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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.
M - Adventures: Tricks and episodes
| Ref | Title | Summary | Traditions | Narratives ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M18a In M18 family | Obtaining arrows. | The character becomes the object of fishing or hunting, presenting himself as a target for enemies. Numerous arrows, darts, and harpoons stick into his body without causing harm, and he carries them away. See motif M18. | 0 | 0 |
| M29 | Trickster: identification with birds and animals | trickster is defined as a protagonist in the following characteristic episodes. | 0 | 0 |
| M38b3b In M38 family | Hero warms and covers the nestlings | Mighty bird (more rare other creature/mythological person) helps a man (rare: a woman) because he (she) warms/covers from bad weather its/hers nestlings (children) | 0 | 0 |
| M53b In M53 family | A bag with songs | Trickster claims he's carrying songs in his bag. See M53 motif. | 0 | 0 |
| M24a In M24 family | Kills a woman, captured | turtle man goes to war, kills people (usually a woman). He gets caught or killed. In his animal form, he continues to live on. See M24 motif. | 1 | 1 |
| M59a In M59 family | Porcupine at the crossing | After asking a large animal to transport it across the river, a porcupine kills or damages it. See M59 motif. | 18 | 1 |
| M65a In M65 family | A squeaky tree | The trees are creaking in the wind. Hearing a creak, the character climbs a tree and gets stuck. See M65 motif. | 18 | 1 |
| M13a In M13 family | Turned into stone. | A deity and a human meet so that the former can fulfil the latter's request. As a result, the human is turned to stone. Usually (except for the Squamish), one of the supplicants wants eternal life and is turned to stone. See motif M13. | 12 | 2 |
| M18b In M18 family | Obtaining a hook, spear. | The character turns into a fishing object in order to carry away the hook with which he is caught or the spear with which they try to harpoon him, or he turns into a hook to catch fish. See motif M18. | 18 | 2 |
| M199d1 In M199 family | The devil and the squirrel climb a tree, ATU 1073. | The devil (cannibal) challenges a man to a competition: who can climb a tree faster. The man puts his child, a squirrel, in his place. | 9 | 2 |
| M29T In M29 family | Trickster - Armadillo | See the motives in square brackets. | 4 | 2 |
| M45b In M45 family | Animals at the trough, ATU 179B* | The old man carries a trough and lies down to rest, covered with it. The animals take the trough to the table and bring food. The old man gets up, the animals run away, the old man gets the food. | 2 | 2 |
| M61a4 In M61 family | He tells everyone that the other is dying | character lies to each of the spouses as if the other had a misfortune. They run to each other in panic. | 2 | 2 |
| M97B In M97 family | A woman asks the trees | 2 | 2 | |
| M9a In M9 family | Turning into a tree frog | A character who eagerly sucks honey from a hollow and/or gets stuck in a hollow turns into a tree frog. See M9 motif. | 10 | 2 |
| M109d In M109 family | Seized by the tail by a sea creature. | A zoomorphic character dips his tongue or tail into the water. An octopus or shell grabs it and holds it tight, so that the character drowns during high tide. | 3 | 3 |
| M136e In M136 family | Should the bride be shortened? | Instead of asking a person to bend down in front of a low lintel, others suggest cutting off his head or legs. | 3 | 3 |
| M157a7 In M157 family | Stolen children. | A zoomorphic character took the children of a character of another animal species and claims that they are his own children. | 3 | 3 |
| M162C In M162 family | The removed skin is eaten. | The fox persuades the bear to remove his skin, eats it, and the bear dies. | 2 | 3 |
| M183a In M183 family | Who will eat more: one against many. | Two people argue about who will eat or drink more. One of them is constantly replaced by his relatives, his opponent does not notice the substitution and loses. | 4 | 3 |
| M29S In M29 family | Trickster - Crane | See the motives in square brackets. | 3 | 3 |
| M39a2e In M39 family | Forgotten name | Forgetting his name, a fool remembers it when he accidentally hears a word. | 4 | 3 |
| M5d In M5 family | Squirrel and fish | The squirrel and the creeping fish are smart and get medicines for each other | 5 | 3 |
| M74e In M74 family | Divides by biting off piece by piece | Two characters ask the third to share something edible between them. He bites off a little bit from each of the halves, because one or the other is slightly larger. As a result, it eats everything. | 3 | 3 |
| M105B In M105 family | Carries his mother on his back. | The character replies that the load, hump or bulge on his back or head is his deceased mother or grandmother. Another kills his mother or wife and places her on his back or head. | 3 | 4 |
| M116b In M116 family | The monstrous pursuer and the old man's advice. | A monster chases people. An old man gives advice on how to kill it from ambush. | 3 | 4 |
| M163C In M163 family | Money thrown into the sea. | A person is advised to throw money into the water and take only what floats up. This brings him happiness. | 4 | 4 |
| M168b In M168 family | The crooked stick. | A bird or a person who becomes a bird is given the task of bringing a stick that is neither straight nor crooked. This bird is still searching for it. | 3 | 4 |
| M173B In M173 family | Running ahead. | The character repeatedly runs ahead of another person on the road to obtain food from them, each time pretending to be a different person. | 5 | 4 |
| M199g2 In M199 family | The thorny pole. | The trickster arranges things so that the tiger, with whom they are carrying meat on a pole, holds the end of the pole with the thorns and suffers from pain. | 3 | 4 |
| M203a In M203 family | Tell them that I have died. | A supernatural being conveys a message to an unknown recipient via a passer-by, who dies or suffers harm after delivering the message. | 6 | 4 |
| M23a In M23 family | The turtle asks to be soaked, ATU 122G(2). | The turtle says that before eating it, it must be properly soaked in water, but once in the water, it swims away. | 4 | 4 |
| M38a2 In M38 family | The hen boils eggs | The hen (other bird) cooks her own eggs and serves them to other animal persons (who imitated her with disastrous consequences) | 4 | 4 |
| M39a4d In M39 family | A fool sells property to a lizard | Fool sells property a lizard and believes it will pay him. Trying to get his money, he finds treasure | 4 | 4 |
| M60a3 In M60 family | The Imaginary Physician: Punishing a Scoundrel | Avenging the seized property (a pet or a bird), the hero repeatedly comes to the offender in different guises (girl, doctor, etc.) and brutally mocks him. | 4 | 4 |
| M70a In M70 family | A pierced old woman | A character on whom an old woman defecates or whose face blows the winds pierces her from below with a sharp object. See M70 motif. | 10 | 4 |
| M76 | A person climbing a tree has his leg cut off | A woman cuts off a man's leg when he climbs a tree; a man cuts off a woman's leg when she climbs a tree. See K13A motif. | 5 | 4 |
| M84b3 In M84 family | Eaten and revived goose (Wondrous wondrous). | 2 | 4 | |
| M89a In M89 family | Horned hyena | Only horned animals are allowed to attend the festival. The hyena makes fake horns for itself, exposed. | 5 | 4 |
| M143A In M143 family | Cheese mistaken for the moon, ATU 34. | A character mistakes the reflection of the moon in a body of water for cheese. | 6 | 5 |
| M152f In M152 family | Whose voice is quieter, we will eat. | Animals agree to eat the one among them who has the quietest voice. | 2 | 5 |
| M170b In M170 family | The rim of a vessel on the neck. | A zoomorphic character stuck its head into a vessel, which broke, leaving the rim on its neck. The character uses this as proof of its high status. | 5 | 5 |
| M179b In M179 family | The guest ruined the house, ATU 80. | One zoomorphic character asks another (or a human) to let him in to dry off, warm up, etc. Once inside, he wreaks such havoc on the dwelling that it becomes difficult for the owner to stay there. Usually, in response to reproaches, he says that if the owner doesn't like it, there's the door. | 11 | 5 |
| M201 | Oak and mushroom. | A rapidly growing mushroom (melon) believes that it will soon outgrow the oak tree. The mushroom (pumpkin vine) soon rots, while the oak tree remains standing. | 7 | 5 |
| M29i In M29 family | Trickster - Hawk | See the motives in square brackets. | 13 | 5 |
| M29qq In M29 family | Trickster - Anteater | See the motives in square brackets. | 10 | 5 |
| M38d4 In M38 family | The Hunting Needle, ATU 90 | Several characters that embody small objects (and a squirrel with them) travel together. The needle penetrates the body of a large animal and kills it. (In the Baltic-Finnish texts, the needle first finds items that others find useless, but after the animal was caught, everything found turned out to be in demand for cooking meat). | 4 | 5 |
| M39a2d In M39 family | Meat is planted | Fools plant meat, horns, or bones in the hope of raising animals. | 9 | 5 |
| M3b In M3 family | A severed rabbit tail | Trying to grab a hare, another animal tears off (bites) its tail. It's been short ever since. | 2 | 5 |
| M53f In M53 family | Pretending to be a monster, it eats supplies | The character is involved in preparing food supplies. After leaving under some pretext, he returns in the form of a monster or predator. Everyone runs away, the deceiver eats supplies, and then returns as usual. As a result, it was exposed. | 2 | 5 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.