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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.
D - Fire and Laughter
| Ref | Title ▲ | Summary | Traditions | Narratives |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| D4n In D4 family | The weeping one demands summer. | A boy or (among the Kutené) a woman cries, demanding the absent elements - summer, fire, rain. See motif D4A (demand for summer). | 15 | 7 |
| D4a In D4 family | Theft of fire, A1415. | Fire is stolen from its original owner, returned to people by the thief, or (the motif of theft is not expressed) brought with difficulty from a distant place. | 294 | 627 |
| D13hh In D13 family | Those who visit another world should not laugh. | A person visiting another world should not laugh or show surprise when seeing strange things. Those who break this rule will perish or suffer harm. | 7 | 9 |
| D7 | Toad and fire. | The frog or toad possesses the first fire, steals it from its original owner, and tries to extinguish it or save it from dying out. See motif D4. | 41 | 74 |
| D9 | Vultures and fire. | The raven or other large dark-coloured bird of prey is the owner, embodiment, spouse, provider or thief of fire, the sun or daylight. | 66 | 130 |
| D5 | Woman controls fire. | The original owner or inventor (but not the embodiment) of fire is a female character. | 68 | 119 |
| D1 | Woman-fire. | A woman (usually elderly) is the embodiment of fire – alone or together with her husband, the master of fire. Cf. motif D5 (woman possesses fire). | 77 | 119 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.