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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 ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M73 | Excretion substitution: who is stronger, K1721 | Two characters compare their excrement or vomit to learn about each other's diet and decide which of them is the more powerful beast. One of them manages to replace the selections. (Traditions in which vomiting is substituted are greasy). | 32 | 42 |
| A28 | The Sun and the Moon: smart and dumb. | The clever sun-man involves the foolish moon in various tricks that the latter is incapable of devising himself. Trying to repeat the sun's actions, the moon suffers a fiasco. Cf. motif B1F. | 22 | 43 |
| A2b1 In A2 family | The Last Sun. | Two or more suns shine in the sky. When the extra ones are destroyed, there is a danger that the last one will be destroyed along with them and darkness will ensue. | 24 | 43 |
| B13a In B13 family | Water rushes after a person. | A stream of water (with a predator in it) rushes after a character who is trying to escape from it. | 32 | 43 |
| B48a In B48 family | Pieces of foreign flesh. | The bodies of animals, birds or fish contain internal organs or muscles that were originally parts of the bodies of other animals, birds, fish or monsters. Cf. motif B36C. | 35 | 43 |
| B72 | The cuckoo was not given water. | Since the children do not give their mother water, she turns into a bird (usually a cuckoo) and flies away. | 27 | 43 |
| B79 | Cosmic egg. | In the world ocean or in the world abyss, from an egg (eggs) or egg-like sphere, shell, etc., the earth, sky, luminaries, and creator gods arise. | 32 | 43 |
| C29 | Overheard secret. | People (God) learn a secret by overhearing (spying on) a character talking to himself or his relatives (or performing actions that should be remembered). The knowledge gained is related to cosmogony or the acquisition of cultural values. | 29 | 43 |
| E6 | Because of a woman, the connection between worlds is broken. | When a woman of childbearing age (she is menstruating, miscarrying, pregnant, with a child, or simply fat) tries to pass from one world to another, the connection between the worlds is severed forever. | 27 | 43 |
| J22a In J22 family | Two of one. | Two men or a brother and sister emerge from a single body or embryo cut in half, or the second emerges from a part of the body or from the secretions of the first. Cf. motif M37. | 37 | 43 |
| K102b In K102 family | Ride for the last time, B184.1.6. | In order to destroy the hero (heroine), the antagonist must first get rid of his beloved animal (usually a horse). When the animal is about to be slaughtered, the hero (heroine) mounts it, rides away and escapes. | 39 | 43 |
| K160 | Getting Satan's Hair, ATU 461. | The hero is given the task of bringing back the hair, feathers, scales, etc. of a dangerous character. He does this with the help of the character's wife or mother. | 34 | 43 |
| K32i In K32 family | Two nurses beside a sleeping man, ATU 894. | A girl finds the body of a young man who shows no signs of life and must sit next to him for a certain amount of time so that he comes back to life and takes her as his wife. Usually, she leaves at the last moment and an impostor becomes the wife of the revived man. | 41 | 43 |
| K38e1 In K38 family | The Copper Forest, (ATU 511). | Characters pass through a forest with metal trees of two or more types (copper, silver, etc.). | 32 | 43 |
| K47b In K47 family | The dog becomes handsome. | A woman marries a man who originally had the appearance of a dog. The birth of children from a dog is not essential to the plot. | 35 | 43 |
| K62a In K62 family | The Quarrel of the Mouse and the Bird, ATU 222B. | A mouse (rat, mole, etc.) and a bird quarrel after failing to divide their winter supplies. (This episode usually serves as the beginning of a story about a war between birds and animals). | 38 | 43 |
| K64b In K64 family | Sticky object. | The hero's opponent provokes him to touch an object that turns out to be sticky. The hero sticks to the object (see Miller 1890: 41). See motif K64. | 33 | 43 |
| K80a3 In K80 family | To the forest for berries. | Members of the same family (girls, young women or children) go to the forest to pick berries and kill (bewitch) the one who is the object of their envy. | 12 | 43 |
| K85e In K85 family | Sea horses. | Magical horses live in water. | 33 | 43 |
| L40b In L40 family | Absurd actions aimed at luring a character out. | To make the character come closer, absurd actions are performed in front of him. The character does not understand the deception and comes closer to explain how to act correctly. | 29 | 43 |
| L44 | Show your head! ATU 1152 | A demon or powerful beast demands that a person or weak animal show certain parts of their body. The person shows parts of a large animal's body or certain objects. The opponent decides that the hero is more frightening and powerful than them. | 43 | 43 |
| L66 | Underground passage beneath the monster. | To help the hero, a small animal digs an underground passage beneath the lying monster, and the hero strikes it from below. | 29 | 43 |
| L85F In L85 family | One-legged. | The character has only one leg (and one arm), which does not prevent him from moving. Unlike motif L85 (half-creatures), the character has a complete body, not divided in half vertically. | 39 | 43 |
| L94b1 In L94 family | The demon collects the riches back into the box. | A man receives a box (bag, horn, etc.) as a gift, which he must open only at home. Driven by curiosity, he opens it on the way, and everything that should make him wealthy (houses, livestock, etc.) spills out. The demon who appears agrees to return everything, but sets a condition, the severity of which the man does not immediately understand. | 36 | 43 |
| L95b In L95 family | Together with the demon against the child. | Having promised to give the child to the demon, the mother or father does not try to save him or her, but arranges for the child to fall into the demon's hands. Against all odds, the son or daughter is saved.[1] Motif L85 "Half-creatures, F525" (the character has only half a body (vertically) or only one leg, which does not prevent him from moving) [AKB]. See also text No. 35.[2] Voracity is a characteristic feature of šǝʔōl in Is 5:14, Hab 2:5, Pr 1:12, Ps 141:7 (see Gaster 1950:189, O’Callahan 1954:169). | 35 | 43 |
| M100 | Dream on the edge of a cliff, ATU 10***. | Zoomorphic characters lie down to sleep on the edge of a cliff. At night, one of them suggests moving (turning), and his companion (companions) falls and breaks. | 25 | 43 |
| M109a1 In M109 family | Head in the dough, ATU 3. | A zoomorphic character smears his head with dough (sour milk, butter, etc.) to make it look as if his brains are spilling out from the beatings. | 43 | 43 |
| M38c In M38 family | Converting old to young, ATU 753 | blacksmith (supposedly) forges a person, rejuvenating or revitalizing him. | 44 | 43 |
| M97 | A blind man asks trees, D1313.4. | Blinded or far from the target, the character walks, bumping into trees of various species and asking everyone a question or request. He eventually achieves his goal. | 32 | 43 |
| N11 | Like snow and blood, (ATU 709) | The character wants to have a child or spouse who is as white and blush as snow (milk) and blood. | 30 | 43 |
| C8a In C8 family | Millstones fall on each other. | Finding themselves alone and without other marriage partners, a brother and sister make it possible to marry each other by the occurrence of an incredible event. This event takes place, giving them a sign to become spouses. Among such events (alternatively or sequentially): 1) millstones rolling down from two different mountains fall on top of each other; 2) swords thrown from two mountains end up in the same scabbard; 3) objects thrown up join together; 4) smoke from two fires joins together (rising in a column); 5) two planted bamboo stalks join at the tops. See motif C8. | 16 | 44 |
| F9f In F9 family | Asmodeus. | Without the woman's knowledge, the demon regularly kills her suitors on their wedding night. | 38 | 44 |
| I32 | The tree of infants. | There was or is a tree on which babies grow; the souls of unborn babies; whose leaves have turned into people; whose trunk is covered with many female nipples or flowers from which babies suck milk or juice. | 27 | 44 |
| I37A In I37 family | Mushrooms - an inferior object. | A mushroom is a substitute for a real object: 1) inferior, imaginary food (people ate mushrooms before the advent of hunting and agriculture; a character offers mushrooms instead of real food; real food appears as a result of the metamorphosis of mushrooms); 2) a preparation for creating or imitating a complete object (fish, birds, animals arise as a result of the metamorphosis of mushrooms; a copy of a lost or non-existent object is made from mushrooms); 3) characters of low status (lice, turtles) are engaged in mushroom picking; 4) the appearance of mushrooms is associated with a violation of the rules of interpersonal relations. See motif I37. | 56 | 44 |
| I4a In I4 family | Thunder in trouble: falls to the ground. | Thunder falls to earth and cannot rise. Usually, a person helps it return to the sky. | 30 | 44 |
| K103b In K103 family | The spinning cow. | A cow (goat) miraculously spins or weaves: it chews tow, turning it into thread, orders the yarn to be wound onto its horns, put into its ear, etc. | 27 | 44 |
| K157a In K157 family | The tavern where they feed for free, ATU 425D, (ATU 304). | In order to find a missing husband (wife, saviour), the character regularly gathers random people to tell stories (usually keeping a shop, bathhouse, etc. for this purpose). From the conversations, it becomes clear that one of the visitors is the person they are looking for, or his story helps to find the missing person. | 43 | 44 |
| k33c6 In k33 family | Only one girl survived. | A young man receives several fruits (eggs, reeds). When he opens the first one, the girl who comes out of it disappears, either because the necessary provisions (usually drinking water) have not been prepared for her, or because the fruit has been cut incorrectly. Only the one who comes out of the last fruit (egg, reed) remains. Cf. motif k33c7. | 23 | 44 |
| K35a3 In K35 family | The master becomes a servant. | In order to obtain the privileges enjoyed by the hero, the deceiver manages to swap status with him. | 32 | 44 |
| K38a In K38 family | White and black rams, F67. | Upon arriving in the underworld, the hero sees white and black horses, rams, etc. The white ones will take him to the upper world, while the black ones will take him even lower. Usually, the hero accidentally touches the black one. Sometimes a third ram or horse is mentioned, red or grey. Or the hero grabs the left horn of the animal instead of the right, and as a result ends up not where he wants to be. | 39 | 44 |
| K38e3 In K38 family | The Diamond Kingdom. | Among three (less often two or four) loci or objects associated with materials of high but varying degrees of value, the highest belongs to precious stones (usually diamonds, but also glass and crystal). | 27 | 44 |
| K75a1 In K75 family | The younger brother-in-law's place is in the barn. | The ruler orders his youngest daughter (and her chosen husband) to live in conditions that do not correspond to her status. He does not know that her chosen one is not a poor wretch, as he seems, but a mighty warrior and a handsome man. | 42 | 44 |
| K92 | King Lear, ATU 923, 923B. | The father asks his children a question, the answer to which seems obvious (does his daughter love him, who is the eldest in the family, etc.). The youngest daughter (less often – son) gives an unexpected answer, the father drives her away (deprives her of her inheritance), and later becomes convinced of her intelligence and nobility. | 39 | 44 |
| K92b In K92 family | I love you like salt, ATU 923. | A daughter tells her father (rarely her brother) that she loves him like salt (or that salt is more important than him, etc.). He sends his daughter away (gets angry with his sister), but then realises she is right. | 49 | 44 |
| L37c1 In L37 family | Misfortune, ATU 735A. | The happiness (misfortune, hardship, etc.) of each person is represented by specific characters with whom they interact. | 40 | 44 |
| M146 | The wolf was lured into a trap, ATU 35B*. | Knowing that the meat is in a trap or poisoned, or that there is a trap ahead, a zoomorphic character provokes another to try the meat first or to go ahead. | 38 | 44 |
| M150 | The deceitful shepherd. | Having taken on the task of herding a flock, the character eats the animals entrusted to him. | 37 | 44 |
| M52 | Mascara fresheners | The character (by deception) kills an ungulates. He asks another to refresh the carcass, looks for a knife to do it, or a fire to fry the meat. The other freshens the carcass, gives fire or a knife, but takes or tries to take all the meat for himself. | 38 | 44 |
| M74aa In M74 family | An imaginary visit | The character (several times) pretends to be his name (that he is going to visit), and eats up supplies himself. See M74A motif. | 71 | 44 |
| M81d In M81 family | Healed blind people | A person meets (most often in the sky) one or two blind people and restores their sight. | 34 | 44 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.