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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K66d In K66 family | Bear fosterling. | A boy who grew up (was conceived) in a bear's den (lion's cave) becomes a bogatyr. | 57 | 66 |
| 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 |
| K66c In K66 family | Bear marriage. | A bear (lion) takes a woman away, or a she-bear takes a man away. They have children who are either human or bear-like in appearance. Less commonly, a woman gives birth to a son in a den because she was pregnant at the time of her abduction by the bear. | 82 | 115 |
| 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 |
| K107a3 In K107 family | Beauty and the Beast, ATU 425C. | When her father leaves, the daughter asks him to bring her a flower (leaf, etc.). The father picks it in the garden of an enchanted prince who has a monstrous appearance. The monster demands the daughter from her father and, thanks to the girl, regains his princely appearance. | 36 | 45 |
| K67e In K67 family | Before the First Cuckoo, ATU 1029. | Someone promises to fulfil their duties until they hear a bird singing at a certain moment in a temporal cycle (annual or daily). Another character imitates the bird. The first recognises the deception. | 50 | 33 |
| K35c1 In K35 family | Better the one you love (ATU 677). | The young man is not killed, but rewarded, because he answered correctly (evasively) the question of a powerful character – which of the two women he should marry, which is more beautiful, which object or material is more valuable, etc. | 31 | 38 |
| K81a In K81 family | Bezrucha in the prince's garden. | A girl with severed hands comes to a fruit tree (garden) to find food. Seeing her there, the prince takes her as his wife. | 19 | 22 |
| K81 | Bezruchka, ATU 706. | For a minor offence or on false charges, a young woman is maimed and expelled from her home (rarely: she is killed or maims herself). The cripple miraculously recovers (the dead woman is resurrected). | 103 | 126 |
| K42 | Bird woman kills men. | A young bird woman energetically searches among a group of men for one she likes, takes him by force and makes him her husband; she turns into a monster, pursues and kills men, but is ultimately killed herself. | 15 | 32 |
| 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 |
| K11a1 In K11 family | Birds arise from a monster bird. | Pieces of flesh or feathers from a monstrous/unusual bird turn into present-day birds (or their plumage). | 26 | 33 |
| K22aa In K22 family | Birds in the north – people in the south. | There is a country whose inhabitants are migratory birds that live with us in the summer and turn into people when they fly away to their own country. | 6 | 7 |
| 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 |
| K90 | Black and red, (ATU 156B*). | A person sees two opposing monsters or animals (usually of contrasting colours: red and black, black and white) and helps one of them, or one of the combatants helps the person. (Cf. ATU 156B, 738). | 41 | 45 |
| K101b1 In K101 family | Black becomes white. | The enchanted character (the castle where the action takes place) gradually changes its appearance over several days as the spell wears off: it acquires human features, turning from black to white, from ugly to beautiful. | 12 | 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 |
| K88a In K88 family | Blinded heroine, ATU 404. | The stepmother (aunt, rival) blinds a young woman. The latter regains her eyesight (often by exchanging them for some valuable item). | 42 | 48 |
| 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 |
| K54a In K54 family | Blow to the legs. | A man and a friendly giant live together. The friendly giant fights another giant and asks the man for help. The help consists of the man damaging the enemy's legs. | 16 | 18 |
| K138 | Body swap (king and vizier), ATU 678. | A person gains the ability to revive the dead by incarnating in their body. While they remain in it, their own body is dead. Another person takes the body of the first, leaving them with the body of an animal. | 12 | 13 |
| K66 | Bogatyrs with different abilities, ATU 513, 653, F601. | Each of several companions or brothers excels others in some way (sees, hears, runs, etc. better than anyone else). Cf. motif K2B, "Gorynya and Dubyna". | 162 | 287 |
| K73b2 In K73 family | Boil the kettle with a story. | It is necessary to boil the pot by telling an incredible but nevertheless true story. | 5 | 5 |
| K155a In K155 family | Bone in meat. | A man (usually a king) raises his daughter (less often his son) in a closed room, ordering her to be fed boneless meat. One day, a bone is found in the meat, and the girl (boy) uses it to make a hole in the wall and sees the outside world for the first time. | 16 | 18 |
| K33a1 In K33 family | Born in a well, T581.2.0. | A woman is thrown into a well (pond, pit, etc.) or becomes a water bird. In the water, she gives birth to a child (twins, triplets) or is thrown into the water with her baby. She is rescued along with her children. | 32 | 37 |
| K93b3 In K93 family | Boys, foals, puppies: born together. | To have a child, a woman eats fish, an apple or something else. Part of it (often the peel, broth, skin, etc.) is eaten by a mare, dog or other animals. The woman gives birth to a son (twins), the mare to a foal (foals), the dog to a puppy (puppies). | 53 | 77 |
| K77b In K77 family | Bremen Town Musicians, ATU 130. | Having left their owners, domestic animals find an empty house or build a house. Robbers or predatory animals come there. Domestic animals attack or simply scare them away. Predators do not understand who they are facing and flee. | 75 | 74 |
| K27h1 In K27 family | Bringing fruit. | The character is tasked with bringing the fruits of a tree that is difficult to reach. | 15 | 19 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| K123b In K123 family | Broken spinning wheel. | A boy or young man damages an elderly woman's spinning wheel or yarn. This episode forms the basis of the rest of the story. | 10 | 8 |
| K33a In K33 family | Brother Goat, ATU 450. | Young siblings (most often a brother and sister) leave home. One of them (rarely: several brothers) accidentally breaks a taboo and is transformed into an animal (usually a hoofed animal) or (rarely) a bird; later, the spell is usually broken. | 80 | 114 |
| K89c In K89 family | Brother-helper is married to a bear. | A girl parts with her brother or sister. He or she becomes the wife or husband of a bear and helps the girl. | 9 | 10 |
| K74 | Brothers and the dwarf. | Of two or more characters, each one stays at home or goes to fetch fire for cooking or brings food to the house. Each time, a certain character appears who eats the food and/or defeats the one who stayed behind or came to fetch fire. | 126 | 239 |
| K114 | Brothers leave after the birth of their sister (ATU 451). | Several brothers leave home immediately after or shortly before their mother gives birth to a girl (usually they want a brother and wait for news about who their mother has given birth to, but accidentally or maliciously a signal is given that a boy has been born). The girl grows up and goes in search of her brothers. | 27 | 32 |
| K127b In K127 family | Brothers turned into oxen. | A group of brothers are turned into bulls (oxen) and then enchanted. | 8 | 8 |
| K27f4 In K27 family | Build a house. | Task: to erect a building. See motif K27. | 0 | 0 |
| K27f1 In K27 family | Building a bridge. | A character builds a bridge (usually from precious materials) in an implausibly short time. | 51 | 86 |
| K95a In K95 family | Burdock among rose bushes. | The lovers are buried in the same grave or nearby. Two plants grow in this place, reaching towards each other, and between them is a thorny bush, embodying the character who separated the lovers. | 18 | 19 |
| K32h In K32 family | Buried alive. | The antagonist is executed by being buried alive. | 23 | 33 |
| K67 | Burnt moccasins, K1615. | At night, one person intends to throw another person's shoes or clothes into the fire, but ends up burning his own shoes or clothes. Usually, the father-in-law throws his son-in-law's shoes into the fire at night in order to freeze him out, but the son-in-law has already switched shoes, so the father-in-law burns his own. | 25 | 35 |
| K142 | Burying one dead man three times, ATU 1536B. | After killing several people, a man asks a gravedigger to bury the dead and each time says that the dead man has returned. The gravedigger buries everyone, but believes that there is only one dead man. | 50 | 30 |
| K101c In K101 family | By day in the palace, by night in the sky. | The bride stipulates that she will only be with her husband during the day. The husband discovers that at night she meets with heavenly maidens (and usually flies away to dance in the sky). He follows her and in the end she stays with him on earth. | 6 | 7 |
| K58 | Canal builder. | To win the hand of his beloved, the character builds a canal or aqueduct or digs a well. Usually, the woman does not end up marrying the person who completed the work, and either she herself or the suitor perishes. | 14 | 36 |
| K33h In K33 family | Cat, dog and magical object, ATU 560. | A person finds a magical object that grants any wish. This object is stolen. It is returned by animals (which the hero had previously saved). | 119 | 159 |
| K27yy2 In K27 family | Catching the chick of a dangerous bird. | The hero is sent to bring the chick of a dangerous bird. | 7 | 8 |
| K27xy In K27 family | Characters with different properties in the enemy camp. | Several men (animals), each of whom can do something better than the others, work together to accomplish difficult tasks set before them by their opponents. The competition is not intended to find a worthy suitor for a girl or to get rid of an unwanted suitor. Cf. motif K27o3 (Competition between two teams). | 16 | 21 |
| K73a In K73 family | Child substitution. | Malicious women replace the newborn with an animal or an inanimate object (they tell the baby's father that his wife gave birth to an animal or an object). See motif K73. | 162 | 318 |
| K73 | Children of the younger wife, ATU 707. | A young wife (promises to give birth and) gives birth to wonderful children (or one son). In the absence of her husband, attempts are made to kill the wife or her child (usually by slandering them to the husband), but they remain alive. (For medieval European variants, see Newell 1906). | 188 | 395 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.