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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B42l In B42 family | Ladle – beast, handle – hunters. | The stars of the handle of the Big Dipper are hunters, the dipper itself is a bear, an elk or a meat storehouse where the bear climbs. | 23 | 12 |
| B55 | Leaf fish. | Fish grow on tree branches or tree leaves turn into fish. | 15 | 19 |
| B28c In B28 family | Lice drag a person into the water. | Lice grab a person and drag him into the sea. | 3 | 2 |
| B18 | Light in a vessel, A1411.1. | Daylight, warmth, sun or moon are stored in a vessel, under a vessel, under a cover, in a bag, etc. | 47 | 50 |
| B36 | Living beings acquire their appearance. | Birds, fish, and four-legged animals deliberately or accidentally smear themselves with colouring substances or divide parts of another's body among themselves, thereby acquiring their current appearance. | 48 | 94 |
| B37 | Living beings are given their appearance. | The character decorates various birds (less often fish) and distributes fat to animals. Since then, the corresponding species have possessed their current characteristics. | 56 | 93 |
| B77 | Low sky, A625.2; A660. | The sky was close to the ground, then rose. | 197 | 399 |
| 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 |
| B109 | Man became a bear. | A man grows fur and becomes a bear (the origin of bears). | 55 | 96 |
| B33b In B33 family | March bird. | At the border between winter and spring, a bird (usually a thrush) flies away prematurely into the cold and dies, or raises chicks and they die or suffer from the cold. | 9 | 14 |
| B2d In B2 family | Marriage of heaven and earth, A625. | The sky (the Sun, Thunder, the Wind living in the sky) is considered male and marries the Earth, who is female; The sky is combined with the female Water; with the daughter of the Earth; the creator (master) of the sky and the creator (mistress) of the earth are husband and wife; rarely: the female Sky (or Sun) is combined with the male Earth. | 111 | 167 |
| B90 | Master of wolves. | There is an anthropomorphic patron, master or mistress of wolves; he usually gives instructions to the wolves on a certain day of the year. | 32 | 47 |
| B80 | Measurement of the world. | The process of creation includes measuring the dimensions of the earth or the world as a whole. | 13 | 15 |
| 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 |
| B93 | Meeting in the sky once a year. | Once a year or once every few years, celestial beings or messengers of the gods meet among the stars. | 11 | 16 |
| B33f1 In B33 family | Mistress of night and day. | By performing certain actions, the (old) woman determines the daily cycle. | 15 | 14 |
| B5c In B5 family | Mother and daughter at the beginning of time. | At the beginning of time, there are an old woman and a young woman. One or both of them conceive in a miraculous way. A son or twins are born, who settle the world. | 6 | 15 |
| B33h In B33 family | Mother of the Sun. | The sun has a mother who lives with him (less often with her) in the same house. Cf. motif K27x6b ("The character goes to the mother of the sun") | 41 | 51 |
| B72a In B72 family | Mother, child and swans. | Mother (stepmother, adoptive father) does not give food to a girl or (less often) a boy. The child asks migratory birds to take him with them, they give him bird clothing, he flies away with them, becoming a bird. | 11 | 8 |
| B84 | Mushrooms and growths (transformation of a cannibal). | After a demonic character (usually a woman who pursues the hero) dies, her flesh turns into objects found on trees - mushrooms, resin, fruits, cones. | 15 | 24 |
| B28a In B28 family | Nailed to the ground. | A character pinned to the ground by a rod, transported somewhere to the edge of the world and associated with an object that continues to influence people. | 7 | 18 |
| B19 | Night and married life. | Before nightfall, people could not make love in peace. | 12 | 19 |
| B17 | Night in a vessel. | Darkness is a special object that can be carried and transferred (usually brought from the original owner in a vessel or bag). | 52 | 76 |
| B100 | Obtaining sleep. | In the past or in a distant land, sleep was unknown; a certain character embodies sleep, possesses it or teaches how to sleep; sleep is a special substance. | 16 | 16 |
| 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 |
| B114 | Old men-anteaters. | A woman or a man (usually old people) turn into anteaters (the origin of anteaters). | 10 | 18 |
| B1c In B1 family | One creator deceives another. | Two creators agree that the older of them (the main creator) will be the one whose object is in a certain state (usually: whose tree or flower grows or blooms earlier). While one was asleep or absent, the other switched the objects and deceitfully achieved primacy. | 13 | 13 |
| B42n In B42 family | Orion – one person. | The constellation Orion is identified with a man, usually a giant, warrior, or hunter. | 60 | 98 |
| B42h In B42 family | Orion's Belt – game, hunter – another star. | Orion's Belt – game, another star or group of stars within or outside Orion – hunter. | 48 | 67 |
| B42r In B42 family | Orion's Belt: running after each other. | The three stars of Orion's Belt are three characters chasing each other. | 16 | 17 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| B25 | Pigs fall from trees. | Characters who climb trees or vines and then fall turn into wild pigs or other game animals. | 7 | 16 |
| 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 |
| B77b3 In B77 family | Placing a pancake on the sky. | In the past, either in a distant country, the sky was or is so low that various objects are placed on it as needed. | 14 | 17 |
| B48 | Predators become herbivores. | Harmless and herbivorous animals were or could become dangerous predators. | 53 | 64 |
| B3 | Primary swamp. | At first, the earth is soft, resembling a swamp. | 21 | 26 |
| B3a In B3 family | Primary waters, A810. | The waters are primary. The earth is lowered onto the water, appears above the water, grows from a piece of solid substance placed on the surface of the water or liquid mud, from an island in the ocean, is exposed when the waters recede, etc. | 300 | 674 |
| B32a In B32 family | Pursuers turn into aquatic mammals. | The enemies of a hero sailing the sea turn into seals or dolphins. | 2 | 3 |
| B43 | Purusha, D287.5. | Elements of the landscape or parts of the universe are created from the body of the original being. | 46 | 75 |
| B38d In B38 family | Raven and owl. | The Raven and the Owl paint each other. | 8 | 11 |
| B86A In B86 family | Reaching for the moon in the sky. | People try to climb up to the sky to get the moon. (In brackets are traditions in which the goal of building a tower to the sky is the moon, but the task of getting it is not mentioned). | 17 | 19 |
| B74a In B74 family | Red cloths over the eyes. | Red cloths are sewn over the character's eyes (threads, eyelids are painted red) or he does it himself. He sees everything in red or his eyes have turned red forever. | 9 | 10 |
| 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 |
| B74 | Red-eyed capercaillie. | The eyes of the capercaillie or black grouse turned red from tears. | 18 | 31 |
| B42h2 In B42 family | Reddish star – arrow. | A large reddish star (Betelgeuse or Aldebaran) is identified with an arrow. | 8 | 13 |
| B85a In B85 family | Regulating the wind. | The wind stops blowing (after blowing too strongly). A character approaches it and establishes the necessary balance. Since then, the wind blows, but usually not too strongly. | 13 | 10 |
| 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 |
| B87c In B87 family | Rider. | Alcor (the faint star next to the second star of the Big Dipper's handle) – rider, driver, coachman. | 14 | 26 |
| B15 | River from a woman's body. | The river flows from the organs of a woman's body. | 11 | 13 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.