The Mythology and Folklore Database
B72D - Wings from a cutting board.




26 Myths, Legends and Folktales
26 Unique Narratives for Motif B72D
10 Cultures & Traditions where B72D is told
0 Mythemes Indexed
4 Sub-Motifs of Motif B72D


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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

A woman makes herself wings (beak, tail) from clothing accessories and turns into a bird or a flying creature.

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


B72 has 4 other sub-motifs


B72.  Since the children do not give their mother water, she turns into a bird (usually a cuckoo) and flies away.
B72a.  Mother (stepmother, adoptive father) does not give food to a girl or (less often) a boy. The child asks migratory birds to take him with them, they give him bird clothing, he flies away with them, becoming a bird.
B72b.  A girl or, less commonly, a boy turns into a bird after his mother (father, guardian) refuses to give him water or food or otherwise mistreats him.
B72c.  Children run after their mother, injure themselves, and their blood stains plants, the ground, and the evening sky.
B72d.  A woman makes herself wings (beak, tail) from clothing accessories and turns into a bird or a flying creature.

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Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns

MotifSimilarityMotif Summary
A32J100.00%A shaman with a tambourine ascends to the moon and remains there, visible in the silhouette of the lunar spots.
B42M1100.00%The three main stars of the Big Dipper's handle are associated with people of three different nationalities.
B64A100.00%Fish and birds fight (usually by shooting arrows at each other). Since then, fish have had many small bones in their bodies and/or birds' legs have taken on their current form.
B74A100.00%Red cloths are sewn over the character's eyes (threads, eyelids are painted red) or he does it himself. He sees everything in red or his eyes have turned red forever.
D1A1100.00%Because a woman offended the fire, its mistress takes her child away.
E13100.00%The shamanic tambourine is compared or associated with a lake.
E1E100.00%The son of the first human couple initially takes the form of a small plant that has grown from the ground, a stalk.
K32H2100.00%A man executes his wife by leaving her to be eaten by ants.
K56A1100.00%The groom, the bringer of prosperity, orders the girl who has come to perform work that she herself is unable to do. The groom's mother performs the work, and the girl is accepted by the groom. See motif K56A. Except for the Ket people: the work is performed by tiny women sitting in or behind the mother-in-law's ear.
L42F100.00%The character intended for consumption slips away unnoticed. The master of the house thinks that his wife has eaten him alone and cuts open her stomach.

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Map of Motif Dispersal

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This motif has been recorded in 10 traditions: Mansi, Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Nenets, Southern Selkups, Northern Selkups, Kets, Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Tungus (Evenki) of China (Solon, Birar, Oroqen, Manegir), Evenks, Tungus (Evenki): Russian Far East, Evenks, Forest (Upper Kolyma) Yukaghir


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