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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B44e In B44 family | Dialogue of the first ancestors. | First ancestors (usually birds or animals) argue with each other about the length of time periods in the calendar or daily cycle, or about the desirability of the dominance of cold and dark or warm and light times. See motif B44. | 11 | 12 |
| B44f In B44 family | The fox wants daylight. | In the dispute over whether the world should be bright, the fox is on the side of light (almost always against the bear). | 11 | 10 |
| B44f1 In B44 family | The bear wants night. | In the dispute over whether the world should be light (warm), the bear is on the side of darkness (and cold); or the world is plunged into darkness because the bear hides the sun in his house. | 22 | 30 |
| B45 | The Wedding of Winter and Summer, A1153. | The arrival of warm (bright, abundant) or cold (hungry, dark) times is associated with the marriage of a certain character who brings cold, warmth, abundance, etc. | 36 | 48 |
| B45A In B45 family | Winter versus summer. | The alternation of seasons and/or differences between the climates of different localities are explained by the struggle between characters associated with warmth and those associated with cold. See motif B45. | 64 | 77 |
| B45b In B45 family | The bull of cold. | The bull or cow is the embodiment of cold, the reason why winter is cold. | 8 | 15 |
| B46 | Seven Star Brothers. | Each of the seven stars of the Big Dipper is an adult male. | 80 | 159 |
| B46a In B46 family | Separated star of the Pleiades. | One of the stars of the Pleiades was separated from the others (usually stolen by the stars of the Big Dipper and identified with Alcor). | 22 | 32 |
| B46a1 In B46 family | The Big Dipper – robbers. | The stars of the Big Dipper – thieves or robbers. | 15 | 26 |
| B46b In B46 family | Seven Star Sisters. | Each of the seven main stars of the Big Dipper is a separate female character. {Included in the online database, but not in the correlation table in *sav)}. | 15 | 14 |
| B46c In B46 family | The Great Bear – seven characters. | Each of the stars of the Big Dipper is a separate character (people or animals). | 103 | 184 |
| B46d In B46 family | Star brothers with different properties. | Men, each of whom excels others in a particular art, turn into stars. | 12 | 21 |
| B47 | The Pleiades and cold. | The Pleiades or another group of stars once appeared or regularly cause severe cold. (The heliacal setting of the Pleiades occurs in May-June; in the Northern Hemisphere, they are best seen in winter). | 24 | 33 |
| B47a In B47 family | The cow's split hoof. 33.34. | A cow steps on the Pleiades stars lying on the ground, which were demonic creatures. Some of the stars slipped through her split hoof. | 7 | 11 |
| B48 | Predators become herbivores. | Harmless and herbivorous animals were or could become dangerous predators. | 53 | 64 |
| B48a In B48 family | Pieces of foreign flesh. | The bodies of animals, birds or fish contain internal organs or muscles that were originally parts of the bodies of other animals, birds, fish or monsters. Cf. motif B36C. | 35 | 43 |
| B48b In B48 family | Piece of human flesh. | The bodies of animals that are now hunted contain a piece of human flesh that has remained since these animals had an anthropomorphic appearance. | 10 | 11 |
| B48c In B48 family | Artefacts in the pike's head. | In the head of the pike there are (visible) tools used by people. | 18 | 14 |
| 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 |
| B49 | The animals did not understand the instructions. | Animals of a certain species (in Toraja – humans) hear poorly or misunderstand instructions or questions about their future, or get confused when making requests to deities. This is how they acquire their current characteristics and habits. | 24 | 20 |
| 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 |
| B49b In B49 family | Cow teats. | In the past, cows had more teats on their udders than they do now. | 5 | 6 |
| B50 | Whose blood is sweeter? | A dangerous character wants to find out from a blood-sucking insect where it drank blood or whose blood (flesh) tastes better. Usually, the insect deliberately lies, or another character prevents it from telling the truth (by pulling out its tongue). As a result, the dangerous character chooses animals or plants as the object of its aggression, rather than people. (The motif is related to the story of Noah's flood (see motif C3); †: There are versions in which the motif is presented separately, as well as those in which it is included in the story of Noah's flood.) | 83 | 126 |
| B51 | The Mosquito and Thunder. | Thanks to a deliberate lie, Thunder did not learn from the bloodsucking insect that it had drunk human blood. | 21 | 23 |
| B51a In B51 family | The snake is the enemy of the swallow. | The snake is the enemy of the swallow (usually because the swallow prevents the snake from destroying people – the snake sends a mosquito or other blood-sucking insect to find out whose blood tastes better; the mosquito returns to report that it is human blood; the swallow bites off its tongue, and the snake plucks the feathers from the swallow's tail). | 49 | 58 |
| B52 | Before the flood, there were no mountains. | The floodwaters formed a rugged landscape. | 29 | 34 |
| B52a In B52 family | The vulture creates dry land. | Flying over the world, a bird (usually a vulture) dries the earth after a flood with its wings or otherwise gives it its present appearance. | 18 | 17 |
| B52b In B52 family | Concealing the earth. | The character regurgitates the earth hidden (usually in his mouth), thereby creating mountains, swamps, and other inconveniences. See motif B52. | 26 | 32 |
| B52c In B52 family | The earth is larger than the sky. | When the earth and sky were created, they turned out to be different sizes. The earth was compressed, and mountains appeared. See motif B52. | 30 | 47 |
| B53 | Creatures and objects made from severed genitals. | The character's enormous genitals are cut off (usually cut into pieces), thrown away, and transformed into snakes or other creatures or objects. | 22 | 23 |
| B54 | Splinters turn into fish. D441.10+. | Wood chips, branches or pieces of bark that have fallen or been thrown into the water turn into fish and aquatic animals. | 46 | 59 |
| B55 | Leaf fish. | Fish grow on tree branches or tree leaves turn into fish. | 15 | 19 |
| B56 | The crocodile's fiery tongue. | The crocodile/caiman is left without a tongue after swallowing or losing the fire (which it previously possessed); something associated with heavenly fire (lightning, sunbeams, etc.) emerges from the crocodile's severed tongue. | 15 | 17 |
| B56A In B56 family | Crocodile without a tongue. | The reptile's tongue is cut off or mutilated (no association with fire). See motif B56. | 24 | 33 |
| B57 | Bloody sunset. | Blood spurting from a killed or wounded person or animal colours the sky (dawn, northern lights) or other natural objects (moon, vegetation) red. | 39 | 53 |
| 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 |
| B58 | The red neck of the turkey. | After the first ancestors steal the original fire, a forest bird the size of a partridge (Penelope sp.; Anhima cornuta; etc.; jacu, paujil) swallows a hot coal. As a result (except for the Andoc), its neck turns red. | 9 | 11 |
| B59 | Dancers turn into the Pleiades, A773. | A group of people (usually children, brothers or sisters) play, dance, rise to the sky and turn into the Pleiades or another small constellation. | 15 | 20 |
| B60 | Offended children leave their parents. | Children come into conflict with their parents over food, clothing, attention, which they demand and which their parents deny them, and sexual behaviour. They leave their parents, turning into birds, bats, stars or atmospheric phenomena. See motif B59. | 32 | 48 |
| B61 | The mole's paw. | The mole had to hold up the fallen sky and sun. Since then, its paw (hand) has remained dislocated backwards. | 7 | 10 |
| B62 | Man and vulture. | Man believes that vultures live better than humans, changes his appearance to that of a vulture. The former vulture lives with the man's wife, and the man usually does not like his new life. | 20 | 30 |
| B63 | The transformation of lazy children. | Children lie to their mother, pretending to work in the fields. When the deception is revealed, they are left without a harvest and are transformed into atmospheric phenomena or celestial objects. | 4 | 8 |
| B63A In B63 family | Brothers of the elements. | Several brothers turn into Thunder, Storm and other elements. | 4 | 8 |
| B64 | Bony fish. | Bones in the bodies of fish are the result of fights, battles, military expeditions; they are arrows stuck in them (gill openings – from stuck arrows), or small bones – fragments of the original large bones. | 27 | 37 |
| B64a In B64 family | Small bones: the war between fish and birds. | Fish and birds fight (usually by shooting arrows at each other). Since then, fish have had many small bones in their bodies and/or birds' legs have taken on their current form. | 15 | 18 |
| B64b In B64 family | Small bones: war between different fish. | Two types of fish shoot arrows at each other. Since then, the fish have had many small bones in their bodies, or some of their bones have split in two. | 11 | 11 |
| B64c In B64 family | Small bones: fish fall from the sky. | Fish, together with other earthly creatures, wage war on the inhabitants of the sky. Falling to the ground, they break their bones, which is why fish have many small bones in their bodies. See motif B64. | 4 | 10 |
| B64d In B64 family | Arrow bones. | Certain bones in the bodies of living creatures (usually birds and fish) are arrows shot into them. | 22 | 27 |
| B65 | Intestines turn into vines. | A mischievous character imitates other animal-people. As a result, his belly is torn open and his spilled intestines turn into vines. | 9 | 10 |
| 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 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.