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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K10a In K10 family | Battle with a bird: hiding. | Heroes kill a dangerous bird; during or before the battle, they hide in a shelter (hut, cage, vessel, sack, well) or cover themselves with an object that protects the body. | 17 | 26 |
| K10g In K10 family | The chick descends to the ground. | Finding himself in the nest of a giant bird on a tree or rock, a man descends to the ground with the help of an adult bird (attaching its feathers or wings to himself), and more often - a chick (grabbing its legs, sitting on the chick, attaching its feathers or wings). | 17 | 21 |
| K139 | The burnt pheasant. | A servant is so struck by the beauty of a girl (rarely: a boy) that he lets the meat or bread intended for his master burn. | 17 | 18 |
| K178 | The enchanted husband drives away and finds his wife again, ATU 425E, 425L. | A girl descends into the underworld to her magical husband, and when she breaks the ban, he drives her away (sends her away with a task). She comes to live with other people, she has a child from her magical husband. Her husband finds her, the spouses are reunited, the spell is broken. {Motif in the work} | 17 | 14 |
| K27t In K27 family | Competition: climbing a pole. | Competition: climbing a pole. See motif K27. | 17 | 13 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| K35a4 In K35 family | Thrown into the sea. | In order to get rid of the hero and take his place, the deceiver pushes him into the sea or leaves him on a distant island. The hero survives and returns. | 17 | 20 |
| 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 |
| k56a4g In k56 family | Ugly girl: growths on the face. | After meeting a supernatural character, growths (tail, horns, warts, etc.) appear on the face (back of the head) of an unkind girl. | 17 | 23 |
| 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 |
| K56e1 In K56 family | Song mentioning the days of the week. | A man sees dwarves (spirits, witches) having fun. Their song mentions the names of the days of the week. The man sings along, naming the days that the dwarves like. He is rewarded. (Usually, someone else tries to get the same reward, but names the wrong days of the week and is punished). | 17 | 26 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| K141 | Tamed mischievous sisters. | Supernatural women harm people. The hero tames them and usually takes them as wives. | 18 | 23 |
| K150 | The horse eats coals. | A magical horse (rarely: dog) eats (hot) coals, nails, etc., or attempts are made to feed these to the horse. | 18 | 30 |
| K179 | As much gold as the bride weighs. | For an object (usually a girl), as much (or more) gold (silver) is given or promised as it weighs, or a pile of valuables as tall as the person being bought. | 18 | 25 |
| K19c In K19 family | Mistress in a handbag. | A man brings home a small creature with which he makes love at night. The man's mother, sister or wife finds the creature in his bed or purse. | 18 | 35 |
| K27g5 In K27 family | Wooden axe. | A person tries or must try to chop or dig with a wooden (lead, felt) tool instead of a steel one. Cf. motif L84. | 18 | 29 |
| 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 |
| k56a8d In k56 family | Eaten by a boa constrictor. | A girl agrees to become the wife of a snake, which turns into a handsome man. Another girl (or her mother or father) brings the snake to her or offers it to become her husband, but it does not turn into a man and kills her. | 18 | 27 |
| K65c1 In K65 family | Division into servants and masters, (ATU 758). | A woman gives birth to many children, but hides some of them from God. Those who are hidden become the progenitors of people of low social status, and those who are shown become the progenitors of people of high status. {The definition of plot 758 in Uther 2004 largely coincides with ours, but the references also include traditions in which children hidden from God become spirits rather than people of low status}. | 18 | 20 |
| 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 |
| K127a In K127 family | The silent heroine. | The heroine must remain silent for a long time and therefore cannot respond to the accusations. They want to execute her, but at that moment the restrictions expire and she is saved. | 19 | 29 |
| K136c In K136 family | Sometimes alive, sometimes dead. | Upon leaving, the demon temporarily kills or puts the girl to sleep, and upon returning, revives her. | 19 | 25 |
| 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 |
| K14b In K14 family | Accusation of knife theft. | A man is advised not to do anything until he is expressly asked to do so. He unwisely offers to let someone use his knife and is subsequently accused of a crime. | 19 | 16 |
| 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 |
| K166 | Forty girls. | A group of girls forms a community or troop and acts independently of men. Cf. motif F39. | 19 | 16 |
| K181 | The horse from the dungeon. | The hero finds a suitable horse in the dungeon (in the basement, in an empty castle, in deep mud, etc.), where it has stood for many years. | 19 | 32 |
| 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 |
| K1i In K1 family | Tree for descending from a cliff. | Near the cliff, at the bottom of the pit, or in the underworld, a tree, reed, or vine grows, which the character uses to descend or climb to the ground. | 19 | 36 |
| K21a In K21 family | Woman returns from heaven. | A celestial being marries an earthly woman. She longs to return to earth and secretly descends from her husband. | 19 | 27 |
| K27x In K27 family | The former husband of a magical wife. | A man marries a woman from another world; the wife leaves for her world, the man follows her; there, the woman has another fiancé(e) or husband, or the woman's brothers want to destroy the man; he undergoes trials and brings his wife back. See motif K27. | 19 | 9 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| k33c7 In k33 family | One fruit and a girl inside it. | A young man obtains a fruit from which a girl emerges (rarely: two girls from two fruits, both remain with the young man). There is no episode of the loss of the girls who were in the other fruits. Cf. motif k33c6. | 19 | 23 |
| K35b In K35 family | The most delicious dish. | The hero gives his rivals the food that the king sent them all to get, but what the rivals got turns out to be poisonous, useless, or tasteless, while what the hero brought, regardless of how it looks, gets praised. | 19 | 20 |
| K56a4a In K56 family | While the demon brings clothes, ATU 480A. | Left alone with the demon in the bathhouse (mill, etc.), the girl demands that he bring her new clothes, jewellery, etc., and while the demon is fetching them, morning comes. | 19 | 25 |
| 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 |
| K63 | Fish babies and deer people. | A man comes to people who hunt humans or catch fish-people. For them, these are wild animals or fish. | 19 | 21 |
| K76e In K76 family | Son (daughter) as a piglet. | The son (daughter) or foster child of a married couple is a pig. He marries a princess and turns into a handsome man (she marries a handsome man). | 19 | 23 |
| 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 |
| K85d In K85 family | A horse whose skin cannot be bitten through. | Covered with skins (coated with resin and sprinkled with sand, etc.), the mighty horse becomes invulnerable to the bites of other horses. | 19 | 28 |
| K102a In K102 family | Father knew what he was doing. | A man orders the killing of a young man's sister, wife or mother. The young man does not allow such an order to be carried out, and then repents of this. | 20 | 24 |
| 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 |
| K116a In K116 family | Nesmeyana (the disguised tsar perishes). | The king takes or is about to take the poor man's wife. She suggests that the king put on clothes that are not his own (usually those that belonged to her husband). After that, the king is killed by his own soldiers (dogs), who believe him to be a poor man (jester, devil). | 20 | 24 |
| K116b In K116 family | A dog instead of a beauty in the chest. | In order to take possession of the girl, the antagonist creates a situation in which her relatives are forced to put her in a chest (barrel, sack, etc.) and leave her there. The girl is secretly replaced by a ferocious dog or other animal. When the antagonist opens the chest, the animal usually kills or mauls him. | 20 | 24 |
| K119e In K119 family | The Miller: A Success Story. | The poor young man who was helped by an animal assistant, who presented him to the king as a rich man, is a miller or a miller's son. | 20 | 25 |
| K132a In K132 family | The husband's rooster and the wife's hen, ATU 219E*, 715A. | The husband (rarely: the wife) sends the rooster out to earn money, and it brings back money. The wife (husband) sends the hen (cat, her half of the rooster, etc.) and receives only mice, filth, etc. Or, instead of money, the rooster brings the wife something bad or nothing at all. | 20 | 15 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.