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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K27x6 In K27 family | The stars and the wind guide the hero. | Setting out in search of a marriage partner, the hero or heroine successively encounters the embodiments (masters) of celestial bodies and atmospheric phenomena (the sun, moon, stars, wind). | 27 | 55 |
| K56a4e In K56 family | The stepmother's daughter burned to death. | After meeting a supernatural character, a kind person receives valuables, while a greedy person burns to death upon returning home. | 14 | 17 |
| K87a In K87 family | The stolen boy. | A forest woman receives or kidnaps a little boy and raises him to be her lover. | 15 | 10 |
| 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 |
| K76 | The Strange Son, ATU 425A, 441. | A boy who is born or found has a strange or ugly appearance (ball, nut, sack, half-human, dwarf, animal), but then demonstrates magical powers and turns out to be handsome (usually getting a bride of high status). The princess's magical spouse initially has a non-human or ugly appearance. | 163 | 284 |
| K12a In K12 family | The stretched bow. | An unrecognised hero arrives at a place where his bride or wife is to be given to another man or turned into a servant. Contrary to expectations, he manages to draw a tight bow (raise a spear), with which he kills his rivals. | 26 | 27 |
| K80d In K80 family | The stuck pin. | A young woman or man is enchanted (turned into a bird, animal, immobilised) when a pin or other sharp object is stuck into their body. | 52 | 91 |
| K57b In K57 family | The stuck-on shoe. | To stop a beautiful woman from running away, a man in love with her smears resin or glue on the threshold (porch). The shoe sticks, and all the girls try it on to find its owner. | 24 | 35 |
| 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 |
| K27r1 In K27 family | The supposed burnt. | The antagonist believes that the hero was burned, but returned safely from the afterlife, so he orders himself or his representative to be burned. | 30 | 33 |
| K8c2 In K8 family | The swallowed mouse. | The mouse is swallowed by a large land animal and comes out by cutting it open from the inside. | 14 | 20 |
| K27n2 In K27 family | The task giver – a mythical character. | The character who gives the hero difficult tasks or subjects him to trials is a mythical creature or animal. See motif K27. | 226 | 172 |
| K27n3a In K27 family | The task giver – the Sun, Moon, Thunder or Wind. | The character who gives the hero difficult tasks or subjects him to trials is associated with the sun, moon, thunder or wind (cloud, downpour). See motif K27. | 55 | 57 |
| K157a In K157 family | The tavern where they feed for free, ATU 425D, (ATU 304). | In order to find a missing husband (wife, saviour), the character regularly gathers random people to tell stories (usually keeping a shop, bathhouse, etc. for this purpose). From the conversations, it becomes clear that one of the visitors is the person they are looking for, or his story helps to find the missing person. | 43 | 44 |
| 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 |
| K100f2 In K100 family | The thirst-quenched breaks his chains. | A captured supernatural character breaks his chains and escapes to freedom after being given water (or wine, etc.) to drink. | 30 | 36 |
| K174 | The thrown ring. | To signal their arrival, a person places, or more often discreetly throws, a ring or other small item of personal jewellery or toiletries into the jug of a maid or servant. Upon discovering it, the other person understands that the first is nearby. | 48 | 61 |
| 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 |
| K103a1 In K103 family | The tree follows its mistress. | A tree that suddenly grows allows only the heroine to enjoy its fruits and follows her when she moves to a new place. | 6 | 11 |
| K103a In K103 family | The tree raises its branches. | A suddenly grown plant (tree, vine, lotus) bends (raises its branches, etc.), allowing only the hero or heroine to climb it or pick its fruits (flowers). | 43 | 53 |
| K10i In K10 family | The tree that opened up. | The tree opens its trunk and hides the hero fleeing from a man-eating bird. The monster that flies in after him is held tightly by the tree, which squeezes its trunk again. | 8 | 26 |
| K167a In K167 family | The Tsarevich and the Blacksmith's Son, ATU 920. | The queen hates the son she is pregnant with and replaces him with the son (rarely – daughter) of a commoner, who raises the prince. The prince shows wisdom and becomes king. | 21 | 21 |
| K119a In K119 family | The Ungrateful Master. | An animal saves a human, does him a favour, and he humiliates or kills it. See motifs K119, M161. | 84 | 113 |
| K99 | The Untold Dream, ATU 725. | A person dreams about an upcoming celebration for himself or a member of his family (rarely: he daydreams about it). Either another person buys the dream and becomes the protagonist of the story, or the person who saw it hides its content from everyone, or he is persecuted for excessive conceit, as evidenced by the content of the dream. The meaning of the dream is revealed at the end of the story. Often, the young man ascends to the throne and marries the heiresses of two kingdoms (in the dream, these were two suns or the sun and the moon). | 70 | 92 |
| 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 |
| K56a In K56 family | The unworthy fail, the worthy succeed, ATU 431. | Two or three sisters successively go to a powerful character. The first or the first two act incorrectly, perish or fail to achieve their goal. The last one acts correctly, is saved or rewarded. | 51 | 81 |
| K162 | The villain enters the bedroom (ATU 956B). | The antagonist (robber, sorcerer, witch) sneaks into the house of a girl or young woman, hiding inside a statue, in a wardrobe, etc., and/or putting her husband (guard, etc.) to sleep, but is destroyed at the last moment. | 16 | 20 |
| K177 | The wandering heroine. | A girl or woman sets off on a journey to find or return her fiancé or husband, or flees from danger, and her journey ends in a successful marriage. | 236 | 398 |
| K27l In K27 family | The water body is covered with ice. | After the hero dives in, the antagonist freezes the water body or covers the surface with a net. | 7 | 9 |
| K171 | The weaver creates an army. | The heroes fight, but the number of enemies does not decrease, because someone is constantly weaving (forging) new warriors. | 12 | 13 |
| K33a7 In K33 family | The widower, his daughter (son) and the teacher. | After the death of a woman, her daughter or son advises her father to marry a neighbour, teacher, etc., who usually persuades the teenager to give such advice. After marrying the widower, the new wife begins to tyrannise her stepdaughter or stepson. | 24 | 30 |
| K9 | The wife of a deity is thrown down from heaven. | The heavenly leader (deity), accusing or suspecting a woman of infidelity, relations with an animal, incest, or a desire to rule over him, throws her down. She becomes the mistress of the lower or middle world or part of it, or the mother of the master of the lower world, and gives birth to humans. Cf. motif J18. | 17 | 25 |
| K92C In K92 family | The wife weaves, the husband sells. | A princess or sorceress turns out to be the wife of a poor man. She weaves or embroiders a scarf (or other item) and sends her husband to sell it. This marks the beginning of their path to success. | 24 | 24 |
| 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 |
| K100f1 In K100 family | The Wild Man, ATU 502. | A man (king) catches a strange (anthropomorphic) creature. His son releases the wondrous captive (after which he flees from his father's wrath or is banished). The freed captive helps him. Cf. motif K161. | 45 | 41 |
| K175 | The wind blew away the flour, ATU 759C. | A man was carrying flour, but the wind blew it away. The man complains to an authoritative figure and usually receives compensation. Cf. motif M57d3 ("The Wind-Giver"). | 20 | 24 |
| K56a4b In K56 family | The wind carries away the yarn. | A girl is told to clean the yarn, or to spin and weave. The wind blows the yarn (cloth, spindle) away, the girl goes in search of it, and comes across a character who rewards her. | 19 | 26 |
| K176a In K176 family | The wind dries the laundry. | The hero searches for his magical wife who has left him. It turns out that one of the winds is flying to her to perform a certain task. The hero follows him. | 7 | 8 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| K102a4 In K102 family | The wolf across the river. | A hostile young character is located behind a water barrier. The young man's sister or mother helps him cross and becomes his lover. | 12 | 17 |
| K126 | The wolf pays for the horse it ate. | A predatory beast or demon eats the hero's horse, but in return is forced or voluntarily helps him. | 31 | 37 |
| K105 | The wonderful son and the rat children. | A despised wife gives birth to miraculous children, while other wives give birth to animals. | 7 | 7 |
| K112 | The worker takes revenge on the Sun. | A man accuses the Sun and other characters responsible for the weather, wild animals, etc. of causing him to lose his property; he punishes his offenders. | 23 | 23 |
| K56 | The worthy are rewarded, the unworthy are punished, ATU 480, 480D*. | One of the girls, young women or young girls (wives of one man) meets a character who is able to reward and punish. She behaves correctly and receives a reward. Another (others) tries to repeat everything, but behaves incorrectly and is punished (rarely: not rewarded). | 187 | 449 |
| K56b In K56 family | The worthy are rewarded, the unworthy are punished. | Two men take turns meeting a character who can reward and punish. One behaves correctly and is rewarded, the other (or two others) behave incorrectly and are punished (rarely: not rewarded). | 200 | 366 |
| 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 |
| K100f In K100 family | The young man releases the fish. | A man catches an unusual fish (rarely: a bird or some kind of aquatic creature). His son (a worker) releases it. For this, the father (king) drives him away, or the one who released the fish leaves on his own. The rescued fish helps him. | 32 | 41 |
| K75a1 In K75 family | The younger brother-in-law's place is in the barn. | The ruler orders his youngest daughter (and her chosen husband) to live in conditions that do not correspond to her status. He does not know that her chosen one is not a poor wretch, as he seems, but a mighty warrior and a handsome man. | 42 | 44 |
| K75 | The younger daughter agrees, ATU 433B. | The girl (usually the youngest of the sisters) does not reject the hero, who temporarily takes the form of an animal, a freak, an old man, a poor man, or a loser, or she picks up the hero's remains and he comes back to life. After some time, the hero reveals his true nature. | 250 | 432 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.