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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K155 | The prince grew up in seclusion. | A person (usually a king) raises a son (daughter) in isolation. One day (usually by chance), the young man (woman) sees the outside world and leaves his (her) confinement. | 20 | 26 |
| K164 | A wife is not a best friend, ATU 921B. | The person himself or someone else creates a situation in which he becomes convinced that his wife is not his best friend. Usually, the treacherous wife is contrasted with a loyal dog. | 20 | 17 |
| 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 |
| K24c In K24 family | An old man helps to obtain a bird wife, ATU 413. | A young man comes to an old man (less often – to an old woman), who teaches him how to get a magical wife by hiding her bird clothes. Usually, the young man gives away the clothes for the first time and lives with the old man until the girls fly back. | 20 | 19 |
| k34a In k34 family | A rival lures a woman onto a swing. | A rival puts a woman on a swing to get rid of her by throwing her into the water. She (almost) drowns or temporarily loses her human form, but manages to return to the world of humans. | 20 | 22 |
| K40 | One will be eaten today, another tomorrow. | Two (rarely more) characters consider themselves doomed to death, but the one whose death will come later rejoices, while the one whose death will come earlier grieves. Cf. motif N30. | 20 | 27 |
| K43b In K43 family | The bird brings meat. | People leave a boy, a girl, a sister and brother, a young woman or young spouses alone and leave, or drive them away. Those who are left behind or driven away discover unusual abilities or helpers, obtaining blood and food. Those who are abandoned eat their fill, while those who abandon them go hungry. A character (often a bird - a crow, magpie, seagull, etc.) visits the abandoned and brings a piece of fat or meat to the camp of the starving. | 20 | 24 |
| K56a5 In K56 family | The Old Woman Becomes Beautiful, ATU 877. | An old or ugly woman unexpectedly becomes a young beauty or acquires wealth. Usually, another woman tries to repeat her actions and either dies or suffers damage. | 20 | 21 |
| K57a In K57 family | The Beauty from the Land of Soap, (ATU 510B). | A noble young man, who treated a lowly servant girl rudely and contemptuously, does not recognise her in the guise of a magnificent beauty and does not understand her hints about the relevant episodes. Or the younger brother responds to the hints of his older brothers after they first beat him and then fail to recognise him in the guise of a handsome hero. | 20 | 40 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| K80a4 In K80 family | Hair turns into grass, (ATU 780A). | The hair on a character's head turns into grass (thorns, bamboo, bushes). | 20 | 23 |
| K89 | The girl and the witch: gifts from relatives. | After getting married, the heroine and her rival (witch, frog) must bring gifts from their relatives. The heroine finds her brother, brothers or sister who went missing at the beginning of the story and receives rich gifts from them, while the gifts brought by her rival are worthless. | 20 | 31 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| K38e4 In K38 family | Palace made of gold and silver bricks, F771.1.1.2. | The narratives (in various contexts) mention a palace (castle, crypt, church, bridge, causeway) built of gold and silver modules – usually bricks, less often planks. | 21 | 23 |
| K6 | Rope made from bodily secretions. | A vine or rope emerges from tears, snot, urine, saliva, and chewed substance. See motif K1A. | 21 | 30 |
| K60c In K60 family | Stropiva with the king, patient with the groom. | The stubborn wife of a worthy man goes on a date with a demon or a servant. He beats her, but she patiently endures her lover's beatings. | 21 | 25 |
| K72a In K72 family | Prohibition on lighting fires. | The king notices that his prohibition on lighting fires at night has been violated. | 21 | 32 |
| K85b In K85 family | Three-legged horse. | The three-legged horse is distinguished by its strength and speed, and is ridden by a rider of non-human nature. | 21 | 31 |
| K101b In K101 family | Three Nights of Trials, (ATU 400). | A girl or young man is freed from a spell after the hero endures three nights of torment or fear inflicted by demons. The girl or young man themselves are not dangerous to the hero; they help him. | 22 | 45 |
| K102a3 In K102 family | Dead tooth. | Someone (usually a woman) places a poisonous tooth (bone, nail, etc.) in the hero's bed. The young man dies, but is then revived. | 22 | 36 |
| K10f In K10 family | The chicks turn into ordinary eagles. | The character turns the children of a flying monster into ordinary eagles or owls. | 22 | 22 |
| K119d In K119 family | Puss in Boots. | A cat helps a poor young man marry a princess (a girl marry a prince). | 22 | 24 |
| K133 | The exhausted horse. | A man notices that his horse (donkey) looks tired and learns that an animal or demonic creature is riding it. Cf. motif M182a. | 22 | 31 |
| K14e In K14 family | Sons think their father is rich, ATU 982. | The sons do not care for their elderly father (rarely: the daughter-in-law does not care for her mother-in-law). He pretends to be hiding something. The sons believe that these are valuables that their father will leave them, and they begin to care for him. | 22 | 15 |
| K27z4b In K27 family | Dressed as a man, the wife rescues her husband. | The husband leaves, meets a swindler and loses everything he has to him. The wife comes disguised as a man, punishes the swindler and rescues her husband. | 22 | 20 |
| K32j In K32 family | The brother of the changeling is accused of deception (ATU 403). | Upon learning from a young man that he has a beautiful sister, the ruler wants to marry her. The bride is replaced by an ugly woman. Usually, the ruler accuses her brother of deception and throws him into prison. The deception is revealed. | 22 | 38 |
| K56a8 In K56 family | An animal mistakenly taken for a groom. | A girl marries an animal (brings it with her), and it turns into a handsome man. Another girl tries to do the same, but dies or suffers harm. | 22 | 32 |
| 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 |
| K73b4 In K73 family | Fill the bag with truth. | A person is asked to fill a bag (cauldron) with truth (lies, fairy tales). He fulfils the request by telling a revealing story. | 22 | 27 |
| k76c1 In k76 family | A woman gave birth to a pumpkin. | A woman gives birth to a pumpkin, inside which there is a person (many people) or which turns into a person. | 22 | 23 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| K120a2 In K120 family | Not by her mother, but by her mother-in-law. | Family members want to marry their daughter off to a man who is unacceptable to her (usually they want to marry her off to her own brother). The girl refuses to address her father, mother, etc. as close relatives, but calls them in-laws (mother-in-law, sister-in-law, etc.) or enemies; or the relatives themselves demand that the girl address them as in-laws. | 23 | 22 |
| K128a In K128 family | The best apples for the princess, ATU 610. | Each of the three brothers brings the princess (prince) a gift of fruit (less often fish, etc.) and encounters a character who punishes rudeness and rewards politeness. As a result (after additional trials), the youngest brother enters into the desired marriage. | 23 | 21 |
| K1B In K1 family | Trap: abandoned woman. | A woman is lured onto a tree, rock or island and left there. | 23 | 31 |
| K25a6 In K25 family | The magical wife does not forgive infidelity. | A woman from another world agrees to live with a man in his earthly world, but leaves him when she learns that he has broken a taboo (often his infidelity). Cf. motif F94 (the hero betrays his magical wife in her world); motif K12B (the hero visits his world alone, contrary to the warning of his magical wife). | 23 | 26 |
| K27z7 In K27 family | To learn what the rose of the heart is. | The character promises to fulfil a request if the other person reveals the secret behind someone's strange behaviour. | 23 | 24 |
| K29d In K29 family | Drunken elephants. | To catch an animal or supernatural character, the water in a reservoir is replaced with wine, honey, etc., or containers with alcohol are left in plain sight. The creature, having lost control of itself, is captured. | 23 | 33 |
| K32h In K32 family | Buried alive. | The antagonist is executed by being buried alive. | 23 | 33 |
| k33c6 In k33 family | Only one girl survived. | A young man receives several fruits (eggs, reeds). When he opens the first one, the girl who comes out of it disappears, either because the necessary provisions (usually drinking water) have not been prepared for her, or because the fruit has been cut incorrectly. Only the one who comes out of the last fruit (egg, reed) remains. Cf. motif k33c7. | 23 | 44 |
| K35c3 In K35 family | The ship stopped. | For reasons that are not immediately clear, the ship stops in the middle of the sea (rarely: a horse stops in the middle of the road). | 23 | 28 |
| K50 | An imaginary wife cuts off the head of an enemy. | A man approaches the enemy disguised as a woman and kills him at night (usually cutting off his head and taking it with him). | 23 | 25 |
| K52c In K52 family | Flooding in the home. | Demonstrating his power, a shaman, sorcerer or other character with magical abilities causes the dwelling in which he and other people are located to begin to fill with water. Sometimes it is said that this water is an illusion and that those present also see animals (waterfowl, fish or marine mammals). | 23 | 31 |
| K70 | Two daughters-in-law: a girl and a frog. | One man marries a girl, another (usually the brother of the first) marries a frog or a toad, or the girl and the frog are the wives of one man. Usually, the wives are given certain tests, and the girl is recognised as a worthy wife, while the frog is recognised as worthless. | 23 | 25 |
| K131a In K131 family | The hero divides the carcass, ATU 159*. | Several animals (often a lion, a falcon, an ant) argue (usually over prey or habitat). The hero resolves their dispute, and they grant him the ability to take on their form (to possess their qualities). | 24 | 47 |
| K154a In K154 family | Men in the harem. | By solving a riddle, a boy or young man (rarely a girl) exposes the daughter, wife or assistants of an authoritative character: the daughter or wife has a lover; the assistant is plotting a conspiracy. | 24 | 32 |
| K155b In K155 family | A girl's hair serves as a rope to climb up (ATU 310). | A girl lets down her hair, which another character uses to climb up to her. | 24 | 30 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.