Folklore Database · Browse
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| I17a In I17 family | Dwarfs without bodily orifices. | Creatures without an anal opening or mouth - dwarves. | 13 | 16 |
| I87e In I87 family | Dwarves after humans. | After the present humans, dwarves will live on earth. | 7 | 7 |
| 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 |
| I20c1 In I20 family | Dwarves – inhabitants of rocks and hills. | Dwarves do not live deep underground, but inside hills, in rocks, in mines, etc., and usually come out from there onto the ground. | 22 | 62 |
| I20c In I20 family | Dwarves – inhabitants of the underworld. | Dwarves live in an underground world that partly resembles the earthly world. If dwarves and humans meet, it happens underground. | 43 | 64 |
| I51b In I51 family | Earth – animal. | The earth or sky is perceived as a large mammal or created from parts of its body. | 31 | 41 |
| I119a In I119 family | Earthquake – are there any survivors? | Creatures shake the earth, either upon learning that there are no longer any inhabitants on it, or to check whether they are still alive, or to show that they themselves are still there. | 12 | 11 |
| I42g3 In I42 family | Edible house | In the forest person comes across a house that is made, completely or partly, of edible matter | 0 | 0 |
| I14a In I14 family | Ejecting food through the mouth. | People without anuses regurgitate what they have eaten through their mouths or other (marked) orifices. See motif I14. | 2 | 2 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| I52 | Fish – the support of the earth. | The world rests on a fish or fish-like creature, or the earth itself is such a creature or originated from a fish. See motif I8B. | 93 | 152 |
| 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 |
| I8e1 In I8 family | Four pillars of the world. | The sky or earth is supported by four objects or beings located at the four cardinal points (either four groups of beings, or four at the corners and a fifth in the centre). Th A841. See motifs 8A, 8D. | 116 | 131 |
| 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 |
| I51a In I51 family | Four-legged animals – the pillars of the earth. | The earth is supported by or has a large mammal at its centre. See motif I8B. | 80 | 125 |
| 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 |
| I20b In I20 family | Girding under the armpits. | People in the upper world are different from those on earth and gird themselves below or above the waist. | 9 | 12 |
| I132a In I132 family | Girl on the swings of the sun. | A girl sits on a swing and it lifts her up to the sky. | 5 | 5 |
| I138 | Glass Mountain. | The glass mountain (tower, bridge) is mentioned as an unusual (inaccessible) locus. | 36 | 62 |
| I25b1 In I25 family | Hair instead of rope. | This refers to women who pull buckets of water out of a well using their own hair instead of a rope. | 3 | 6 |
| I105 | Hand in the sky. | One of the constellations is associated with the hand (with five marked fingers). | 21 | 23 |
| I69 | Heavenly excrement. | Luminous celestial objects or atmospheric phenomena are bodily secretions of celestial beings. | 55 | 38 |
| I110 | Heavenly farmers. | Constellations are associated with agricultural tools or with people engaged in agricultural work (most often ploughing and haymaking). See motifs I110A (plough), I110B (haymaking). | 61 | 119 |
| I20a In I20 family | Heavenly giants. | Anthropomorphic inhabitants of the upper world – giants. | 9 | 11 |
| I130 | Heavenly net. | One of the constellations – a hunting or fishing net, a seine, a trap, a snare. | 31 | 41 |
| I135 | Heavenly skin or cloth. | The sky (Milky Way, clouds) is an animal skin or a piece of cloth. | 15 | 17 |
| I85c1 In I85 family | Heavenly vessel for rain, A1131.4, A1131.4.1. | In the sky there is a vessel, a box or an indescribable container for storing rain (rain clouds). | 38 | 47 |
| I87ad In I87 family | Hidden in a tooth cavity. | A giant hides a persecuted person in his mouth – usually (perhaps always) in a tooth cavity; or the person remains alive in the giant's mouth, hiding in a tooth cavity. Cf. motif M21a. | 11 | 10 |
| I13a In I13 family | Horned serpent, B91.3. | A huge aquatic or celestial serpent, dragon, or snake-like creature with horns on its head. | 124 | 222 |
| I13b In I13 family | Horned snake, B91.3. | A small snake, the snake has horns on its head. | 41 | 50 |
| I125 | Hyades – animal jaw. | Hyades (sometimes, possibly, Pleiades or Orion) – jaw or severed head of a large animal or anthropomorphic creature. | 17 | 29 |
| I35b1 In I35 family | Icy sky. | The sky is made of ice. | 5 | 3 |
| I35a1a In I35 family | Insulting a deity. | The character considers himself equal to the deity, imitating him, mocking him or trying to kill him. | 23 | 42 |
| I92a In I92 family | Jumping over the rainbow. | A person who jumps or steps over a rainbow changes their gender. | 9 | 10 |
| I80a In I80 family | Junior Thunder. | Upon meeting the Thunders, a person becomes one of them. | 12 | 14 |
| I79 | Kirtimukha. | The monster is beheaded or deprived of its body. Its head is depicted on temples and vessels (narrative texts and/or iconography). | 1 | 1 |
| I79A In I79 family | Kirtimukha/Sisiutl. | The creature has a head or bulge in the middle of its body and snake-like protrusions extending on both sides (from the head, cheeks, mouth) or across the head in profile symmetrically at both ends. In the art of the Nanai, Ulch, Orochi, Udegei, Nivkh, and Ainu peoples (less obviously, the Negidal and Uilto peoples), it is curvilinear. The Orochi, Udegei, and Nivkh peoples draw from a well, then thin out. The goat finds him asleep, the kids jump out, the goat puts a vmnament with central symmetry based on a similar image. | 31 | 72 |
| 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 |
| I7a In I7 family | Lightning snake. | Lightning is associated with a snake. | 13 | 10 |
| I7b In I7 family | Lightning – a crack in the sky. | Lightning – a crack in the sky through which the heavens are visible for a moment. | 6 | 5 |
| I3a In I3 family | Lightning – whip. | During a thunderstorm, the character strikes with a whip – these are flashes of lightning. | 19 | 19 |
| 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 |
| I48 | Locked in the underworld. | The character is deprived of the ability to move, after which he acquires cosmic dimensions: he supports the earth (sky) or his movements cause earthquakes (less often - storms). | 51 | 82 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| I141 | Magic wand. | The wand is an instrument for performing actions whose results cannot be explained rationally. | 55 | 88 |
| I6a In I6 family | Male and female: different types of precipitation. | The male and female of a huge bird carry different types of precipitation (for example, the eagle carries snow, and the eagle carries rain). Or (Buryats of Mongolia) the same bird carries different types of precipitation depending on whether it is angry or not. See motif i6. Traditions associated with Na-Dene languages are highlighted in italics in the list. | 32 | 7 |
| I82a In I82 family | Male Venus. | The Morning and/or Evening Star – a male character. | 148 | 218 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.