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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| J1 | Avenging heroes (all variants). | The characters avenge the death of their father, mother or other relatives who are older than them by a generation (less often by two generations). | 1 | 3 |
| J1A In J1 family | The myth of the avengers with a full plot | 153 | 297 | |
| j1b In j1 family | Heroic avengers - with a missing or altered plot start: it is unclear whether the characters with whom the heroes live are their real or adoptive parents; the hero's mother herself tries to destroy him in infancy. | Heroic avengers - with a missing or altered plot start: it is unclear whether the characters with whom the heroes live are their real or adoptive parents; the hero's mother herself tries to destroy him in infancy. | 11 | 20 |
| j1c In j1 family | Avenging heroes - with a missing or distorted final part of the plot (revenge is not described). | Avenging heroes - with a missing or distorted final part of the plot (revenge is not described). | 13 | 15 |
| j1d In j1 family | Heroic avengers - Like J1D, but the role of potential heroes is reduced to a minimum: a woman with a baby is saved from the antagonist and receives help from <i>the patron </i>. | Heroic avengers - Like J1D, but the role of potential heroes is reduced to a minimum: a woman with a baby is saved from the antagonist and receives help from the patron . | 13 | 19 |
| J2 | Tree husband. | Husband or lover – tree (temporarily transformed into a human). | 12 | 17 |
| J3 | Conception from under the earth. | A woman conceives a son or twins in a way that is incomprehensible to her; the reason is that when she sits on the ground, a male character (animal) creeps under the ground and fertilises her from below. | 6 | 8 |
| J4 | Revenge for the death of male relatives. | The heroes avenge the death (enslavement) of their father, uncle, grandfather, or mother and father, or in general their descendants, with the loss of men being the most painful. | 197 | 428 |
| J4a In J4 family | Revenge for the death of a mother. | A woman is killed. Her son or sons (rarely: grandsons, nephews) avenge her. | 142 | 274 |
| 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 |
| j4c In j4 family | The young man from the egg. | An egg remains from the deceased water character. The young hero who emerges from it avenges his father. | 5 | 6 |
| J5 | Brothers as victims. | The role of the victim is played by two or more brothers (friends). See motif J4. | 32 | 40 |
| 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 |
| J6a In J6 family | Mother eaten, daughter saved. | A pregnant woman with a young daughter fall into the hands of cannibals. The cannibals find and eat the woman, but her daughter and the baby in her womb are saved. | 3 | 3 |
| J6B In J6 family | Blinding of the victim. | The mother of the heroes is not killed, but loses her sight. | 4 | 4 |
| 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 |
| J7a In J7 family | Bringing lunch to father. | A girl (less often a boy) brings lunch to her father or brothers who are working in the field (in the forest), but encounters a demonic character. | 11 | 12 |
| J8 | Feathers at the crossroads. | A woman or girl sets out in search of a husband (fiancé, etc.). Bird feathers left on the trail, at a crossroads or near a dwelling mark the right or wrong path. See motif J7. | 21 | 14 |
| 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 |
| J10 | Wasp sting. | A woman loses her way after being stung by a wasp (or bee, ant, snake). She slaps her stomach (either to kill the insect or to punish her unborn sons, because of whom she went to pick a flower and was stung; see motif J11). The offended sons fall silent, ceasing to show the way. See motif J9. | 14 | 17 |
| J11 | Asks to pick flowers. | The son in his mother's womb asks her to pick flowers or fruit for him (usually when a woman picks flowers, she is bitten by an insect). See motif J9. | 19 | 18 |
| J12 | Girls in search of a husband. | A girl or two sisters wander, usually in search of a suitable groom or husband who has left or lives far away. Along the way or upon reaching their destination, they encounter false suitors. (Traditions in which two heroines travel rather than one are highlighted in bold (motif j13). | 117 | 205 |
| J12a In J12 family | Penis in a vessel. | A girl or two sisters come to an old woman who invites them to marry her son. In reality, he is a worm, a snake or a penis, which his mother hides in a vessel during the day. The girl (sisters) do not allow him to approach them and run away. See motif J12. | 7 | 2 |
| J12b In J12 family | Honey groom. | A honey groom or a skilled honey gatherer is attractive to a girl. | 7 | 18 |
| J12c In J12 family | Acquaintance at a festival. | A girl meets her fiancé at a dance and then follows in his footsteps. See motif J12. | 8 | 1 |
| J12d In J12 family | Kills a rival. | After a girl marries a worthy suitor, the rejected suitor or his relatives kill the rival. See motif J12. | 32 | 27 |
| J12E In J12 family | Skunk. | The false bridegroom - skunk. See motif J12. | 0 | 0 |
| J12F In J12 family | Owl. | False groom - eagle owl/owl. See motif J12. | 0 | 0 |
| J12G In J12 family | Waterfowl or marsh bird. | The false bridegroom is a bird that lives on or near water. See motif J12. | 15 | 9 |
| J12H In J12 family | Opossum. | The false groom - the opossum. | 14 | 25 |
| J12I In J12 family | Spitting beads. | A desirable marriage partner secretes beads instead of saliva or excrement. See motifs J12 and M57. | 12 | 2 |
| J12j In J12 family | The false suitor turns out to be a jester. | A girl or sisters end up with a false groom who plays the role of a jester in the chief's house. See motif J12. | 18 | 1 |
| J12k In J12 family | The groom and the deceiver live in the same house. | Desirable and undesirable marriage partners live in the same house. The undesirable partner is a servant or junior partner, usually pretending to be the master. | 1 | 1 |
| J12l In J12 family | The hypocritical murderer. | The murderer pretends to mourn the victim along with everyone else. The deception is revealed, and the murderer is pursued. See motif J12. | 10 | 6 |
| J12m In J12 family | A woman turns into a duck. | A woman or two sisters come to two men and become wives of one of them. The other kills or tries to kill his rival or the women. As a result, the women turn into waterfowl. | 7 | 5 |
| 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 |
| J14 | The flute player. | To find the man of her dreams, a woman follows the sounds of music or singing; she usually distinguishes imposters by listening to their clumsy performance. See motif J12. | 17 | 7 |
| 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 |
| J15a In J15 family | Woman among the Jaguars. | Setting off on a journey (usually in search of a fiancé, husband, or relatives), a woman finds herself in the lair or settlement of large dangerous predators - pumas or jaguars. See motif J15. | 18 | 16 |
| J15b In J15 family | Woman at the toad's house. | While travelling, a woman finds herself in the house of a frog or toad. See motif J15. | 11 | 12 |
| J16 | Refuses to eat insects. | The character perishes because, being forced to look for insects in the head of another, he refuses to chew insects, spits them out in disgust, or is suspected of doing so. | 15 | 21 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| J18a In J18 family | Mother eaten, children flee. | A cannibal eats a woman and enters her house. The woman's children (daughter and son, or daughter only) run away, climb a tree or climb a rope to the sky. The cannibal pursues them and perishes. | 15 | 27 |
| 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 |
| J19a In J19 family | Placing food on the stomach. | When a woman is left alone, a demonic character comes to her. He says that in order to perform certain actions, she must give him a certain part of her body, even though this contradicts logic and custom. After that, the character kills her (cuts open her stomach; tears out her tongue). | 10 | 17 |
| J19b In J19 family | Burnt belly. | An evil spirit kills a woman by burning through her body. | 3 | 7 |
| J19c In J19 family | Torn out tongue. | A demonic character comes to a woman and tears out her tongue. She dies (and comes back to life when her tongue is found and returned). | 4 | 7 |
| J20 | The sinister guest: the broken taboo. | While the husband or brother is hunting, an evil spirit comes to his wife or sister; he kills or maims her or her brother after she breaks the taboo of opening the door to the guest, looking at him or talking to him. See motif J19. | 14 | 1 |
| J21 | Birth from eggs. | Gods, ancestors of humans, and founders of dynasties are born from eggs. | 63 | 110 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.