar, Terraba; Chiriqui (AD 800-1500) iconography, Cuna; XVI century data on Eastern Panama, Kogi (Cagaba), Sanha, Creols of Aritama Valley, Pasco, Junin, Huancavelica departments: Central Peru, Sierra (Kechua-speaking communities in Spanish sources XVI-XVII centuries), Kechua-speaking communities of Apurimac, Cuzco, Arequipa, Puno departments; Spanish sources of XVI-XVII centuries; Callawaya (Kechua with Pukina substratum), Amahuaca, Cashinahua, Sharanahua, Yaminahua, Yawanahua, Capanahua), Halkomelem (Snaymuk)
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How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
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