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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 ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B64d In B64 family | Arrow bones. | Certain bones in the bodies of living creatures (usually birds and fish) are arrows shot into them. | 22 | 27 |
| B91a In B91 family | Eyes: took and did not return. | A blind character asks another to lend him his eyes or to swap eyes, keeping his own eyes. | 16 | 27 |
| B97 | The character rewards the bird. | The character rewards (rarely punishes) a bird living by the water, determining its current appearance (crest, beak, feather colouring). | 28 | 27 |
| B97a In B97 family | Bird or animal necklace. | A strip of light or dark feathers (rarely: wool) on the neck of a bird (animal) is its necklace (scarf). | 23 | 27 |
| D13i In D13 family | Broken tooth. | The character amuses the audience in order to identify the deceiver and thief by his broken tooth. The latter laughs and gives himself away. | 17 | 27 |
| E20 | The origin of fish poison. | When a certain person enters the water, the fish die. A plant grows from parts of his body or on his grave, from which fish poison (timbó) is made. | 17 | 27 |
| E30a In E30 family | The ersatz spouse is replaced by the real one. | A man without a wife or a woman without a husband uses a substitute spouse made of wood or other material until a real spouse appears. | 19 | 27 |
| F23 | Cause of menstruation: sexual intercourse. | Blood spilled during sexual intercourse or artificial defloration at the time of creation is the reason why menstruation occurs to this day. | 23 | 27 |
| F30a In F30 family | Child-worm. | A woman nurses a worm (caterpillar, reptile, fish) instead of a child; people kill the monster. | 18 | 27 |
| F96 | Becoming handsome. | A girl or wife rejects an unattractive man. He becomes handsome (usually after encountering a supernatural being), and those who treated him badly are punished. | 17 | 27 |
| F9b In F9 family | Piranha in the vagina. | A biting piranha in a woman's genitals. | 17 | 27 |
| G12b In G12 family | Cultivated plants – a gift from the stars. | Cultivated plants – a gift from a male star or female star. | 15 | 27 |
| G13a In G13 family | People ate earth. | Before the advent of cultivated plants (fire, hunting skills), people ate earth, clay, and stones. | 21 | 27 |
| G9B In G9 family | Stop working – there will be a flood. | A man clears a plot of land of vegetation, but by morning it has grown back. At night, a certain character orders the trees and grass to rise up, turning the cultivated field back into virgin soil. He explains that there will be a flood, that there is no point in working, and advises people to prepare a means of transportation. | 12 | 27 |
| H17 | Ring of defenders around the leader. | The first ancestors surround the deceased or sick person in a ring, seeking to protect him. The antagonist manages to find a loophole and causes irreparable harm to people. | 13 | 27 |
| H27a1 In H27 family | Diseases and reptiles from holes in the ground. | Reptiles and insects crawl out of holes in the ground, bringing disease. | 19 | 27 |
| H30 | Wrong choice. | When meeting two women (together or one after the other), the hero must or may choose one. Usually, he chooses either the less beautiful or the dangerous one, bringing trouble or misfortune upon himself or upon people in general. | 22 | 27 |
| H8 | Those who did not pass the test. | Unable to bring themselves to touch something unclean, poisonous, dangerous or hot, people lost their immortality (var.: did not receive the blessings that came to Europeans). | 21 | 27 |
| I126 | The constellation of funeral bier. | The Great Bear or other constellation – a bier on which the dead or sick are carried, a body prepared for burial, a grave. | 25 | 27 |
| I20c2 In I20 family | Dwarves in the land on the horizon. | The inhabitants of the land on the horizon (where the sky meets the earth) are dwarves. | 20 | 27 |
| I87a1 In I87 family | Small or large – dialogue. | Two people engage in a dialogue, contradicting each other in their descriptions of the sizes of creatures and objects. | 19 | 27 |
| J12d In J12 family | Kills a rival. | After a girl marries a worthy suitor, the rejected suitor or his relatives kill the rival. See motif J12. | 32 | 27 |
| J18a In J18 family | Mother eaten, children flee. | A cannibal eats a woman and enters her house. The woman's children (daughter and son, or daughter only) run away, climb a tree or climb a rope to the sky. The cannibal pursues them and perishes. | 15 | 27 |
| J33 | Scarecrow. | A boy, a young man, or two children live in the house of an older character. In order to elicit a certain reaction from him, they kill a person or a large animal, stuff the scarecrow with insects, worms, ashes, grass, or inflate it. | 17 | 27 |
| J38 | Stuck claws. | A mighty bird sinks its claws into a huge aquatic creature. The claws get stuck in its body. The bird is dragged underwater or struggles to free itself. | 24 | 27 |
| J47b In J47 family | Two ropes. | When a character runs away from a pursuer, a strong rope (chain, etc.) is lowered (thrown) to him. A rotten rope is lowered to the pursuer, it breaks, and the pursuer crashes (drowns). | 13 | 27 |
| J53a In J53 family | Inviting to play, kills. | A character invites another to play. The latter follows the rules, but the initiator of the game does not and kills the other. | 18 | 27 |
| K12a In K12 family | The stretched bow. | An unrecognised hero arrives at a place where his bride or wife is to be given to another man or turned into a servant. Contrary to expectations, he manages to draw a tight bow (raise a spear), with which he kills his rivals. | 26 | 27 |
| K21a In K21 family | Woman returns from heaven. | A celestial being marries an earthly woman. She longs to return to earth and secretly descends from her husband. | 19 | 27 |
| K27x3a In K27 family | Recognise by the scarf. | When a husband sets off on a difficult mission, his magical wife gives him her towel or scarf, instructing him to use only those items (usually so that her relatives will recognise him as their son-in-law). | 24 | 27 |
| K40 | One will be eaten today, another tomorrow. | Two (rarely more) characters consider themselves doomed to death, but the one whose death will come later rejoices, while the one whose death will come earlier grieves. Cf. motif N30. | 20 | 27 |
| k56a8d In k56 family | Eaten by a boa constrictor. | A girl agrees to become the wife of a snake, which turns into a handsome man. Another girl (or her mother or father) brings the snake to her or offers it to become her husband, but it does not turn into a man and kills her. | 18 | 27 |
| K73b4 In K73 family | Fill the bag with truth. | A person is asked to fill a bag (cauldron) with truth (lies, fairy tales). He fulfils the request by telling a revealing story. | 22 | 27 |
| L112 | Attaining physical completeness. | A physically defective boy is born (tiny, with one head, half a body, etc.). After a series of adventures, he gains physical completeness. | 20 | 27 |
| L129 | Why such big teeth? (Little Red Riding Hood), (ATU 333) | The character is asked why his body parts, organs, and tools are the way they are. He answers (or the questioner gives explanations for him). In the end, one kills or maims the other. | 23 | 27 |
| L1b In L1 family | The Bear and Her Sister. | A young woman turns into a monstrous bear and kills most people except her younger sister (Ojibwa: the younger sister of her former husband). Their brothers (or one brother) return from hunting and kill the bear, or she dies while chasing them. Cf. motif L65D. | 24 | 27 |
| L55 | Boiling water in the mouth. | To neutralise a dangerous enemy, a caustic or boiling liquid is poured into one of the openings of its body. | 28 | 27 |
| M114c In M114 family | Shielding from the rain with one's body. | The character is puzzled as to how the other person's clothes (firewood, etc.) remained dry after the rain – the other person covered them with their body (hid them in a vessel, waited out the rain in a shelter). | 17 | 27 |
| 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 |
| M125 | Eats one's own eyes. | One character lies to another, pretending to eat his own eyes. The other agrees to eat his own. The first character gouges out one of his eyes and gives him something tasty in its place. The character believes that this is the same eye that was gouged out and agrees to give up the second. | 16 | 27 |
| 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 |
| M199h In M199 family | The giant's torn belly, (ATU 1088). | The character hides a bag under his clothes, secretly putting food in it. After cutting open the bag, he pretends to have cut open his own belly. His opponent decides to do the same and, after cutting open his own belly, dies. Cf. motif M91A, "The Blood Blister." In the definition of plot 1088 in ATU, the motif of the giant's torn belly is optional. | 21 | 27 |
| M39a6b In M39 family | The Crooked Tower and the Master's Daughter-in-law | The ruler, to whom the master builder went to work, is going to kill or maim him. The master asks to send a person to his house asking him to bring a forgotten instrument or something else. The daughter-in-law understands the true meaning of the request, captivates the messenger and saves her father-in-law. | 12 | 27 |
| M47 | The head is attached to the rear | When punishing a person or animal or restoring a dismembered body, a character intentionally or accidentally puts his head to his ass. | 15 | 27 |
| M64 | He pretends to own valuables | The character comes to the owner of valuables (food, fire) and pretends that he already owns them. As a result, valuables are made available (littoral is exposed at low tide, salmon spreads in waters, etc.). | 17 | 27 |
| M69 | The head gets stuck in the skull | character is attracted by the inside of a large animal's skull (small animals or insects are dancing or feasting inside, or eating some meat); he sticks his head inside , it gets stuck. | 18 | 27 |
| M73a In M73 family | Substitution of feces | Two (animal) persons compare their feces (with different purpose). One of them gets to exchange them | 20 | 27 |
| 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 |
| B38a In B38 family | Two birds adorn each other. | Two birds agree to paint each other. One of them does not become more beautiful as a result and often becomes uglier. See motif B36A. | 38 | 28 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.