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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B117 | Dog rights, ATU 200. | A document issued to animals (usually dogs) is lost through the fault of a cat (swallowed by a cat, burned, gnawed by mice). Since then, dogs and cats (usually also cats and mice) have been at enmity. | 30 | 29 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| B120 | Winter hibernation of snotty creatures. | There are creatures that sleep in winter, and frozen snot hangs from their noses. (Motif identified by Evgenia Korovina). | 14 | 11 |
| 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 |
| B122 | Infants and birds. | Birds (cranes/storks, geese or crows) carry children away to another world or bring them back from there. See motif H6c3, "The Immortal Stork". | 5 | 12 |
| B123 | A fly instead of a nail, ATU 772*. | A fly lands on the chest of the crucified Jesus. His persecutors, who intended to drive a nail into his heart, do not do so, believing that the nail has already been driven in. | 8 | 11 |
| B124 | Indentation on the foot. | Ever since a piece of flesh was torn from a person's foot, a hollow has formed between the toe and the heel. | 9 | 8 |
| 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 |
| B125 | Animals exchange characteristics. | The absence or presence of certain organs in animals (less often in plants) and the peculiarities of these organs are caused by the fact that during the era of creation, one species exchanged with another or, having borrowed a foreign organ, refused to return it. In some cases, a reverse exchange and return to the original state is described, as well as the transfer of part of one's body to another animal without compensation. Instead of one of the animals, there may be a human or a deity. | 116 | 163 |
| 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 |
| B125b In B125 family | A person going to a festival borrows someone else's organ. | A zoomorphic character goes to a festival and asks another to lend him a part of his body, which will make him look more attractive. | 19 | 20 |
| 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 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.