The Mythology and Folklore Database
B33 - Woman-wind.
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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
There is a female character who embodies the wind or is considered the mother or mistress of the winds.Berezkin category: The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 3, Cosmogony, the earth and the sky, etiology of the elements, natural and biological phenomena (fire, water, soil, thunderstorms, dream, etc.), cataclysms and cosmic threats, spirits of nature
B33 has 14 other sub-motifsB33. There is a female character who embodies the wind or is considered the mother or mistress of the winds. B33a. Deciding that it has become (or will soon become) warm, the character believes that winter is over (most often an old woman goes to graze cattle), but dies from the cold or the cattle driven out to pasture perish. Cf. motif I84A ("The frozen son of God"). B33a1. A person (animal, bird) teases or insults March or another calendar month and is punished as a result. B33b. At the border between winter and spring, a bird (usually a thrush) flies away prematurely into the cold and dies, or raises chicks and they die or suffer from the cold. B33c. The month on the border between winter and spring (usually March) takes (rarely: buys, steals) a few days from its neighbour. B33d. 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. B33d1. In narrative folklore, the days of the week (most often Friday and Wednesday) are special (female) characters with a more or less pronounced demonic nature. B33e. The last cold month regrets that it did not come earlier or that it is too short. In that case, it would have frozen everyone. B33e1. It is said that the cold, which is stronger than anything else, can freeze boiling water, a foetus in the womb, etc. b33e2. The severity of the cold in early spring is said to break the horns of large hoofed animals. B33f. A certain character performs actions that determine the change from dark to light times of day. It always involves yarn, thread, rope, or fabric, which the character unravels or winds up, or with which the hero binds the entity responsible for the daily cycle. B33f1. By performing certain actions, the (old) woman determines the daily cycle. B33f2. At night, the fire goes out. The young man goes to look for fire and on the way ties up an old woman or an old man (usually a character responsible for the length of night and day). B33g. Horsemen or horses represent celestial bodies or different periods of the day. B33h. The sun has a mother who lives with him (less often with her) in the same house. Cf. motif K27x6b ("The character goes to the mother of the sun") Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of B33's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| N33 | 99.36% | hero drives the enemy into the ground, or he and the enemy alternately drive each other into the ground (ankle-deep, waist-deep, etc.). |
| I87AA | 99.17% | Describes a giant bull (rarely: horse): head in one field, body in another; a bathhouse on its tail, a lake on its back; people standing at its head and tail have to walk a long way to meet each other; etc. Usually the bull is killed and eaten (by people in Baltic-Finnish traditions and in Olonets antiquity; by birds in most southern traditions). |
| L108E | 99.14% | A fox has a child, usually adopted (she cares for a lamb, a foal, etc.), a wolf or a bear kills it, and the fox takes revenge. |
| K85B | 99.09% | The three-legged horse is distinguished by its strength and speed, and is ridden by a rider of non-human nature. |
| K27SS | 99.04% | A strong man must overtake a woman, often an old woman. This is difficult or impossible to achieve. |
| N14 | 99.03% | fairy-tale text ends with a formula stating that the narrator attended a feast and/or wedding arranged by the characters of the fairy tale. |
| L81C | 98.91% | The legless man lives together with the blind and armless man (or with one of the two). By working together, they are healed. |
| M84A | 98.70% | After supernatural characters put the bones of a dead and eaten deer, cow, ram, or goat in its skin, the animal is whole (and usually comes to life). See M84 motif. |
| I35A2 | 98.62% | Thunder is heard when stones or large vessels are rolled, dragged or overturned in the sky. |
| N27C | 98.55% | It is claimed that the bird has no milk and/or breasts |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 37 traditions: Dinka, Atuot, Nuer, Basques, Germans: North (Low- and Central German dialects): Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg, Pommern, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony, incl East Frisia and Oldenburg), Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Thüringen, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen, Brandenburg, Rügen, Czech, Czechs, Hungarians, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Slovenians, Slovenes, Ancient Greece, Latvians, Livonians, Estonians, Finns, Western Ukrainians, Uzbek, Yagnobi, Tajik, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Ingush, Nogai, Kalmyk, Bashkirs, Mari (Cheremis), Mordvins, Chuvash, Forest Nenets, Southern Altai: Altai proper (Altai-Kiji), Telengit, Altaians, Nganasans, Udeghe, Nanai, Nivkh, Chukchi, Oregon Athabaskans: Lower Umpqua, Tututni (incl Joshua), Upper Coquille, Galice, Tolowa, Chechens, Wallons, Picardie, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Lutsi (Ludza)