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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.
All motif categories
| Ref | Title | Summary | Traditions | Narratives ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K27z2f In K27 family | The Biting Doll, ATU 571C. | A poor girl buys a doll (goose) that defecates gold. When the neighbours take the doll, it only dirties their house. They throw it away, and the prince uses it to wipe himself, and it sticks to his backside. No one can help, but the poor girl easily solves the problem. The prince marries her. | 8 | 8 |
| K2a2 In K2 family | The kidnapped princess drops her shoe. | A monster rushes past a young man, carrying off the princess. The young man picks up the princess's lost shoe or, after shooting, finds a lock of the princess's hair. He sets off in search of her, descends underground and rescues the kidnapped princess. | 6 | 8 |
| K46 | A woman throws herself into the sea. | In a fit of fear or shame, a woman or girl runs to the sea, throws herself into the water or hides on the shore. The suitor tries in vain to catch up with her. | 7 | 8 |
| K56a8a In K56 family | The good girl returns with her fiancé. | A girl goes to another world, behaves correctly, returns with an animal or an object, inside which her groom is found. Usually, another girl behaves incorrectly and suffers damage. | 7 | 8 |
| k67i In k67 family | Cows carried in pieces. | The worker is instructed to follow a straight line or overcome the obstacle without breaking it. He kills and cuts up the animals entrusted to him, throws the pieces over the fence or breaks the fence, even though there is a passage nearby. | 8 | 8 |
| K7 | "Like your wife's pubic area." | A man compares a certain object to the genitals of another man's wife. The offended man takes revenge. Usually, a man who climbs a tree to get chicks from a nest compares them to the genitals of the wife or sister of the man waiting below; the latter throws away the ladder. | 8 | 8 |
| K73b3 In K73 family | Throw a nut for good luck. | A person who is asked to count the nuts in a barrel (taking them out one by one) accompanies his actions with a revealing story. | 8 | 8 |
| K76f In K76 family | The calf-boy. | A young man with the appearance of a calf marries and then turns into a handsome man. | 9 | 8 |
| K8aa In K8 family | Jonah: swallowed by a bird. | A huge bird swallows people. The hero kills it, freeing those who have been swallowed, or, if he himself has been swallowed, he manages to get out alive. | 8 | 8 |
| L108e In L108 family | Children of the fox, ATU 123A. | A fox has a child, usually adopted (she cares for a lamb, a foal, etc.), a wolf or a bear kills it, and the fox takes revenge. | 15 | 8 |
| L110a In L110 family | Cut ear. | A character swallows a person or (usually) many people and animals, the hero kills the monster, and while cutting it open, accidentally wounds one of those who were swallowed. Usually, the wounded person is offended and when those who were swallowed come out, they harm or destroy the hero. | 5 | 8 |
| L119 | Battle in the air. | The hero and antagonist fight in the air, tearing off each other's limbs. Usually, their allies on the ground try to preserve the limbs of their leader and destroy those of their enemy. | 4 | 8 |
| L123 | Traces lead in all directions. | In order to confuse the pursuer, the character leaves traces leading in all directions before running away. | 8 | 8 |
| L125a In L125 family | The werewolf wife suffers from thirst. | The woman with whom the man has come together is a creature of a non-human nature. This becomes clear after she suffers from thirst at night and, finding no water in the house, takes on her true form, turning into a snake, separating her limbs from her torso, etc. | 8 | 8 |
| L15e2 In L15 family | What happened when you threw the sword into the lake? | One character instructs another to throw a certain object (usually a sword or sabre) into the water. The messenger claims to have carried out the task, but cannot say what happened as a result, so it becomes clear that he has lied. | 9 | 8 |
| L15g In L15 family | The burnt log (death of Meleager), ATU 1187. | A person's life is connected to an object that can be burned. As soon as the object is burned, the person dies. | 19 | 8 |
| L1d In L1 family | Woman kills a jaguar. | The jaguar-werewolf kills most people and is killed by the woman who survives. | 7 | 8 |
| L23a In L23 family | Transformation into flame. | In an attempt to free himself, the captured character sequentially changes his appearance, in particular turning into fire (and water). | 9 | 8 |
| L39b In L39 family | The pie tree. | The tree grows from a flatbread (pie, etc.) and usually bears flatbreads instead of fruit. | 7 | 8 |
| L5g In L5 family | The head of the older sister rolls after the younger one. | Only the head remains of one of the sisters. It rolls after the other sister or sisters, or they take it with them; in the end, the head finds a place where it wants to settle. | 13 | 8 |
| L83 | An incomplete body turns into lightning/thunder. | A character who has only a head left (motif L5) or who has burned his leg (motif L82) turns into lightning/thunder (or emits lightning/thunderclaps). | 7 | 8 |
| L90c In L90 family | Horns reaching the sky and the earth. | One horn of an animal (deer, ram, bull, goat, wolverine) touches the ground, while the other is raised to the sky or reaches the sky. | 8 | 8 |
| L9g In L9 family | Bluebeard. | A man's hair or beard of an unusual colour is a sign of his demonic nature. | 8 | 8 |
| M113a In M113 family | A bird sees blood instead of water. | A certain type of bird cannot drink water from rivers and lakes because instead of water it sees blood, fire, etc. | 7 | 8 |
| M114i1 In M114 family | He throws away the dead ones and brings the unkilled ones. | A man replies that his father (brother, etc.) hunts: he kills (discards) those he sees, and leaves (brings back) those he does not see (those not killed). This refers to lice or fleas. | 9 | 8 |
| M121 | Insects as spies. | A louse or other similar creature (flea, tick, firefly) is sent to follow a certain character. | 7 | 8 |
| M123b In M123 family | A girl ties her kidnapper to a boat. | The trickster deceives the girl into marrying him and takes her away in a boat. The woman asks to be allowed to go ashore to relieve herself, secretly ties the kidnapper's clothes to the boat and runs away. | 7 | 8 |
| M132 | Ears instead of sandals. | The enemy is ready to seize the character. The character asks the enemy to first take and throw away his clothes or shoes, and then offers his ears. The enemy grabs him by the ears and throws him away, and the character runs away. | 6 | 8 |
| M141a In M141 family | And who is the mouse to us? | In a gathering of various animals, one of the participants refers to the weakest as insignificant to the others and bearing an ugly name. That one is eaten. This is repeated several times, each time the weakest of the remaining animals is eaten. | 7 | 8 |
| M155 | Covered nakedness of the father. | The father or mother (pretends to) fall asleep naked. One of the children covers him or her, which is a sign of respect. | 8 | 8 |
| M162a In M162 family | Cuts off his genitals. | The character pretends to eat his own genitals. Another believes him and castrates himself. | 13 | 8 |
| M168a In M168 family | The master is taken seriously, ATU 93. | An animal or bird that regularly feeds on the fruits of a farmer's harvest or lives in his field continues to do so until the very last moment, when the threat to its life becomes obvious. Usually, a bird with chicks (a fox with fox cubs) does not leave the field (vineyard) where the harvest has ripened until the owner's children (workers) and he himself take up the sickle or begin to cut the vines. | 21 | 8 |
| M199m In M199 family | My grandmother's distaff. | A man explains to a demon that the heavy objects lying by the roadside, such as a harrow or a millstone, are just things used by his grandmother or mother, such as a spindle or a comb. | 7 | 8 |
| m203b In m203 family | The cat is associated with spirits. | A person learns that a cat familiar to him and living in the human world also belongs to the world of spirits. | 5 | 8 |
| M204a In M204 family | Did not notice the money, closing his eyes. | Gold is placed in a person's path so that they can take advantage of it. At that moment, the person accidentally closes their eyes and walks past. | 8 | 8 |
| M29d In M29 family | Trickster - Mink | See the motives in square brackets. | 12 | 8 |
| M29m In M29 family | The Trickster is the Rat | See the motives in square brackets. | 22 | 8 |
| M29n In M29 family | Trickster - Mouse | See the motives in square brackets. | 13 | 8 |
| M29r In M29 family | Trickster - Porcupine | See the motives in square brackets. | 18 | 8 |
| M37 | Shattered with an axe | Although the character's head or entire body is cut in two with an ax or split with a stick, the character remains unharmed. Cf. motive J22. | 9 | 8 |
| M38d5 In M38 family | Cereals talking to each other, ATU 293E* | Two or three types of cereals talk to each other, act together, etc. | 9 | 8 |
| M38e In M38 family | Mushroom and oak, ATU 293B* | mushroom (pumpkin) thinks that it is as durable as a tree. | 16 | 8 |
| M39a3b In M39 family | A fool takes care of stumps | fool decides that stumps need hats, puts pots on the stumps. | 5 | 8 |
| M39a4b1 In M39 family | A foolish woman throws away her yarn | Foolish woman throws her yarn ways (into the water, into the bush) and believes that somebody with weave it | 7 | 8 |
| M39e2 In M39 family | Oracle tree, ATU 1543E* | Two people hid their valuables together, and one of them secretly took them. He suggests asking the tree that grew in this place for clarification and hides his father in a hollow to broadcast from there. The tree is set on fire and the deception comes out. | 9 | 8 |
| M57c1 In M57 family | Gold-producing bear | A man fights a bear or (Malayali) leopard and makes another person believe that this animal is defecating with gold. | 9 | 8 |
| M81f In M81 family | A blind liar is robbed, ATU 1577 | blind beggar robs an honest man. He watches him and, when he enters the house, takes everything the blind man has accumulated. He often takes money accumulated by other blind people as well. | 15 | 8 |
| M82a In M82 family | Tail bells: tied unnoticed | One animal person inconspicuously ties rattles to the tail of another. The latter thinks that he is pursued and runs in panic | 5 | 8 |
| M83c In M83 family | Who gets drunk faster | Animals argue who of them gets drunk easier. The last one falls down because he becomes drunk as soon as somebody talks about alcohol | 7 | 8 |
| M88 | Involved in a dance | The character follows the dancing girls and dies. | 7 | 8 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.