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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I92 | The rainbow changes gender. | A person who has come into contact with a rainbow in a certain way (walked under it, drunk water where the rainbow drinks, etc.) changes their gender. | 41 | 56 |
| I41b In I41 family | The rainbow drinks water. | The rainbow drinks (draws into itself) water (and living creatures). | 60 | 90 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| I22a In I22 family | The sky beats against the earth, F791. | The sky constantly beats against the earth like the lid of a boiling cauldron. | 54 | 69 |
| I83 | The sky of birds. | Birds (especially vultures and eagles) lived or live in the sky, usually on one of several tiers of the upper world. | 64 | 107 |
| I76a In I76 family | The snake becomes a dragon. | After a certain period of time, a snake or fish transforms into another creature, usually a dragon. | 35 | 50 |
| I24A In I24 family | The snake bridge to another world. | The body of water over which the snake bridge is thrown separates our world from another. | 11 | 12 |
| I13c In I13 family | The snake's crown, ATU 672, B101.7. | Reptiles possess a treasure that humans take or try to take. Usually it is a crown, a precious stone, or horns on a snake's head. | 68 | 97 |
| 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 |
| I117 | The spider carries from world to world. | A spider or spider woman lifts a hero or heroine up to the sky, helps them descend to earth, or otherwise helps them cross the path leading to another world. | 60 | 93 |
| I118 | The spider-advisor. | A female spider (less commonly, an old spider) protects the hero or heroine, who live with her, and the hero marries her daughter. (Texts in which the spider only lifts the hero up to the sky or lowers him to the ground are not included; see motif I117). | 20 | 47 |
| I82e In I82 family | The star that sold its mother. | It is said that Venus or another star sold her mother or father in order to adorn herself luxuriously and dress up. | 3 | 8 |
| I4d1 In I4 family | The stolen tendons of Grom, ATU 1148B. | An enemy steals the tendons (heart and eyes) of a thunder god, who returns them and prevails over his enemy. Cf. motif L57A, "The hero's companion returns his organ." | 2 | 4 |
| I4d In I4 family | The stolen weapon of Grom, ATU 1148B. | An enemy steals a weapon (usually a musical instrument) used by the thunder god to summon a storm. The thunder god or his assistant comes unrecognised to the thief, takes possession of his weapon and kills his enemies. | 14 | 6 |
| I55b In I55 family | The Sun Deer. | The hero chases a deer or elk carrying the sun. | 2 | 3 |
| I131 | The thread of life. | Every person's life corresponds to a thread; when the thread breaks, the person dies. | 23 | 30 |
| I80 | The thunderbolt's apprentice. | A character who finds himself in the locus of a deity responsible for atmospheric phenomena violates certain prohibitions or instructions, thereby causing excessively strong thunderstorms, rain, snowfall or wind. | 36 | 51 |
| 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 |
| I32 | The tree of infants. | There was or is a tree on which babies grow; the souls of unborn babies; whose leaves have turned into people; whose trunk is covered with many female nipples or flowers from which babies suck milk or juice. | 27 | 44 |
| I33 | The Tree of the Dead. | The soul on its journey to the afterlife stops at a certain tree. | 29 | 31 |
| I19 | They feed on the smell of food. | Anthropomorphic creatures satisfy their hunger with the vapours of food being prepared. See motifs I14 (people without anuses), I15 (people without mouths). | 57 | 56 |
| I59a In I59 family | Thief in the sky. | Astral objects or lunar spots are associated with stories about the theft of various items, the value of which is insignificant (straw, firewood, cabbage, etc.). | 47 | 107 |
| I48a In I48 family | Those who fell through the earth. | The hero's adversary descends into the underworld. | 36 | 36 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| I36 | Thunder and lightning – relatives or in-laws. | Thunder and lightning (two thunders, two lightnings) – characters related by kinship, marriage or property. | 39 | 52 |
| I4c In I4 family | Thunder in captivity. | The enemy of the thunderer temporarily defeats and captures him. | 12 | 17 |
| I4a In I4 family | Thunder in trouble: falls to the ground. | Thunder falls to earth and cannot rise. Usually, a person helps it return to the sky. | 30 | 44 |
| I4b In I4 family | Thunder in trouble: fighting the enemy. | A person helps thunder defeat the enemy. | 25 | 34 |
| I5b In I5 family | Thunder Jaguar. | The flying jaguar causes storms, rain, and thunderstorms. | 3 | 4 |
| I57 | Thunder pursues the enemy. | Thunder's enemies are animals, reptiles, and spirits that live in burrows. They usually hide from him in various objects and items, and Thunder (a god, angel, etc.) strikes his enemies or these objects with lightning. | 88 | 133 |
| I4 | Thunder rides across the sky. | When a vehicle moves across the sky, thunder rumbles. | 43 | 65 |
| I4e In I4 family | Thunder riding on a cloud. | An anthropomorphic deity (associated with thunder and rain) rides on a cloud or a cloud. | 7 | 9 |
| I5a In I5 family | Thunder tapir. | The tapir is associated with the upper world (thunder, sky, moon). | 10 | 14 |
| I35a In I35 family | Thunder – an old woman. | Thunder is produced by an old woman in the sky. | 14 | 18 |
| I5 | Thunder – animal. | Thunder (lightning, rain) has the appearance of a four-legged mammal - a pig, buffalo, camel, anteater, tapir, dog, cat, leopard, monkey, etc. | 48 | 74 |
| 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 |
| I4F In I4 family | Thunder – two combatants. | The hero and his opponent engage in single combat and are still fighting in the sky. This is thunder. | 2 | 3 |
| I1 | Thunderbirds, A284.2. | Creatures that cause or embody rain and/or thunderstorms are birds or winged anthropomorphic characters. {Traditions in which birds are associated with thunderstorms and rain, but Thunder itself is not a bird, are marked with an asterisk (*). | 183 | 303 |
| I132 | To the sky on deer antlers. | A deer props its antlers against the sky, and a person climbs them to reach the upper world. Alternatively, a person finds themselves in the sky when they touch the deer's antlers. | 6 | 12 |
| 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 |
| I92b In I92 family | Treasures under the rainbow. | Where the ends of the rainbow reach the ground, there is treasure. | 16 | 23 |
| I20 | Underground dwarves, F451. | The inhabitants of the underworld or the land on the horizon where the sky meets the earth are dwarves. See motif I14A. | 76 | 131 |
| I124 | Ursa Major – a boat. | The Big Dipper is considered a boat. | 30 | 23 |
| I128 | Ursa Major – a ladle. | The Big Dipper – a ladle, a scoop. | 25 | 36 |
| I127 | Ursa Major – bed. | Ursa Major – bed, couch. | 23 | 34 |
| I82h In I82 family | Venus – Cholpan/Cholbon. | The name of Venus sounds like Cholpan, Cholbon, Tsolmon, etc. (čol- 'to sparkle, to shine' [Vámbéri 1879: 155]). | 50 | 72 |
| I82j In I82 family | Venus – husband of the Moon. | Venus-man or another star is the husband of the Moon-woman. See motif I82a. | 3 | 3 |
| 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 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.