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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M29m In M29 family | The Trickster is the Rat | See the motives in square brackets. | 22 | 8 |
| M74 | Regurgitated food | A weak character regurgitates previously swallowed unusual food, or replaces his belching with a strong character's belching, or interprets his secretions as remains strong animals he ate. The strong believe that the weak are strong or have unusual abilities. | 22 | 27 |
| M80 | The partridge scares the offender, K932 | The character insults a partridge bird, kills or offends its chickens; the partridge suddenly takes off in front of the offender, he falls (usually into a lake or river). | 22 | 27 |
| M112a In M112 family | The turtle catches the thief. | Animals take turns guarding water or food or using water. The deceiver takes what he needs or prevents others from doing so. The turtle, toad or frog proves to be more cunning than the deceiver and catches him. See motif M112. | 23 | 14 |
| M123c In M123 family | Unsuccessful flight south. | A non-migratory bird sets off south with migratory birds, but is unable to reach its destination. | 23 | 27 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| M167a In M167 family | The tiger frightened by Twilight. | A strong predator mistakes an unfamiliar word for the name of a creature that is stronger than him and flees. | 23 | 34 |
| 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 |
| M39a7 In M39 family | Misunderstood instructions: washing with boiling water, ATU 1013 | When instructed to wash the old man with warm water, the fool steams him with boiling water. | 23 | 14 |
| M123 | The raven marries the goose. | A bird of prey or scavenger (raven, owl, hawk, coyote) marries (or attempts to marry) a partner who (or whose brothers) are geese or other waterfowl. The marriage is disrupted or proves unsuccessful. | 24 | 33 |
| 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 |
| M152b In M152 family | The brave donkey and the cowardly lion, ATU 103C*. | When seeing a herbivorous ungulate (usually a donkey) for the first time, a large predator thinks that it is strong and dangerous. The herbivore's subsequent behaviour usually convinces the predator that its first impression was correct. | 24 | 25 |
| M195a In M195 family | Where is the upper end of the stick? | A character sends a long object that either looks the same at both ends or is inside a small object, and asks which end of the object is the top and which is the bottom. The guesser gives the correct answer. | 24 | 31 |
| M24 | The turtle is going to war | turtle goes to war and/or is captured. See M23 motif. Cf. motif K77 “Verlioka”. | 24 | 31 |
| M39a6a In M39 family | Clever daughter-in-law and captive khan | After a long search, the ruler finds an intelligent wife for his son. At the mercy of his enemies, he sends a message with one of them, the true content of which is understood only by his daughter-in-law. She destroys enemies and frees her father-in-law. (The boys have a younger wife instead of an intelligent daughter-in-law). | 24 | 38 |
| 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 |
| M42a In M42 family | Berry eyes | The character (usually after losing his own eyes) inserts seeds or berries into his eye sockets and sees again. | 24 | 30 |
| M66 | The root eaten, J2154 | After eating certain foods frivolously or rubbing his body with his spine, the character suffers from itching, diarrhea, or an irrepressible eruption of intestinal gases. | 24 | 34 |
| M87 | In a house where you can't see the owners | The character comes to a place that is abandoned or seems to have been abandoned by the inhabitants. He tries to take or touch things, but invisible owners prevent him from doing so, or the things themselves hurt him. | 24 | 30 |
| M99a In M99 family | Bird bone house, ATU 984 | The character is going to build a house (tower, etc.) from the bones or feathers of birds. | 24 | 28 |
| M100 | Dream on the edge of a cliff, ATU 10***. | Zoomorphic characters lie down to sleep on the edge of a cliff. At night, one of them suggests moving (turning), and his companion (companions) falls and breaks. | 25 | 43 |
| M102 | Without a head and a leg. | The character believes that another has temporarily separated his head or leg from himself, asks to do the same to him, and dies or is maimed. | 25 | 31 |
| M195 | Two horses: which one is older? | The character must guess which of the two horses or cows is older. He does this by knowing the behavioural characteristics of these animals. | 25 | 36 |
| M29l In M29 family | Trickster - Possum | See the motives in square brackets. | 25 | 7 |
| M29p In M29 family | Trickster vs Spider | See the motives in square brackets. | 25 | 37 |
| 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 |
| M57d2 In M57 family | The tree makes wishes come true | The man was about to cut down a tree. It himself, or the creature living on it or in it, asks not to do so and fulfills the person's wishes. | 25 | 32 |
| M57d3 In M57 family | Wind donor | A person receives a reward from a character who is associated with the wind. Cf. Motive K175 (“The wind carried away the flour”). | 25 | 29 |
| M114d1 In M114 family | Boiled eggs: by morning there should be chicks. | The character demands that chicks be hatched (from boiled eggs), a chicken be raised, and it be cooked within a day. Another character responds with equally absurd demands. | 26 | 26 |
| M127b In M127 family | Jug on a tail, ATU 68A. | A character attaches a vessel or part of a vessel to their body, lowers it into the water, and the vessel pulls them along. | 26 | 29 |
| M38a1 In M38 family | Imitates relatives or wives, ATU 552B, J2411.3. | The character imitates the sisters' sons-in-law or husbands, or the wife's brothers (shoshone's) or wives (comox and chalkomel). {ATU combines a motive with another}. | 26 | 36 |
| M39a6c In M39 family | The Tsar Craftsman | The poor girl agrees to marry the prince only if he learns a craft. The prince fulfills the condition, then falls into the hands of enemies. He promises to make them an expensive item, let them sell it. His wife or (father, vizier) learns the job, the prisoner is released, the attackers are executed. | 26 | 29 |
| M39aa In M39 family | Misunderstood instructions: a play on words | 26 | 29 | |
| M42b In M42 family | Resin eyes | After losing his eyes, the character makes new ones out of resin or wax, sees again (often this is an episode on the way to finding good eyes, while tar eyes do not see well). | 26 | 32 |
| M46e In M46 family | The Sun is a Toy | They (promise to) give a child the Sun (and or the Moon) to play with | 26 | 59 |
| M158a In M158 family | Harvest sharing, ATU 9. | Two animal characters work together on a plot of land. During field work, one of them is lazy (imposing his imaginary services on the other) and then demands (most of) the harvest for himself. | 27 | 29 |
| M30d In M30 family | Holds to a stick carried by birds, ATU 225A | To get into the air, a character without wings (usually a turtle or a frog) grabs a stick with the ends held in their beaks by two birds. | 27 | 33 |
| 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 |
| M39e1a In M39 family | Mice ate iron, ATU 1592, 1592A | The character claims that the mice ate iron (gold). | 27 | 22 |
| M44c In M44 family | Food thieves are a young hero | A young hero steals the older character's food. He is usually caught, but not punished, but invited into the house. | 27 | 38 |
| M7 | Waiting for transport | The character goes to the lower world, to the sky, to the country on the horizon, etc. and waits for someone to give him a ride to his goal. Usually, some animals/birds or celestial bodies follow by, and the last (often the Sun or Month) delivers. | 27 | 46 |
| M81c In M81 family | Blind people in the sky | A person goes to heaven or (rarely) to the lower world, where he meets blind people (one or two), usually makes them sighted, and returns to earth himself. | 27 | 38 |
| M81e1 In M81 family | A young man returns sight to old people, ATU 321 | A young man lives with an old man whose eyes or eyes were carried away by a giant. The young man goes to the giant, kills him, brings his eyes, the old man sees the light. | 27 | 25 |
| M114a In M114 family | Stone coat. | The character is offered to sew clothes or shoes from stone or iron, or to remove the skin from the stone. | 28 | 34 |
| M114j In M114 family | All women are the same, ATU 983. | A woman does not refuse those who harass her, but calmly explains that there is no point in trying to possess many, since they are all the same (they differ no more than eggs painted in different colours). | 28 | 16 |
| M144 | The King's Drum, ATU 49A. | One character manages to convince another that dangerous and inedible objects are attractive and delicious (a wasp's nest is a drum, a snake is a flute, dung is a delicacy, etc.). | 28 | 41 |
| M181 | Two people are going to a festival. | Two characters are invited to a festival. (On the way and) upon arriving at the destination, one deceives the other. | 28 | 34 |
| M193a In M193 family | Kolobok, ATU 2025. | A woman baked a flatbread (pancake, pie, dough figure). It rolled away (ran away). On its way, it encounters various people and/or animals who want to eat it. It rolls away from each of them, but a fox (rarely another animal) eats it. | 28 | 18 |
| 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 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.