The Mythology and Folklore Database
B33F1 - Mistress of night and day.
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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
By performing certain actions, the (old) woman determines the daily cycle.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 |
|---|---|---|
| K56A7 | 99.75% | In winter, a girl (rarely a boy) is sent to bring something that is normally only available in summer. She brings it. |
| B42Q | 99.57% | Ursa Major – chariot, cart. |
| K73B4 | 99.51% | A person is asked to fill a bag (cauldron) with truth (lies, fairy tales). He fulfils the request by telling a revealing story. |
| K56A5B | 99.50% | A person who responds kindly to the questions of characters representing the weather during certain periods of the calendar cycle is rewarded. Another person who scolds these characters is punished. |
| K27Z2F | 99.48% | A poor girl buys a doll (goose) that defecates gold. When the neighbours take the doll, it only dirties their house. They throw it away, and the prince uses it to wipe himself, and it sticks to his backside. No one can help, but the poor girl easily solves the problem. The prince marries her. |
| L129 | 99.46% | The character is asked why his body parts, organs, and tools are the way they are. He answers (or the questioner gives explanations for him). In the end, one kills or maims the other. |
| H7E | 99.43% | In the past, people knew when they would die, so before their death they stopped doing their work or performed their duties half-heartedly. |
| K56A5C | 99.42% | A man who kindly answers the questions of characters representing the weather in certain months of the year is rewarded. Another man scolds them and is punished. |
| K33A5 | 99.41% | A woman who has been turned into a duck (goose) by her rival's scheming tries to establish contact with her children or husband. |
| M168A | 99.41% | An animal or bird that regularly feeds on the fruits of a farmer's harvest or lives in his field continues to do so until the very last moment, when the threat to its life becomes obvious. Usually, a bird with chicks (a fox with fox cubs) does not leave the field (vineyard) where the harvest has ripened until the owner's children (workers) and he himself take up the sickle or begin to cut the vines. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 15 traditions: Indian literary tradition (Vedic, Brahman, Purana, Indian Buddhism, Hinduism, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchtantra, Jatakas); iconography of Hindu temples, Spain, Spaniards, Portuguese, Portugal, Hungarians, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Macedonians, Balkarians, Albanians, Balkarians, Western Ukrainians, Anatolia Turks, Dolgans, Galicians, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio)