Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

K21 — Once in heaven, she gets married.

57 Myths, legends and folktales
57 Unique narratives for motif K21
31 Cultures & traditions where K21 is told
1 Sub-motifs of motif K21
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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

Overview

A girl ends up in the sky and gets married there.

Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes

This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.

K21 has 1 other sub-motifs

Related

K21.  A girl ends up in the sky and gets married there.
K21a.  A celestial being marries an earthly woman. She longs to return to earth and secretly descends from her husband.

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of K21’s motifs

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny
MotifSimilarityMotif summary
K27A97.31%Test: spend the night in the cold (the antagonist tries to destroy the hero in this way). See motif K27. Compare motif M35: two zoomorphic characters compete to see which of them will sit out the night in the cold.
B44E96.96%First ancestors (usually birds or animals) argue with each other about the length of time periods in the calendar or daily cycle, or about the desirability of the dominance of cold and dark or warm and light times. See motif B44.
B44A96.20%Characters argue about the number of discrete units of time that determine the duration of a certain period of time (most often winter or night). See motif B44.
J6195.83%The character has the ability to move or hover in the air like a feather or a fluff.
B44C95.75%The characters argue about whether there should be darkness or light, cold or warmth on earth. See motif B44.
H1995.31%The raven hides game animals in a pen or cave or scares them away from hunters. See motif H18.
L3395.11%The stone rolls after the character, trying to crush him.
K27O395.08%Two groups of characters compete in overcoming trials or play a game, divided into two teams (at least two episodes with different characters on both sides). The participants are either anthropomorphic but possess different unusual abilities, or they are different animals (natural phenomena, elements, etc.). Cf. motif K27xy (Characters with different properties in opposing camps).
K27K94.88%Test: to dive underwater for a long time or deeply. See motif K27.
M49A94.88%hero needs to penetrate unnoticed into the locus of dangerous creatures; he meets an old woman (usually a shaman, a doctor) going there, puts on her skin, and penetrates into dangerous ones in her guise creatures.

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Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

31 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 31 traditions: Zande (Azande, incl Nzakara), Gilbert Islands, Nauru, Banaba (Ocean island), Lezgians, Archin, KΓΌrin; Khinalug, Tabasaran, Aghul, Gagauz, Mordvins, Chukchi, Asiatic Eskimo (Sirenek, Naukan, Chaplino), Upper Tanana (Nebesna), Tanacross, Inland Tlingit, Athna, Tanana, Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw), Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Western Woods Cree, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Pawnee, Wichita; Spiro Mound iconography, Plains Ojibwa, Lkungen (Straits; including Samish, Songish, Sooke, Lummi), Klallam, Lushootseed (Puget Sound: Puyallup, Nisqualmi, Snuqualmi, Duwamish, Muckleshoot, Snohomish, Skagit), Twana (Skokomish), Western Sahaptin (Upper Cowlitz, Klikitat, Tenino, Umatilla, Yakima, Wallawalla), Kutenai, Maidu, Nisenan, Konkov, Lacandon, Nauru

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