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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.
H - Paradise Lost
| Ref | Title ▲ | Summary | Traditions | Narratives |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| h7g2 In h7 family | Escape from death from land to water. | Knowing that Death is approaching, a person hopes that it will seek him on land, so he settles on the surface of the water or under the water. But Death finds him. | 3 | 4 |
| h54d In h54 family | Lord of the spirits. | A character whose eyelids (eyelashes, eyebrows) are so heavy that he cannot open his eyes without help, possesses enormous power and is dangerous to heroes and people in general. He is often associated with the underworld or with a bygone era. | 25 | 46 |
| h36k In h36 family | Trees try to destroy people. | Trees try to prevent humans from appearing on earth, fearing that they will cut them down. | 2 | 2 |
| H40A In H40 family | A dog appears in times of danger. | At the moment of attack by a dangerous creature, a randomly thrown substance or object turns into a dog, which drives away the attacker. | 8 | 5 |
| H27a In H27 family | A hole in the ground where a stake was driven. | When creating the earth, a negative character asks a positive character for as much earth as is necessary to prop up a staff, stake. | 21 | 29 |
| H34d In H34 family | A piece bitten off the sky. | A zoomorphic character climbs or attempts to climb up to the sky or the moon to bite off a piece of them. | 6 | 8 |
| H24 | A vessel opened too early. | A vessel or other small container with valuables or living beings (creatures) is opened (prematurely). Its contents get out of control or disappear. | 202 | 343 |
| H22a In H22 family | Animals were struck on the nose. | Large game animals were concentrated in one place and were not afraid of people. They scattered after someone touched them, hit them lightly (often on the nose), or smeared them with something. Cf. motif H22. | 15 | 13 |
| H24a In H24 family | Bag of stars. | Opening the bag, the character releases stars that rush chaotically into the sky. | 8 | 12 |
| H34f In H34 family | Baskets carried heavy loads themselves. | Baskets or clay vessels carried heavy loads themselves. | 11 | 11 |
| H43a In H43 family | Broken figures. | Having created the human body, the creator leaves. At this time, another character tries to break the figure, which has not yet come to life. | 21 | 29 |
| H18b In H18 family | Cattle return to the water. | Having received livestock from supernatural characters, a person (usually due to violating a prohibition on looking, shouting, etc.) immediately loses all or most of the animals (they go into the water, into the sky, scatter, etc.). | 23 | 36 |
| H9b In H9 family | Children as plant shoots. | People have become like plants, which, although mortal, live on in their descendants (shoots). | 11 | 18 |
| H33 | Children walk from birth. | At first, children walked, had to walk, or could walk immediately after birth. | 36 | 35 |
| H25 | Choose life or death. | People are offered a choice between two objects, one of which represents death and the other life, or they are asked whether they want to be reborn or die forever. Death is chosen. | 15 | 21 |
| H28 | Creature turns into reptiles, A2034. | A creature that has been killed and destroyed (often burned) (usually a cannibal, a ferocious animal, or a powerful shaman) turns into stinging insects or other harmful, unpleasant, or dangerous creatures. | 157 | 286 |
| H54c In H54 family | Crucified eyelids. | The character's eyelids are crucified so that he cannot close them, or he does so himself on the advice of another. | 5 | 7 |
| H12a In H12 family | Dead wife haunts her husband. | The wife dies, the husband comes for her, or he kills her himself for adultery; she turns into a monster and haunts him. | 5 | 9 |
| H54b In H54 family | Deadly gaze. | The character's gaze brings death (and destruction). | 50 | 73 |
| H7d In H7 family | Death and a bundle of firewood, ATU 845. | A man calls Death, and when it comes, asks it to help him lift a bundle of firewood or pull a cart with firewood. | 24 | 21 |
| H7a In H7 family | Death and the healer, ATU 332. | Having received knowledge from Death (rarely: Happiness or a certain spirit) about whether the sick person will be healed or not, whether she is going to take his soul, the person will know whether he will recover. U.nyak praises him for his impartiality; U.t himself; the poor man scolds the doctor, becomes rich. Usually he sees where exactly Death (spirit, etc.) is near the bed, whether it is going to take his soul, whether the person will recover. U. praises him for his impartiality; U. himself; the poor man scolds the sick man, and on this basis knows what will happen to him. | 49 | 52 |
| H7f1 In H7 family | Death as a devourer. | Death devours the dead and thus satisfies its hunger. | 13 | 10 |
| H7f In H7 family | Death asks who is there, ATU 332C*(1). | God gives instructions that certain categories of people must die and suffer. The character who receives the instructions, caring for the people, passes on other orders to the executors. | 6 | 9 |
| H7f2 In H7 family | Death becomes invisible. | The character embodying death had a body visible to humans. Then death became invisible. | 14 | 4 |
| H7h In H7 family | Death follows man. | Despite the warning, man goes to where Death is at that moment. Death enters his body or follows him, and since then, people have been mortal. | 2 | 9 |
| H24c In H24 family | Death in a vessel. | People open a vessel (a bundle, a basket, etc.) containing death (or old age, illness), and therefore they are mortal. | 14 | 17 |
| H7g1 In H7 family | Death is more just and richer than God. | A man (usually looking for a godfather for his newborn son) rejects God (the saints) and the devil, but praises Death: it treats everyone without prejudice (or is richer than everyone else). | 22 | 26 |
| H1b In H1 family | Death of someone else's child. | The character performs actions that lead to death, because he is indifferent to or desires the death of the child or woman loved by another character. See motif H1A. | 35 | 9 |
| H52a In H52 family | Death provokes touching the ground. | Returning from the land of immortality, a person must not touch the ground. However, he dismounts from his horse to help an old man (old woman). Death, who has taken the form of an old man, immediately kills him. Rarely: at the last moment, the hero decides not to perform actions that are fatal for him. | 11 | 19 |
| H7b In H7 family | Death sticks to a tree or a bench, ATU 330. | A person asks Death (a spirit) to climb a tree or sit on a bench, to which they stick and can only be freed with his permission. | 52 | 56 |
| H31 | Death: man and the heavenly bodies. | God summons several characters, including man and the heavenly bodies, and makes man mortal and the heavenly bodies immortal. | 12 | 20 |
| H35 | Decaying teeth. | Human teeth are made of fragile material. Usually, the motif explains the aetiology of toothache. | 24 | 29 |
| H27a1 In H27 family | Diseases and reptiles from holes in the ground. | Reptiles and insects crawl out of holes in the ground, bringing disease. | 19 | 27 |
| H21a In H21 family | Do not touch the big fish. | The fish are concentrated in a small container, from which the owner takes as many as he needs. Another character opens the container, breaking the rules, and the fish escape. | 13 | 28 |
| H34d1 In H34 family | Edible sky. | The sky or celestial objects were edible, but then this source of food became inaccessible or is now only used by inhabitants of a country beyond the human world. | 17 | 20 |
| H34e In H34 family | Edible snow. | The snow was edible. | 24 | 25 |
| H36 | False news (all variants). | A character is sent to deliver instructions or certain items. The messenger distorts the message, brings the wrong items, loses what he is carrying, delays (and is overtaken by another messenger). This has important consequences for him and for the future lives of the people. | 119 | 224 |
| H36g In H36 family | False news: how many times to dine. | God sends a messenger to the people to tell them to eat infrequently (once a day, once every three days, etc.). The messenger says that one should eat often – at least two or three times a day. | 22 | 31 |
| H36aa In H36 family | False news: incorrect instructions. | The messenger must tell people what they should do if they want to avoid death, but he distorts the instructions and people become mortal. In Mesoamerican variants, it is not about people in general, but about a specific character. | 9 | 16 |
| H36a In H36 family | False news: the origin of death, A1335.1. | The character distorts the message conveyed to him, deliberately lies, brings the wrong thing, loses what he is carrying, delays (and is overtaken by another messenger). As a result, people become mortal (they do not revive after death). | 79 | 156 |
| H23 | Fatty horns. | This hard and now inedible object originally consisted of fat. | 13 | 14 |
| H48 | Fever sisters. | Illnesses – female sisters (less often male brothers), usually children of an evil spirit. | 34 | 42 |
| H34h In H34 family | Firewood came home. | Firewood and brushwood came by themselves, flying into the house; there was no need to specially harvest and deliver them. | 14 | 15 |
| H34c In H34 family | Flying rice. | Rice flew (came) from the field to the house. | 11 | 15 |
| H3 | Funeral games end in death. | Death is sent to people as punishment for excessive sympathy for a dead animal or for funeral games, during which they bury an animal, tree, etc. | 14 | 16 |
| H21 | Game or fish kills a boy. | The character controls animals or fish; a boy, young man or girl knows his secret or serves as bait themselves; another character forces the boy (girl) to reveal the secret and/or help him in the same way that he or she helped the first character, or leads the boy to go fishing but kills him, or the boy himself starts hunting, breaking the rules; as a result, the boy or girl is killed or carried away by animals or fish. See motif H18. | 15 | 22 |
| H7b1 In H7 family | Get into the bag. | Having received a magic bag, into which any creature can be forced against its will at the owner's discretion, a person gains power over Death or devils. | 26 | 33 |
| H1a In H1 family | He who wished death upon another is himself in mourning. | The character decides that people should die. His or her child, mother, or some other being whose life is dear to him or her dies. Now the decision-maker agrees to make people immortal, but it is impossible to change the decision that has been made. | 57 | 86 |
| H44a In H44 family | Heaven and Earth divide children. | Two characters, one associated with the sky or water, and the other with the earth or the world of spirits and humans, divide the child they have given birth to or the people they have created. Usually, the sky (water, spirit) takes the imperishable part, and the earth (human) takes the perishable part. | 7 | 23 |
| H49A In H49 family | Husband, wife and innocently killed dog. | A man does not understand that a dog or cat wanted to save his wife or preserve her honour and kills the animal. | 2 | 2 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.