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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

Showing 2,151–2,200 of 3,494 · Page 44 of 70

Ref	Title	Summary	Traditions	Narratives ▲
I61	Milk on the Milky Way, A778.5.	The Milky Way is a trail of spilled milk.	23	34
I74	Stars – stones.	Stars – (bright) stones, sequins, beads.	31	34
K120a4 In K120 family	Fill the vessel with tears.	The character must fill a vessel with tears (pour them on the floor).	30	34
K120a5 In K120 family	Luring a woman onto a ship.	To obtain a woman, a man lures her onto a ship (boat, flying machine, etc.) and takes her away.	28	34
K146	The hero is revived by the remedy he was sent to fetch.	The hero is sent to fetch a remedy that can cure the sick or revive the dead. On the way back, a woman who is friendly to the hero keeps part of the remedy (or all of it, replacing it with a fake) and, when the hero is treacherously killed, revives him.	27	34
K14d In K14 family	Imaginary crime, (ATU 910A).	Testing his wife (household member, acquaintance), a man pretends to have committed a crime or performs incomprehensible actions that could be interpreted as a crime. Usually, his wife (friend) betrays him, and he presents evidence of his innocence.	37	34
K27z2b In K27 family	The Murdered Doll, ATU 879.	The complicated relationship between a simple girl and a prince leads to the prince intending to kill his bride on their wedding night. The girl substitutes a doll for herself, the prince stabs the doll with his sword, mistakes the spurting juice (syrup, honey) for blood, and repents of the murder. The real girl appears, and the young couple are happy.	41	34
K27z8 In K27 family	Riddles that cannot be solved, ATU 851, 927.	A person poses a riddle that can only be solved by knowing the circumstances in which he found himself.	47	34
K27zz In K27 family	The Cannibal and the Blinded Wives, ATU 462.	A man does not suspect that his (new) wife (less often his mother) is a cannibal/witch/treacherous woman; she persecutes (former) wives (his wife) and/or blinds them or throws them into a pit, or her husband does so at her instigation. Contrary to the cannibal's plans, the son of one of the wives survives, kills the cannibal, and rescues his mother and sisters.	28	34
K76a In K76 family	The frog son and the frog husband.	A frog or toad marries a beautiful woman, or a handsome young man marries a frog.	25	34
K91	The invisible battle.	Dogs, the hero's horse, or the hero himself fight the enemy in the underworld. Those watching from a distance judge the course of the battle by the colour of the water or foam rising to the surface, the colour of the first animal to emerge, etc.	37	34
L120a In L120 family	Dragon tongue and blacksmith's tongs.	The hero hides in a smithy from the dragon chasing him. When the monster breaks through and rubs the door (with its tongue), the blacksmith (or the hero himself) burns it (usually clamping its tongue with red-hot tongs or throwing a red-hot club into its mouth).	25	34
L17a In L17 family	Eyes on the back of the head.	A character or creature has an eye or a second pair of eyes on the back of the head or on the back. Cf. motif L17b, "mouth on the back of the head".	33	34
L28a In L28 family	Eating a snake causes a flood.	People (or a certain person) eat the meat of a snake (dragon, unusual fish). This results in a flood, landslide, or the appearance of a river or lake.	17	34
L65a1 In L65 family	The horse's legs eaten away.	A demonic character successively devours parts of the horse on which the hero arrived, each time returning to the hero and then leaving to devour another part. (Often asks whether the hero arrived on a three-legged, two-legged or one-legged horse).	27	34
L72g In L72 family	Cast salt.	Fleeing for his life, the character throws salt behind him, preventing his pursuer from continuing the chase.	31	34
M114a In M114 family	Stone coat.	The character is offered to sew clothes or shoes from stone or iron, or to remove the skin from the stone.	28	34
M167a In M167 family	The tiger frightened by Twilight.	A strong predator mistakes an unfamiliar word for the name of a creature that is stronger than him and flees.	23	34
M181	Two people are going to a festival.	Two characters are invited to a festival. (On the way and) upon arriving at the destination, one deceives the other.	28	34
M198a3 In M198 family	Who stole the ruby?	One of the brothers secretly takes valuables belonging to all of them or is illegitimate. The brothers come to an authoritative figure to determine who is the thief or illegitimate child. Usually, the figure tells a story and determines the culprit based on the reaction of those who have come.	37	34
M29o In M29 family	Trickster - Monkey	See the motives in square brackets.	53	34
M39f In M39 family	There was a hat, a head - I don't remember, ATU 1225	A fool is left headless (usually trying to get into a bear's den). When asked whether the deceased had a head, wife or someone else, they say that there was a hat (beard), but they definitely do not remember the head.	51	34
M66	The root eaten, J2154	After eating certain foods frivolously or rubbing his body with his spine, the character suffers from itching, diarrhea, or an irrepressible eruption of intestinal gases.	24	34
M83a In M83 family	He cries for dead children	The characters are arguing which one is older. After some people tell us how long they were born, the latter says that this and that happened in his memory at that time.	19	34
M84b In M84 family	The dice are thrown into the water	An animal, bird or fish that is killed and eaten comes to life after its bones are thrown into the water. See M84 motif.	32	34
A32	Figure on the surface of the Moon, A751.	A figure or imprint of some creature or object is visible on the lunar (Moon) surface. Statistical calculations also include motifs A32A – A32J (a rabbit, frog, predatory animal, human, tree, etc. are visible on the moon).	29	35
A8b In A8 family	The sun in the world of the dead.	Setting beyond the horizon, the sun shines on the anthropomorphic inhabitants of the underworld – the dead, dwarves, etc.	27	35
B42h1 In B42 family	The arrow pierced the animal.	In the plot of cosmic hunting, one of the astral objects is identified with an arrow or bullet, and it is emphasised that it struck an animal or three animals, which are identified with Orion's Belt. {In the Khoisan variants, it is emphasised that the arrow did not reach its target}.	27	35
B75a In B75 family	Sounds of the Age of Creation: The Human Voice.	The voice of a character who once lived can still be heard (most often it is an echo; A1195, The origin of Echo).	43	35
B92	Flint turns into flints.	A character whose body is hard and has broken into small pieces, or (rarely) a small object, turns into flint or other hard stones (the origin of flint).	27	35
F36	Children against the lover.	(Adopted) children of a woman or man kill the lover (or spouse of non-human nature) of their father or (adoptive) mother.	41	35
F70e In F70 family	Girl turns into a man, ATU 514.	A girl pretends to be a man, magically acquires male nature and lives with his wife. Cf. motif K137 (in Uther 2004, plot 514 mistakenly includes a Karakalpak text with our motif K137).	45	35
G8	Overgrown clearing, D1565.1+, E30.1.	People or animals cut or gnaw at a tree, mountain, or pillar of the sky. The damage disappears as soon as the workers are distracted from their task (usually when they take a break) or periodically (at certain times).	51	35
H33	Children walk from birth.	At first, children walked, had to walk, or could walk immediately after birth.	36	35
I21	Sunburnt.	The inhabitants of the underworld or the land of the rising sun have red (yellow) hair and/or red or black skin and/or suffer from the heat of the sun, which passes them by at a short distance. See motif I20.	27	35
I27c In I27 family	Four-eyed dog.	Dogs with two spots above their eyes stand out and are usually called two- or four-eyed.	37	35
I85b In I85 family	The North Star – Man.	The North Star – one person.	31	35
I87d In I87 family	People in the time of giants, ATU 701.	In the past, giants inhabited the earth. One of them finds a tiny human being and brings him to his father or mother. They usually say that such people will replace the current giants.	25	35
K119b In K119 family	Animals as gifts to the king.	After tricking wild animals, the fox brings them to the king as a gift from her rich master.	27	35
K19c In K19 family	Mistress in a handbag.	A man brings home a small creature with which he makes love at night. The man's mother, sister or wife finds the creature in his bed or purse.	18	35
K27x6a In K27 family	The character encounters the mother of the sun.	The character comes to the mother of the Sun when the Sun itself is not there. Cf. motif b33h ("Mother of the Sun").	32	35
K27z3 In K27 family	The Cat with the Lamp, ATU 217.	The character taught the cat (monkey, dog) to hold a candle (lamp) or to extinguish it on command. Seeing a mouse (rat), the cat rushes after it and as a result drops (does not extinguish) the candle.	50	35
K38f5 In K38 family	Fire-breathing horse, B15.5.1.	Flames burst from the horse's mouth and/or nostrils, or the entire horse is engulfed in fire.	25	35
K57b In K57 family	The stuck-on shoe.	To stop a beautiful woman from running away, a man in love with her smears resin or glue on the threshold (porch). The shoe sticks, and all the girls try it on to find its owner.	24	35
K57c In K57 family	The ring in the pie.	The prince puts a ring on the finger of a beautiful girl, not knowing that she is the very girl who works in his kitchen. The girl slips the ring into the prince's food, and he recognises it.	26	35
K67	Burnt moccasins, K1615.	At night, one person intends to throw another person's shoes or clothes into the fire, but ends up burning his own shoes or clothes. Usually, the father-in-law throws his son-in-law's shoes into the fire at night in order to freeze him out, but the son-in-law has already switched shoes, so the father-in-law burns his own.	25	35
K8c3 In K8 family	Not through the mouth, but through the side.	One (zoomorphic) character refuses to use any part of another's body except the one he uses to kill him.	25	35
L96b In L96 family	The demon is thrown into a cauldron.	A person encounters an ascetic, demon, etc. The latter intends to kill him by pushing him into a boiling cauldron or cutting off his head when he bows before the deity. The person asks the ascetic to do everything first, then pushes him into the cauldron or cuts off his head himself.	27	35
M106e In M106 family	For a long winter, ATU 1541.	A man says that provisions have been made for the winter, in case of need, etc. In the absence of the owner, a man enters the house and claims that his name is Winter (Ramadan, Necessity, etc.). The woman thinks that her husband meant this man and gives him all the provisions.	45	35
M136a In M136 family	Carrying light in bags, ATU 1245.	People try to bring light, darkness, smoke, etc. into or out of a room.	50	35

Showing 2,151–2,200 of 3,494 · Page 44 of 70

Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.