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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 ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M199n In M199 family | Fill a holey cap with gold, ATU 1130. | A man offers a demon to fill his hat, bag, etc. with money. The demon does not notice that there is a hole in the hat and gives the man much more than he intended to give. | 31 | 30 |
| M21a In M21 family | Under the pretext of illness. | The character is pursued by an enemy. An animal hides the fugitive in its mouth or on its body, and when the pursuer appears, it refuses to open its mouth or expose part of its body. (Usually simulates illness – toothache, etc.). Cf. motif i87ad. | 20 | 30 |
| M39a6g In M39 family | Six loaves (four coins), ATU 921A, Th H585.1. | person explains that he lends part of his earnings, and pays the debt in the other part, i.e. raises children and supports parents. | 51 | 30 |
| 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 |
| M53c In M53 family | Reddened eyes | trickster, inviting birds to dance around him with their eyes closed, kills them one at a time and threatens to turn red at the one that opens their eyes; this is an empty threat, or for a bird that opens eyes and eyes have really turned red ever since. | 17 | 30 |
| 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 |
| M91c5 In M91 family | Unprofitable sale, ATU 1551 | The person himself or his little son goes to the bazaar to sell a cow (or another large pet). The crook convinces him that it is a sheep (or another animal that is smaller and cheaper). Each of the crook's friends confirms the score or gives an even lower grade. A man at a loss sells a cow for the price of a sheep. | 46 | 30 |
| M91c7 In M91 family | Tell them I'm dead | When enemies come to kill a person, he pretends to be dead. | 30 | 30 |
| A12H In A12 family | Woman covers the sun. | Eclipses of the sun or moon are caused by a woman's attack. | 18 | 31 |
| A32k In A32 family | First to the sun, then to the moon. | A character, discernible in the silhouette of the moon's spots, first headed for the sun and only then reached the moon, or the Sun and the Moon argued over who he should belong to. | 20 | 31 |
| B110 | Where the back is – swamps, where the head is – red poppies. | A character who is dragged along the ground or who runs, falls apart or hits the ground with different parts of his body. This determines the characteristics of the landscape and flora. | 23 | 31 |
| B115 | Evergreen trees. | Conifers and some other trees and shrubs (small shrubs) became evergreen after the elixir of immortality was accidentally spilled on them. Cf. motif H6b. | 20 | 31 |
| B74 | Red-eyed capercaillie. | The eyes of the capercaillie or black grouse turned red from tears. | 18 | 31 |
| C31b In C31 family | The wise owl. | The owl is wiser and more intelligent than other living creatures. | 28 | 31 |
| E1c In E1 family | Man made of excrement. | Man made from human excrement or (Inupiat) from carrion. | 36 | 31 |
| F83b In F83 family | Rape of a woman in distress, ATU 36. | A strong female animal chases a weak male, but gets stuck between trees, rocks, etc. The fugitive mocks his pursuer, usually raping her. {In ATU, motifs f83a and f83b are described as one plot type, ATU 36. The degree of their plot connection can only be determined by having the original texts}. | 26 | 31 |
| G7 | Blunt axes. | The first ancestors need to cut down a giant tree or (rarely) a rock. Their axes become blunt or break, and/or they obtain a special axe suitable for such work. If not otherwise: a tree with cultivated plants at the top, see motif G5A. | 16 | 31 |
| H16 | Rivers of tears. | In another world, there are rivers of tears. Tears shed on earth fill large containers there. Cf. motifs K33F, N34, N35. | 29 | 31 |
| H36c In H36 family | The lizard betrays man. | The lizard is to blame for the fact that man is mortal. See motif H36. | 37 | 31 |
| H36g In H36 family | False news: how many times to dine. | God sends a messenger to the people to tell them to eat infrequently (once a day, once every three days, etc.). The messenger says that one should eat often – at least two or three times a day. | 22 | 31 |
| H52 | The Land of Immortality, ATU 470B. | A man finds a land where there is no death. Having decided to visit his native places, he never returns to it. | 29 | 31 |
| I106 | The Great Bear is a single character. | The Great Bear is one anthropomorphic character, not a group of people. | 26 | 31 |
| I119 | The dead shake the earth. | Earthquakes are caused by inhabitants of the underworld; during earthquakes, they try to get to the surface of the earth to check whether people are still alive. | 23 | 31 |
| I33 | The Tree of the Dead. | The soul on its journey to the afterlife stops at a certain tree. | 29 | 31 |
| I54 | Water creature filled with fish. | Inside a snake or other aquatic creature are aquatic animals or live fish; an aquatic monster gives birth to fish, is the master of fish; turns into many fish. | 18 | 31 |
| I67 | Emu and nandu in the Milky Way. | The giant figure of an emu (in Australia) or a rhea (in South America) is visible in the Milky Way. | 12 | 31 |
| I8e In I8 family | Four hold up the world. | The sky or the earth is supported by four anthropomorphic male characters located at the four cardinal points. | 28 | 31 |
| J28a In J28 family | The truth about the father. | When asking how one of his parents died, the hero receives a series of false answers. He often exposes himself to the same dangers, but remains alive, proving the falsity of the proposed versions. | 21 | 31 |
| K133 | The exhausted horse. | A man notices that his horse (donkey) looks tired and learns that an animal or demonic creature is riding it. Cf. motif M182a. | 22 | 31 |
| K156a In K156 family | Trials: girl or boy? | People suspect that the young man is a girl in disguise. Tests are proposed to determine this, but the girl manages to avoid exposure (for a long time). | 28 | 31 |
| K159 | Peas underfoot. | When two characters are fighting, someone nearby wants one of them to slip (while the other remains firmly on their feet) and throws something under their feet for this purpose. | 30 | 31 |
| K1B In K1 family | Trap: abandoned woman. | A woman is lured onto a tree, rock or island and left there. | 23 | 31 |
| K27z5 In K27 family | Agreement to marry children, (926C*). | Two men agree to marry their children if one has a son and the other has a daughter. The girl's parents do not fulfil the agreement. The boy grows up and finds his betrothed. | 26 | 31 |
| K33a6 In K33 family | Knives are sharpened, cauldrons are boiling. | A kid (lamb, gazelle, etc.) runs up to a pond into which its owner has pushed it and says that knives are being sharpened and water is being boiled to slaughter and cook it. | 21 | 31 |
| K52c In K52 family | Flooding in the home. | Demonstrating his power, a shaman, sorcerer or other character with magical abilities causes the dwelling in which he and other people are located to begin to fill with water. Sometimes it is said that this water is an illusion and that those present also see animals (waterfowl, fish or marine mammals). | 23 | 31 |
| K56a2 In K56 family | Asks to do worse. | A character (usually a girl) comes to another (usually an old woman). The latter asks the visitor to perform absurd and harmful actions (to mess up the house, bring dirty water, etc.). The visitor does the opposite of what is asked (cleans the house, brings clean water) and is rewarded. The other character does everything literally and is punished. | 34 | 31 |
| K61c1 In K61 family | Overheard secret of a demon, (ATU 500, ATU 1091A). | A person will die if they cannot find the answer to the demon's question. A person or their acquaintance accidentally learns the answer by overhearing the demon talking to himself or to another demon. See motif C29. | 25 | 31 |
| K75b In K75 family | Three melons from three daughters. | Wanting to show that it is time for them to marry, daughters of different ages send their father fruits of varying degrees of ripeness (bread baked in different ways). | 26 | 31 |
| K85b In K85 family | Three-legged horse. | The three-legged horse is distinguished by its strength and speed, and is ridden by a rider of non-human nature. | 21 | 31 |
| K89 | The girl and the witch: gifts from relatives. | After getting married, the heroine and her rival (witch, frog) must bring gifts from their relatives. The heroine finds her brother, brothers or sister who went missing at the beginning of the story and receives rich gifts from them, while the gifts brought by her rival are worthless. | 20 | 31 |
| L20a In L20 family | The parrot devourer. | A man climbs a tree, takes chicks (usually parrots) from a nest and throws them to a woman. She eats them raw, then kills or tries to kill the man. | 12 | 31 |
| L87 | He who has tasted blood becomes a cannibal. | A character accidentally tastes blood or human flesh, after which he devours himself and/or others. | 31 | 31 |
| L95 | Returning for toys. | A person (usually a child or teenager) returns to a previous location for a forgotten item (often a toy) and finds a demon there, from which they struggle to escape. | 30 | 31 |
| L9b In L9 family | Knife elbows, G341. | The sharp elbows or (rarely) knees of the character resemble knives or awls. | 28 | 31 |
| 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 |
| M120a In M120 family | Weeping corpse eater, ATU 37, Th. K931. | The character pretends to be a mourner and eats (treats the body disrespectfully) the deceased. | 15 | 31 |
| M120b In M120 family | A nurse with a pleasant voice. | The character is looking for a nanny (nurse, wet nurse, shepherd, husband) and consistently rejects those whose voice he does not like. He settles on the one with the most beautiful voice, but the choice turns out to be unsuccessful (usually the nurse eats the child, the sick person, the sheep, etc.). | 20 | 31 |
| M128 | Colourful animals, ATU 1036. | Having agreed with his opponent that he would get animals with certain external characteristics or behaving in a certain way, the hero takes all or almost all of them when the livestock is divided. | 37 | 31 |
| M138 | The lifespan of humans and animals, ATU 173. | At first, everyone was given 20 or 30 years. For animals, this is a long time, but for humans, it is short. Humans received part of the lifespan of animals. | 40 | 31 |
| M177 | And he had no heart, ATU 52. | A weak predator eats part of its victim's body and explains to the strong one that this part did not exist at all (otherwise he would not have come to a place where he knew he would be eaten). | 35 | 31 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.