Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
L1A — The woman became a bear.
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 young woman turns into a bear (in Asia, a tigress) and attacks her close relatives or husband.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
L1 has 8 other sub-motifs
RelatedL1a. A young woman turns into a bear (in Asia, a tigress) and attacks her close relatives or husband.
L1b. A young woman turns into a monstrous bear and kills most people except her younger sister (Ojibwa: the younger sister of her former husband). Their brothers (or one brother) return from hunting and kill the bear, or she dies while chasing them. Cf. motif L65D.
L1b1. A woman comes into conflict with her brothers and turns into a dangerous demon.
L1c. Those fleeing from the monstrous bear ascend to the sky and turn into stars.
L1c1. Fleeing from demonic characters, a group of men – relatives of a girl – ascend to the sky and remain there. See motif L1C.
L1c2. Fleeing from a demonic creature, the characters hide their children (younger brother or sister) in a camouflaged pit, usually under the hearth. See motif L1C.
L1d. The jaguar-werewolf kills most people and is killed by the woman who survives.
L1e. A monstrous bird is created from a small amount of human or animal flesh (usually from the heart) or from lumps of manioc starch.
L1f. The sister, using magic or transforming herself into a monster, kills her brothers in revenge for the death of her lover or husband.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| B97 | 98.95% | The character rewards (rarely punishes) a bird living by the water, determining its current appearance (crest, beak, feather colouring). |
| B44F1 | 98.82% | In the dispute over whether the world should be light (warm), the bear is on the side of darkness (and cold); or the world is plunged into darkness because the bear hides the sun in his house. |
| K27Y | 98.76% | The hero is sent or, knowing the danger, goes himself to obtain various (at least two) materials for making a bow and arrows (shafts, feathers, bowstring, flint for arrowheads, paint for colouring arrows, resin and fibres for attaching the arrowhead or feather to the shaft, etc.). See motif K27. |
| D4N | 98.71% | A boy or (among the Kutené) a woman cries, demanding the absent elements - summer, fire, rain. See motif D4A (demand for summer). |
| A38C | 98.10% | The Sun exchanges a cape made of animal or bird skins with a boy or girl, or spoils it. As a result, the boy or girl raises their status or takes revenge on the Sun. |
| M81B | 97.67% | The character is warned not to try to reach an arrow if it gets stuck in a tree. He breaks the ban and gets into trouble. |
| K27P | 97.60% | The antagonist sends the hero to places where he is attacked by dangerous creatures; the hero kills them and brings them to the antagonist. The creatures turn out to be relatives, pupils or helpers of the antagonist, whom he (or his close relatives) mourns or revives. See motif K27. |
| L66 | 97.12% | To help the hero, a small animal digs an underground passage beneath the lying monster, and the hero strikes it from below. |
| L67 | 96.96% | Having dug an underground passage to a lying monstrous hoofed animal, a small animal gnaws the wool from the place on the skin where the heart beats; the hero thrusts a spear or arrow into this place. See motif L66. |
| I22H | 96.74% | The character must jump over a gap (abyss) beneath his feet, which alternately widens and narrows, or a river whose banks converge and diverge. |
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
50 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 50 traditions: Stieng, Chrau, Sre (Koho), Maa, Mnong, Chukchi, Aleuts, Central Yupik, Nunivak Island, Chugach, Tutchone, Tagish, Inland Tlingit, Tahltan, Kaska, Tanana, Bering Strait Inupiat (incl. King Island), North Alaskan Inupiat, Mackenzie Delta, Copper, Polar Inuit, Bella Coola (Nuxalk), Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Eastern Cree, Menominee, Blackfoot, Sarsee (Tsuu T'ina), Cheyenne, Arapaho, Omaha, Ponca, Iowa, Arikara, Wichita; Spiro Mound iconography, Gros Ventre, Plains Cree, Plains Ojibwa, Assiniboine, Crow, Carrier, Chilkotin, Shuswap, Western Sahaptin (Upper Cowlitz, Klikitat, Tenino, Umatilla, Yakima, Wallawalla), Nez Perce, Kalapuya, Coos, Pomo, Wintu, Patwin, Nomlaki, Upland Yuma: Walapai, Havasupai, Yavapai, Navajo, Jicarilla, Zuni, Kodiak
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