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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.
J - Avenger heroes
| Ref | Title | Summary | Traditions | Narratives ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| J47b In J47 family | Two ropes. | When a character runs away from a pursuer, a strong rope (chain, etc.) is lowered (thrown) to him. A rotten rope is lowered to the pursuer, it breaks, and the pursuer crashes (drowns). | 13 | 27 |
| J53a In J53 family | Inviting to play, kills. | A character invites another to play. The latter follows the rules, but the initiator of the game does not and kills the other. | 18 | 27 |
| J59 | Following the arrow to the sky. | To reach the sky, one must shoot an arrow that will pierce the vault of heaven. See motif J58; see motif J59A: a man flies after or on an arrow (without the motif of an arrow piercing the vault of heaven). | 83 | 29 |
| J61 | Descends on a feather. | The character has the ability to move or hover in the air like a feather or a fluff. | 26 | 29 |
| J32a1 In J32 family | Nocturnal pests – horses. | But at night someone tramples the field, steals hay, etc. The hero learns that it is horses doing this. | 24 | 30 |
| J28a In J28 family | The truth about the father. | When asking how one of his parents died, the hero receives a series of false answers. He often exposes himself to the same dangers, but remains alive, proving the falsity of the proposed versions. | 21 | 31 |
| J25a In J25 family | Son of the grave. | The mother dies or is killed. The child in her womb or the newborn baby is buried with her. He comes out of the grave, meets people, returns to the grave, or is found in the entrails of his dead mother. In the end, the child stays with the people. See motif J25. | 26 | 33 |
| J51a In J51 family | Ladder made of bones. | To climb a rock or tower, one must stick bones into it and climb them like a ladder. | 13 | 33 |
| J19 | The sinister guest: the death of a woman. | While her husband or brother is hunting, an evil spirit comes to his wife or sister; he kills her or takes her away. Her sons, who were torn from her womb or born at that time, are saved. | 26 | 36 |
| J9 | Children from their mother's womb show her the way. | Even before they are born, children speak from their mother's womb, showing her the way. | 20 | 39 |
| J5 | Brothers as victims. | The role of the victim is played by two or more brothers (friends). See motif J4. | 32 | 40 |
| J50 | Attempt to resurrect the dead. | The father or mother of twin heroes dies or is killed. An attempt to revive the deceased fails. | 36 | 40 |
| J59a In J59 family | Flight after the arrow, D1092, D1526.1. | After shooting an arrow (rarely: throwing a ball), a person flies on it, behind it or in front of it, or sends another person on the flying arrow. Cf. motif J59. | 42 | 40 |
| J53a1 In J53 family | Method of revenge: lure into smoke and fire. | The children of the murdered man kill the murderer's children, luring them to a place where they perish from heat or smoke. | 24 | 42 |
| J22a In J22 family | Two of one. | Two men or a brother and sister emerge from a single body or embryo cut in half, or the second emerges from a part of the body or from the secretions of the first. Cf. motif M37. | 37 | 43 |
| J51a1 In J51 family | The helper girl: dismembered and reassembled. | To retrieve an object from a hard-to-reach place, the girl orders it to be dismembered (or just have its fingers cut off) and then reassembled, after which it comes back to life. | 15 | 45 |
| J53c In J53 family | One friend kills another. | Two women live together, both have children. One of them leaves the house with the other, kills her and (later) eats her. The children of the murdered woman escape. See motif J52. | 26 | 45 |
| J64 | Into the sky on a pillar of smoke. | Without touching the fire or burning, the character rises into the sky or crosses the river on clouds of smoke. | 37 | 46 |
| J57 | Son of the Sun. | Conceived by the Sun, a woman gives birth to sons or a son; when they come of age, they visit their father. See motif J56. | 32 | 48 |
| J56 | The trial of the sons. | A son or sons come to their father. He subjects them to trials in order to find out whether they are really his children. | 24 | 49 |
| J52b In J52 family | Heroes – female hares or baby hares. | A girl, young woman or children associated with hares (rabbits) are heroes-victors or successful tricksters. | 26 | 50 |
| J6 | The children of the murdered woman grew up in the house of their antagonists. | A pregnant woman is killed (and eaten). Twins are taken from her womb, who are usually also destined to be eaten, but they escape, live (secretly) in the house of their antagonists, and take revenge on them. | 32 | 50 |
| J7 | Substituted signs. | A woman or girl sets off to her husband (beloved) or relatives, or a man sets off to find a bride. She or he loses their way after a certain character substitutes the signs indicating the way. See motif J12. | 46 | 50 |
| J18 | A woman falls from the sky. | A pregnant woman or a woman with a child falls from the sky. She or her newborn daughter dies or undergoes a metamorphosis. Her son or her daughter's son survives and grows up. Cf. motif K9. | 26 | 53 |
| J13 | Two sisters. | Not one woman or girl, but two sisters (or more than two, but only two play an important role in the narrative) wander and meet an unwanted deceiver instead of a desired husband or fiancé, or encounter dangerous creatures. See motif J12. | 58 | 55 |
| J55 | The unrecognised hero encounters enemies. | The hero encounters characters who, not recognising him, say that they are waiting for so-and-so (naming him) to kill him. He easily kills them or turns them into animals. | 43 | 56 |
| J31 | Father's weapon. | Heroes receive weapons or other items that belonged to their deceased father and are necessary for fighting their antagonists. | 47 | 58 |
| J37 | A bird carries away the antagonist. | Transforming into a powerful bird or creating one, the hero lifts his opponent into the air and carries him away. | 40 | 65 |
| J40 | Enemy from the sky. | The sky is inhabited by creatures that descend to kill people. Usually, the creature carries away a person or many people, or a human head. The hero (usually a close relative of the deceased) avenges the killer and/or returns the kidnapped person (persons; the carried-away body part). | 41 | 65 |
| J47a In J47 family | Bob to the sky, ATU 328A, 804A. | A plant (usually not a mighty tree, but a legume) grows unusually fast, and a character climbs it to reach the sky. | 34 | 65 |
| J28b In J28 family | Hot flatbread. | Upon learning that a woman (usually the hero's mother) is hiding the truth about his father, mother, brothers, or bride, a young man (rarely a young woman) causes her pain, forcing her to tell the truth (usually by pressing hot bread into her palm or sticking her fingers into hot food). | 44 | 69 |
| J54 | The last female escapes. | The heroes of the narrative exterminate animals or demons of a certain species. This species could have disappeared altogether if one or more individuals (often a pregnant female) had not been saved. {This motif does not include aetiological endings, according to which the current creatures of a certain species originate from a dismembered original creature}. | 53 | 69 |
| J17 | Frogs in the hair. | Instead of lice in the character's hair, there are other creatures, or he pretends that such creatures live in his hair. | 58 | 73 |
| J66 | The straps are bitten through. | The character cuts or bites through bowstrings and other straps in advance, punctures boats, preventing opponents from fighting or pursuing him. | 63 | 82 |
| J32f In J32 family | Stolen apples. | While standing guard, the hero discovers who is stealing fruit (usually apples) from the garden. | 61 | 85 |
| J45 | The leg serves as a bridge, R246. | The character extends his leg (dafla: arm; upper tanana: tail) or neck as a bridge across a water barrier. Usually, those being pursued or walking ahead cross such a bridge to the other side, while the pursuer or those walking behind fall into the water because the character removes his bridge. See motif J44. | 67 | 85 |
| J62c In J62 family | A sister asks her brother to obtain the impossible. | In order to destroy the young man, the antagonist arouses in his sister (rarely: in him himself) a desire to possess wonderful objects, the attempt to obtain which is deadly dangerous. The young man sets off to obtain the objects. | 57 | 87 |
| J32a In J32 family | At night by his father's grave, ATU 530. | When dying, a person orders that someone spend the night at his grave or bring something to the grave. | 61 | 89 |
| J52 | Children kill children in revenge for their parents. | A character (usually zoomorphic and female) treacherously kills another. The victim's children take revenge by killing the murderer's children. | 49 | 90 |
| J27 | Cast out and at home, Z210.1. | A little boy (several babies) was abandoned, born to a mother who had already died, lives in a river, in a forest, etc. Another boy lives with his father or mother, but in the end the first one moves to live in the locus of the second. Often (see motif J25, "Infants hide and return"), the brother living in the river, in the forest, etc., first secretly meets with his "home" brother (with his brothers; with other children from his clan; with a puppy nursed by his mother). | 67 | 94 |
| J32d In J32 family | The Princess in the Tower, ATU 530. | The girl will be won by the one who, on horseback or by some other means, quickly reaches a hard-to-reach place (the top of a tower, a mountain, the upper floor of a palace, the top steps of a staircase, a bridge, the bottom of a chasm, jumps over a moat, etc.). Usually, the girl herself is located where the suitor must climb or (rarely) descend. In Italian versions, the hero wins tournaments. | 66 | 101 |
| J30 | Remains of parents. | Before the heroes defeat their antagonists or flee from them, they find or receive the remains or property of the victim. | 78 | 108 |
| j4b In j4 family | Revenge within the family. | The children (son, sons, son and daughter) of the murdered person take revenge on characters who are related to the victim by marriage or close kinship. | 63 | 109 |
| J21 | Birth from eggs. | Gods, ancestors of humans, and founders of dynasties are born from eggs. | 63 | 110 |
| J51 | A piece is missing, E33. | The character is dismembered or eaten; he is revived from his remains, but since one of his bones was broken, swallowed or carried away (or a drop of blood or a piece of flesh was lost), the revival fails, or the character remains defective in some way. | 71 | 120 |
| J23c In J23 family | The younger brother defeats the monster, ATU 312D. | People in general or older brothers (siblings, older sister) disappear one after another. A woman raises a boy from infancy or, left alone, miraculously conceives a son or finds a baby. He defeats the antagonists, usually reviving or freeing the missing ones. | 107 | 122 |
| J25 | Infants hide and return. | Heroes (one, two or one of two), while still infants or embryos, disappear or are thrown away (often into water). To bring them back to the world of humans, they are lured, persuaded or (with difficulty) caught. | 92 | 131 |
| J15 | The road to the home of dangerous creatures. | Having set out in search of their husband, relatives, etc., a woman, girl or children accidentally take the wrong road and encounter creatures that kill or harm them. | 86 | 136 |
| J23 | Late children defeat the monster, ATU 312D. | People in general or older brothers (siblings, older sister) disappear one after another. A woman raises a boy or twins from infancy. Sometimes, left alone, she miraculously conceives a son or finds a baby. He defeats the antagonists, usually reviving or freeing the missing ones. | 121 | 154 |
| J44 | The collapsed bridge. | The hero lures the enemy onto a rickety bridge. The enemy falls into the water, into the abyss (see motif J46). See motif J52. | 108 | 164 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.