Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
I85A — Animals around the North Star.
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
OverviewAnimals walk around the North Star, or the movement of the stars is compared to the movement of animals around a pole. See motif I85.
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.
I85 has 5 other sub-motifs
RelatedI85. Polar Star â stake, nail, hitching post, etc.
I85a. Animals walk around the North Star, or the movement of the stars is compared to the movement of animals around a pole. See motif I85.
I85a1. The North Star â a hole leading to the upper world.
I85b. The North Star â one person.
I85c. The character goes up to the sky and finds vessels containing various (two or more) types of precipitation, weather phenomena, seasons and/or celestial bodies.
I85c1. In the sky there is a vessel, a box or an indescribable container for storing rain (rain clouds).
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| L95A | 97.85% | A person sees lungs or a liver lying on the ground or floating in the water. As soon as he touches them, a demonic character appears before him. |
| K159 | 97.63% | When two characters are fighting, someone nearby wants one of them to slip (while the other remains firmly on their feet) and throws something under their feet for this purpose. |
| B115 | 97.60% | Conifers and some other trees and shrubs (small shrubs) became evergreen after the elixir of immortality was accidentally spilled on them. Cf. motif H6b. |
| M83A | 97.51% | The characters are arguing which one is older. After some people tell us how long they were born, the latter says that this and that happened in his memory at that time. |
| N1 | 97.39% | The fabulous and epic texts start from the beginning, which states that today's huge objects were tiny at the time. |
| M106B | 96.91% | The character who caused harm to the antagonist calls himself by a fictitious name such as "Last Year," and the other antagonists understand this to mean that everything happened a long time ago and there is no point in looking for the culprit. |
| K12A | 96.80% | An unrecognised hero arrives at a place where his bride or wife is to be given to another man or turned into a servant. Contrary to expectations, he manages to draw a tight bow (raise a spear), with which he kills his rivals. |
| K91 | 96.54% | Dogs, the hero's horse, or the hero himself fight the enemy in the underworld. Those watching from a distance judge the course of the battle by the colour of the water or foam rising to the surface, the colour of the first animal to emerge, etc. |
| M109A | 96.40% | One zoomorphic character advises another to sit on the ice for a long time â usually until food falls from the sky. The one who sits on the ice freezes to it. |
| K109 | 96.33% | The hero is advised to ask supernatural characters for something insignificant (a puppy, a cup) in return for his service. What he receives turns out to be the daughter of a deity. Another character unsuccessfully tries to take the hero's wife away from him. |
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
22 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 22 traditions: Ancient Egypt, Egyptian, Tuareg, Indian literary tradition (Vedic, Brahman, Purana, Indian Buddhism, Hinduism, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchtantra, Jatakas); iconography of Hindu temples, Bhils (incl Barela-Bhilala), Karachays, Balkar, Ossetians, Kumyk, Terekemen, Nogai, Kara Kalpak, Kazakh, Hui (Dungan) of Xinjiang, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan (Dungan texts from Southern and Eastern China are clustered with the Chinese ones), Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Bashkirs, Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Mongols (Khalkha), Darkhad, Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Khakas, Kutenai, Northern Paiute (=Paviotso), Astrakhan Tatars, Karagash Nogai, Buryats: Eastern (trans Baikal), i.e. Khori
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