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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.
I - Supernatural objects and creatures
| Ref | Title | Summary | Traditions | Narratives ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I135 | Heavenly skin or cloth. | The sky (Milky Way, clouds) is an animal skin or a piece of cloth. | 15 | 17 |
| I32a In I32 family | The tree of destiny. | When a leaf or fruit from a certain tree falls, one of the people on earth dies. | 18 | 17 |
| I38a In I38 family | Dogs – husbands of women. | The husbands of human women are dogs or dog-headed creatures. | 11 | 17 |
| I4c In I4 family | Thunder in captivity. | The enemy of the thunderer temporarily defeats and captures him. | 12 | 17 |
| I134 | Long neck on the Milky Way. | Along the axis of the Milky Way, a creature with a long neck (llama, emu, rhea) can be seen. | 9 | 18 |
| I136 | The demonic wheel. | The rolling wheel (and the character riding on it) is a creature or weapon hostile to the hero (people) that he uses. | 13 | 18 |
| I22d In I22 family | Living water behind the tumultuous rocks. | To obtain a miraculous life-giving (healing) remedy, one must penetrate the space behind the shifting rocks. | 13 | 18 |
| I35a In I35 family | Thunder – an old woman. | Thunder is produced by an old woman in the sky. | 14 | 18 |
| I60 | The Milky Way – the heavenly seam. | The Milky Way - a seam, a crack between the two halves of the sky. | 13 | 18 |
| I82f In I82 family | Venus – Wolf Star. | (Evening) Venus is associated with a predatory beast, usually a she-wolf. | 13 | 18 |
| I91 | A body of water at the foot of a tree. | At the foot or around the base of a tree connecting the tiers of the universe or of gigantic size and considered the main tree of the world, there is a spring or water body, the water of which usually has unusual properties. | 17 | 18 |
| I95b In I95 family | Orion – the balance beam. | Orion is a yoke. | 15 | 18 |
| I10a In I10 family | Coloured layers of the sky. | Individual layers or categories of the sky or clouds differ in colour. | 17 | 19 |
| I116 | The Milky Way – the boundary between seasons. | The Milky Way separates the seasons of the year or worlds (dry from wet, sky from earth, etc.). | 18 | 19 |
| I3a In I3 family | Lightning – whip. | During a thunderstorm, the character strikes with a whip – these are flashes of lightning. | 19 | 19 |
| I59b2 In I59 family | The Milky Way – St. James' Way. | The Milky Way – St. James' Way. | 15 | 19 |
| I10b In I10 family | Coloured tiers of the earth. | Individual layers or categories of earth differ in colour (and other characteristics). | 10 | 20 |
| I112 | Monster boat. | The boat is a living creature with a mouth, a fish. | 15 | 20 |
| I26 | Dangers on the path of souls. | On its way to the other world, the soul must distract its guardians with gifts or defend itself from attack. | 21 | 20 |
| I63 | The Milky Way – the tapir's path. | The Milky Way is the tapir's trail; the tapir can be seen on the Milky Way. | 14 | 20 |
| I82g In I82 family | Venus – Shepherd's Star. | Venus or another star (Arcturus, Sirius, etc.) is called the Shepherd's Star (the star of the Shepherd, Sheepherder, Cowherd, Swineherd, etc.). | 21 | 20 |
| I85c In I85 family | Vessels with weather. | The character goes up to the sky and finds vessels containing various (two or more) types of precipitation, weather phenomena, seasons and/or celestial bodies. | 18 | 20 |
| I93 | The Milky Way – the backbone of the sky. | The Milky Way – the backbone, support, pillar of the sky or world. | 26 | 20 |
| I96 | The bloody rainbow. | A rainbow consisting of blood either heralds war and death. | 15 | 20 |
| I73 | Stars – sparks. | Stars (rarely suns and moons) – sparks, hot coals. | 17 | 21 |
| I95a In I95 family | Orion – scales. | Orion (probably always Orion's Belt) is Libra. | 19 | 21 |
| I95c In I95 family | Orion – staff. | Orion's belt – staff, stick, three sticks, rod, crutch, etc. | 24 | 21 |
| I9a In I9 family | Zenith and nadir. | Zenith and/or nadir are considered together with the four cardinal directions as one (or two) more main directions. | 18 | 21 |
| I22e In I22 family | Moving objects on the path of the dead. | The deceased, travelling to the afterlife, must pass by colliding rocks or other moving obstacles. | 13 | 22 |
| I25D In I25 family | Lubricate the gate with grease. | On the way to a dangerous character, a person greases the gate (door hinges) with grease or oil. On the way back, the grateful gate refuses to hold him back. | 14 | 22 |
| I35a2 In I35 family | Thunder – rolling stones, vessels. | Thunder is heard when stones or large vessels are rolled, dragged or overturned in the sky. | 20 | 22 |
| I41b1 In I41 family | The rainbow swallows fish. | The rainbow drinks, swallowing fish, people, etc. along with the water. Sometimes this fish falls from the sky to the ground. | 16 | 22 |
| I81a In I81 family | Chthonic crab. | The giant crab causes earthquakes or floods, closes or can close the water outlet. | 14 | 22 |
| I105 | Hand in the sky. | One of the constellations is associated with the hand (with five marked fingers). | 21 | 23 |
| I120a In I120 family | Entering the ear of an animal. | Entering the ear of an animal (usually a horse or a cow) and coming back out, the character becomes beautiful (well-fed, well-dressed). | 11 | 23 |
| I124 | Ursa Major – a boat. | The Big Dipper is considered a boat. | 30 | 23 |
| I39a In I39 family | The souls of the dead walk on the rainbow. | The souls of the dead walk across the rainbow to another world; a rainbow bridge spans the river separating the world of the dead from the world of the living. | 23 | 23 |
| I45c In I45 family | Prohibition on counting stars. | Those who count stars are destined for misfortune and illness. | 19 | 23 |
| I71 | Stars – roots. | Stars – roots of plants growing in the upper world. | 17 | 23 |
| I7c In I7 family | Rain or dew – urine. | When a character in the upper world urinates, it rains (dew falls) on earth. | 20 | 23 |
| I92b In I92 family | Treasures under the rainbow. | Where the ends of the rainbow reach the ground, there is treasure. | 16 | 23 |
| I27a In I27 family | Settlements and dog trails. | The souls of dead dogs go to a special place in the afterlife and/or go to the afterlife along a special path. | 26 | 24 |
| I53 | An insect annoys the support of the earth. | An insect or other small creature bothers the animal that supports the earth, so the animal moves and the earth shakes (or, conversely, the animal is afraid to move because of the insect). | 22 | 24 |
| I86a In I86 family | Down turns into snow. | Snow arises from bird down when a bird shakes itself in the sky or when a character shakes out down or fur clothing, plucks birds, etc. | 21 | 24 |
| I87ab In I87 family | Only a child can move it. | Strong men or a crowd of people cannot move the body of a dead animal or the leg of a motionless person, but a child or a woman can do it easily. Cf. motif B83. | 15 | 24 |
| I97 | Rainbow horse. | Rainbow – hoofed animal (horse, bull, goat, sheep). | 24 | 24 |
| I85a In I85 family | Animals around the North Star. | Animals walk around the North Star, or the movement of the stars is compared to the movement of animals around a pole. See motif I85. | 23 | 25 |
| I120b In I120 family | Taking something out of an animal's ear. | The character takes food, clothing, and other valuables from the ear of an animal (most often a horse or cow). | 24 | 26 |
| I13d In I13 family | Wintering with snakes, ATU 672D. | A person enters the dwelling of snakes, spends a long time there, is released or escapes. While in the dwelling of snakes, he usually licks a stone that relieves thirst and hunger. | 34 | 26 |
| I22b1 In I22 family | Birds perish at the border of our world. | Some migratory birds (shamans in the form of birds) die on the border of our world. | 25 | 26 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.