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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.
K - Adventures: Acts of heroes
| Ref | Title | Summary | Traditions | Narratives ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K13c In K13 family | The cannibal's daughter avenges her mother on her husband. | The cannibal's daughter takes revenge on her husband for her mother's death and manages to cut off his leg. See motif K13A. | 0 | 0 |
| K184 | When the forest comes to life. | The character links the onset of an event that is impossible, in his view, with the time when the trees of the forest will start moving, as if they were people. | 0 | 0 |
| K19 | Marriage to a star. | A man or woman marries a star. See motifs K19A, K19B. | 0 | 0 |
| K27b In K27 family | Smoking a pipe. | Test: smoke a huge or poisonous pipe or breathe in clouds of poisonous smoke. See motif K27. | 0 | 0 |
| K27f4 In K27 family | Build a house. | Task: to erect a building. See motif K27. | 0 | 0 |
| K27i In K27 family | Drain a body of water. | Task: to drain a large body of water. | 0 | 0 |
| K27p In K27 family | The antagonist mourns his assistants. | The antagonist sends the hero to places where he is attacked by dangerous creatures; the hero kills them and brings them to the antagonist. The creatures turn out to be relatives, pupils or helpers of the antagonist, whom he (or his close relatives) mourns or revives. See motif K27. | 0 | 0 |
| K52a In K52 family | The slave pours water into the hearth. | The hero goes to the bottom of the sea for a woman. The slave pours water into the hearth in the house of the water dwellers. Hiding behind clouds of steam, the hero takes the woman away. See motif K52. | 0 | 0 |
| K561 | The wise carving of the fowl | A poor man brings his master a chicken (goose, etc.) as a present. The master asks him to divide the bird appropriately among the members of his household. The poor man does it considering the symbolic meaning of particular parts (gives the master the head, his daughters the wings, etc.) and receives rich compensation. A neighbor brings the master five chickens but is unable to divide them approppriately. The first man does it again. | 0 | 0 |
| K56a1 In K56 family | Mother-in-law performs the work of her daughter-in-law. | The groom, the bringer of prosperity, orders the girl who has come to perform work that she herself is unable to do. The groom's mother performs the work, and the girl is accepted by the groom. See motif K56A. Except for the Ket people: the work is performed by tiny women sitting in or behind the mother-in-law's ear. | 0 | 0 |
| K77c In K77 family | Those hiding in the house frighten the enemy. | Various objects and/or animals hide in the house where a strong enemy is expected to appear. They take turns attacking or frightening him, and he either dies or flees. See motifs K77a and K77b. | 0 | 0 |
| K8f In K8 family | Deer in the belly of a monster. | The swallowed one discovers a living deer in the belly of the monster. See motif K8A. | 0 | 0 |
| K18b In K18 family | The boy stops crying. | Men or women approach the little boy one after another or take him in their arms. The person who makes the boy stop crying is recognised as his parent. See motif K18. | 1 | 1 |
| K19g In K19 family | Stars differ in brightness and colour. | One star is an old man, the other is a young man; both stars differ in brightness or colour, but it is impossible to determine the age of the star-man by these characteristics (a dim star may be young and vice versa); usually two girls want to marry stars of different types (one bright, the other dim, one red, the other blue, etc.). See motif K19B. | 13 | 1 |
| K48a In K48 family | Birds on a cap. | The hero's costume and/or headdress are decorated with live birds or animals. Usually, the antagonist steals the clothes and pretends to be the hero, but the birds and animals on his headdress remain silent or cry out differently. See motif K48. | 11 | 1 |
| K131c In K131 family | The kidnapped woman runs away while the archers compete. | A woman offers her captors to shoot arrows – she will marry the winner. While they are figuring out whose arrow flew farther, the kidnapped woman runs away. | 2 | 2 |
| K26a In K26 family | A stone covers the opening. | The hole in the sky is covered by a flat stone. Moving it aside, the character sees the earth. See motif K26. | 13 | 2 |
| K32c In K32 family | The real wife becomes an owl. | The deceiver takes the place of the real wife, and the real wife becomes an owl. See motif K32. | 2 | 2 |
| K56b3 In K56 family | Stench instead of fragrance. | A man's intestinal gases become fragrant. An envious person tries to achieve the same result, but the outcome is the opposite. | 2 | 2 |
| K113b In K113 family | The Frog Princess – Mistress of the Storm. | The younger prince marries a frog. She must first arrive at his parents' house. A thunderstorm begins. Rain, lightning, and thunder signify that the prince's wife is washing, dressing, travelling, etc. | 5 | 3 |
| K167b In K167 family | What is a lamb in the womb of a sheep? | A boy is able to determine the sex and colour of a young animal in the womb. | 3 | 3 |
| K52b In K52 family | Broken axe. | The hero comes to capture the daughter of a supernatural creature. He sees a slave breaking an axe (adze, wedge). The hero repairs the axe, and the slave helps him in return. See motif K52. | 6 | 3 |
| K58b In K58 family | Turn of the watercourse: failure. | The character builds a canal, bridge, or dam. For some reason, the work cannot be completed as planned. | 9 | 3 |
| K73b7 In K73 family | The hero kills the enemy of his enchanted wife. | The hero saves the magical wife from her enemy at a time when both the future wife and the enemy have zoomorphic appearances. Later, the rescued woman becomes a woman. | 3 | 3 |
| K108a In K108 family | He who kills his wife loses everything. | A man acquires a magical wife. Another woman orders him to kill her or divorce her, then she will become his wife. Having fulfilled the request, he loses everything. | 3 | 4 |
| K115A In K115 family | Dove at the entrance. | When a character hides in a shelter, a dove builds a nest there. The enemies decide that no one has entered the cave or room for a long time and leave. | 3 | 4 |
| K11D In K11 family | A disintegrated monster turns into ordinary animals. | Pieces of flesh from a huge creature that has fallen apart or been cut into pieces turn into ordinary animals, birds or fish. | 6 | 4 |
| K155c In K155 family | The girl on the scales. | The father regularly weighs his daughter and learns of her pregnancy when she becomes heavier. | 4 | 4 |
| K18a In K18 family | The boy takes a bow and arrows. | The boy's father is recognised as the man whose bow or arrows he chooses. See motif K18. | 13 | 4 |
| K18c In K18 family | A boy urinates on his father's hands. | The man in whose arms the boy urinates will be recognised as his father. See motif K18. | 12 | 4 |
| k27x6b In k27 family | Greeting addressed to the wind, ATU 298A*. | Upon encountering the sun, moon (frost) and wind, a person greets only the latter. (In progress) | 5 | 4 |
| K32h2 In K32 family | Left to be eaten by ants. | A man executes his wife by leaving her to be eaten by ants. | 3 | 4 |
| k33c8 In k33 family | Girl in a walnut. | A young man obtains a girl who is inside a nut (walnut or hazelnut, but not coconut). | 4 | 4 |
| K35a2 In K35 family | Beast with a glowing skin. | A man kills an animal with glowing fur. Upon learning of this, an authoritative figure gives him difficult tasks. | 4 | 4 |
| K38b1 In K38 family | A bird steals foals, a hero kills a snake. | Every time a mare gives birth to a wonderful foal, a bird carries it away. Setting out in search of the foals, the hero kills the snake that was devouring the bird's chicks. The bird returns the foals. | 5 | 4 |
| K38f3 In K38 family | Sword strike from a pit. | To kill the dragon, the hero digs a pit and hides in it. When the dragon crawls nearby or over the pit, the hero strikes it with a fatal blow of his sword. | 2 | 4 |
| K56a8b In K56 family | A girl's hand in a cobra's hole. | A virtuous girl (usually the daughter of a dog) wants to kill herself and puts her hand in a snake's hole. The snake does not bite her, but rewards her. | 3 | 4 |
| K56a8c In K56 family | Married to a dog. | A young man brings an animal to his home, and it turns into a girl. Imitating him, another man marries a dog (pig), but it remains an animal. | 6 | 4 |
| k73a5a In k73 family | A baby is replaced by a monkey. | Malicious women replace a newborn baby with a monkey (telling the father that his wife has given birth to a monkey). | 3 | 4 |
| k80bb In k80 family | Grown from the remains of the slain. | A boy is killed and eaten. His sister gathers his remains, from which a tree grows, and on it – the dead boy, often in the form of a bird. | 3 | 4 |
| K107e1 In K107 family | Blood on the shirt. | When a magical husband leaves his earthly wife, his shirt is stained with blood. Only his new wife manages to wash it clean. | 6 | 5 |
| K11C In K11 family | Plants grow from feathers. | The plucked feathers of a huge bird turn into plants. | 5 | 5 |
| K14F In K14 family | Material evidence of the father's righteousness. | After his father's death, the son consistently violates his father's instructions. Having preserved material evidence of what happened, he presents it to those gathered, proving his father's rightness and/or his wife's wrongness. | 5 | 5 |
| K169 | Pregnant doe. | The hunter spares the hunted animal, noticing that it is a pregnant female and remembering his own pregnant wife. | 6 | 5 |
| K172 | The deaf bride without arms and legs. | A man describes his daughter to a potential groom as ugly and crippled. The groom agrees to the marriage, and the bride turns out to be beautiful. | 5 | 5 |
| K180 | The time of the wolf and the time of the fox. | The ruler demands an explanation of his dream. The snake tells the man that this dream signifies the coming of a time when people tend to behave in a certain way. This happens several times. Each time, the man's behaviour towards the snake confirms her words. | 4 | 5 |
| K22a In K22 family | Dwarves are attacked. | Birds or other creatures that are harmless to ordinary people attack dwarves living in another world. See motif K22. | 29 | 5 |
| K27n3a1 In K27 family | The hero in battle with the elements. | In the course of his courtship, the hero enters into a struggle with characters (more than two) who embody the elements, celestial bodies, and parts of the universe. | 2 | 5 |
| K27v2 In K27 family | To hit a copper object with an arrow. | The character must hit an object or creature made of copper with an arrow. | 5 | 5 |
| K27yy3 In K27 family | Obtaining the fruits of a dangerous tree. | The hero must bring the fruits growing on a tree that is dangerous to approach. | 4 | 5 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.