Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
H14 — The woman flies back.
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 woman who has returned from the world of the dead flies back, becoming a bird or a fly.
Berezkin category: Paradise Lost
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| F51A | 98.25% | After incest is discovered, the sister openly demands her brother as her husband, turns into a monster, and kills people. |
| K42 | 95.69% | A young bird woman energetically searches among a group of men for one she likes, takes him by force and makes him her husband; she turns into a monster, pursues and kills men, but is ultimately killed herself. |
| F25 | 95.60% | Women have been stained with someone else's or their own blood, or with blood-like paint, ever since women began menstruating. |
| F28C | 95.28% | A woman masturbates with the penis of a large animal that one of the men killed while hunting. |
| J56 | 95.24% | A son or sons come to their father. He subjects them to trials in order to find out whether they are really his children. |
| L15A1 | 94.89% | The character's vulnerable spot is located at the bottom of the foot (heel, toe, sole, ankle). |
| L15A | 94.85% | The character's vulnerable spot is located on the surface of the body, but not in vital internal organs. |
| F82 | 94.80% | The son-in-law resorts to trickery to sleep with his mother-in-law, or the mother-in-law with her son-in-law. Usually, the son-in-law insists that his mother-in-law, rather than his wife, accompany him on a hunt. |
| M29H | 94.58% | See the motives in square brackets. |
| M52 | 93.70% | The character (by deception) kills an ungulates. He asks another to refresh the carcass, looks for a knife to do it, or a fire to fry the meat. The other freshens the carcass, gives fire or a knife, but takes or tries to take all the meat for himself. |
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
9 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 9 traditions: Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Plains Ojibwa, Cherokee, Luiseño, Juaneño, Zuni, Huichol, Bolivian Guarani: Chiriguano (including assimilated Chane Arawaks), Pauserna (=Guarasu), Guarayu, Tapiete
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How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
0009-0006-1672-4451
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