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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K99a3 In K99 family | Happy dream: sun, moon and stars. | A person sees the sun, moon and stars (all together or some of them) in a dream. At the end of the story, the meaning of the dream becomes clear: these are people who love or worship him (often two wives and a child). | 33 | 46 |
| K102c In K102 family | Having changed his appearance, the hero recovers the magical object (ATU 318). | The enemy seizes the object that makes the hero invulnerable and kills him. The hero is revived. Changing his appearance, he provokes the enemy to put the magical object on the ground, seizes it again and kills the enemy. | 20 | 25 |
| K1c In K1 family | He who comes to look at the bones perishes himself. | A man is abandoned on an island but survives. After some time, the person who abandoned him comes to look at his bones. The abandoned man sails away in his boat, leaving him to die. | 19 | 25 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| K27x5 In K27 family | Helpers of different ages. | When setting out in search of a woman or miraculous objects, a person consistently encounters characters of a non-human (often demonic) nature who help him. The characters are similar, but usually each subsequent one is older (younger) than the other. | 85 | 146 |
| K33a1a In K33 family | Heroine in the belly of a whale. | A woman thrown into the water finds herself in the belly of a fish (whale), but is then rescued. | 16 | 25 |
| K33a4 In K33 family | Heroine transformed into a forest animal (ATU 409). | A woman, transformed into a medium-sized forest animal (lynx, wolf, vixen) by the machinations of a rival, tries to establish contact with her children or husband. | 18 | 25 |
| K24 | Hidden clothes of a supernatural woman, F202.4.2. | Women (rarely men) possessing magical powers and usually coming from another world (from the sky, from under water, they are winged creatures, bird-people, animal-people; rarely: a girl of higher social status than the hero) take off their clothes (feather coverings, etc.) or part of them. The character hides the clothes (one of them), forcing him (rarely her) to fulfil his (rarely her) desire. | 238 | 560 |
| K33d1 In K33 family | Hidden in a lantern, ATU 510B*. | The young man does not know that a beautiful girl is hiding inside the object brought to his house. | 25 | 36 |
| K27u In K27 family | Hide, ATU 329. | Task: to hide (the hero finds the antagonist, and/or the antagonist cannot find the hero). See motif K27. | 80 | 73 |
| K89d In K89 family | Hides, turning into a needle. | Left alone in the house or finding herself in a stranger's house, a girl (less often a male character) hides by turning into a needle (a pin) or another tool for sewing or spinning. | 33 | 38 |
| K85 | Horse brothers. | The antagonist owns the fastest horse. The hero obtains an even faster horse (usually the brother or sister of this horse), which is the only one that surpasses the antagonist's horse and usually orders the antagonist to throw off his rider. | 29 | 51 |
| 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 |
| K27d In K27 family | House with dangerous creatures. | The test: to stay alive in a room full of predatory, poisonous and other dangerous creatures. See motif K27. | 13 | 11 |
| K92b In K92 family | I love you like salt, ATU 923. | A daughter tells her father (rarely her brother) that she loves him like salt (or that salt is more important than him, etc.). He sends his daughter away (gets angry with his sister), but then realises she is right. | 49 | 44 |
| K37c In K37 family | Identifying an animal or object. | The character must identify an animal or object among several identical ones. See motif K37. | 7 | 7 |
| K14d In K14 family | Imaginary crime, (ATU 910A). | Testing his wife (household member, acquaintance), a man pretends to have committed a crime or performs incomprehensible actions that could be interpreted as a crime. Usually, his wife (friend) betrays him, and he presents evidence of his innocence. | 37 | 34 |
| K102a1 In K102 family | Imaginary grave. | To hide the truth, a person buries an animal or an inanimate object and says that the grave supposedly contains the remains of another person's wife (bride, mother, daughter, sister, children). | 18 | 19 |
| K168 | Imaginary life in an instant, ATU 664*, 681. | A person experiences an eventful long period of life. Everything turns out to be an illusion, and he finds himself back in the same place and at the same moment in time from which the story began. | 30 | 37 |
| K52 | In pursuit of the kidnapped to the bottom of the sea. | A woman or young man who approaches the shore is carried away by predatory sea creatures to the bottom of the sea; a character descends to rescue the kidnapped person and brings him or her back with the help of cunning and shamanic powers. | 17 | 23 |
| 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 |
| K154 | Inscription on a skull. | A person finds a skull on which a mysterious and gloomy prophecy is written or which utters it. Then it becomes clear what it means. | 16 | 24 |
| K100i In K100 family | Intoxication and immobilisation of a strongman. | A powerful character loses his strength (self-control) after being intoxicated and then admits that the hop is stronger than him. (See Neklyudov 2025a; 2025b). | 6 | 10 |
| K60b In K60 family | Invitation to the Coffin, ATU 330B, G514.1. | The character is invited to find out whether the box or pit is the right size for him, whether he can crawl through the opening, climb into the bag, etc., after which he is locked in a coffin, box, barrel, buried, etc. Cf. motif M56D. | 87 | 136 |
| K173 | It is better to suffer when young (Placidas), ATU 938. | A powerful and wealthy man loses everything, is separated from his wife and children, and they are separated from each other. The man regains his power and wealth, and the family is reunited. | 54 | 36 |
| K124 | It's not a miracle! | An animal killed by a hunter runs away. The animal itself or someone else explains that this is not a miracle (or that it is not a tragedy), but that the real miracle (tragedy) happened somewhere else. A story about what happened follows. | 11 | 26 |
| K80c In K80 family | Ivico's cranes, ATU 960, 960A. | Before dying, the murderer's victim turns to birds (stars, animals, plants, etc.). Later, seeing these birds (the moon, the sun, this plant, etc.), the murderer recalls his deed aloud or otherwise gives himself away. Or the birds, being the only witnesses to the crime, lead the investigators to the murderers. | 49 | 45 |
| K8aa In K8 family | Jonah: swallowed by a bird. | A huge bird swallows people. The hero kills it, freeing those who have been swallowed, or, if he himself has been swallowed, he manages to get out alive. | 8 | 8 |
| K8c In K8 family | Jonah: swallowed by a land animal. | The character enters the belly of an ordinary land animal, kills it from within (K952) and/or returns to the outside without outside help. Cf. motif M118. | 137 | 193 |
| K8d In K8 family | Jonah: swallowed by an anthropomorphic creature. | The character enters the body of an anthropomorphic creature, kills it from within (K952) and/or returns to the outside without outside help. | 67 | 97 |
| K8a In K8 family | Jonah: swallowed by an aquatic or chthonic creature. | The character enters the belly of an aquatic creature or a giant creature whose appearance and habitat are not precisely described. He kills the creature from within (K952) and/or returns to the outside without outside help. Upon emerging from the belly, he often finds himself bald (K921). Cf. motifs I81B (Charybdis) and L110 (Devourer). | 234 | 402 |
| K12 | Kidnapped and returned. | The hero returns the woman whom his enemy or rival tried to take away from him. | 252 | 429 |
| K92 | King Lear, ATU 923, 923B. | The father asks his children a question, the answer to which seems obvious (does his daughter love him, who is the eldest in the family, etc.). The youngest daughter (less often – son) gives an unexpected answer, the father drives her away (deprives her of her inheritance), and later becomes convinced of her intelligence and nobility. | 39 | 44 |
| K27c In K27 family | Knives and spikes. | Test: to remain alive when coming into contact with piercing, cutting, or crushing instruments. See motif K27. | 31 | 22 |
| K33a6 In K33 family | Knives are sharpened, cauldrons are boiling. | A kid (lamb, gazelle, etc.) runs up to a pond into which its owner has pushed it and says that knives are being sharpened and water is being boiled to slaughter and cook it. | 21 | 31 |
| K107c In K107 family | Knives on the Window (Finist the Bright Falcon), ATU 432. | A magical spouse who arrives in the form of a bird or appears in some other way meets a woman. Jealous sisters (stepmother, brother, etc.) wound him (usually by placing razors, glass shards, etc. in his path). The wounded young man disappears, and the woman goes in search of him. | 50 | 48 |
| K61a In K61 family | Learn the secret, ATU 500*. | In order to find out the exact number, a specific object in a certain set, the name of a specific character, or the reason for a certain phenomenon, the character tries to surprise (or unintentionally surprises) the owner of such knowledge. The latter begins to talk to himself, involuntarily revealing the necessary information to the hero standing nearby. | 29 | 37 |
| K61b In K61 family | Learning names. | In order to learn the names of strangers, the character finds or creates a situation in which they call each other by name aloud. | 20 | 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 |
| K13d In K13 family | Leg hanging in the sky. | A group of boys reaches the sky, the last one's leg is cut off or torn off. | 4 | 6 |
| K27q1 In K27 family | Lioness's milk in a lion cub's skin. | The hero is sent to bring lioness milk in a wineskin made from a lion skin (usually from a lion cub's skin). | 5 | 6 |
| 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 |
| K120a5 In K120 family | Luring a woman onto a ship. | To obtain a woman, a man lures her onto a ship (boat, flying machine, etc.) and takes her away. | 28 | 34 |
| K131b In K131 family | Magical objects exchanged and returned, ATU 569. | Having received and then lost a magical object, the hero returns it with the help of a new one (a club, a box with an army, etc.), received in exchange for the first or obtained by the hero's brother. The episode may be repeated several times. | 54 | 64 |
| K117a In K117 family | Making the silent speak. | A girl who is constantly silent is promised to the one who can make her speak; or a husband struggles to make his magical wife speak. | 44 | 45 |
| K65c2 In K65 family | Man and tiger. | A woman or female animal gives birth to several sons, including a human and a tiger. | 4 | 7 |
| K22b In K22 family | Man helps the inhabitants of another world. | The inhabitants of another world are attacked by certain enemies. A human helps them to defeat these enemies, because these creatures are not dangerous to humans. See motif K22. | 58 | 50 |
| K176 | Man in search of a woman, ATU 400. | A man sets out on a journey to find or bring back a bride or wife. | 322 | 613 |
| K19 | Marriage to a star. | A man or woman marries a star. See motifs K19A, K19B. | 0 | 0 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.