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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K65b In K65 family | People and spirits. | Spirits (deities) or unpleasant animals (snakes, frogs, worms, etc.) are generated by the same first anthropomorphic pair or the same pair of first ancestors as humans (deities). | 32 | 58 |
| K69 | Pilgrims to the deity. | Several men walk towards the horizon to ascend to the sky and visit the Sun or another supreme deity. Usually, one or more of them perish along the way, while others reach their destination. They return by a shorter route than they came. | 22 | 37 |
| 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 |
| K181a In K181 family | Placing a hand on a horse's back. | When a person puts their hand on a horse's back, it bends over and falls. This is a sign of heroic strength. | 4 | 6 |
| K11C In K11 family | Plants grow from feathers. | The plucked feathers of a huge bird turn into plants. | 5 | 5 |
| K27o2 In K27 family | Playing with a dangerous ball. | To destroy the hero, his opponents play ball with him, throwing a heavy dangerous object (a ball made of ice, bone, stone, iron, a walrus head, a biting skull, etc.). | 7 | 12 |
| K118a In K118 family | Portrait of an unknown beauty. | Upon seeing the portrait of a beauty, a man strives to meet her. | 53 | 76 |
| 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 |
| K144 | Predicted death by an animal, ATU 934A, 934B. | When the animal, object, or person that was supposed to cause the character's death has already died or is far away, the character's remains or images become the cause of death. | 26 | 30 |
| K82a In K82 family | Pregnancy from snake eggs. | A malevolent woman forces a woman to swallow a snake egg (snake, something else) so that a man will think that the woman is pregnant out of wedlock (rarely: so that snakes will suck the juices out of her). Cf. motif L89. | 22 | 30 |
| K169 | Pregnant doe. | The hunter spares the hunted animal, noticing that it is a pregnant female and remembering his own pregnant wife. | 6 | 5 |
| 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 |
| K120 | Prevented incest (daughter and father), (ATU 510B, 510B*), 706C. | The girl's father (rarely: stepfather) intends to marry her (since she is the only one who meets the requirements for a bride). Usually, the girl manages to avoid the marriage. | 64 | 98 |
| K120a In K120 family | Prevented incest (sister and brother), (ATU 313E). | A man is going to marry his sister (often it turns out that she is the only one who meets the requirements for a bride). Usually, the girl manages to avoid such a marriage. | 62 | 67 |
| K66b In K66 family | Princesses given to companions. | Travelling from one place to another, the hero leaves one of his companions in each place (usually marrying them to the princesses he has received as a reward), and continues on his way. When he gets into trouble, his companions come to his aid. | 20 | 28 |
| K107b In K107 family | Prohibition on lighting candles. | One spouse forbids the other from seeing them. When the other willingly or unwillingly breaks the prohibition, the first disappears (gets into trouble). (In the Tuscan version, the prohibition is broken by the woman's mother). | 29 | 42 |
| K72a In K72 family | Prohibition on lighting fires. | The king notices that his prohibition on lighting fires at night has been violated. | 21 | 32 |
| K76c In K76 family | Pumpkin child. | The son (rarely – daughter) or foster child of a married couple emerges from a pumpkin (rarely: watermelon, nut) or is found inside it. | 20 | 22 |
| K73b In K73 family | Punishment of the innocent. | A woman falsely accused of murdering her newborn child, or of giving birth to a puppy instead of a child, etc., is subjected to cruel and humiliating punishment or execution. See motif K73. | 66 | 86 |
| K51a In K51 family | Pushes a rival into boiling water. | One woman comes to another in the absence of a man and kills her by pushing her rival's head into boiling liquid or pouring boiling water or hot fat into her ear. See motif K51. | 10 | 9 |
| K119d In K119 family | Puss in Boots. | A cat helps a poor young man marry a princess (a girl marry a prince). | 22 | 24 |
| K27x3a In K27 family | Recognise by the scarf. | When a husband sets off on a difficult mission, his magical wife gives him her towel or scarf, instructing him to use only those items (usually so that her relatives will recognise him as their son-in-law). | 24 | 27 |
| K37d In K37 family | Recognised by teeth marks. | The character recognises the presence of another by noticing traces of their teeth or nails on fruit or leaves. | 11 | 12 |
| K37a In K37 family | Recognising a man. | The character must identify his son or husband among many identical people or animals. See motif K37. | 56 | 70 |
| K37b In K37 family | Recognising a woman by her missing little finger. | A man must identify his chosen one blindfolded. He does this by touch, knowing that one of her fingers is damaged or missing. | 9 | 21 |
| K37 | Recognising one's own among similar ones, H62.1, H161, H324. | In order to return or obtain a wife, son or husband (in Africa also a domestic animal or object), a person must identify her or him among several identical people or animals (objects). | 141 | 324 |
| K158 | Recognising the woman in the portrait, (ATU 881A). | In order to find her missing husband (and other men who helped her or caused her harm), a woman displays her image and calls to her those who, by their behaviour, show that they are familiar with the features in the portrait. | 19 | 20 |
| K18 | Recognition of father or mother, H481, ATU 675. | A boy is born whose father (rarely mother) is unknown. He chooses his true father (mother), who usually occupies the lowest social position. Usually, a group of men or women gather together, each of whom wants the boy to choose him or her. | 118 | 167 |
| K11b In K11 family | Reed made from bird bones. | The bones of a huge bird are turned into reeds or bamboo for making arrows or sarbacanes. | 5 | 6 |
| K110 | Reflection of the golden sword. | The character is asked to retrieve treasure from the bottom of a pond. He does not understand that he is only seeing a reflection and that the treasure is located above. | 27 | 22 |
| K33h1 In K33 family | Replace the old ring with a new one. | The hero's wife (mother, servant) is unaware of the magical properties of an object kept in the house and exchanges it for something more attractive, but in reality incomparable in value. | 35 | 30 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| K27x9 In K27 family | Retrieving an object from the bottom of the sea. | The hero must retrieve a small object (often a ring or signet ring) thrown into deep water (often the sea). Cf. motif C6 ("The Diver"). | 47 | 68 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| K102b In K102 family | Ride for the last time, B184.1.6. | In order to destroy the hero (heroine), the antagonist must first get rid of his beloved animal (usually a horse). When the animal is about to be slaughtered, the hero (heroine) mounts it, rides away and escapes. | 39 | 43 |
| K157 | Robbers killed one by one, ATU 304. | The character lures his opponents out one by one and cuts off each one's head as soon as they appear. Less commonly, a multi-headed opponent sticks out its heads one by one, and the hero cuts them off. | 56 | 66 |
| K27g2 In K27 family | Roof made of feathers. | The character must build a house out of bird feathers or cover the roof, bridge, etc. with feathers. | 7 | 11 |
| K6 | Rope made from bodily secretions. | A vine or rope emerges from tears, snot, urine, saliva, and chewed substance. See motif K1A. | 21 | 30 |
| K136b In K136 family | Rubies from the river, (ATU 467). | A character finds precious stones or unusual flowers (usually in a river) and learns where they come from. | 10 | 13 |
| K27s In K27 family | Running, racing. | Competition: running, racing. See motif K27. | 133 | 140 |
| K100g In K100 family | Sacrifice a son, (ATU 516C). | In order to revive or heal a friend (to heal oneself, to fulfil a vow), the character agrees to sacrifice his son (children). The slain person usually comes back to life, or the person's willingness to make the sacrifice is sufficient to satisfy supernatural forces. | 74 | 104 |
| 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 |
| K85e In K85 family | Sea horses. | Magical horses live in water. | 33 | 43 |
| K45 | Sedna (severed fingers). | A man and a woman belonging to different generations (father – daughter, son – mother) come into conflict. The man sails away from the woman in a boat or on a raft, or leaves her on a sledge. When she tries to grab the edge of the boat (raft, sled), he cuts off her fingers. (The common motif among the Warrau and Eskimos was first noted by O. Zerries [Zerries 1954: 346, 376]). | 13 | 23 |
| K165 | Seeking to experience fear, ATU 326. | The young man has never experienced fear and wants to know what it is like. Robbers and evil spirits do not frighten him. | 39 | 33 |
| K27z2 In K27 family | Separated from her son, she avoided incest, ATU 674. | A noble woman is forced to leave her home, gives birth to a son, and is separated from him. The young man grows up and almost marries his mother, but at the last moment everything is explained. {The Sudanese text, attributed to this plot in el-Shamy 2004 and subsequently in Uther 2004, does not fit the definition; it is quite possible that the Latvians, Romanians and Ukrainians are also mentioned incorrectly in Uther 2004}. | 4 | 5 |
| K135 | Seven with one blow, ATU 1640. | By accidentally defeating powerful opponents, a physically weak and timid person gains honour. | 84 | 98 |
| K131d In K131 family | Seven-league boots. | Mention is made of footwear that allows the character to quickly cover enormous distances. | 34 | 47 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.