Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
H14 — The woman flies back.
Source data for narratives and traditions is drawn from Berezkin’s Analytical Catalogue. If you use this data, please acknowledge and link to it: Ю.Е. Березкин, Е.Н. Дувакин. Тематическая классификация и распределение фольклорно-мифологических мотивов по ареалам. Аналитический каталог.
Summary of motif
OverviewA woman who has returned from the world of the dead flies back, becoming a bird or a fly.
Berezkin category: Paradise Lost
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| F51A | 98.25% | After incest is discovered, the sister openly demands her brother as her husband, turns into a monster, and kills people. |
| K42 | 95.69% | A young bird woman energetically searches among a group of men for one she likes, takes him by force and makes him her husband; she turns into a monster, pursues and kills men, but is ultimately killed herself. |
| F25 | 95.60% | Women have been stained with someone else's or their own blood, or with blood-like paint, ever since women began menstruating. |
| F28C | 95.28% | A woman masturbates with the penis of a large animal that one of the men killed while hunting. |
| J56 | 95.24% | A son or sons come to their father. He subjects them to trials in order to find out whether they are really his children. |
| L15A1 | 94.89% | The character's vulnerable spot is located at the bottom of the foot (heel, toe, sole, ankle). |
| L15A | 94.85% | The character's vulnerable spot is located on the surface of the body, but not in vital internal organs. |
| F82 | 94.80% | The son-in-law resorts to trickery to sleep with his mother-in-law, or the mother-in-law with her son-in-law. Usually, the son-in-law insists that his mother-in-law, rather than his wife, accompany him on a hunt. |
| M29H | 94.58% | See the motives in square brackets. |
| M52 | 93.70% | The character (by deception) kills an ungulates. He asks another to refresh the carcass, looks for a knife to do it, or a fire to fry the meat. The other freshens the carcass, gives fire or a knife, but takes or tries to take all the meat for himself. |
See the 100 most similar distributions →
Map of motif dispersal
DistributionDrag the map to pan, use the scroll wheel to zoom — choose a texture or projection below
Cite this map
Distribution of the traditions attesting motif H14, ‘The woman flies back.’, as recorded in the Berezkin–Duvakin Analytical Catalogue of Folklore Motifs (9 traditions mapped). Geolocation and cartography by Jonathan Fielder-White, Folklore Database, release 1.26206.1 (25 July 2026), https://www.folkloredatabase.com/motif/H14 (accessed 8 August 2026). Basemap © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Traditions
9 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 9 traditions: Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Plains Ojibwa, Cherokee, Luiseño, Juaneño, Zuni, Huichol, Bolivian Guarani: Chiriguano (including assimilated Chane Arawaks), Pauserna (=Guarasu), Guarayu, Tapiete
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How to cite: Fielder-White, Jonathan (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
0009-0006-1672-4451
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