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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

Showing 151–200 of 317 · Page 4 of 7

Ref	Title	Summary	Traditions	Narratives ▲
I23	Slamming door, K736.	The door of the house opens and slams shut by itself, crushing those entering or leaving. See motif I22.	20	26
I8G1 In I8 family	Giant at the pillar of the world.	At the foot of the world pillar is an anthropomorphic character, or a character identified with a tree or pillar on which the world rests, or a character holding ropes on which the world is suspended.	20	26
I126	The constellation of funeral bier.	The Great Bear or other constellation – a bier on which the dead or sick are carried, a body prepared for burial, a grave.	25	27
I20c2 In I20 family	Dwarves in the land on the horizon.	The inhabitants of the land on the horizon (where the sky meets the earth) are dwarves.	20	27
I87a1 In I87 family	Small or large – dialogue.	Two people engage in a dialogue, contradicting each other in their descriptions of the sizes of creatures and objects.	19	27
I113	The piglet – the golden bristle, (ATU 530A).	A pig or boar made of gold or with golden bristles is a precious object. (In ATU, "a pig with golden bristles" is one of the possible miraculous objects; the presence of a corresponding number in regional indexes does not necessarily mean the presence of an image; only cases where the image is directly named are taken into account).	15	28
I125	Hyades – animal jaw.	Hyades (sometimes, possibly, Pleiades or Orion) – jaw or severed head of a large animal or anthropomorphic creature.	17	29
I37B In I37 family	Mushrooms are associated with the world of the dead.	Mushrooms are associated with the dead, the afterlife, evil spirits, and disease. See motif I37.	6	29
I46b In I46 family	The rainbow predicts the harvest.	The colour of the rainbow can be used to predict the harvest of individual crops.	18	29
I81	Waters fall into the abyss.	Earthly waters fall into the abyss.	26	29
I82d In I82 family	Morning and Evening Stars – Man and Woman.	The Morning and Evening Stars are contrasted as man and woman. See motifs I82a, I82b.	32	29
I82i In I82 family	Venus – Zahra/Zura.	The name of the object in the night sky (usually Venus) sounds like Zukhra, Zahra, Zura, etc.	25	29
I87	Skull cave.	The characters use an object belonging to the world of giants (a skull, an animal shoulder blade, a mitten) as a shelter. Cf. I87C: animals use an object belonging to the world of humans (a skull, a mitten, a sieve, etc.) as a shelter.	19	29
I87ac In I87 family	A bone in the eye.	Something huge gets into a person's eye, which he mistakes for a speck of dust. Usually, a bird carries away an animal or fish and drops a bone into the man's eye. It is difficult to find and remove (to do this, they get into a boat and float it inside the eye, throw a net into the eye, pull it out with oxen, etc.).	17	29
I131	The thread of life.	Every person's life corresponds to a thread; when the thread breaks, the person dies.	23	30
I66	Ashes on the Milky Way.	The Milky Way is ash or smouldering embers.	20	30
I106	The Great Bear is a single character.	The Great Bear is one anthropomorphic character, not a group of people.	26	31
I119	The dead shake the earth.	Earthquakes are caused by inhabitants of the underworld; during earthquakes, they try to get to the surface of the earth to check whether people are still alive.	23	31
I33	The Tree of the Dead.	The soul on its journey to the afterlife stops at a certain tree.	29	31
I54	Water creature filled with fish.	Inside a snake or other aquatic creature are aquatic animals or live fish; an aquatic monster gives birth to fish, is the master of fish; turns into many fish.	18	31
I67	Emu and nandu in the Milky Way.	The giant figure of an emu (in Australia) or a rhea (in South America) is visible in the Milky Way.	12	31
I8e In I8 family	Four hold up the world.	The sky or the earth is supported by four anthropomorphic male characters located at the four cardinal points.	28	31
I133	Constellation across the sky.	Star objects in different parts of the sky are associated with separate parts (as well as items of clothing, jewellery, etc.) of a single anthropomorphic or zoomorphic figure.	23	32
I22b In I22 family	Birds on their way to another world.	Migratory birds (or shamans in the form of birds) fly from our world to another; the path lies through a narrow opening between jutting rocks, or the sky strikes the earth, crushing those who fly through; and/or at the passage to the other world there is a character who feeds on birds; and/or in the world on the other side of the pulsating barrier there is the mistress of the birds.	32	32
I100a In I100 family	Pleiades – family.	The Pleiades – a woman or man with children, members of the same family.	25	33
I24	Snake bridge.	A snake (or fish) forms a bridge across a river.	32	33
I25C In I25 family	Calling blood wine.	On the way to their goal, the character expresses imaginary pleasure when encountering repulsive and dangerous objects and creatures, thereby ensuring their loyalty (on the way back).	24	33
I127	Ursa Major – bed.	Ursa Major – bed, couch.	23	34
I2	Lightning from the eyes or mouth.	Lightning bolts fly from the eyes or mouth {specified} of a creature embodying a thunderstorm. See motif I1.	37	34
I4b In I4 family	Thunder in trouble: fighting the enemy.	A person helps thunder defeat the enemy.	25	34
I61	Milk on the Milky Way, A778.5.	The Milky Way is a trail of spilled milk.	23	34
I74	Stars – stones.	Stars – (bright) stones, sequins, beads.	31	34
I21	Sunburnt.	The inhabitants of the underworld or the land of the rising sun have red (yellow) hair and/or red or black skin and/or suffer from the heat of the sun, which passes them by at a short distance. See motif I20.	27	35
I27c In I27 family	Four-eyed dog.	Dogs with two spots above their eyes stand out and are usually called two- or four-eyed.	37	35
I85b In I85 family	The North Star – Man.	The North Star – one person.	31	35
I87d In I87 family	People in the time of giants, ATU 701.	In the past, giants inhabited the earth. One of them finds a tiny human being and brings him to his father or mother. They usually say that such people will replace the current giants.	25	35
I128	Ursa Major – a ladle.	The Big Dipper – a ladle, a scoop.	25	36
I48a In I48 family	Those who fell through the earth.	The hero's adversary descends into the underworld.	36	36
I29	To the underworld through an animal's burrow.	A character climbs into an animal's burrow and finds himself in the underworld, or digs a deep hole and finds himself in a world inhabited by burrowing animals.	33	37
I35a1 In I35 family	Challenging the thunderer.	The character claims the role of the thunder god and imitates him.	21	37
I35b In I35 family	Copper sky.	The sky is considered to be metallic. The process of its creation resembles metal forging.	22	38
I69	Heavenly excrement.	Luminous celestial objects or atmospheric phenomena are bodily secretions of celestial beings.	55	38
I139	Throwing an axe, F531.3.2.3.	Two (rarely three) men or women are at a distance from each other, but regularly throw or pass something to each other. This is a sign of their unusual size, strength, and agility.	20	39
I87c In I87 family	The mitten house, ATU 283B.	Animals use a small object belonging to the human world (skull, mitten, jug, etc.) for shelter or transportation. Cf. motif I87: characters use an object (skull, animal shoulder blade, mitten) belonging to the world of giants as a shelter.	19	39
I89	The lost caravan.	There is a star that brings death and misfortune; it is usually told how people mistake a star or constellation rising at night for the Morning Star, set off on a journey and lose their way.	27	39
I8c In I8 family	Suspended Earth.	The earth is prevented from falling or swaying because it is tied with ropes.	33	39
I47	The rainbow as a stream of secretions.	The rainbow smells disgusting, is associated with foul-smelling animals, is a stream of excretions, is associated with the lower body, causes inflammation or skin diseases, and is associated with death.	42	40
I101	The Great Bear – stakes.	The Big Dipper or several bright stars of another constellation are stakes, pillars supporting a platform, or some object is stretched, dried, or stored on these stakes.	19	41
I130	Heavenly net.	One of the constellations – a hunting or fishing net, a seine, a trap, a snare.	31	41
I35	Thunder - animal skin.	Thunder is produced by a (tanned) animal skin or (rarely) a person being dragged, or clothing being dragged behind or shaken out.	33	41

Showing 151–200 of 317 · Page 4 of 7

Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.