μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Theft of moon. Moon is kept by a monster. It is stolen and brought to earth.

Mythological motifs. · Cosmogony and cosmology. · The heavens. · The moon. · Nature and condition of the moon. · view the constellation · filed as A758

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On our shelf — the index’s citations, resolved to served chapters
  • Eskimo (Bering Strait)The Kalevala, Rune XLVIIThompson cites: Nelson RBAE XVIII 483. – Finnish: Kalevala runes 47, 49.
The motif on our shelf — written from the served texts; every claim cited  receipt

Thompson gave moon-theft its own address, and its lead witness — Eskimo, "Nelson RBAE XVIII 483" — is unserved; what resolves is the Finnish pair he lists second. The Moon is taken first, and tenderly: Louhi "In her arms she takes fair Luna / From her cradle in the birch-tree", and hides her "In a rock of many colors" [The Kalevala, Rune XLVII]. The jailer's taunt addresses both prisoners as one hoard: "Moon of gold and Sun of silver, / Hide your faces in the caverns" [ibid.]. Two runes on, the release is announced by the thief herself, arriving in dove-shape with glad tidings of her own defeat: "That the Moon no more is hidden / In the copper-bearing mountains" [The Kalevala, Rune XLIX]; and Wainamoinen posts the freed Moon back to her schedule — "Let the Moon be ever with thee", he tells the Sun [ibid.]. The honest note for this address: on our shelf, moon-theft and sun-theft are one crime filed twice. Every line above serves A721.1 equally, and nothing yet served separates the Moon's case from the Sun's; that separation waits on the unserved Bering Strait text Thompson put first.

Witnesses: The Kalevala, Rune XLVII · The Kalevala, Rune XLIX

Scholars’ trail — 2references

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.

Within the index

Filed under Nature and condition of the moon. Many motifs in A720 to A739 refer to the moon and are not here repeated.

Filed beside it
Man in the moon. A man is said to be seen in the moon. Various explanations are given as to how he came to be thereMoon as a personMoon kept in box. (Cf. A755.1)Causes of moon's phasesMoon as sun's representative at nightMoon-boatCondition and nature of the moon – miscellaneous. For eclipse of the moon see A737, where both eclipses of the sun and moon are handled
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 light. Light originally absent is stolen by culture heroTheft of fire. Mankind is without fire. A culture hero steals it from the owner

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