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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 ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K25a4a In K25 family | Rescue from the underwater world (broken chain). | A young woman finds herself in the power of a water creature, and when she comes ashore, she is chained. To free the woman, the chain must be broken. | 8 | 14 |
| K25b In K25 family | A woman follows a porcupine. | A woman climbs a tree trying to catch a porcupine and ends up in the sky. | 7 | 14 |
| K27f2 In K27 family | Get the same shoes. | A girl demands that her fiancé get her the same pair of shoes (or other items) as hers. These items either exist in a single copy, or it is not known what they look like. Having become invisible, the hero either steals the items (and the owner has to make new ones herself), or finds out what they look like. | 9 | 14 |
| K27x8 In K27 family | The guiding frog. | Only the frog (toad) knows the way to the object that is unattainable for ordinary people, which the hero is looking for (and helps him get there). | 13 | 14 |
| K27yy4 In K27 family | Obtaining tree bark. | The hero must obtain tree bark, which is fraught with danger. | 11 | 14 |
| K29c In K29 family | Brings a tree. | They hope to kill the hero by knocking a tree down on him or tying him to a tree. He comes back alive, dragging the tree behind him. | 10 | 14 |
| K32e In K32 family | Gold, silver, wood. | A negative character, object or locus is contrasted with one or two positive ones, such as wood with gold and silver. | 13 | 14 |
| K32l In K32 family | Horses are given for fattening. | The ruler distributes horses (cows) to his subjects for fattening. Only the heroine returns hers well-fed. | 12 | 14 |
| K33a2 In K33 family | The witch distorts what is said. | A brother takes his sister to her fiancé. She cannot hear her brother's words, and the witch distorts them (as if the brother is telling his sister to throw herself into the water, to blind her, etc.). Having got rid of the heroine, the witch replaces her with her own daughter. | 10 | 14 |
| K35c2 In K35 family | The hero in the underwater kingdom, (ATU 677). | When the ship unexpectedly stops, the hero descends to the bottom of the sea, behaves correctly with the local inhabitants, and returns to the ship. | 12 | 14 |
| K45a In K45 family | Fingers turn into aquatic animals. | A man sails away from a woman or girl in a boat or on a raft. When she tries to grab the edge of the boat (raft), he cuts off her fingers. The fingers turn into aquatic animals. | 9 | 14 |
| K56a2a In K56 family | Washing in red water. | A girl becomes beautiful or ugly after washing herself with water of a certain colour. | 15 | 14 |
| K56d In K56 family | Broken leg. | One man treats a bird, which brings a seed, and something valuable grows. Another deliberately cripples a bird, then treats it, and it brings a seed, and something harmful and terrible grows. | 17 | 14 |
| K67h In K67 family | Bear in the barn | When a worker is sent to a place where he is to be torn apart by a predator, he tames it and lets it into the barn (stable) at home. As a result, the predator destroys the owner's livestock. | 12 | 14 |
| K85a In K85 family | The horse-thought and the horse-wind. | When assessing the speed of a horse, the speed of thought (lightning, or something else) and wind are compared. | 12 | 14 |
| K89a In K89 family | Where to leave the sister? | Having escaped danger, the girl or boy goes with their sister or brother. The sister or brother is crippled, rejects a number of places where they are to be left, and remains in the last place offered. See motif K89. | 12 | 14 |
| K90b In K90 family | Deer antlers in the dragon's mouth. | The antlers of a deer or the tusks of an elephant, which a snake or dragon is trying to swallow, get stuck in its mouth. | 14 | 14 |
| K10e In K10 family | Rescued people. | In the bird's habitat, the hero finds the people it has kidnapped and helps them return home. | 12 | 15 |
| K132a In K132 family | The husband's rooster and the wife's hen, ATU 219E*, 715A. | The husband (rarely: the wife) sends the rooster out to earn money, and it brings back money. The wife (husband) sends the hen (cat, her half of the rooster, etc.) and receives only mice, filth, etc. Or, instead of money, the rooster brings the wife something bad or nothing at all. | 20 | 15 |
| K136 | The young man and the cows. | The young man turns out to be the owner and leader of a herd of cattle, and with his herd of cows or buffaloes he is summoned to the king (usually after his hair is found by the princess). | 12 | 15 |
| K137 | Sister brings women to revive her brother. | The brother is killed, the sister, dressed in her brother's clothes and disguised as a young man, finds women who are able to revive the dead, puts her brother's clothes back on his body, and the women who have come revive him. Or the sister is killed, the brother lures women capable of reviving the dead, puts his clothes on his dead sister, the women think it is their husband, and revive the girl. | 16 | 15 |
| K14e In K14 family | Sons think their father is rich, ATU 982. | The sons do not care for their elderly father (rarely: the daughter-in-law does not care for her mother-in-law). He pretends to be hiding something. The sons believe that these are valuables that their father will leave them, and they begin to care for him. | 22 | 15 |
| K183 | Which fish swallowed it? | The character cuts open the bellies of aquatic creatures (birds of prey) or looks into their throats to find the swallowed person or part of their body. | 16 | 15 |
| K27k In K27 family | Dive long or deep. | Test: to dive underwater for a long time or deeply. See motif K27. | 26 | 15 |
| K27p2 In K27 family | The enemy father-in-law takes the form of a bear. | Demanding that the hero kill the bear, the father-in-law (rarely: mother-in-law) himself takes on the form of a bear or turns his daughter or wife (husband) into a bear (bear). | 14 | 15 |
| K2a1 In K2 family | A commoner witnesses the abduction of a princess. | A demon carries off a girl of noble birth. A commoner accidentally witnesses the abduction or accidentally finds evidence of it. The girl's father sends him to search for his daughter. | 11 | 15 |
| K33a3 In K33 family | The heroine is turned into a turtle. | A woman, turned into a turtle because of her rival's intrigues, tries to establish contact with her children or husband. | 12 | 15 |
| K38b3a In K38 family | The hero feeds the chicks. | A mighty bird helps a man for feeding its chicks. | 14 | 15 |
| K55 | Rewarded chastity. | A powerful character finds out whether his guest has made love to his daughter or wife (if the character is a woman: whether he has attempted to have sexual contact with her). A man who is impotent or (successfully pretends to be) chaste is rewarded (at least not punished). In most cases, the other character engages in sexual contact or is unable to hide what he has done and is punished as a result. | 12 | 15 |
| K65e1 In K65 family | Midwife to a toad. | A woman delivers a baby (baptises a child) for a creature that in the human world has the appearance of a toad or frog. | 14 | 15 |
| K67f In K67 family | Slaughter the sheep that looks at you. | A fool or a rogue is instructed to slaughter the sheep (cow, bull) that looks at him, i.e. any one. He slaughters them all, because they all looked at him. | 14 | 15 |
| K87b In K87 family | A woman steps in bear droppings. | A woman is picking berries, steps in bear droppings, and scolds the bears. The offended bear takes her away and marries her. | 12 | 15 |
| K88c In K88 family | The blood of a dog will cure the princess. | The character learns that the blood (brain, etc.) of the dog guarding the neighbouring herd will cure the princess (prince). He uses this medicine and is rewarded. | 12 | 15 |
| K100e In K100 family | Dangerous tales. | Fairy tales act as separate characters: they usually try to harm people, believing that a certain person does not treat them with due respect. Cf. motif L94d, "The Tale with a Tail". | 17 | 16 |
| K100h In K100 family | The test of gratitude, ATU 750D, 751C*. | A supernatural character fulfils the wishes of one or more people and later visits them again. The beneficiary or most of them turn out to be ungrateful and chase him away. In response, the character deprives them of what they have gained. | 30 | 16 |
| k102c1 In k102 family | A splinter turns into a duck. | The enemy systematically destroys the objects and creatures into which the hero is reincarnated. The hero wins after turning from a splinter into a waterfowl (duck, goose). | 15 | 16 |
| K119c In K119 family | Tsar-Thunder and Tsarina-Lightning. | The antagonist believes that he has been attacked by the lord of thunder (the father of the bride, whom a zoomorphic assistant has tricked into marrying a poor young man, motif K119). | 12 | 16 |
| K145 | Predicted death by a wolf, ATU 934B*. | A person is predicted to be torn apart by a wolf or to die during a wedding. The prediction turns out to be true. In the case of a wedding, the bride turns into a wolf and kills the groom. | 19 | 16 |
| K149 | Three knots. | The character has a rope or reins with three knots, allowing him to move faster or slower. Usually, untying the first and second knots causes the character's ship to sail faster (thanks to the rising wind) or his horse to gallop faster; however, contrary to the warning, the character (when almost reaching the goal) also unties the third knot and as a result loses the ship, the horse, ends up not where he wanted to be, etc. | 11 | 16 |
| K14b In K14 family | Accusation of knife theft. | A man is advised not to do anything until he is expressly asked to do so. He unwisely offers to let someone use his knife and is subsequently accused of a crime. | 19 | 16 |
| K166 | Forty girls. | A group of girls forms a community or troop and acts independently of men. Cf. motif F39. | 19 | 16 |
| K22c In K22 family | Birds are attacked. | Inhabitants of another world who are birds (bird-people) are afraid of birds or animals that are not dangerous to ordinary people, but which regularly attack them. | 10 | 16 |
| K27n3c1 In K27 family | The hero's adversaries – polar bears. | The inhabitants of the polar bear village – relatives of his wife – set the hero difficult tasks and trials. | 11 | 16 |
| k27q2 In k27 family | Gusli-samogudy. | The hero is sent to obtain a musical instrument, usually a gusli-samogudy. | 11 | 16 |
| K27v1 In K27 family | To hit a needle with an arrow. | The character must hit the eye of a needle with an arrow (the eye of a needle). | 10 | 16 |
| k33f1 In k33 family | Source of oil according to a vow. | A person promises to create a source from which a valuable product (most often oil) flows and honestly fulfils their promise (rarely: promises to distribute a large amount of such a product). | 10 | 16 |
| K56a5c In K56 family | Conversation with the months. | A man who kindly answers the questions of characters representing the weather in certain months of the year is rewarded. Another man scolds them and is punished. | 14 | 16 |
| K61e In K61 family | The one who laughs rewards. | Seeing an absurd situation, a powerful (supernatural) character laughs and is thereby usually cured of his ailment. For this, the people involved in the situation are rewarded and saved from danger. | 14 | 16 |
| K65d In K65 family | Incorrect marriage rites and the birth of spirits. | The first human couple initially only have miscarriages, or their children are spirits or unpleasant and dangerous animals. After performing a formal marriage ceremony or repeating it according to new rules, the woman gives birth to real people or gods. | 7 | 16 |
| K75c In K75 family | The Unwashed Woman, ATU 361. | The devil promises a person wealth if he does not wash (cut his hair, etc.) for a certain period of time; both keep their promises. | 32 | 16 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.