Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
N2 — Origins: when the goat was a commander
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
OverviewFabulous and epic texts start from the beginning, which states that animals were performing human social or economic functions at that time.
Berezkin category: Fabulous and epic formulas
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 13, Formulae.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K67D | 99.77% | The worker (rarely â the husband) annoys the master (wife) so much that he or she decides to run away, taking his or her property with him or her. The worker hides in a sack (chest) with his or her property and ends up back where he or she started. |
| B103 | 99.72% | The character thinks that since the cornel blooms earlier than other fruit trees, its fruits will ripen earlier than others. The character is mistaken and is left without fruit. |
| A19A | 99.63% | Moving daily across the sky, the sun changes its riding animals (usually in the morning it rides on an animal that moves slowly, and in the evening on another that runs faster). |
| I95 | 99.62% | The Pleiades are a sieve or riddle for sifting agricultural products. See motif I95. |
| K35A1 | 99.62% | Setting off on a journey, a person (often against the advice of their horse) picks up a precious feather. Upon learning of this, an authoritative character gives them difficult tasks. |
| N18 | 99.59% | fairy-tale text ends with a formula stating that the narrator received food, drinks, money or other real world items from the characters described, but lost them against their own free will because of meeting dogs or people (robbers, boys, children or a neighbor). |
| L100E | 99.54% | Before entering, the guest notices the mistress with her lover in the house. When the husband arrives, the guest pretends to be clairvoyant and shows the husband where the lover is hiding and where the food prepared for him is. |
| L15D1 | 99.51% | When a character is asked to reveal the location of his soul (death, power), he first gives an incorrect answer, and the questioner usually begins to show signs of attention to the corresponding locus or object. |
| B33D | 99.50% | An elderly woman embodies winter, is associated with snow, and/or at the border between winter and spring (autumn) there are several very cold days associated with a certain old woman. |
| I92A | 99.49% | A person who jumps or steps over a rainbow changes their gender. |
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
14 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 14 traditions: Czech, Czechs, Slovakians, Slovaks, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Uzbek, Tajik, Kumyk, Terekemen, Nogai, Tats, Armenians, Gagauz, Anatolia Turks, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Mongols (Khalkha), Urums, Rumei
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How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
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