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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.
B - Origins of the environment
| Ref | Title | Summary | Traditions | Narratives ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B42d In B42 family | Hunting the tapir. | In the cosmic hunting plot, the object of pursuit is a bear. See motif B42. | 4 | 1 |
| B124a In B124 family | Dent on the back. | Ever since a piece of flesh was torn from a person's back, a dent has remained along the length of the spine. | 2 | 2 |
| B28c In B28 family | Lice drag a person into the water. | Lice grab a person and drag him into the sea. | 3 | 2 |
| B42c In B42 family | Bear hunting. | In the cosmic hunting plot, the object of pursuit is a bear. See motifs B42 and B42P. | 30 | 2 |
| B69b In B69 family | Striped frog. | Wanting to reward or punish the frog, the character runs his hand or paw along its back, and since then, stripes have been visible on the frog's back. | 2 | 2 |
| B107 | Black oyster. | During the (world) fire, the oyster burns, which is why oyster shells are black. | 2 | 3 |
| B32a In B32 family | Pursuers turn into aquatic mammals. | The enemies of a hero sailing the sea turn into seals or dolphins. | 2 | 3 |
| B3F In B3 family | An object dropped from the sky. | A character in the sky accidentally drops an object. The search for this object in the world below the sky leads to the creation of the earth or a change in its appearance. | 4 | 3 |
| B42e In B42 family | Hunting the rhea. | In the cosmic hunting plot, the object of pursuit is the rhea (Rhea americana, a large flightless bird). See motif B42. | 7 | 3 |
| B44d In B44 family | Black and white beast - night and day. | Night and day alternate because the slain beast was black and white, spotted. | 3 | 3 |
| B4a In B4 family | Fish break off islands. | Fish beat against the ground, breaking off islands from the mainland. | 4 | 3 |
| B119 | The husband of a magical wife turns into a rooster. | A woman of non-human nature agrees to live with a man, but leaves him upon learning of his real or imagined infidelity. | 3 | 4 |
| B42a In B42 family | Blood or fat sprinkled on the ground. | Hunters chase a bear across the sky and kill it in August-October. The bear's blood or fat falls to the ground in the form of dew or colours the foliage red. See motif B42. | 6 | 4 |
| B48d In B48 family | Pike swallows people. | People or objects swallowed by a pike become part of its body (bones in its head, liver). | 3 | 4 |
| B57a In B57 family | Red sunset – an indication of what has happened. | Seeing the reddened sky, the character understands that another's blood has been spilled, or that another has spilled red liquid. See motif B57. | 13 | 4 |
| B67 | The tree turns into stones. | A fallen tree and/or its stump turns into a mountain (mountain range) or rocks. (Usually, the branches of this tree bear the fruits and shoots of various cultivated plants, see motif G5). | 9 | 4 |
| B6a In B6 family | Discarded egg. | The first woman gives birth to several eggs. One or two of them remain unchanged for a long time and are thrown into the river, believing them to be spoiled. However, it is precisely from these eggs that characters of high status emerge (or should have emerged). | 4 | 4 |
| B75c In B75 family | Sounds of the era of creation: the sound of water. | The sound of the surf or water on the rapids has been heard since the time of creation. | 4 | 4 |
| B77b2 In B77 family | The sky was touched with a broom. | The sky moved away and/or the connection between people and the deity ceased after the sky or the heavenly deity was touched or struck with a broom. | 4 | 4 |
| B95 | Burnt sphincter. | The appearance of the sphincter or buttocks is explained by the fact that a certain character burned his backside. | 5 | 4 |
| B95A In B95 family | The trickster punishes his own backside. | To punish his own backside for misbehaviour, the trickster burns it. | 5 | 4 |
| B98c In B98 family | The bat is deceived by a deity. | The heavenly deity could have healed the bat's mother or child, but did not do so, and they died. | 4 | 4 |
| B104a In B104 family | Meat turns into a toad, ATU 980D. | The son was about to eat some meat (chicken). At that moment, his father came in, and the son hid the meat so as not to share it with him. When his father left and the son took out what he had hidden, the meat turned into a toad (snake) and jumped on his face. | 9 | 5 |
| B112 | The one who returned the stolen goods decorated. | The character is called upon to help perform a task (usually to transport property or provisions across a river) and takes away what has been entrusted to him. A woodpecker or titmouse returns the stolen goods. The owner of the property paints or dresses the bird, hence the colour of its plumage | 11 | 5 |
| B121 | A little bird wants to fill the sea with stones. | A small bird carries pebbles and sticks, trying to fill the sea. | 2 | 5 |
| B125a In B125 family | The nightingale and the copperhead. | The nightingale (or, less commonly, someone else) takes the copper's eyes and does not return them, leaving her blind. | 4 | 5 |
| b125c In b125 family | The beaver and the muskrat swapped tails. | Previously, the beaver had the same tail as the muskrat now has, and the muskrat had the same tail as the beaver. | 5 | 5 |
| B24a In B24 family | Transformation into wild pigs: a circle of feathers. | After a character surrounds a group of people with a circle of feathers or throws feathers into their dwellings, the people turn into wild pigs or peccaries. | 5 | 5 |
| b33e2 In b33 family | March breaks the bull's horns. | The severity of the cold in early spring is said to break the horns of large hoofed animals. | 6 | 5 |
| B42o1 In B42 family | The Great Bear – the fisher. | The Big Dipper is identified with the fisher (Mustela pennati). | 7 | 5 |
| B77c In B77 family | The serpent pushed back the sky. | A snake-like creature pushes the sky away from the earth. See motif B77. | 6 | 5 |
| B7d In B7 family | Water pours from a bone. | Water pours from a broken bone, flooding the earth. | 5 | 5 |
| B108 | The remains of the deceased turn into snow. | An anthropomorphic character that has fallen apart into pieces turns into snow. | 3 | 6 |
| B110a In B110 family | The falling one turns into snow and wind. | A character who is dragged along the ground or who falls from the sky turns into atmospheric phenomena. | 4 | 6 |
| B118 | Those who remain on earth become owls. | A character who was unable to reach the sky or returned from the sky to earth becomes an owl. | 4 | 6 |
| B2f2 In B2 family | Carries an unburied corpse. | The character carries the body of the deceased for a long time, unable to bury it or not knowing how to do so, but eventually buries the body in the ground. | 5 | 6 |
| B33e In B33 family | If February were like January. | The last cold month regrets that it did not come earlier or that it is too short. In that case, it would have frozen everyone. | 7 | 6 |
| B49b In B49 family | Cow teats. | In the past, cows had more teats on their udders than they do now. | 5 | 6 |
| B66 | The rope turns into vines. | Characters climb to the sky using a rope or chain of arrows; when it falls to the ground, it turns into forest vines. See motif J47. | 6 | 6 |
| B74b In B74 family | The wedding of the owl and the moon. | The owl is forced to part with the moon and now cries out when it sees the moon. Usually, the story tells how the marriage of the owl and the moon fell apart or did not take place. | 5 | 6 |
| B109a In B109 family | Bear from the sky. | Originally, the (human) bear lived in the sky, then descended to earth (and became a bear). | 3 | 7 |
| B1b In B1 family | Two creators. | Two female progenitors participate in the process of creation. The actions of one bring good, the other evil. | 6 | 7 |
| B36b In B36 family | Birds acquire voices. | Birds find their voices by pecking at a large reptile and smearing themselves with the fluids that flow out of its body. | 6 | 7 |
| B42o In B42 family | The Hunchback Constellation. | A certain constellation is represented by a person who has been struck or wounded in the back. | 7 | 7 |
| B49a In B49 family | How many offspring per year. | Powerful animals could have many cubs, but now they give birth to only one every few years. | 6 | 7 |
| B75d In B75 family | Sounds of the creation era: the rustling of leaves. | The sound of leaves or grass rustling in the wind has been heard since the time of creation. | 7 | 7 |
| B86B In B86 family | Remove the bottom brick. | When building a tower, there are not enough prepared modules (bricks, logs). The character removes the bottom one to put it on top, and the structure collapses. | 3 | 7 |
| B88 | Job. | A man's children all die. He turns to God with a request to explain why he is suffering so much. | 6 | 7 |
| B104b In B104 family | A woman turns into a woodpecker. | A woman refuses to share bread with Jesus, who has come to her, and he turns her into a woodpecker. | 7 | 8 |
| B111 | Bees from the body of an animal. | Bees or wasps fly out of the carcass or body of a large animal (lion, bull) (usually the episode explains the origin of bees). | 7 | 8 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.