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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M50 | Next to the stars | The character tries to join a group of stars (usually the Pleiades) or catch up with characters who run away from him and turn into stars; the goal of the persecution is sexual contact or the desire to be reunited with family. | 41 | 55 |
| M110 | The forgotten liver, ATU 91. | Upon learning that it is being transported by water to be eaten, the land animal explains to the transporter that it has forgotten on the shore the organ without which the meat is not tasty, which must be used as medicine, etc. The transporter agrees to return for this organ, and the animal runs away. | 42 | 47 |
| M154a In M154 family | The ox, the donkey and work, ATU 207A. | One of the domestic animals (usually a donkey) persuades another to pretend to be sick. After that, the advisor has to work for both of them. Then he tells the pretend sick animal that the owner is going to slaughter him, and the animal rushes to work. | 42 | 36 |
| M191a In M191 family | Bell on a cat's neck, ATU 110. | Mice decide to hang a bell around a cat's neck or tail so that they will know when it is approaching. Usually, none of the mice are able to do this. | 42 | 26 |
| M198b2 In M198 family | A fortune teller named Grasshopper. | An authoritative character asks a person whose name (or his wife's name) is the name of an insect (most often Grasshopper) to guess what is in his fist (in a box, etc.). The corresponding insect is there. The person says that now he, so-and-so, has been caught, while others think that he has guessed correctly. | 42 | 47 |
| M39a6i In M39 family | The servant hid part of the gift, ATU 875A | A person sends food or things to another and tells the messenger to give the recipient some words that the messenger does not understand. On the way, he stole or ate some of what he was supposed to bring. From the messenger's words, the recipient understands what exactly was transferred and accuses him of stealing. | 42 | 31 |
| M45 | The predator pretends to be dead | When a zoomorphic character falls asleep or pretends to be dead (seriously ill), the animals he usually hunts gather to meet him. He catches or kills them, or they run away at the last minute. | 42 | 57 |
| M46a In M46 family | A picked up baby | The character turns into a baby, is picked up by the owners of valuables, and then steals valuables or converges with a woman. The baby is not a demonic creature and does not intend to kill those who pick it up (cf. Motive L60). | 42 | 53 |
| M8 | A destroyed obstacle | Some characters (not humans) are struggling to break a strong barrier that prevents access to the desired location or to a high-value object. See also M8A - M8D motifs; they are included in the M8 motif in the correlation tables. | 42 | 62 |
| M89 | Melted wax | A character is humiliated after an object or creature made of wax, resin, or excrement that he made himself or that he thought was strong melts warmly, the present. | 42 | 45 |
| M109a1 In M109 family | Head in the dough, ATU 3. | A zoomorphic character smears his head with dough (sour milk, butter, etc.) to make it look as if his brains are spilling out from the beatings. | 43 | 43 |
| M29gg In M29 family | The hedgehog is a cunning winner | hedgehog defeats or deceives strong opponents by cunning. | 43 | 79 |
| M99 | The threat to exterminate birds, AA 981.1. | The character is going to abuse all birds or (less commonly) animals, but after hearing wise advice, he abandons his intention. | 43 | 61 |
| M12 | The unlucky hunter. | Unable, unwilling or unable to obtain game (fish), the hunter (fisherman) cuts flesh from his own body, removes his own entrails and collects his blood. He usually offers this to others under the guise of animal meat or fish. Alternatively, a woman cuts flesh from her own leg to feed her husband. | 44 | 48 |
| M135b In M135 family | The wolf regrets his own stupidity. | The wolf (rarely a bear, jackal, or fox) approaches various domestic animals in order to eat them, but, agreeing to fulfil their request, remains hungry and usually beaten, and in conclusion blames himself ("Am I a mullah to read?" etc.). In the Persian version, the fox tells him this. | 44 | 49 |
| M141b In M141 family | Animals flee from the end of the world, ATU 20C. | An insignificant event (a falling leaf, acorn, etc.) is taken by an animal as the beginning of a catastrophe (the end of the world, war, the falling of the sky, etc.) and it flees. Other animals join the fleeing animal. | 44 | 39 |
| M199c In M199 family | Whoever throws the club higher, ATU 1063. | A person pretends to throw or is about to throw an object somewhere from which it cannot be retrieved (often into the sky, the clouds, or the sea). The opponent asks them not to do so and to stop the contest. | 44 | 65 |
| M38c In M38 family | Converting old to young, ATU 753 | blacksmith (supposedly) forges a person, rejuvenating or revitalizing him. | 44 | 43 |
| M39e1 In M39 family | Iron eaten and boy kidnapped, ATU 1592, 1592A | A person appropriates property. The owner or his assistant puts the kidnapper in such a position that he is forced to return everything (usually the victim kidnaps the child of the deceiver). {Apparently, all references in Ting 1978 do not refer to Chinese, but to Tibetans; Uther 2004 refers to the Dagestan text in Levin 1978, No. 52, but it is not clear which group we are talking about; there is also a deaf reference to the “Code of Japanese fairy tales - Tsukan”, it needs to be checked}. | 44 | 36 |
| M106e In M106 family | For a long winter, ATU 1541. | A man says that provisions have been made for the winter, in case of need, etc. In the absence of the owner, a man enters the house and claims that his name is Winter (Ramadan, Necessity, etc.). The woman thinks that her husband meant this man and gives him all the provisions. | 45 | 35 |
| M114d In M114 family | Boiled eggs: eaten a year ago, ATU 821B. | A man eats boiled eggs and leaves without paying. Much later, he returns to repay his debt. The owner demands payment for the chickens that would have hatched from those eggs, become hens, laid eggs themselves, and so on. Someone comes to court and pretends to be boiling seeds for sowing. The judge agrees that chickens cannot hatch from boiled eggs. | 45 | 30 |
| M156a In M156 family | Answering objects. | A dangerous animal is about to kill a human or another animal that helped it. The predator and its prey agree to ask passers-by (people walking or sailing by) which of them is right. Among those who respond are inanimate objects (most often trees). | 45 | 58 |
| M157a6 In M157 family | You think you are looking at an abbot, ATU 922. | To help a person answer the ruler's questions, a servant or friend impersonates him and gives witty answers. Most often, the ruler asks, among other things, what he is thinking at the moment. Answer: you think you are looking at one person, but in fact it is another. | 45 | 41 |
| M161 | Dog in a bag. | A character gives another a sack that is supposed to contain food, but in fact contains a dog; or frees a girl (boy) from a sack or chest and replaces her with a dog or other dangerous animal. The animal attacks the person who opened the sack. | 45 | 68 |
| M162 | Eats his own entrails, ATU 21. | The character pretends to eat his own entrails or flesh. Others believe him and kill themselves (or allow themselves to be killed). | 45 | 49 |
| 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 |
| M199d In M199 family | Competition with the devil in wrestling and running, ATU 1071, 1072. | A man and his opponent agree to compete in wrestling and running. The man sends his "relatives" – a bear and a hare – to compete in his place. (ATU numbers 1071 and 1072 are combined, as they are almost always paired.) | 45 | 59 |
| M84a In M84 family | A revived goat | After supernatural characters put the bones of a dead and eaten deer, cow, ram, or goat in its skin, the animal is whole (and usually comes to life). See M84 motif. | 45 | 41 |
| M197a In M197 family | The big cauldron gave birth to a small one, ATU 1592B. | A man took a cauldron (pot) and returned it with a small cauldron. The owner of the cauldron agreed that the big cauldron gave birth to a small one. The next time, the man did not return the cauldron: he died. The owner had to agree. | 46 | 35 |
| M200 | The old donkey carries the young one, ATU 1215. | An old man and a boy set off on a journey, taking a donkey with them. They try all the options: only the old man rides the donkey, only the boy rides the donkey, both ride together, both walk alongside the donkey, they drag the donkey behind them. Each time, people make unflattering comments. | 46 | 18 |
| M75b In M75 family | The animal in the carcass was carried away by a bird | A person hides in the skin or carcass of a large animal. A bird brings a skin or carcass to the nest without knowing what it brought the person. | 46 | 45 |
| M91c5 In M91 family | Unprofitable sale, ATU 1551 | The person himself or his little son goes to the bazaar to sell a cow (or another large pet). The crook convinces him that it is a sheep (or another animal that is smaller and cheaper). Each of the crook's friends confirms the score or gives an even lower grade. A man at a loss sells a cow for the price of a sheep. | 46 | 30 |
| M199b In M199 family | He did not throw a stone, but released a bird, ATU 1062. | A man and his opponent agree to test their strength by throwing a stone. The opponent throws the stone, and the man releases a bird he had hidden beforehand. The bird does not return, and the opponent admits defeat. | 47 | 36 |
| M28 | Icarus(failed flight on artificial wings), K1041.1. | When able to take off, the character takes off but falls or stays in a remote place from where he can no longer take off. | 47 | 82 |
| M44b In M44 family | Food thieves are women | The character discovers that someone is stealing game or fish from his trap, mountain, etc. or ravages his garden, vegetable garden, field; he or his messengers wait and catch the thief. The kidnappers are women, or the aquatic animal is the kidnapper, but when caught, it gives the hero a woman. | 47 | 62 |
| M49a In M49 family | A substituted shaman | hero needs to penetrate unnoticed into the locus of dangerous creatures; he meets an old woman (usually a shaman, a doctor) going there, puts on her skin, and penetrates into dangerous ones in her guise creatures. | 47 | 84 |
| M16 | The healed cripple. | The wife or relatives (often the mother) of the sick person do not care for him. He recovers, and those who treated him badly are punished. Cf. motifs F62 and F96. | 48 | 80 |
| M39a3 In M39 family | Did he have horns? ATU (1381B), 1600 | fool kills a man, throws him into a pond, well, etc. A clever man throws a goat there. A fool searches for a corpse in the pond, asks if the victim had horns, etc. Everyone is obviously crazy, and the murder charge has been denied. {The Buryat and Yakut versions may be recent Russian borrowings. The ATU 1581B definition also includes an episode where a human corpse was replaced with a goat carcass, but most of the texts that have been verified do not contain this motive}. | 48 | 51 |
| M60b In M60 family | Imaginary doctor: finishing off the victim | The deceiver, promising to cure a wounded or sick person, finishes him off and eats him or offers a remedy that is only worse for him. | 48 | 92 |
| M91c3 In M91 family | The postman hare | A person releases an animal or a bird - supposedly with his wife instructing his wife to cook food, etc. Another does not understand deception and buys an animal. | 48 | 55 |
| M134c In M134 family | Having eaten his fill in the storeroom, he cannot get out, ATU 41. | A zoomorphic character climbs into a cellar (pantry, garden, etc.) and eats so much that he cannot get out. | 49 | 45 |
| M130c In M130 family | The Lion and the Mouse, ATU 75. | When a lion (tiger, bear, elephant, human) is trapped, a mouse or rat frees it (usually by gnawing through the ropes). | 50 | 33 |
| M136a In M136 family | Carrying light in bags, ATU 1245. | People try to bring light, darkness, smoke, etc. into or out of a room. | 50 | 35 |
| M149 | Say that I am a stump, ATU 154. | A strong enemy is ready to kill the hero (a human or a weak animal). Someone, seemingly unaware of this, loudly announces that the hero's enemy is being sought in order to kill him. The hero is saved. Usually, the enemy asks not to be betrayed, saying that he is a stump, a log, etc. This allows him to be treated as such – thrown, chopped, etc. (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). | 50 | 68 |
| M45a In M45 family | The old man and the beasts | A person is sleeping or pretending to be asleep or dead. Animals take him for a dead man - they mourn him, carry him to bury him, they are going to eat it, etc. A person beats the crowd and/or obtains benefits. | 50 | 73 |
| M75c In M75 family | Treasures on the mountain, ATU 936 | A person is offered to climb a rock or tree to get treasures. A return descent is not possible. Doomed to death, the hero remains alive. | 50 | 51 |
| M39a6g In M39 family | Six loaves (four coins), ATU 921A, Th H585.1. | person explains that he lends part of his earnings, and pays the debt in the other part, i.e. raises children and supports parents. | 51 | 30 |
| M39f In M39 family | There was a hat, a head - I don't remember, ATU 1225 | A fool is left headless (usually trying to get into a bear's den). When asked whether the deceased had a head, wife or someone else, they say that there was a hat (beard), but they definitely do not remember the head. | 51 | 34 |
| M8a In M8 family | Birds are hammering the rock: release from the trap | Animals, and more often birds, find it difficult to break through a rock from the outside or inside, make a hole in the tree, in the body of an absorber creature, tear fetters, etc., to help a character or get out of the confined space by yourself. The list includes groups whose texts deal with the exit of the first ancestors to earth from a confined space. | 51 | 80 |
| M109b In M109 family | The beaten one carries the unbeaten one, ATU 4. | A weaker character convinces a stronger one that he feels even worse than he does. Usually, the stronger one agrees to carry him on his back. | 52 | 54 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.