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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 ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B67 | The tree turns into stones. | A fallen tree and/or its stump turns into a mountain (mountain range) or rocks. (Usually, the branches of this tree bear the fruits and shoots of various cultivated plants, see motif G5). | 9 | 4 |
| B6a In B6 family | Discarded egg. | The first woman gives birth to several eggs. One or two of them remain unchanged for a long time and are thrown into the river, believing them to be spoiled. However, it is precisely from these eggs that characters of high status emerge (or should have emerged). | 4 | 4 |
| B75c In B75 family | Sounds of the era of creation: the sound of water. | The sound of the surf or water on the rapids has been heard since the time of creation. | 4 | 4 |
| B77b2 In B77 family | The sky was touched with a broom. | The sky moved away and/or the connection between people and the deity ceased after the sky or the heavenly deity was touched or struck with a broom. | 4 | 4 |
| B95 | Burnt sphincter. | The appearance of the sphincter or buttocks is explained by the fact that a certain character burned his backside. | 5 | 4 |
| B95A In B95 family | The trickster punishes his own backside. | To punish his own backside for misbehaviour, the trickster burns it. | 5 | 4 |
| B98c In B98 family | The bat is deceived by a deity. | The heavenly deity could have healed the bat's mother or child, but did not do so, and they died. | 4 | 4 |
| C30b In C30 family | Remove traces from the field. | In response to the claims of an animal or spirit, a person offers to remove their traces from the field or to walk without leaving any traces. The spirit is unable to do so. | 4 | 4 |
| C30d In C30 family | Not to spill a drop of urine. | The character agrees that his locus will be contaminated with excrement, but only on condition that not a drop of urine is spilled. It turns out to be impossible to fulfil this condition. | 4 | 4 |
| C40 | Stones fall from the sky. | At first, stones fell from the sky and crushed people. | 3 | 4 |
| C8a2 In C8 family | Stone lion. | The lion (often stone) helps to survive the flood. | 2 | 4 |
| D1a3 In D1 family | The fire wife. | A man marries a woman who is fire. She is mistreated, or her husband does not like her, and the marriage breaks down. | 4 | 4 |
| D4i In D4 family | The beaver obtains fire. | The beaver obtains fire for humans. See motif D4A. | 13 | 4 |
| D4p In D4 family | The parrot obtains fire. | The parrot obtains fire for humans. See motif D4A. Australian data is not taken into account, as the common origin of the motif in America and Australia is excluded. | 4 | 4 |
| E13 | Tambourine – lake. | The shamanic tambourine is compared or associated with a lake. | 2 | 4 |
| E34 | Sacred flutes made from the ashes of a cannibal. | The cannibal is killed. From his ashes arise musical instruments taboo for women, used in male rituals. | 4 | 4 |
| e9j1 In e9 family | Monkeys - ancestors of humans. | Humans are considered descendants of monkeys. | 4 | 4 |
| F100a In F100 family | A chaste woman revives a man. | In order to revive a man or remove an arrowhead (bullet) from his body, a chaste girl or woman must touch (step over) the dead or wounded man. | 4 | 4 |
| F101 | Rival prevents childbirth. | With the help of magic, a rival or the spouse's mother tries to prevent a woman from giving birth. | 4 | 4 |
| F45C In F45 family | Men without wives. | There were men who lived separately from women. See also motif F8. | 3 | 4 |
| F80B In F80 family | Left unattended. | The vaginas were left unattended and became damaged. See motif F80. | 4 | 4 |
| F82a In F82 family | What the owl cries about. | In order to lure a forbidden marriage partner into their hammock, the character cries out in the voices of birds and animals or interprets their voices in their own way. | 4 | 4 |
| F93 | Talking penis, D1610.6.2. | After a person performs a certain action, his penis begins to speak (often repeating what the person has said). | 8 | 4 |
| H28c In H28 family | Mosquitoes bring back wives. | The character creates blood-sucking insects to influence the behaviour of a mating partner. | 3 | 4 |
| H7f2 In H7 family | Death becomes invisible. | The character embodying death had a body visible to humans. Then death became invisible. | 14 | 4 |
| h7g2 In h7 family | Escape from death from land to water. | Knowing that Death is approaching, a person hopes that it will seek him on land, so he settles on the surface of the water or under the water. But Death finds him. | 3 | 4 |
| I100c In I100 family | The Pleiades and the Cuckoo. | God turned the husband into a cuckoo, and the wife and children into the Pleiades. | 3 | 4 |
| I109 | The Milky Way – the road of the heavenly bodies. | The Milky Way – the road along which the Sun and Moon travel. | 4 | 4 |
| I129 | The Heron Constellation. | The rainy season is associated with the appearance of the Heron constellation in the sky. | 4 | 4 |
| I4d1 In I4 family | The stolen tendons of Grom, ATU 1148B. | An enemy steals the tendons (heart and eyes) of a thunder god, who returns them and prevails over his enemy. Cf. motif L57A, "The hero's companion returns his organ." | 2 | 4 |
| I5b In I5 family | Thunder Jaguar. | The flying jaguar causes storms, rain, and thunderstorms. | 3 | 4 |
| I60a In I60 family | Milky Way – a stripe on the belly. | The Milky Way – a stripe associated with a longitudinal stripe on an animal's body. | 4 | 4 |
| j23e In j23 family | Flies through the body of a cannibal. | Wanting to make sure that the enemy is really dead, an insect or bird penetrates its body from one end and exits from the other. | 4 | 4 |
| J25a1 In J25 family | A child born in a grave saves his mother. | A woman dies, but remains incorrupt and gives birth to a child in the grave. He is found and brings his mother back to life. | 5 | 4 |
| j25c In j25 family | Raised by a wolf. | A she-wolf nurses an abandoned infant. He becomes an outstanding leader. | 3 | 4 |
| J33a In J33 family | An old woman beats a scarecrow. | A boy, a young man, or two children live in an old woman's house. They kill her husband—a man or a large animal—and make a scarecrow out of him. Angry that her husband is not responding to her, the old woman beats the scarecrow and then discovers that her husband has been killed. See motif J33. | 4 | 4 |
| J43 | Bait for enemies. | To destroy his antagonists, the hero creates edible bait for them, usually a fruit tree on the other side of the river. | 2 | 4 |
| J58b In J58 family | Door to the sky. | With the help of a chain of arrows, the sky or the sun is pulled down or pushed up, or a hole is made in the sky. | 4 | 4 |
| J62b1 In J62 family | The mistress of the island turns men into animals. | A sorceress living on an island turns men into animals. | 4 | 4 |
| J6B In J6 family | Blinding of the victim. | The mother of the heroes is not killed, but loses her sight. | 4 | 4 |
| K108a In K108 family | He who kills his wife loses everything. | A man acquires a magical wife. Another woman orders him to kill her or divorce her, then she will become his wife. Having fulfilled the request, he loses everything. | 3 | 4 |
| K115A In K115 family | Dove at the entrance. | When a character hides in a shelter, a dove builds a nest there. The enemies decide that no one has entered the cave or room for a long time and leave. | 3 | 4 |
| K11D In K11 family | A disintegrated monster turns into ordinary animals. | Pieces of flesh from a huge creature that has fallen apart or been cut into pieces turn into ordinary animals, birds or fish. | 6 | 4 |
| K155c In K155 family | The girl on the scales. | The father regularly weighs his daughter and learns of her pregnancy when she becomes heavier. | 4 | 4 |
| K18a In K18 family | The boy takes a bow and arrows. | The boy's father is recognised as the man whose bow or arrows he chooses. See motif K18. | 13 | 4 |
| K18c In K18 family | A boy urinates on his father's hands. | The man in whose arms the boy urinates will be recognised as his father. See motif K18. | 12 | 4 |
| k27x6b In k27 family | Greeting addressed to the wind, ATU 298A*. | Upon encountering the sun, moon (frost) and wind, a person greets only the latter. (In progress) | 5 | 4 |
| K32h2 In K32 family | Left to be eaten by ants. | A man executes his wife by leaving her to be eaten by ants. | 3 | 4 |
| k33c8 In k33 family | Girl in a walnut. | A young man obtains a girl who is inside a nut (walnut or hazelnut, but not coconut). | 4 | 4 |
| K35a2 In K35 family | Beast with a glowing skin. | A man kills an animal with glowing fur. Upon learning of this, an authoritative figure gives him difficult tasks. | 4 | 4 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.