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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M81d In M81 family | Healed blind people | A person meets (most often in the sky) one or two blind people and restores their sight. | 34 | 44 |
| M135 | Two Rams and a Wolf, ATU 122K*. | Two ungulates – usually after the wolf agrees to share the meadow between them – gore the predator from both sides, killing or maiming it. | 35 | 28 |
| M157a3 In M157 family | The demand to milk the bull. | A character demands that another provide him with offspring or milk from a male animal. | 35 | 42 |
| M164 | Traces in one direction, ATU 50A. | The character refuses to enter the predator's lair when he sees that all the tracks lead inside, but not outside. | 35 | 30 |
| M177 | And he had no heart, ATU 52. | A weak predator eats part of its victim's body and explains to the strong one that this part did not exist at all (otherwise he would not have come to a place where he knew he would be eaten). | 35 | 31 |
| M187c In M187 family | Race: crab/crayfish – participant. | Participating in a race, the crab defeats its faster opponent. | 35 | 41 |
| 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 |
| M29v In M29 family | The dwarf deer is a cunning winner | The character defeats or deceives strong opponents using cunning. The protagonists are dwarf ungulates, usually duker or deer - taxonomically distant from each other, but similar in appearance. In some publications on African traditions, it is difficult to determine which animal we are talking about, but it is certain that these are small cloven-hoofed animals, usually (always?) dukers. See the motives in square brackets. | 35 | 35 |
| M38b In M38 family | Silly wives imitate a sorceress, ATU 898 | The first wife, rejected or taken later than others, performs certain actions with the help of magic. Other wives try to imitate her but are killed, maimed, or disgraced. | 35 | 32 |
| M38d2 In M38 family | Coal, straw, bob by the river, ATU 295 | Several characters (usually three), which are small objects, go traveling and must cross the river. This fails. | 35 | 25 |
| M39a8 In M39 family | Drops a door from a tree, (ATU 1653) | A fool drags the door from the house with him (usually raises it to a tree and drops it, scaring the crowd under the tree). | 35 | 48 |
| 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 |
| M137 | A weak predator imitates a strong one, ATU 47D. | A weaker predator tries to imitate a stronger one, but cannot perform the actions that the strong one performs easily. | 36 | 32 |
| M142 | The Punished Tail, ATU 154. | A zoomorphic character accuses his tail of hindering his escape from pursuit (usually punishes it and dies as a result). (ATU data not entered; plot 154 includes several independent motifs; which of them are present in the traditions referred to by ATU cannot be determined without referring to the original sources). | 36 | 46 |
| M197e In M197 family | Unknown beast, ATU 1091. | A man smears himself with resin, rolls around in feathers, crawls backwards on all fours, lets his hair down, etc. The demon thinks he is facing an unknown beast. The man escapes. | 36 | 38 |
| M93 | Part of the body as a watchman | When falling asleep or going to do something else, the character tells a certain part of his body to wake him up in case of danger. The organ did not give a signal or the character himself did not listen to it, as a result, the misfortune happened. | 36 | 52 |
| M101b In M101 family | Man past, future, present, ATU 157. | A large predator wants to see a human being. First, it meets a child and learns that this is a future human being, then an old man – a former human being. The encounter with a present human being (a hunter, a soldier) ends badly for the beast. | 37 | 33 |
| M128 | Colourful animals, ATU 1036. | Having agreed with his opponent that he would get animals with certain external characteristics or behaving in a certain way, the hero takes all or almost all of them when the livestock is divided. | 37 | 31 |
| M150 | The deceitful shepherd. | Having taken on the task of herding a flock, the character eats the animals entrusted to him. | 37 | 44 |
| M160 | Offence by word and deed, ATU 159B. | A strong wild beast and a man become friends. The man breaks a promise he made to the beast or speaks contemptuously of it. The beast asks to be physically hurt and says that the insult inflicted by words is more painful (the wound on the body has healed, but the wound on the soul has not; or the beast dies of grief). | 37 | 27 |
| M176 | Test: jumping over an obstacle. | The characters agree to jump over a ditch, stream, fire, etc., or walk across a log, rope, etc. One or all of them {specified in brackets} fall. | 37 | 46 |
| M198a3 In M198 family | Who stole the ruby? | One of the brothers secretly takes valuables belonging to all of them or is illegitimate. The brothers come to an authoritative figure to determine who is the thief or illegitimate child. Usually, the figure tells a story and determines the culprit based on the reaction of those who have come. | 37 | 34 |
| M29a1 In M29 family | Raven(s) - main trickster | In three or more different episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is raven (crow) | 37 | 39 |
| M38c1 In M38 family | Converting old to young: an unsuccessful imitation, ATU 753 | The character (supposedly) forges a person, rejuvenating or reviving him, the other unsuccessfully tries to imitate him. | 37 | 42 |
| M39a6h In M39 family | Pluck a goose, ATU 921F* | The king tells the commoner to pluck a goose (geese, shear a ram, etc.). He understands correctly: to rob the vizier. | 37 | 41 |
| M39a8a In M39 family | Drops a heavy object from a tree | A fool or buffoon climbs a tree taking a heavy objects with him and then drops it frightening those who are under the tree | 37 | 46 |
| M39i In M39 family | The Hangman's Treasure, ATU 910D | After going broke, a person decides to hang himself, but finds gold (specially put by the father where his son hangs). | 37 | 24 |
| M57d1 In M57 family | Donor Bird | bird consistently gives a person magical objects (or gives one, with which he receives the rest) or consistently fulfills his wishes. | 37 | 56 |
| M146 | The wolf was lured into a trap, ATU 35B*. | Knowing that the meat is in a trap or poisoned, or that there is a trap ahead, a zoomorphic character provokes another to try the meat first or to go ahead. | 38 | 44 |
| M165 | A coat for a wolf, ATU 102. | One zoomorphic character promises another to sew a coat (boots), asks him to bring sheep, eats them, and does not sew anything. | 38 | 46 |
| M173a In M173 family | Returning for the second boot (ATU 1525D). | A character throws one of a pair of objects onto the path of another. The traveller passes by, but when the deceiver throws the second object, he leaves his belongings and returns for the first. At this time, the deceiver steals the belongings. | 38 | 39 |
| M52 | Mascara fresheners | The character (by deception) kills an ungulates. He asks another to refresh the carcass, looks for a knife to do it, or a fire to fry the meat. The other freshens the carcass, gives fire or a knife, but takes or tries to take all the meat for himself. | 38 | 44 |
| M60 | Imaginary physician: finished off enemy, K824, K1955 | After injuring a demon (robber), the hero goes to his locus. There he, or (rarely) his assistant, pretends to be a doctor and finishes off an opponent. | 38 | 64 |
| M14 | Brutal murder of wife or son. | A man brutally murders his wife (rarely: children, fiancée, sister) and/or eats her flesh himself, or brings her flesh to her relatives (if he kills children, he brings the flesh to his wife). | 39 | 62 |
| M178 | The Lying Goat, ATU 212. | The owner successively sends others to graze the goat (herd of goats). The goat eats grass to its heart's content, but each time replies to the owner that it has been kept on a starvation diet. The owner is outraged and kills or drives away the shepherds. Convinced of the goat's deceitfulness, he decides to kill it. Either the owner begins to skin the live goat, or the goat runs away. In most versions, both motifs are combined. | 39 | 36 |
| M191 | Cat and wild animals, ATU 103A, 103A*. | The fox (dog, squirrel) lives with the cat and pretends to be a strong beast; forest predators are frightened and bring meat to appease the cat. | 39 | 38 |
| m195c In m195 family | The clever or lucky person solves riddles. | People of high status cannot determine the hidden difference between two or more outwardly similar objects or beings, or between two sides of the same object or being. Thanks to their own intelligence or chance, a person of low status does so. | 39 | 53 |
| M206 | Half of the reward, ATU 1610. | A guard (nobleman) agrees to let a man pass to an authoritative figure on condition that he gives him half of the expected reward. The man asks for a beating as a reward or expected it from the outset. | 39 | 19 |
| M29o1 In M29 family | A monkey is a loser and a loser | As a result of its stupidity or antisocial behavior, the monkey dies or suffers damage. See the motives in square brackets. | 39 | 25 |
| M3 | Human chain | The character crosses a water or air barrier on the backs of chained animals, birds, or fish. | 39 | 69 |
| M138 | The lifespan of humans and animals, ATU 173. | At first, everyone was given 20 or 30 years. For animals, this is a long time, but for humans, it is short. Humans received part of the lifespan of animals. | 40 | 31 |
| M199k In M199 family | Digging a well, ATU 1049. | A giant sends a man to fetch water, giving him a huge wineskin. The man cannot carry so much water, but he gets out of the situation with a trick (he pretends that he wants to bring the whole well at once; that he has already brought the water and drunk it all himself; etc.). | 40 | 50 |
| M25 | A holiday in heaven, K1041 | To take part in a festival in heaven or visit a deity, a flightless character manages to climb high into the sky. He usually cannot go down the same way, falls and as a result dies, maims or metamorphoses. | 40 | 64 |
| M39a6 In M39 family | Misunderstood instructions: shorten the road | During the journey, a person allegorically asks someone else to say something, sing, etc., so that time on the road passes faster. He understands instructions literally by doing ridiculous actions. | 40 | 48 |
| M46b In M46 family | A born infant | The character turns into a tiny object or creature, swallowing or touching which a woman (usually a virgin) becomes pregnant and gives birth to a boy. He steals valuables or gets along with a woman. See M46 motif. | 40 | 45 |
| M81e In M81 family | Don't herd cattle on giant land, ATU 314A, 321 | young man undertakes to herd cattle and is warned not to cross the borders of a giant, dragon, witch, etc. The young man violates the ban and kills a giant. | 40 | 47 |
| M114b1 In M114 family | What is the fattest, sweetest, fastest? | When answering the question of what is the sweetest (fattest, fastest, etc.), a clever person names abstract concepts and entities (while a foolish person names specific objects or creatures). | 41 | 42 |
| M136 | The Unknown Sickle, ATU 1202. | Some people do not know what to do with cutting tools; they try to use tools that are not suitable for these purposes instead. | 41 | 49 |
| M29X2 In M29 family | Trickster other creatures | See the motives in square brackets. | 41 | 28 |
| M46d In M46 family | The child asks for a toy | A small child cries and calms down only after being given a valuable item hidden in the house to play with. After receiving an item, a child or an associated character takes it away. | 41 | 75 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.