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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B11B In B11 family | The drowned mammoth. | At the beginning of time or during the flood, the mammoth drowned or sank into the ground, and since then it has not been seen on earth. | 9 | 10 |
| B89 | The eagle owl – king of birds. | The eagle owl (owl) was the chief among birds, claimed this position or behaved badly when choosing the head of the birds; now he avoids other birds and/or other birds chase him. | 28 | 26 |
| B2c In B2 family | The earth as an anthropomorphic body. | The earth as a whole, elements of the landscape or fertile soil arise from the human body and (or) the earth (islands) are born of a woman. | 18 | 24 |
| B2b In B2 family | The earth devours the dead. | The earth feeds on the people buried in it. See motif B2A. | 16 | 22 |
| B3e In B3 family | The earth fell into the waters. | At first, below the sky there is only air and water or (rarely) swamp, an indefinite abyss. A character descends from the sky, creates or has a support created for him, and the earth grows out of it; the earth is lowered, dropped from the sky; the earth is thrown, placed on the surface of the sea, and grows into land; the earth is brought from somewhere else (not from the underworld) and placed on the waters. (This is a more general motif compared to motif b79a1, "The bird dropped the firmament onto the waters"). | 81 | 112 |
| B2a In B2 family | The earth is a female being, A401. | The earth is a female character (alone or alongside a male character) and is considered to be female or associated with women. | 272 | 484 |
| 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 |
| B116 | The eaten book. | The first book (writing, important document) is eaten by an animal or a person. (In some European traditions, the eating of the book is not described, but is implied from the context). Cf. ATU 200. Cf. Thompson 1955-1958. †A2219.2. Cow swallows book; cause of maniplies in stomach. | 66 | 128 |
| B4 | The elongated land. | Islands or mainland pulled out of the ocean, pulled by a rope. | 30 | 59 |
| B96 | The enemy turns into a sturgeon. | The heroes' enemy turns into a large commercial fish (usually a sturgeon) or (rarely) a commercial aquatic mammal. | 13 | 10 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| B8 | The frog hides the water. | The frog hides the water (usually drinks up a lake or river). Thanks to another character, the water returns to the body of water(s). (Among the Khan, Upper Tanana, and Varikho, the motif is not cosmogonic). | 15 | 30 |
| B77a In B77 family | The giant pushed back the sky. | One or more anthropomorphic characters push the sky away from the earth. See motif B77. | 52 | 40 |
| B42g In B42 family | The Great Bear – a hunted animal. | The Big Dipper (as a whole or only the dipper) is identified with an animal (animals) pursued by hunters / attacked by other characters. | 44 | 94 |
| 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 |
| B42o1 In B42 family | The Great Bear – the fisher. | The Big Dipper is identified with the fisher (Mustela pennati). | 7 | 5 |
| B3b In B3 family | The grown earth. | Initially, the earth or the world as a whole was small in size, then it grew; fertile soil grew from a small amount of initial substance. See motif B3A (the earth grows from a piece of solid substance thrown onto the surface of the water). | 234 | 277 |
| B38e In B38 family | The gull's rump. | The character kicks a loon or other waterfowl. Since then, it has had a flattened tail and finds it difficult to walk on land. | 33 | 47 |
| B106 | The heavenly rooster. | First, the heavenly rooster crows (or the underground roosters crow), and only then do the earthly roosters crow. | 12 | 11 |
| B1H In B1 family | The hero and his ten brothers | 4 | 11 | |
| B1e In B1 family | The hero and his ten brothers. | The protagonist of the narrative is one of many (seven or more) brothers with whom he is in conflict, but who are not his irreconcilable enemies. | 6 | 13 |
| B40b In B40 family | The horse changes with the cow. | The horse changes with the cow, gives up its horns and/or gets teeth. | 10 | 10 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| B116c In B116 family | The Lost Book. | In the past, the people possessed writing and knowledge, but these were lost, or the people missed the opportunity to acquire them. | 54 | 98 |
| B11a In B11 family | The mammoth – creator of the landscape. | The mammoth, represented as an underground fish-like creature, creates rugged terrain on wet ground and digs river beds. | 15 | 13 |
| B16c In B16 family | The mill grinds salt, ATU 565. | The magic mill is ordered to grind salt, but is not given the command to stop. The mill sinks into the sea, usually grinding salt to this day. | 46 | 32 |
| 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 |
| B28e In B28 family | The Moon as the Creator of the World. | The Moon (alone or together with the Sun) transforms the original "incorrect" world into the one in which people now live. | 14 | 21 |
| 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 |
| B39 | The narrow waist of an insect. | An insect or character, which later turns into an insect, knows where food (cultivated plants) or water is located, but refuses to share this knowledge. To find the valuables (usually to force the insect to reveal its secret), the first ancestors pull on a rope tied around the character's waist (the origin of the bridge between the abdominal and thoracic sections of insects). | 14 | 19 |
| 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 |
| B22 | The offended person knocks down the tree. | The character left under the tree is offended by those who climbed up the tree (usually they do not share their food with him or her). In retaliation, he or she knocks down the tree. The events described are of cosmic proportions. | 12 | 26 |
| B33d In B33 family | The Old Woman of Winter. | An elderly woman embodies winter, is associated with snow, and/or at the border between winter and spring (autumn) there are several very cold days associated with a certain old woman. | 35 | 53 |
| B33f In B33 family | The old woman-night unravels the yarn. | A certain character performs actions that determine the change from dark to light times of day. It always involves yarn, thread, rope, or fabric, which the character unravels or winds up, or with which the hero binds the entity responsible for the daily cycle. | 21 | 21 |
| B40a In B40 family | The one who lost his horns. | Nowadays, hornless animals lose their horns or are deprived of the opportunity to grow them. See motif B40. | 52 | 65 |
| 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 |
| B5a In B5 family | The pair of creators: dialogue. | At the beginning of time, female and male characters meet and engage in dialogue. | 14 | 18 |
| 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 |
| B40 | The rabbit as a substitute for the deer. | The hare/rabbit is a false deer, a former deer, a brother of the deer, a former or failed owner of antlers, its ears are false antlers. | 44 | 48 |
| B38c In B38 family | The raven and the loon adorn each other. | The raven and the loon paint each other. | 20 | 28 |
| 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 |
| B108 | The remains of the deceased turn into snow. | An anthropomorphic character that has fallen apart into pieces turns into snow. | 3 | 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 |
| B42m In B42 family | The second hunter's pot. | The three stars of the Big Dipper's handle are three men (hunters, thieves). The stars of the dipper are the object they seek to obtain (the hunted animal; the bed). Alcor (a faint star near Mizar) is a container, a vessel carried by the second of the three characters. | 10 | 16 |
| 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 |
| B42t In B42 family | The seven stars of the Big Dipper – animal. | All seven stars of the Big Dipper (and not just the stars of the dipper) are considered to be the figure of an animal - a bear, moose, deer, ram, camel, or dog. | 61 | 69 |
| B91 | The sharp-eyed snail. | The snail had (the most keen-eyed) eyes. Another character borrows them and does not return them. | 9 | 14 |
| B77b1 In B77 family | The sky was struck with a pestle. | The sky receded and/or the connection between humans and the deity ceased after the sky or the heavenly deity was touched or struck during work with a pestle used to pound in a mortar or with a spoon used to stir porridge (Ewe, Nubians, Nyiman). | 29 | 54 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.