Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
I128 — Ursa Major – a ladle.
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
OverviewThe Big Dipper – a ladle, a scoop.
Berezkin category: Supernatural objects, objects and creatures
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 2, Moon spots, stars, constellations.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| M57D1 | 99.10% | bird consistently gives a person magical objects (or gives one, with which he receives the rest) or consistently fulfills his wishes. |
| C31 | 98.43% | The hedgehog is wiser or more cunning than all the gods and animals; it possesses knowledge that is vital for human existence. |
| C29 | 98.33% | People (God) learn a secret by overhearing (spying on) a character talking to himself or his relatives (or performing actions that should be remembered). The knowledge gained is related to cosmogony or the acquisition of cultural values. |
| B83 | 98.24% | A character attempts to lift a small object or creature, which turns out to be gigantic and unliftable. Cf. motif I87ab. |
| N30 | 98.06% | formula that describes the confusion of feelings: when a character looks in one direction, he cries, and when he laughs or smiles in the other direction. |
| M98 | 98.02% | The character counts the number of members in two huge and alternative sets (dead and alive, men and women, etc.). Usually numbers are distributed equally, and one term (or some) is endowed with the properties of both. By referring it to one of the sets, the character proves a thesis. |
| K126 | 97.93% | A predatory beast or demon eats the hero's horse, but in return is forced or voluntarily helps him. |
| K32G1 | 97.25% | The guilty party is offered a choice of items of utilitarian value (often forty, seven, three, etc. horses or the same number of knives). The person usually does not understand that these are methods of execution. |
| I87AA | 96.96% | Describes a giant bull (rarely: horse): head in one field, body in another; a bathhouse on its tail, a lake on its back; people standing at its head and tail have to walk a long way to meet each other; etc. Usually the bull is killed and eaten (by people in Baltic-Finnish traditions and in Olonets antiquity; by birds in most southern traditions). |
| I94 | 96.95% | The Pleiades are something holey. |
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
24 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 24 traditions: Early Chinese written sources, England, British, Bretons, France, Lithuanians, Vepsians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Cherkassians, Adyghe, Kabardin, Lezgians, Archin, Kürin; Khinalug, Laks, Tats, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Bashkirs, Mari (Cheremis), Mordvins, Chuvash, Udmurt, Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Nenets, Olcha (Ulch), Dogrib, Slavey, Buryats: Eastern (trans Baikal), i.e. Khori, Don Cossaks, Russian Federation
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