The Mythology and Folklore Database
C2B - The Burnt Moon.




11 Myths, Legends and Folktales
10 Unique Narratives for Motif C2B
4 Cultures & Traditions where C2B is told
33 Mythemes Indexed
2 Sub-Motifs of Motif C2B


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 Motif Summary  -   Motifs with Simlar Dispersals  -    Map of Myth Distribution   -   List of Traditions  -   Myths



Source Data from Berezkin's Analytics Catalogue, if using this data please acknowledge and link to it here:
Ю.Е. Березкин, Е.Н. Дувакин. Тематическая классификация и распределение фольклорно-мифологических мотивов по ареалам. Аналитический каталог.



Summary of Motif

The Sun and the Moon are caught in a fire. The strong and intelligent Sun escapes, while the weak and foolish Moon is burned or consumed, but the Sun revives it.

Berezkin category: Disasters

This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 1, Sun and Moon


C2 has 2 other sub-motifs


C2.  The inhabitants of the middle world (in part) are destroyed (or will be destroyed) once by fire or drought, another time by a flood, or the world is flooded with a stream of fire and boiling water.
C2a.  Two characters meet a woodpecker and receive an object from it, which causes the ground to catch fire upon contact. The stronger and smarter of the two characters escapes, while the weaker and stupider one is burned or burned to death.
C2b.  The Sun and the Moon are caught in a fire. The strong and intelligent Sun escapes, while the weak and foolish Moon is burned or consumed, but the Sun revives it.

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Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns

MotifSimilarityMotif Summary
A22D100.00%The burned character turns into a constellation or a dark spot on the Milky Way.
B114100.00%A woman or a man (usually old people) turn into anteaters (the origin of anteaters).
B24A100.00%After a character surrounds a group of people with a circle of feathers or throws feathers into their dwellings, the people turn into wild pigs or peccaries.
B36B100.00%Birds find their voices by pecking at a large reptile and smearing themselves with the fluids that flow out of its body.
C17100.00%The men of the community of the first ancestors destroy most of the people and/or themselves on a pyre or in a fire pit.
C2A100.00%Two characters meet a woodpecker and receive an object from it, which causes the ground to catch fire upon contact. The stronger and smarter of the two characters escapes, while the weaker and stupider one is burned or burned to death.
E28100.00%People shoot at the Moon, its blood spills onto the earth.
F43B100.00%Leaving the men, the women of the community of the first ancestors hide in a hole underground.
F46A100.00%Men (human-animals) discover a woman at the top of a tree and copulate with her there.
F54B100.00%A young man or boy copulates with his mother or sister. This becomes known from the remains of paint or feathers with which he was covered during sexual intercourse.

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Map of Motif Dispersal

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This motif has been recorded in 4 traditions: Bororo, Umotina (Umutina), Craho, Apinaye (Apinage, Apinaje)


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