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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| K33a7 In K33 family | The widower, his daughter (son) and the teacher. | After the death of a woman, her daughter or son advises her father to marry a neighbour, teacher, etc., who usually persuades the teenager to give such advice. After marrying the widower, the new wife begins to tyrannise her stepdaughter or stepson. | 24 | 30 |
| K33f In K33 family | Stream of honey and stream of oil. | Sources of at least two valuable liquid edible products (honey, oil, etc.) are available or imagined. Cf. motif N34. | 24 | 41 |
| K53 | Animal skins – a means of transformation. | A character temporarily transforms into an animal or bird of a certain species by putting on its skin, or skins taken along with them come to life and serve the hero. | 24 | 36 |
| K56a7 In K56 family | Greenery in winter. | In winter, a girl (rarely a boy) is sent to bring something that is normally only available in summer. She brings it. | 24 | 26 |
| K56f1 In K56 family | The division of roosters, (ATU 1533.2). | Five chickens (geese, etc.) must be divided among six eaters (other numbers are possible). The solution is to give each pair of participants one chicken and take two for oneself (two chickens and one person – three, two people and one chicken – also three). | 24 | 23 |
| K57b In K57 family | The stuck-on shoe. | To stop a beautiful woman from running away, a man in love with her smears resin or glue on the threshold (porch). The shoe sticks, and all the girls try it on to find its owner. | 24 | 35 |
| K57d In K57 family | Tight shoe, cut-off toes. | The prince marries the girl who fits the shoe. The girl cuts off her toes or heel so that the shoe will fit. | 24 | 26 |
| K73a6 In K73 family | A child turns into a tree. | Malicious women kill (throw away) her wonderful children. Trees (flowers) grow from their remains, later reincarnating into humans. | 24 | 24 |
| K80c1 In K80 family | Melon and severed head, ATU 780C. | Someone brings meat or fruit to another person or keeps it for themselves. At the decisive moment, the food turns into the remains of a (supposedly) murdered person. The owner is executed or is about to be executed. Cf. motif K168A. | 24 | 19 |
| K92C In K92 family | The wife weaves, the husband sells. | A princess or sorceress turns out to be the wife of a poor man. She weaves or embroiders a scarf (or other item) and sends her husband to sell it. This marks the beginning of their path to success. | 24 | 24 |
| K27o1 In K27 family | Ball – human head. | Severed human heads are compared to balls. Either a character plays with a severed human head or skull as a ball. | 25 | 36 |
| 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 |
| K38f5 In K38 family | Fire-breathing horse, B15.5.1. | Flames burst from the horse's mouth and/or nostrils, or the entire horse is engulfed in fire. | 25 | 35 |
| K61c1 In K61 family | Overheard secret of a demon, (ATU 500, ATU 1091A). | A person will die if they cannot find the answer to the demon's question. A person or their acquaintance accidentally learns the answer by overhearing the demon talking to himself or to another demon. See motif C29. | 25 | 31 |
| 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 |
| K76a In K76 family | The frog son and the frog husband. | A frog or toad marries a beautiful woman, or a handsome young man marries a frog. | 25 | 34 |
| k84a In k84 family | Give to the first person who asks. | On his deathbed, a father instructs his son, without specifying any conditions, to give his sister (sisters) to whoever comes for her. | 25 | 42 |
| K8c3 In K8 family | Not through the mouth, but through the side. | One (zoomorphic) character refuses to use any part of another's body except the one he uses to kill him. | 25 | 35 |
| K100d In K100 family | The helper turns out to be a prince, ATU 314. | At the end of the story, the animal helper (horse, lion, etc.) turns into a prince (princess) itself. | 26 | 54 |
| K107d1 In K107 family | The magical wife cannot wake the young man. | Waiting for his magical wife, the young man falls asleep. The wife cannot wake him up and leaves (this episode is often repeated). | 26 | 36 |
| 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 |
| K12a In K12 family | The stretched bow. | An unrecognised hero arrives at a place where his bride or wife is to be given to another man or turned into a servant. Contrary to expectations, he manages to draw a tight bow (raise a spear), with which he kills his rivals. | 26 | 27 |
| K134 | Found treasures. | A guest is planted with treasure in order to accuse him of theft. | 26 | 33 |
| 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 |
| K25a4 In K25 family | Escape from the siren, ATU 316. | A man (rarely a woman) finds himself in the power of an aquatic-chthonic creature (usually a siren, fish, sea monster, sometimes a sorcerer). The captive is lifted above the water (above the ground; usually after the antagonist lifts him) several times. After that, the captive escapes (most often by flying away as a bird). | 26 | 30 |
| K27k In K27 family | Dive long or deep. | Test: to dive underwater for a long time or deeply. See motif K27. | 26 | 15 |
| K27z5 In K27 family | Agreement to marry children, (926C*). | Two men agree to marry their children if one has a son and the other has a daughter. The girl's parents do not fulfil the agreement. The boy grows up and finds his betrothed. | 26 | 31 |
| k33c3 In k33 family | The girl in the orange. | A young man obtains a girl who is inside an orange or other citrus fruit. | 26 | 42 |
| K38e2 In K38 family | The collapsed kingdom. | Returning from the underworld to earth, the princess places the objects surrounding her (clothes, house, "kingdom") into a small object (egg, ball of yarn, etc.), which she takes with her. | 26 | 51 |
| K38f6 In K38 family | Fire creature. | A creature consisting of fire is mentioned. | 26 | 30 |
| K57c In K57 family | The ring in the pie. | The prince puts a ring on the finger of a beautiful girl, not knowing that she is the very girl who works in his kitchen. The girl slips the ring into the prince's food, and he recognises it. | 26 | 35 |
| K73a1 In K73 family | The child is replaced by an inanimate object. | After hiding or discarding a newborn baby, the woman's rivals replace it with an inanimate object and/or inform the father that his wife has given birth to a stone, a broom, etc. See motifs k73a2, k73a2a, k73a3. | 26 | 39 |
| K73a7 In K73 family | Miraculous children: a sister with two brothers. | A woman gives birth to three (not two or many) miraculous children – two boys and a girl. They grow up and triumph over their enemies. | 26 | 33 |
| K75b In K75 family | Three melons from three daughters. | Wanting to show that it is time for them to marry, daughters of different ages send their father fruits of varying degrees of ripeness (bread baked in different ways). | 26 | 31 |
| K77b2 In K77 family | Weapons of the goat. | The goat (goat, ram, etc.) responds to the predator's questions in the sense that parts of its body are weapons and other objects designed to kill the questioner, or that the goat is actually armed. | 26 | 39 |
| K103b In K103 family | The spinning cow. | A cow (goat) miraculously spins or weaves: it chews tow, turning it into thread, orders the yarn to be wound onto its horns, put into its ear, etc. | 27 | 44 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| K119b In K119 family | Animals as gifts to the king. | After tricking wild animals, the fox brings them to the king as a gift from her rich master. | 27 | 35 |
| K146 | The hero is revived by the remedy he was sent to fetch. | The hero is sent to fetch a remedy that can cure the sick or revive the dead. On the way back, a woman who is friendly to the hero keeps part of the remedy (or all of it, replacing it with a fake) and, when the hero is treacherously killed, revives him. | 27 | 34 |
| K27x6 In K27 family | The stars and the wind guide the hero. | Setting out in search of a marriage partner, the hero or heroine successively encounters the embodiments (masters) of celestial bodies and atmospheric phenomena (the sun, moon, stars, wind). | 27 | 55 |
| K32g1 In K32 family | Forty horses or forty knives? | The guilty party is offered a choice of items of utilitarian value (often forty, seven, three, etc. horses or the same number of knives). The person usually does not understand that these are methods of execution. | 27 | 38 |
| K38b3b In K38 family | The hero shelters the chicks. | A mighty bird (rarely – another creature) helps a person for sheltering (warming) its chicks (offspring, children). | 27 | 47 |
| K38e3 In K38 family | The Diamond Kingdom. | Among three (less often two or four) loci or objects associated with materials of high but varying degrees of value, the highest belongs to precious stones (usually diamonds, but also glass and crystal). | 27 | 44 |
| K73c In K73 family | The girl in the bird's nest, (ATU 705A, 709A). | A girl finds herself in a bird's nest (usually the bird carries the baby girl away). The bird takes care of the girl, who grows up to be a beauty. | 27 | 28 |
| K75a3 In K75 family | Groom. | Appearing incognito to an authoritative character, the hero works for him as a groom. | 27 | 33 |
| 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 |
| K12b In K12 family | The sorceress's husband breaks the ban, ATU 400(1). | The hero enters a world beyond the human world and marries there. His wife allows him to visit his former world, but on certain conditions. The hero breaks these conditions, which leads to (irreparable) misfortune. Cf. motif F94 (the hero betrays his fairy wife in her world); K25a6 (the hero visits his world together with his fairy wife). | 28 | 33 |
| K156a In K156 family | Trials: girl or boy? | People suspect that the young man is a girl in disguise. Tests are proposed to determine this, but the girl manages to avoid exposure (for a long time). | 28 | 31 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.