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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.
L - Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits
| Ref ▲ | Title | Summary | Traditions | Narratives |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| L15b In L15 family | To kill with a cane. | The character can only be killed with a specific plant, which is not usually used for making weapons. | 22 | 19 |
| L15b1 In L15 family | Deer antlers – a weapon against evil. | In the battle between positive and negative creators, the positive one chooses the deer horn as a weapon – usually because this is the only weapon that the enemy fears. | 3 | 5 |
| L15c In L15 family | Who is afraid of what (hero and adversary). | A dangerous character asks the hero how he can be killed, what he is afraid of. The hero lies, saying that the named object does not harm him. | 28 | 32 |
| L15c1 In L15 family | The righteous adversary suffers damage. | A dangerous character naively reveals what he fears or what his life consists of, and the hero takes advantage of this. | 12 | 14 |
| L15d In L15 family | Life is stored outside the body, E700, (ATU 302). | The object in which the character's life is concentrated is separate from him. The character dies when this external form is destroyed. | 207 | 399 |
| L15d1 In L15 family | Imaginary container of the soul. | When a character is asked to reveal the location of his soul (death, power), he first gives an incorrect answer, and the questioner usually begins to show signs of attention to the corresponding locus or object. | 43 | 52 |
| L15e In L15 family | The life of a hero in a sword, ATU 302B. | The hero's life is in a certain object, usually his weapon. An enemy steals or discards this object, the hero weakens or dies, his friends or brothers return the object, and the hero comes back to life. {In ATU, this is motif 302B; at least some of the references cited by Uther do not contain the motif in our formulation (not found in Japan or Burma); original publications are required}. | 43 | 60 |
| L15e1 In L15 family | Discarded weapon. | An ageing character and/or one who senses his death approaching instructs his son, a warrior, or his subjects to throw his cold weapon (sword, sabre or axe) into the sea, a lake or a river. Cf. motifs L15E and L15e2. | 8 | 7 |
| L15e2 In L15 family | What happened when you threw the sword into the lake? | One character instructs another to throw a certain object (usually a sword or sabre) into the water. The messenger claims to have carried out the task, but cannot say what happened as a result, so it becomes clear that he has lied. | 9 | 8 |
| L15f In L15 family | Life in a necklace, ATU 412. | A young woman or man dies as soon as her or his jewellery (rarely: organ) is stolen, and comes back to life when the jewellery is returned or when the antagonist removes it. | 11 | 12 |
| L15g In L15 family | The burnt log (death of Meleager), ATU 1187. | A person's life is connected to an object that can be burned. As soon as the object is burned, the person dies. | 19 | 8 |
| L15g1 In L15 family | One family member kills another, knowing his secret. | A person knows a secret on which the life of a loved one (husband, son, wife) depends and, after a quarrel, commits an act that is insignificant to an outside observer but leads to the immediate death of the other. | 4 | 5 |
| L15h In L15 family | External soul: sequential investments. | The object in which the character's life is concentrated is enclosed in another, which is enclosed in a third, and so on (like an egg in a duck, a duck in a hare, a hare in a chest). Or the animal in which the character's soul is enclosed transforms into other animals as it flees. There are three or more enclosures or transformations. | 83 | 127 |
| L15h1 In L15 family | The soul of a character in an egg. | The object in which the character's life is contained is enclosed in another, which is enclosed in a third (and so on). The final container of the soul is an egg (to kill the character, the egg must be broken over his head). | 45 | 70 |
| l15h2 In l15 family | The soul of a character in a bird. | The object in which the character's life is contained is enclosed in another, which is enclosed in a third (and so on). The final repository of the soul is a bird (a chick, several birds or chicks). | 22 | 28 |
| l15h3 In l15 family | The soul of a character in an insect (worm). | The object in which the character's life is concentrated is enclosed in another, which is enclosed in a third (and so on). The final vessel of the soul is an insect or worm. | 11 | 14 |
| l15h4 In l15 family | The character's soul in a needle. | The object in which the character's life is concentrated is enclosed in another, which is enclosed in a third (and so on). The final container of the soul is a needle, which the hero breaks. | 5 | 6 |
| L15i In L15 family | Life in hair. | A man dies or loses his strength (or pretends to) if his hair is cut or pulled out. | 24 | 25 |
| L15J In L15 family | Only with fire. | The character can only be killed by fire. | 17 | 14 |
| L16A In L16 family | Eyes on the feet. | The creature's eyes are located on its feet. | 7 | 9 |
| L16b In L16 family | Eyes on the knees. | The eyes or mouths of creatures are located on joints (knees, etc.). | 19 | 24 |
| L17 | Face on the chest. | Mouth and eyes of an anthropomorphic creature on the chest, no head. | 21 | 20 |
| L17a In L17 family | Eyes on the back of the head. | A character or creature has an eye or a second pair of eyes on the back of the head or on the back. Cf. motif L17b, "mouth on the back of the head". | 33 | 34 |
| L17a1 In L17 family | One-eyed, two-eyed and three-eyed, ATU 511. | Characters with a sequentially increasing number of eyes follow the hero or heroine. He or she puts the eyes to sleep one by one, but forgets about the last one. | 32 | 48 |
| L17a2 In L17 family | Rival with an eye on her forehead. | Instead of a beautiful woman, a man takes a devil with an odd number of eyes. | 6 | 4 |
| L17b In L17 family | Mouth on the back of the head. | A character or creature has a second face or a second mouth on the back of its head. | 65 | 105 |
| L18 | Multi-headed bird. | A bird with two or more heads in descriptions or images. | 67 | 146 |
| L19a In L19 family | Creature with an even number of heads. | Creatures (any except ornithomorphs) with an even number (but not more than ten) of heads at one end of the body are described or depicted, except when such creatures are mentioned among others and the series ends with an odd number or a number greater than ten. | 105 | 147 |
| L19b In L19 family | Creature with an odd number of heads. | Creatures (any, except ornithomorphic ones) with more than 10 heads or an odd (but more than one) number of heads are described or depicted (in the case of listing creatures in order of increasing number of heads, the series ends with an odd number). | 197 | 325 |
| L19b1 In L19 family | Seven-headed monster. | Describes or depicts a monster (usually a reptile) with seven heads (except in cases where snakes with an increasing number of heads are described sequentially and "seven" is not the largest number). | 85 | 155 |
| L19b2 In L19 family | Nine-headed monster. | A creature with nine heads is mentioned – either singly or at the end of a series of creatures with fewer heads. | 48 | 71 |
| L19b3 In L19 family | Twelve-headed monster. | A creature with 12 heads is mentioned – either singly or at the end of a series of creatures with fewer heads. | 32 | 59 |
| L20 | Raw meat eater. | Two characters hunt or fish. One turns out to be or becomes a cannibal, which is revealed when he/she begins to eat the prey raw. | 22 | 49 |
| L20a In L20 family | The parrot devourer. | A man climbs a tree, takes chicks (usually parrots) from a nest and throws them to a woman. She eats them raw, then kills or tries to kill the man. | 12 | 31 |
| L21 | The ogre runs away to pick up his prey. | A cannibal or demon under a tree intends to grab a person who has climbed a tree; the person throws his prey or some object far away, and while the cannibal is looking for, picking up or eating what has been thrown, he runs away. | 19 | 18 |
| L21A In L21 family | Live and dead mice. | A character sitting in a tree throws small animals (snakes, mice) down, distracting the attention of a cannibal who is trying to catch them. When he throws dead animals instead of live ones, the cannibal grabs him. | 2 | 2 |
| L22 | Deep sleep. | Having broken some taboo, seen an unusual object or a strange character, people fall into a deep sleep; at night, while asleep, they are killed or maimed. | 44 | 80 |
| L22a In L22 family | People go blind. | Having broken some taboo, seen an unusual object or strange character, people fall into a deep sleep and wake up in the morning blind. See motif L22. Among the Watut, Khmou and Trumai, a spirit eats out a person's eyes and they die immediately without waking up). | 16 | 6 |
| L22B In L22 family | Metamorphosis of the blind. | People who wake up blind in the morning turn into fish, birds or animals. See motif L22. | 15 | 14 |
| L23 | Proteus. | Trying to free himself, the captured character successively transforms into various substances, materials or animals, or (Urarina, Setebo) orders various dangerous animals to successively attack the person who captured him. (In some cases, only one variant of transformation is mentioned, but in the same context as in typical variants with a series of transformations). | 43 | 80 |
| L23a In L23 family | Transformation into flame. | In an attempt to free himself, the captured character sequentially changes his appearance, in particular turning into fire (and water). | 9 | 8 |
| L23b In L23 family | Transformation into a spindle. | Trying to free himself, the captured character sequentially changes his appearance. The last transformation is into a spindle. | 9 | 24 |
| L23c In L23 family | Breaking an object in half. | Trying to free himself, the captured character sequentially changes his appearance. The last transformation is a small wooden object (usually a spindle). When this object is broken in half, the character permanently regains his human form. | 15 | 26 |
| L23d In L23 family | Transformations of the captured woman. | A man captures a desirable woman. Trying to free herself, she transforms into various substances, materials, animals or (urarina, setebo) orders various dangerous animals to attack the man who captured her. | 25 | 50 |
| L23e In L23 family | Transformations of the captured man. | A man captures a male character. Trying to free himself, the latter transforms into various substances or animals. | 14 | 15 |
| L24 | Suffocating demons with smoke. | Demons (or one of them) attack people and then hide. People destroy the demons' lair and kill all or most of them by spreading a smoky fire around the demons' refuge. | 55 | 96 |
| L25 | The devil sucks out brains. | By killing demons, people save the life of a child, girl or woman. Remaining among people, she or he kills people (usually children) left in her or his care. | 16 | 19 |
| L26 | Death of initiates. | During the (first) initiation, supernatural beings teach boys rituals and kill them for violating rules related to the consumption and distribution of food. | 5 | 7 |
| L26a In L26 family | Extermination of spirits. | During the (first) initiation, men kill supernatural characters (reproducing their appearance and/or voices during rituals from that moment on). | 9 | 7 |
| L27 | The eaten maiden. | Sisters or friends encounter a demon. One or both do not understand the danger. One is eaten or maimed, the other escapes. | 38 | 59 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.