The Mythology and Folklore Database
J51B - A piece is missing: the reborn moon.




5 Myths, Legends and Folktales
5 Unique Narratives for Motif J51B
4 Cultures & Traditions where J51B is told
0 Mythemes Indexed
4 Sub-Motifs of Motif J51B


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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 moon has been eaten or has died and its body has decomposed. It is revived, but a small part (the bone) is missing. This determines the characteristics of the moon or the characteristics of human anatomy.

Berezkin category: Avenger heroes: The amerinday cycle

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


J51 has 4 other sub-motifs


J51.  The character is dismembered or eaten; he is revived from his remains, but since one of his bones was broken, swallowed or carried away (or a drop of blood or a piece of flesh was lost), the revival fails, or the character remains defective in some way.
J51a.  To climb a rock or tower, one must stick bones into it and climb them like a ladder.
J51a1.  To retrieve an object from a hard-to-reach place, the girl orders it to be dismembered (or just have its fingers cut off) and then reassembled, after which it comes back to life.
J51a2.  A girl must penetrate an inaccessible place with the help of chicken bones. She loses one or there are not enough bones. By cutting off her finger and using it as she would use the bones, the girl achieves her goal.
J51b.  The moon has been eaten or has died and its body has decomposed. It is revived, but a small part (the bone) is missing. This determines the characteristics of the moon or the characteristics of human anatomy.

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Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns

MotifSimilarityMotif Summary
A10100.00%The sun gets its sparkling eyes (eye) from an animal.
A11C100.00%The Sun and Moon kill a monster whose eyes shine differently. At first, the Moon takes the brighter eye, but then swaps with the Sun.
B23100.00%The deity forbids the use of fire for cooking and punishes those who violate the prohibition.
B39100.00%An insect or character, which later turns into an insect, knows where food (cultivated plants) or water is located, but refuses to share this knowledge. To find the valuables (usually to force the insect to reveal its secret), the first ancestors pull on a rope tied around the character's waist (the origin of the bridge between the abdominal and thoracic sections of insects).
G12100.00%A huge tree bearing various fruits and/or containing water in its trunk grows out of a human body or is a transformed human being.
G27100.00%Cultivated plants appear together with urine or in the place where the hero urinated.
J12A100.00%A girl or two sisters come to an old woman who invites them to marry her son. In reality, he is a worm, a snake or a penis, which his mother hides in a vessel during the day. The girl (sisters) do not allow him to approach them and run away. See motif J12.
J33A100.00%A boy, a young man, or two children live in an old woman's house. They kill her husband—a man or a large animal—and make a scarecrow out of him. Angry that her husband is not responding to her, the old woman beats the scarecrow and then discovers that her husband has been killed. See motif J33.
G399.75%Cultivated plants or fertile soil for their cultivation are hidden inside the rock. Birds or thunder gods pierce a hole in the rock.
G1699.41%Ants are the first to find cultivated plants that are unknown to others and concentrated in one place.

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Map of Motif Dispersal

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This motif has been recorded in 4 traditions: Ngbakka, Mbum (incl Mbai), Mundang, Fali, Tupuri, Maya (=Bali), Nyong, Barasana, Taibano, Macuna, Desana, Siriano; Tatuyo, Bara, Tuyuca, Letuama, Tanimuca, Ufaina, Yahuna


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