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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 ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N17 | Paper suit, X1853 | fairy-tale text ends with a formula stating that the narrator met with the characters described and that he wore clothes made of paper, glass, oil, etc. | 7 | 8 |
| N21a In N21 family | Pea-bogatyr | After swallowing a pea, a woman gives birth to a mighty hero. | 5 | 8 |
| N28f In N28 family | The water has no knots | It is said that water has no boughs or twigs | 4 | 8 |
| A13b In A13 family | Ants eclipse the sun. | During an eclipse or at the first appearance of night, ants eclipse the sun. | 5 | 9 |
| A2F In A2 family | Suns – fruits. | Suns grow on tree branches. | 5 | 9 |
| A32m In A32 family | Gypsy sun. | The moon is called the "Gypsy sun". | 8 | 9 |
| A39 | Every day a new sun. | Suns are born and die, and every day a new one rises in the sky. | 9 | 9 |
| B113 | Women's backsides and men's knees. | Due to certain events during the time of creation, women have cold backsides (and men have cold knees, or vice versa). | 9 | 9 |
| B115a In B115 family | Knots in wood, ATU 774H. | Angry at the carpenters, the character (St. Peter) asks another (Christ) to make the knots in the wood or branches iron. The latter only makes them very hard. | 8 | 9 |
| B68a In B68 family | The bird is punished: let it carry another. | Birds quarrel, and the one who claimed high status cripples the weak one. For this, the others order her to carry the crippled one on her back. | 6 | 9 |
| B75b In B75 family | Sounds of the era of creation: the creaking of trees. | The creaking or crackling of trees is the voice of a transformed character. | 6 | 9 |
| B75b1 In B75 family | Sounds of the era of creation: the voice of a wife or mother-in-law. | The character pushes his mother-in-law or wife into a hollow, and she turns into the creaking of trees or an echo. | 7 | 9 |
| B7c In B7 family | Sprinkled water. | Fresh water, which its sole owner hides in a vessel or pond, is scattered throughout the world. | 8 | 9 |
| B93a In B93 family | Bird bridge over the heavenly river. | Once a year, birds form a bridge across the heavenly river with their bodies. Usually, the feathers on their heads are worn away as a result. | 5 | 9 |
| C35a In C35 family | The good advisor is punished. | A zoomorphic character gives wise advice concerning the state of the Sun. The advice is accepted, but the advisor is punished by the Sun or is henceforth pursued by the Sun. | 8 | 9 |
| C8D In C8 family | Having had smallpox, they did not recognise each other. | A brother and sister survived the flood. They married after having had smallpox and therefore did not recognise each other. | 6 | 9 |
| D13hh In D13 family | Those who visit another world should not laugh. | A person visiting another world should not laugh or show surprise when seeing strange things. Those who break this rule will perish or suffer harm. | 7 | 9 |
| D1a2 In D1 family | A borrowed object does not burn. | The house of the person who insulted the fire burns down, but the property inside it or the child of another person (or that person himself) who treated the fire with respect is not harmed. | 10 | 9 |
| E16 | Oars with edges. | When rowing, the character first tries to push off with the edge rather than the flat side of the oar. | 8 | 9 |
| E1a1 In E1 family | Soaked by rain (why there are cripples). | A deity or ancestor moulds people from clay. Some of the figures got wet, which is why there are cripples among people. | 3 | 9 |
| E23 | Revival by fleas. | A handful of fleas or lice must be thrown at the character; only this will make him or her move, which is necessary for revival or for the existence of people. | 9 | 9 |
| E28 | The blood of the Moon pours onto the earth. | People shoot at the Moon, its blood spills onto the earth. | 4 | 9 |
| E41 | The blacksmith kneads iron with his hands. | A skilled blacksmith, as a special gift, can take iron heated in a furnace with his bare hands, knead it like dough, and shape it as desired. Usually, he breaks a certain taboo and loses his gift. (The motif was identified and the material collected by Ruslan Doutalieyev). | 7 | 9 |
| F45a1 In F45 family | Accidental conception by the wind. | A woman, against her will, conceives from the wind. | 7 | 9 |
| F47a In F47 family | Parts of the female body. | Men use each part of the body of a single woman for copulation, or each man takes a part of her body cut into pieces. | 7 | 9 |
| F77a In F77 family | Penis bridge. | A huge penis serves as a bridge. | 8 | 9 |
| G25 | Grains scattered over the world. | Cereal seeds are scattered across the world, fell to the ground, now people grow bread. | 8 | 9 |
| G8e In G8 family | Cutting down a tree on the moon. | A character unsuccessfully cuts down a tree growing on the moon. | 6 | 9 |
| H12a In H12 family | Dead wife haunts her husband. | The wife dies, the husband comes for her, or he kills her himself for adultery; she turns into a monster and haunts him. | 5 | 9 |
| H14 | The woman flies back. | A woman who has returned from the world of the dead flies back, becoming a bird or a fly. | 10 | 9 |
| H1b In H1 family | Death of someone else's child. | The character performs actions that lead to death, because he is indifferent to or desires the death of the child or woman loved by another character. See motif H1A. | 35 | 9 |
| H20a In H20 family | The mistress of the fish loses it. | A woman or several women keep fish or water in some kind of container; a man releases all the fish into rivers or the sea, releases the water. See motif H20. | 24 | 9 |
| H36h In H36 family | Unsuccessful jump (frog and death). | Creatures, including a frog or toad, must cross an obstacle. This does not go as planned and results in humans becoming mortal. | 7 | 9 |
| H36j In H36 family | The lark betrays man. | The lark is to blame for the fact that man is mortal. | 7 | 9 |
| H55a In H55 family | Two under one blanket. | Finding himself in another world, a man sees a husband and wife trying to cover themselves with a single blanket, which is not big enough for them, or they do not have enough room for two on the bed. See motif H55A. | 7 | 9 |
| H7f In H7 family | Death asks who is there, ATU 332C*(1). | God gives instructions that certain categories of people must die and suffer. The character who receives the instructions, caring for the people, passes on other orders to the executors. | 6 | 9 |
| H7h In H7 family | Death follows man. | Despite the warning, man goes to where Death is at that moment. Death enters his body or follows him, and since then, people have been mortal. | 2 | 9 |
| H7i In H7 family | Old Age, Hunger, Illness. | Old Age, Illness, or Hunger are special characters, but Death is not mentioned. | 7 | 9 |
| H9a In H9 family | Who will give birth first. | Of two women, one of whom is associated with a stone and the other with a plant, only the plant woman leaves offspring, which is why people are what they are (mortal, capable of speech, etc.). Alternatively, children born to two women have opposite characteristics (skilled and unskilled, etc.). | 9 | 9 |
| I11b In I11 family | Sky supports made from animal legs. | The pillars of the sky are made from the legs of a four-legged animal (usually a turtle). | 2 | 9 |
| I123 | Altair – herald of the sun. | Altair with a small neighbouring star from the constellation Aquila or Vega with a similarly faint star are considered to appear during or immediately after the winter solstice, although they are actually visible before that. | 7 | 9 |
| I37C In I37 family | Mushrooms: erotic associations. | Mushrooms have erotic associations. See motif I37. | 12 | 9 |
| I41c In I41 family | Celestial object – reflection of a snake. | Rainbow or Milky Way – reflection of a snake (fish) on land or in the sea. | 7 | 9 |
| I4e In I4 family | Thunder riding on a cloud. | An anthropomorphic deity (associated with thunder and rain) rides on a cloud or a cloud. | 7 | 9 |
| I70 | Reptile with trees on its back. | Trees or reeds grow on the back or head of a reptile. | 6 | 9 |
| I74a In I74 family | Stars – fireflies. | Stars – fireflies. | 9 | 9 |
| J12G In J12 family | Waterfowl or marsh bird. | The false bridegroom is a bird that lives on or near water. See motif J12. | 15 | 9 |
| J27a In J27 family | The rejected child kills his father. | One of the babies is abandoned and lives in a river, forest, etc.; the other remains at home; after the abandoned brother returns home, the brothers kill their father or his men. See motifs J19, J25. | 6 | 9 |
| J50a In J50 family | Sons embrace their mother. | The mother dies when her sons push or embrace her. | 7 | 9 |
| K136d In K136 family | Two flutes. | A young man receives two flutes (pipes, horns) from a cow (buffalo), which produce different effects when played (joy and sorrow, prosperity and a call for help, etc.). | 8 | 9 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.