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Berezkin/Duvakin Catalogue of Motifs
English translation, enhancements and additional metadata by Jonathan Fielder-White
Source: Berezkin and Duvakin's Analytical Catalogue · Original catalogue (Russian)
About the catalogue and its sources
Unless otherwise stated, narrative and tradition data comes from Berezkin and Duvakin's Thematic classification and distribution of folklore and mythological motifs by area (Analytical catalogue).
Original Berezkin/Duvakin catalogue (Russian)
The English translation uses AI assistance alongside manual verification. Errors may occur; consult the original source when in doubt.
A - The Sun and Moon
| Ref | Title ▲ | Summary | Traditions | Narratives |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A21a In A21 family | The released moon. | The moon is an object that was accidentally released by its owners or stolen from them and ended up in the sky. | 6 | 10 |
| A12e In A12 family | The spider – enemy of the sun and moon. | The spider attacks the sun or moon (usually causing lunar eclipses). | 5 | 5 |
| A46 | The sun and moon arise from the eyes of a creature. | The sun and moon (Rigveda: only the sun) emerge from the eyes of an anthropomorphic creature. | 21 | 34 |
| A2e In A2 family | The sun and moon – severed heads. | The sun and/or moon – severed heads of anthropomorphic beings. | 11 | 11 |
| A46a In A46 family | The sun and moon – the eyes of the deity. | The sun and moon (Rigveda: only the sun) are associated with the eyes of an anthropomorphic being (the motif of their emergence from the eyes of this being may be absent). | 26 | 38 |
| A6 | The sun and moon – women. | The sun and moon are considered female characters (including cases – Tuscarora, Oneida, when the gender is not directly specified, but both arise from the body of a female character). | 68 | 96 |
| A29 | The sun and the demon compete for the hero. | A character associated with the upper world and a character associated with the earth or the lower world each strive to possess a human being and pull him towards themselves. One or both rivals are women. The character of the upper world and/or the one for whom the struggle is being waged is associated with the luminaries – the sun, the moon, Venus. | 18 | 34 |
| A5 | The Sun and the Moon are male, A711.1, A736.3. | The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (rarely) has no gender. | 353 | 637 |
| A28 | The Sun and the Moon: smart and dumb. | The clever sun-man involves the foolish moon in various tricks that the latter is incapable of devising himself. Trying to repeat the sun's actions, the moon suffers a fiasco. Cf. motif B1F. | 22 | 43 |
| A26 | The sun bird. | The bird embodies the sun, daylight; it can be caught, released, killed. | 3 | 18 |
| A18 | The Sun Boat. | The sun and/or moon make their daily and/or nightly (underground, in the land beyond the horizon, behind the mountain) journey in a boat. | 33 | 49 |
| A19c1 In A19 family | The Sun Chariot. | The sun or moon travels across the sky in a chariot or sleigh. | 23 | 36 |
| A7 | The sun chases the moon. | The sun and the moon (month) are two characters, one of which eternally pursues the other across the sky or pursued it when they rose into the sky from the earth. | 50 | 67 |
| A38d In A38 family | The sun damages the cloak. | Because the Sun has harmed the character (ruined or burned his cloak, the fur on his skin, etc.), he catches it in a trap or kills it. | 17 | 15 |
| A41 | The sun eats its children. | Two characters have children (brothers and sisters, mothers). One suggests killing these children (mothers), giving reasons in favour of such a decision. In fact, he hides his own children, while his interlocutor actually kills his children. One of the characters and/or the surviving child is the sun. | 33 | 46 |
| A2a In A2 family | The sun emits destructive heat. | The world was or will be (almost) burned when several suns lit up or will light up simultaneously; or destructive heat (or light) once emanated from one sun. | 109 | 238 |
| A10 | The sun finds its eyes. | The sun gets its sparkling eyes (eye) from an animal. | 8 | 13 |
| A5a In A5 family | The Sun from the swaddling clothes of the infant Moon. | The younger brother (usually the Sun) is made from the urine and swaddling clothes of his older brother (usually the Moon), who was kidnapped as a baby. See motif A5. | 8 | 1 |
| A19c In A19 family | The Sun Horse. | The sun is associated with a horseman or rides in a carriage drawn by horses (equidae). | 24 | 42 |
| A4a In A4 family | The sun hurts the eyes. | So that people do not look at it, the Sun blinds their immodest eyes (usually with needles, which are its rays). | 10 | 16 |
| A42a In A42 family | The sun imitator falls from the sky. | Having risen into the sky, the character unsuccessfully performs the role of the sun and as a result falls or is thrown down to earth. | 8 | 19 |
| A38 | The Sun in a Trap, A728. | The sun falls into a snare, a trap, and finds itself tied by a rope. | 79 | 112 |
| A8b In A8 family | The sun in the world of the dead. | Setting beyond the horizon, the sun shines on the anthropomorphic inhabitants of the underworld – the dead, dwarves, etc. | 27 | 35 |
| A4b In A4 family | The sun is afraid of the night. | The sun decided to walk across the sky during the day because it is afraid of the night. | 9 | 13 |
| A47 | The sun is born from an egg. | The sun is born or emerges from an egg. | 17 | 23 |
| A37 | The sun is subjected to armed attack. | The character deliberately and by resorting to special means (usually shooting with a bow) strikes the sun or several suns or attempts to do so. | 77 | 154 |
| A40 | The Sun or Moon is married to a Toad/Frog. | The Toad or Frog is the wife (or one of the wives) of the Sun or Moon. Traditions in which the frog jumps onto the face (chest, back) of the Moon and remains there are highlighted in italics; those in which the frog is visible on the lunar disc are marked with an asterisk; traditions in which the frog or toad is the wife of the Sun are marked with a hash (#). | 22 | 26 |
| A2c1 In A2 family | The Sun refuses to marry. | The Sun is going to have children. One of the animals warns that if the Sun has children, the world will burn. The Sun has to (refuse marriage and) remain childless. | 11 | 19 |
| A38c In A38 family | The Sun's Cloak. | The Sun exchanges a cape made of animal or bird skins with a boy or girl, or spoils it. As a result, the boy or girl raises their status or takes revenge on the Sun. | 14 | 17 |
| A8 | The sun, moon and stars – three siblings. | The sun, moon and stars – three brothers or three sisters. | 3 | 5 |
| A11c In A11 family | The Sun, the Moon, and the Eyes of the Monster. | 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. | 7 | 14 |
| A3 | The Sun-Man and the Moon-Woman, A716.1. | The Moon is female or hermaphroditic, the Sun is male or, possibly, male. | 354 | 669 |
| A7a In A7 family | Torches in the hands of celestial bodies. | The light of the sun (moon, Venus) is a burning torch in the hand of a celestial body. | 22 | 32 |
| A29a In A29 family | Torn apart by two women. | Heavenly and earthly women (demons) pull a man in different directions. As a result, he (or his half) turns into a heavenly object. | 10 | 7 |
| A39a In A39 family | Twelve months, ATU 294. | Each of the calendar segments (usually months) that make up the year is represented by a special object or creature. | 54 | 92 |
| A6A In A6 family | Two-faced moon/month. | In the same ethnic group, the gender of the moon/month varies in different texts; it changes depending on the phases; the moon is a married couple; the moon is a woman who used to be a man. See motifs A3 - A5. {The material is incomplete. For Western European traditions, data contained in fairy tales is not included}. | 75 | 48 |
| A23d In A23 family | Who is first in the calendar? | Animals argue about which of them should start the cycle of 12 months or years. The mouse wins the primacy. | 15 | 21 |
| A23a In A23 family | Who will be the first to see the sun? ATU 120, | Arguing about superiority or seniority, the characters agree to decide in favour of the one who first sees the rising sun (the beginning of the year). The winner is the one whose victory seemed unlikely. (In Uther 2004(1), No. 120: 87, the definition of the motif includes the detail that the winner looks not to the east but to the west and sees the tops of trees illuminated by rays of light. In Europe, in most cases (except for the Scots) that have been verified, this detail is indeed present. However, it is absent in American and some Asian traditions). | 48 | 60 |
| A23 | Who will become the sun? | The first ancestors come together to choose who will become the sun, to raise the sun to the sky, to see the sun rise for the first time, and to name the sun correctly. See motif A22. | 38 | 64 |
| A23c In A23 family | Who will fly higher? ATU 221A | Birds argue about which of them will fly higher or arrive first. The winner is the one whose victory seemed unlikely (he hides in the feathers of a strong bird and flies away with it). | 39 | 54 |
| A12H In A12 family | Woman covers the sun. | Eclipses of the sun or moon are caused by a woman's attack. | 18 | 31 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.