The Mythology and Folklore Database
C19A - The child is playing with the sun




71 Myths, Legends and Folktales
70 Unique Narratives for Motif C19A
22 Cultures & Traditions where C19A is told
132 Mythemes Indexed
1 Sub-Motifs of Motif C19A


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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 character (except Quileut: Raven) turns into a child, asks for and receives heavenly bodies to play, or (Chukchi) comes to play with the little daughter of the owner of the stars.

Berezkin category: Disasters

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


C19 has 1 other sub-motifs


C19.  The missing, hidden, concealed or stolen sun (daylight) reappears. See motif C18
C19a.  The character (except Quileut: Raven) turns into a child, asks for and receives heavenly bodies to play, or (Chukchi) comes to play with the little daughter of the owner of the stars.

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Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns

MotifSimilarityMotif Summary
K32C99.71%The deceiver takes the place of the real wife, and the real wife becomes an owl. See motif K32.
M12399.71%A bird of prey or scavenger (raven, owl, hawk, coyote) marries (or attempts to marry) a partner who (or whose brothers) are geese or other waterfowl. The marriage is disrupted or proves unsuccessful.
M61A199.71%The character (always a raven) provokes a seagull to quarrel with another bird, telling each one that the other was hostile or offensive towards her.
A13A199.69%The raven rescues or obtains the hidden or stolen sun (daylight).
M16A99.68%A character (usually a loon) restores a person's sight and/or health by diving into the water with them. See motif M16.
L10299.45%A girl or woman (for various reasons, jokingly or seriously) calls an animal or animal remains her husband, or steps on bones and addresses them. The animal (comes to life and) carries her away. Her human husband, parents or brother come for her, and they flee; usually the animal husband pursues them, but stops the chase or dies.
M46C99.22%The character turns into a needle, a garbage, a small insect. A woman swallows it and becomes pregnant. See M46B motif.
M2099.19%The character does something unacceptable, is caught, and his beak or jaw is damaged. Usually (except for the Koryaks), people keep the torn-off beak (jaw) in their homes, and the character comes and takes it back.
I13399.09%Star objects in different parts of the sky are associated with separate parts (as well as items of clothing, jewellery, etc.) of a single anthropomorphic or zoomorphic figure.
L1098.98%The character has a sharp (biting) tail or a protrusion on its back. See motif L9, cf. motif L9C.

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Map of Motif Dispersal

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This motif has been recorded in 22 traditions: Chukchi, Aleuts, Nunivak Island, Chipewyan, Upper Tanana (Nebesna), Tanacross, Tutchone, Tagish, Inland Tlingit, Tahltan, Athna, Koyukon, Tanana, Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), North Alaskan Inupiat, Mackenzie Delta, Eyak, Haida, Tsimshian, Nootka (Nu-chah-nulth), Makah, Chilkotin, Quileute, Chemakum (Hoh), Kodiak


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