μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Theft of light. Light originally absent is stolen by culture hero.

Mythological motifs. · Creation and ordering of human life. · Acquisition of culture. · Acquisition of livable environment. · view the constellation · filed as A1411

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Attested across traditions
On our shelf — the index’s citations, resolved to served chapters
  • Eskimo (Smith Sound)The Kalevala, Rune XLVIIThompson cites: Kroeber JAFL XII 205, S. Am. Indian (Tapirape): Wagley-Galvao BBAE CXLIII (3) 178. Cf. Finnish: Kalevala rune 47.
The motif on our shelf — written from the served texts; every claim cited  receipt

The honest form: the motif as labeled — light originally absent, stolen by the culture hero — has no direct witness on our shelf, and Thompson knew it; his one resolving row runs through Smith Sound and Tapirapé authorities and ends “Cf. Finnish: Kalevala rune 47” — a compare, not a citation. What the served rune gives is the mirror image: light originally present, stolen from everyone. Louhi takes the lights bodily — “In her arms she takes fair Luna”, “Calls the Sun down from his station” — and hides them “In the iron-banded caverns”, promising release only on her own terms: “Till I come to give ye freedom” [The Kalevala, Rune XLVII]. “Light has disappeared from Northland”, and the answer is not counter-theft but manufacture: Ukko strikes a new flame from his fire-sword, “Seeking for the golden moonlight, / Looking for the silver sunshine” [ibid.]. The pilot’s theft-of-fire page (A1415) documented this rune’s fire-lane; this address is its celestial floor, written so the page is not empty and the reader is not misled. Until an Eskimo or Tapirapé shelf is wired, our only text answers the label by inversion.

Witnesses: The Kalevala, Rune XLVII

Scholars’ trail — 3references

The index’s own references — the collections where scholars sighted this story-shape, tradition by tradition. Titles on our shelf are live links; the rest is the frontier, not yet shelved.

  • JewishNeuman
  • HinduKeith 34. – N. Am. Indian: *Thompson Tales 281 n. 42
  • Eskimo (Smith Sound)Kroeber JAFL XII 205, S. Am. Indian (Tapirape): Wagley-Galvao BBAE CXLIII (3) 178. Cf. Finnish: Kalevala rune 47. → on our shelf: The Kalevala, Rune XLVII
Within the index

Filed under Acquisition of livable environment.

2 finer motifs beneath it
Light kept in box (basket). StolenTheft of light by being swallowed and reborn. The hero transforms himself to a particle. The daughter of the guardian of light swallows him as she is drinking water. He is reborn. As a child in the house he steals light
Filed beside it
Origin of light – miscellaneousOrigin of fireTheft of fire. Mankind is without fire. A culture hero steals it from the ownerCountry ridded of ogres and made peacefulTheft of tablets of fate. From heaven by bird Zu
Keeps company with — shares receipted episodes
Theft of sun. The sun, which is kept by a monster, is stolen and brought to earthEclipse caused by monster devouring sun or moonTheft of moon. Moon is kept by a monster. It is stolen and brought to earthLight kept in box (basket). StolenTheft of light by being swallowed and reborn. The hero transforms himself to a particle. The daughter of the guardian of light swallows him as she is drinking water. He is reborn. As a child in the house he steals lightTheft of fire. Mankind is without fire. A culture hero steals it from the ownerGhost summoned by weeping

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