Folklore Database · Browse
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K27z2a1 In K27 family | An innocent woman is accused of promiscuity. | Noticing that a woman is pregnant, her relatives or in-laws accuse her of promiscuity, because, according to their calculations, she could not have conceived by her husband or fiancé. After severe trials, the woman meets again the father of the boy she gave birth to. | 5 | 6 |
| k27z2a2 In k27 family | The unrecognised wife visits her husband, ATU 891. | The husband leaves his wife without agreeing with her. The wife visits her husband incognito, and in the end he realises who is with him. Usually, the wife spends the night with her husband, gives birth to a son (three children), and the husband is convinced that the son is his. | 42 | 39 |
| K27z2b In K27 family | The Murdered Doll, ATU 879. | The complicated relationship between a simple girl and a prince leads to the prince intending to kill his bride on their wedding night. The girl substitutes a doll for herself, the prince stabs the doll with his sword, mistakes the spurting juice (syrup, honey) for blood, and repents of the murder. The real girl appears, and the young couple are happy. | 41 | 34 |
| K27z2c In K27 family | Marries to lock up his wife. | After marrying a poor girl, the prince locks her up. She turns out to be more cunning than him. | 6 | 6 |
| K27z2d In K27 family | The sparrow's quarrel with her husband. | A conflict arises between a pair of birds (sparrows, pigeons, etc.), in which the male is more likely (and more often clearly) to be at fault. This episode serves as the starting point for a story about the relationships between people of noble origin. | 12 | 12 |
| K27z2e In K27 family | Lost objects and meeting at the end, ATU 434. | During a meeting (sometimes not in their true form), a young man or woman takes certain objects (jewelry) from the other. One of those who met falls ill. A new meeting leads to the healing of the sick person, the identification of the objects, and a wedding. | 7 | 7 |
| K27z2f In K27 family | The Biting Doll, ATU 571C. | A poor girl buys a doll (goose) that defecates gold. When the neighbours take the doll, it only dirties their house. They throw it away, and the prince uses it to wipe himself, and it sticks to his backside. No one can help, but the poor girl easily solves the problem. The prince marries her. | 8 | 8 |
| K27z3 In K27 family | The Cat with the Lamp, ATU 217. | The character taught the cat (monkey, dog) to hold a candle (lamp) or to extinguish it on command. Seeing a mouse (rat), the cat rushes after it and as a result drops (does not extinguish) the candle. | 50 | 35 |
| K27z4 In K27 family | The dice player's trained animal. | The character always wins bets or outplays others thanks to a trained cat (mouse, rat) that holds (or extinguishes in time) a lamp, turns dice, etc. The hero releases the mouse (or cat, mongoose, respectively), the cat rushes after it (or the mouse is afraid to come out), and the character loses. | 28 | 24 |
| K27z4a In K27 family | The cripple demands the return of his leg, ATU 978. | The cripple claims that the father of the visitor is to blame for his physical disability. The man's wife or the man himself, on someone's advice, promises to return the leg (eye) if the cripple gives him the other one as a sample or brings him a part of a dead person's body and demands money. | 11 | 9 |
| K27z4b In K27 family | Dressed as a man, the wife rescues her husband. | The husband leaves, meets a swindler and loses everything he has to him. The wife comes disguised as a man, punishes the swindler and rescues her husband. | 22 | 20 |
| K27z5 In K27 family | Agreement to marry children, (926C*). | Two men agree to marry their children if one has a son and the other has a daughter. The girl's parents do not fulfil the agreement. The boy grows up and finds his betrothed. | 26 | 31 |
| K27z6 In K27 family | The Stone of Patience, ATU 894. | Having fallen victim to injustice and endured suffering, a young woman tells her story to certain inanimate objects (often a "stone of patience"), or her husband tells the story after learning of his wife's fate. The woman is saved, justice is restored. | 36 | 38 |
| K27z7 In K27 family | To learn what the rose of the heart is. | The character promises to fulfil a request if the other person reveals the secret behind someone's strange behaviour. | 23 | 24 |
| K27z7a In K27 family | He who learns the family secret will die. | A man is going to kill the person who found out why he severely punished his ex-wife. | 7 | 7 |
| K27z8 In K27 family | Riddles that cannot be solved, ATU 851, 927. | A person poses a riddle that can only be solved by knowing the circumstances in which he found himself. | 47 | 34 |
| K27z9 In K27 family | Why the fish smiled (ATU 875D). | (Dried) fish (water, satyr, etc.) laughs, smiles or spits. The reason is that there is a man dressed as a woman in the house. | 13 | 18 |
| K27zy In K27 family | The hero between two cannibals. | A young man (woman) lives in the house of a cannibal (witch). In order to destroy him or her, the cannibal orders that a certain object be brought from other cannibals (often from his or her mother or sister). The hero or heroine escapes (and destroys all the cannibals). | 29 | 47 |
| K27zz In K27 family | The Cannibal and the Blinded Wives, ATU 462. | A man does not suspect that his (new) wife (less often his mother) is a cannibal/witch/treacherous woman; she persecutes (former) wives (his wife) and/or blinds them or throws them into a pit, or her husband does so at her instigation. Contrary to the cannibal's plans, the son of one of the wives survives, kills the cannibal, and rescues his mother and sisters. | 28 | 34 |
| K27zz1 In K27 family | Preserving her child. | Several wives are thrown into a dungeon (banished), each gives birth to a child, but only one manages to save hers. The boy grows up and rescues the women. | 19 | 19 |
| K27zz2 In K27 family | Blind in one eye. | Several wives of one man (several sisters) go blind – the older ones in both eyes, and the younger one in one eye. | 6 | 6 |
| K27zz3 In K27 family | The pit by the apple tree. | The father or stepmother (werewolf) pushes/locks the sisters (the girl and her servants) into a pit. The heroine manages to escape and triumphs over her antagonists. | 14 | 17 |
| K27zz4 In K27 family | The wife who cannot be beaten (ATU 888A). | A conceited prince (the son of a merchant) beats his wife every day (he marries on the condition that he will beat his wife every day). She saves him by demonstrating her superiority. | 11 | 9 |
| K28 | Father or uncle – enemy and rival. | The uncle on the mother's side or the father of the young hero (or grandfather, if he replaces the father, who is not mentioned) is his enemy and rival, giving him difficult tasks with the aim of destroying him. | 190 | 302 |
| K29a In K29 family | Unharmed by fire. | The hero demonstrates his magical abilities or cunning by remaining alive in a hot bath, oven, fire, or among burning vegetation. | 176 | 258 |
| K29b In K29 family | Safe in the pit, K959,6. | The hero is asked to climb (or is thrown) into a pit, which is immediately filled with earth or into which a pole or stones are lowered, K959,6 (Posthole murder). The hero proves his magical abilities by climbing out of the pit alive. | 38 | 49 |
| 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 |
| K29d In K29 family | Drunken elephants. | To catch an animal or supernatural character, the water in a reservoir is replaced with wine, honey, etc., or containers with alcohol are left in plain sight. The creature, having lost control of itself, is captured. | 23 | 33 |
| K30 | The flying enemy carries off the woman. | A flying creature carries a woman away. The kidnapper is killed and/or the woman escapes from him. See also motif L102A (Escape from a seagull husband). | 95 | 142 |
| K30a In K30 family | The chief's wife and the vultures. | The wife of the first ancestor flies away with the vultures (usually voluntarily, after she has already cheated on her husband), and the chief (Uito: her brother) brings her back. See motif K30. | 9 | 7 |
| K30b In K30 family | Went out for a walk and disappeared. | A woman or girl is forbidden to go outside. As soon as she does, a flying creature kidnaps her. | 13 | 17 |
| K31 | Wooden seal. | The character makes a marine mammal or fish out of wood. It kills his enemies or drags them out to the open sea. | 19 | 25 |
| K32 | The Substituted Woman, K1911; ATU 403, 404. | The man does not (immediately) notice that another woman, an evil spirit or (in Chaco) a male trickster has replaced his wife or bride, who is banished, imprisoned in the underworld, killed, etc. | 274 | 652 |
| K32a In K32 family | A man leaves on a journey. | A man is carrying his wife or daughter. Another woman or demonic character replaces her when the man leaves on a journey (rarely: falls asleep). | 54 | 71 |
| K32b In K32 family | Mother-in-law replaces daughter-in-law. | The man's mother takes on the appearance of his wife in order to take her place. | 5 | 6 |
| K32b1 In K32 family | Mother replaces daughter. | The man's mother-in-law takes on the appearance of her daughter to take her place. See motif K32. | 17 | 11 |
| 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 |
| K32d In K32 family | The replaced one grazes cattle. | As a result of the antagonist's intrigues, a noble girl (young woman) or boy (young man) is turned into a servant or servant, sent to graze cattle or chase birds in the field. Everything is revealed – usually after people hear a song in which the hero or heroine tells about the substitution. Most often, the hero or heroine goes to relatives or (less often) to the groom. The deceiver accompanies her or him and is accepted as a relative or bride. The deceiver is executed. Comoros: the deceiver becomes the mistress, turning the girl's parents into peacocks. | 44 | 62 |
| 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 |
| K32f In K32 family | The bird son saves his mother. | A woman or girl raises a bird of prey chick, which brings her food and fire. This usually happens after an evil spirit leaves the girl or young woman in a tree or on an island. | 6 | 7 |
| K32g In K32 family | Torn apart by horses. | The antagonist is executed by being tied to a horse (camel, bull), which drags him along the ground or tears him to pieces. | 96 | 242 |
| K32g1 In K32 family | Forty horses or forty knives? | The guilty party is offered a choice of items of utilitarian value (often forty, seven, three, etc. horses or the same number of knives). The person usually does not understand that these are methods of execution. | 27 | 38 |
| k32g2 In k32 family | The daughter's meat is sent to her mother. | An authoritative character marries, and an evil woman replaces her with her daughter. After the false wife is exposed and executed, the woman receives cooked meat as a gift, not immediately realising that it is her daughter's body parts. | 17 | 18 |
| k32g3 In k32 family | What does the perpetrator deserve? . | The villain is asked what punishment he deserves for committing the crime in question. Not knowing that they are talking about him, he decides for himself how he should be executed. | 8 | 13 |
| K32h In K32 family | Buried alive. | The antagonist is executed by being buried alive. | 23 | 33 |
| K32h1 In K32 family | Placed in a barrel with nails. | The antagonist is executed by being placed in a barrel (with nails) and rolled down a hill or tied to a horse. | 15 | 21 |
| 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 |
| K32h3 In K32 family | The antagonist is burned. | The antagonist is executed by being burned alive. (Episodes in which the burning of the character is not a punishment but a means of getting rid of him are not taken into account). | 51 | 122 |
| K32i In K32 family | Two nurses beside a sleeping man, ATU 894. | A girl finds the body of a young man who shows no signs of life and must sit next to him for a certain amount of time so that he comes back to life and takes her as his wife. Usually, she leaves at the last moment and an impostor becomes the wife of the revived man. | 41 | 43 |
| K32j In K32 family | The brother of the changeling is accused of deception (ATU 403). | Upon learning from a young man that he has a beautiful sister, the ruler wants to marry her. The bride is replaced by an ugly woman. Usually, the ruler accuses her brother of deception and throws him into prison. The deception is revealed. | 22 | 38 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.