The Mythology and Folklore Database
B35A - The tree turns into a bear.
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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
The tree asks not to be cut down and fulfils the man's wishes. When they go beyond what is reasonable, the tree turns the man into a bear.Berezkin category: The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 7, Etiology of plants and animals and of their peculiar features, particular animals as protagonists of cosmological stories, metamorphoses, weather and calendar
B35 has 1 other sub-motifsB35. The bear hastily puts his left moccasin on his right foot and vice versa, which is why he is club-footed. B35a. The tree asks not to be cut down and fulfils the man's wishes. When they go beyond what is reasonable, the tree turns the man into a bear. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of B35's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| K124 | 99.86% | An animal killed by a hunter runs away. The animal itself or someone else explains that this is not a miracle (or that it is not a tragedy), but that the real miracle (tragedy) happened somewhere else. A story about what happened follows. |
| I58 | 99.40% | The Milky Way is called the bird path and is associated with migratory birds. |
| K102A4 | 98.97% | A hostile young character is located behind a water barrier. The young man's sister or mother helps him cross and becomes his lover. |
| C32C | 98.67% | Nails (and hair) have special significance for a person's fate, their soul or the world as a whole. (Compound motif). |
| K74A | 98.64% | A demonic character arrives and mocks one of the men remaining in the house. When the hero remains, he defeats the demon and follows in his footsteps to where he dwells. Cf. motif K74 (an unassuming and weak-looking man approaches a warrior preparing dinner; he eats everything, ties up, beats or kills the cook. When the hero remains to cook, he defeats the demon). |
| K56A4 | 98.59% | When a kind girl returns home, an animal or bird (usually a dog) announces that she is well, but when an unkind girl returns or when her dead body is brought back, the dog (rooster, crow) announces that something is wrong with her. |
| K27X1 | 98.58% | Having received a difficult task (usually: to bring an object or creature that has no specific characteristics, such as "something, I don't know what," "a strange wonder," etc.), the hero meets an invisible man who serves others; he is kind to him, and the man becomes his assistant. (This motif is certainly present in some texts of the ATU 465A plot, but it is not specifically highlighted in the definition). (Cf. motif K131B). |
| C3 | 98.55% | The snake (eel, frog) saved the ship (or the whole world) by plugging the hole from which water was pouring with its body. |
| I4 | 98.45% | When a vehicle moves across the sky, thunder rumbles. |
| K103D | 98.34% | An animal (rarely a demonic creature) orders the hero or heroine to retrieve necessary items from its ear or to enter its ear in order to transform, fall asleep, etc. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 12 traditions: Estonians, Western Ukrainians, Nogai, Bashkirs, Mari (Cheremis), Udmurt, Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Buryats: Eastern (trans Baikal), i.e. Khori, Russian Federation