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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 ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M148 | Agreeing to be eaten. | One zoomorphic character asks another to agree to be eaten – usually saying that he will be resurrected and compensated for the inconvenience caused. The animal agrees. | 19 | 20 |
| M17 | A woman lies, pretending that a man has missed his target. | A wife, mother or grandmother directs the arrow of a blind man or boy at game, lies that he missed, cooks and eats the meat herself. See motif M16 (man is blind, K333.1). | 34 | 20 |
| M171b In M171 family | A shoulder blade without meat. | The character pretends to have brought meat on a shoulder blade and gives it to the hosts to cook. Taking a bare bone without meat out of the pot, he accuses the hosts of stealing the meat. | 16 | 20 |
| M19 | Bait man. | The character ties another person (usually a child) to the end of a line, using them as bait or forcing them to catch fish with their hands. | 16 | 20 |
| M193 | Rolling home. | To avoid predators (suitors) on the way back, the character climbs inside a pumpkin, a round cauldron, etc. and rolls down the road or walks, disguised beyond recognition. | 15 | 20 |
| M20 | Severed beak, J2138. | The character does something unacceptable, is caught, and his beak or jaw is damaged. Usually (except for the Koryaks), people keep the torn-off beak (jaw) in their homes, and the character comes and takes it back. | 15 | 20 |
| M48 | The trickster turns into a bison | Trickster asks another zoomorphic character to turn him into a creature of his kind, but if he breaks the condition for transformation, he becomes himself again. Usually, a trickster asks a bison or elk to turn it into a bison or elk. The bison (elk) rushes to the trickster, which bounces off in fear. The next time the trickster stays in place, metamorphoses, but regains its former appearance after trying to turn another trickster into a bison, etc. | 13 | 20 |
| M6 | Night with a partridge | A young man or girl spends night in the forest. The forest partridge (Tinamus sp.) provides him or her a fire, a shelter and/or a hammock but takes them away and flies away itself when the person does something wrong | 11 | 20 |
| M81a In M81 family | Vivid female ducks | The hero meets two blind women and makes them sighted. These women are birds (geese, ducks, hazel grouses, partridges). | 13 | 20 |
| M86 | The boulder punishes the offender | A rock stalks or otherwise punishes a character when he unfairly insults her (usually takes away her property, see motive L33). | 21 | 20 |
| M91d In M91 family | The drowned shaman | The character deceives others by passing off the dead as alive, directing suspicions of murder to innocent people, etc. When a shaman (less often a shaman) is ready to discover the truth, he succeeds in it kill and avoid being charged with murder. | 18 | 20 |
| M94a In M94 family | Mountain riding: antagonist victims | The demonic character kills his victims, provoking them to slide down the mountain. | 11 | 20 |
| M106c In M106 family | My name is "Guest". | Telling his companions that his name is "Guest," "For Guests," etc., the character appropriates the food intended for all who have come. | 16 | 21 |
| M114b3 In M114 family | Clothing made from a bundle of flax and a loom made from three sticks. | When a girl is asked to weave clothes, given a negligible amount of yarn, she asks in return to make her weaving tools from sticks, twigs, straw, etc. | 21 | 21 |
| M182a1 In M182 family | Animals redeem themselves, ATU 159. | A man catches several wild animals and releases them on the promise that they will bring gifts or prove useful. The animals fulfil their promise. | 17 | 21 |
| M188 | Jackal in the dyeing workshop. | The character is honoured after accidentally acquiring an unusual appearance – getting paint on himself or attaching an object to himself that he cannot remove. | 17 | 21 |
| M39a5b In M39 family | Fish in the furrow, ATU 1381A | The wife throws fish into the furrows or into the beds. My husband believes that the fish ended up there on its own, he is mistaken for a madman. | 27 | 21 |
| M84b1 In M84 family | A trip to the land of fish | A person enters a country from where fish come to people (and comes back). | 14 | 21 |
| M97a2 In M97 family | The blind man asks the trees to get to the water. | 16 | 21 | |
| M153a In M153 family | The Washed Pig, ATU 122G(1). | A predator is about to eat a human or herbivorous animal. The intended victim asks to be allowed to wash first, and as a result is saved. (Among the Transylvanian Saxons, this involves being baptised with water). | 23 | 22 |
| M181a In M181 family | Fire at sunset. | The character believes that unattainable natural objects are accessible cultural objects. Usually agrees to go after fire upon seeing a red sunset, fireflies, etc. | 17 | 22 |
| m187d In m187 family | Race: turtle (toad) - participant. | Participating in a race, the turtle or frog (toad) defeats its faster opponent. See motif M183. | 45 | 22 |
| M191b In M191 family | The snake will not forget its severed tail, ATU 285A. | A man does good (does no harm) to a snake (fish, lion) and benefits from it. His son (less often someone else or himself) wounds the snake (usually cuts off its tail) and, if it is his son, dies from the bite. The snake refuses to continue its relationship with the man, and neither of them will forget their loss. | 35 | 22 |
| M198a4 In M198 family | Who is nobler? ATU 976. | Those who listened to the story must answer who they liked more: the husband who let his wife go to another man after the wedding, the robber who did not harm her, or the man who immediately sent her back to her husband. | 18 | 22 |
| M198b4 In M198 family | The imaginary fortune teller: names of thieves. | The fake fortune teller, expecting to be exposed, utters words that reflect his state of mind. The thieves standing nearby perceive some of the words as their names, believe that the fortune teller has found out about them, and ask him not to reveal them. | 19 | 22 |
| M29z3 In M29 family | Gypsy - opponent and loser | The Gipsy (more often a female than a male) is an enemy overcome by the hero (heroine) or (rare) a weak failure | 25 | 22 |
| M39e1a In M39 family | Mice ate iron, ATU 1592, 1592A | The character claims that the mice ate iron (gold). | 27 | 22 |
| M75b4 In M75 family | The Trojan horse: getting a woman | To master a woman, the hero hides inside the hollow figure of a horse (bull, deer) or in an animal carcass. The character guarding the woman takes her to her. The hero gets outside and becomes a woman's lover. Or a woman hides inside the figure of a horse, which is taken to the man's chambers. | 35 | 22 |
| M101 | Who is afraid of what (the fox and the bear). | The bear tells the fox (rarely the sable or the wolf) that he is not afraid of people (usually saying that he is afraid of flying partridges). After trying to attack people, he is killed or wounded. Cf. motif M101A. | 11 | 23 |
| M130a In M130 family | Bird saves deer, ATU 239. | A trickster lures an animal into a hunter's trap. Another animal advises the victim to pretend to be dead and helps it escape. | 24 | 23 |
| M171c In M171 family | In exchange for a thorn, ATU 2034F. | At the request of a character, another character removes a thorn from his body (cuts off the tip of his tail, etc.). The thorn (tip of the tail) disappears, or when it is removed, the character is wounded. As a result, he receives something more valuable than what he has lost. | 20 | 23 |
| M187b In M187 family | Harvest to the fastest runner. | Two animal characters agree to give the harvest from the field they have cultivated together to the one who runs faster than the other. | 19 | 23 |
| M198a1 In M198 family | Elder: round, middle: hard, younger: nut! | Three characters sequentially and without apparent reason determine the characteristics of an object or person they have not seen. | 28 | 23 |
| M199l In M199 family | Convinces the enemy that he can fly (ATU 1098*). | When the giant blew, sneezed, etc., or let go of the bent tree on which the man was sitting, the man was thrown far away. The man says that he did it of his own free will (to show how he can fly, to repair the roof, etc.). | 18 | 23 |
| M38b2 In M38 family | Three daughters-in-law at the king's feast | Each of the three brothers comes to his father with his wife (fiancée). The younger brother or his fiancée is considered worthless, but the girl turns out to be a sorceress and surpasses the brides of her older brothers in everything. | 16 | 23 |
| M53d In M53 family | Imaginary enemies | The character pretends to be enemies coming; when people run away in fear, the character takes what the deceived people owned. | 19 | 23 |
| M5b In M5 family | An Ungrateful Rat | rat drowns, has difficulty getting to the shore (usually an aquatic animal takes it), and mocks other animals (usually its savior). | 21 | 23 |
| M71 | Selected piece of wood | A character (usually carried away by a river or fallen from a height) turns into a piece of wood. Someone is picking it up. The character then takes on his true form, usually in the absence of the hosts. | 17 | 23 |
| M74ab In M74 family | The fox is in the boat | Travelling in a boat or on a sledge, animal person (always the fox) steals food supplies or ruins objects and accordingly to his deeds, names different places. These names seem strange to the person’s companions (“River of broken arrows” and the like) | 17 | 23 |
| M78f In M78 family | Substituted embryo | When a woman falls asleep, a joker (usually a tiny boy) places an embryo or the entrails of an animal or something similar next to her to make the woman herself or others think she has a miscarriage or that her viscera has fallen out. | 21 | 23 |
| M91c6 In M91 family | The hat pays the bills, (ATU 1539) | A person sells a hat to others, convincing them that it pays the bill, you just have to lift it up (throw it on the floor, etc.). He actually paid the innkeeper in advance. | 21 | 23 |
| M111 | Monkey on a banana. | Two animals (usually a monkey and a turtle) agree to gather fruit. The one who can climb trees eats the good fruit and throws one peel or rotten fruit to its companion. The companion takes revenge. | 20 | 24 |
| M163b In M163 family | Inheritance brings good luck. | A father leaves his son (each of his sons) something of little value as an inheritance. The son goes to a country where such objects or animals are unknown and sells what he has received for a large sum of money. | 23 | 24 |
| M179a In M179 family | The master is driven out of the house. | One character deceives another or, in the absence of the other, occupies his dwelling and refuses to return it. | 21 | 24 |
| M199g1 In M199 family | Hold on to the handle, ATU 1052. | A human (a weaker animal) deceives a strong giant (a demon, a stronger animal). One of the episodes: both carry a tree, the strong man takes hold of the top (by the crown), the man supposedly takes hold of the crown (by the top), but instead sits on the tree carried by the strong man or walks along pretending to support the branches. | 30 | 24 |
| M29f In M29 family | Wolverine is a loser and a loser | As a result of its stupidity or antisocial behavior, the wolverine dies or suffers damage. See the motives in square brackets. | 30 | 24 |
| M33 | Sealed anus | The character plugs or seals his anus tightly (with wax, clay, grass, etc.), or someone else does it. See M32 motif. | 23 | 24 |
| M39a4e In M39 family | A fool sells property to a tree | Fool sells property to a tree (stump, pole, a cross in the countryside) and believes that it will pay him. Trying to get his money, he finds treasure | 21 | 24 |
| M39a6f In M39 family | Sell and return the sheep | The father tells his son to sell the sheep (goat) and return it along with the proceeds. Usually a girl teaches how to sell trimmed wool. | 24 | 24 |
| M39g1 In M39 family | Jump into pants, ATU 1286 | fool does not pull pants or boots over his feet, but jumps in them from above. | 32 | 24 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.