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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 ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B42h In B42 family | Orion's Belt – game, hunter – another star. | Orion's Belt – game, another star or group of stars within or outside Orion – hunter. | 48 | 67 |
| I43b In I43 family | The Milky Way – snake, fish. | The Milky Way is a reptile, fish or chain of fish. | 37 | 67 |
| I68b In I68 family | The night of fulfilled wishes. | On a certain night of the year, any wish that is expressed or conceived will come true. Cf. motif M13. | 39 | 67 |
| K120a In K120 family | Prevented incest (sister and brother), (ATU 313E). | A man is going to marry his sister (often it turns out that she is the only one who meets the requirements for a bride). Usually, the girl manages to avoid such a marriage. | 62 | 67 |
| K2 | The discarded ladder. | The hero climbs or descends a ladder, rope, pole, etc. The rope, etc. breaks or is cut. Usually, another character deliberately throws away the ladder, cuts the rope, or breaks off the lower branches of the tree, making return impossible. See motif K1A. {Statistical calculations for this motif also include all texts from motif K2A, except for Koreans}. | 102 | 67 |
| K44 | The false mother is rejected. | The character kidnaps the boy or hides him from his mother or father, pretending to be his mother or father. The kidnapped boy learns the truth and leaves the kidnapper. | 35 | 67 |
| K80b In K80 family | Mother killed, father ate, ATU 720. | The mother or stepmother kills the boy (rarely a girl) and usually feeds her husband, i.e. the child's father, his flesh. The boy is reborn, usually (at first) in the form of a bird that tells the story of what happened. Cf. motif K80A. Traditions in which the boy is killed by his own mother are highlighted in bold. | 59 | 67 |
| L57 | The character returns his organ. | The character loses an internal organ or part of the body, which is taken away by others; he approaches unnoticed and takes back what was lost. | 48 | 67 |
| L9a In L9 family | Ostronog, G341.1. | The character's leg is crippled (intentionally or accidentally) or originally pointed. He uses the pointed bone for hunting, fishing or killing people. | 49 | 67 |
| M116a In M116 family | I also rested here, ATU 980. | A man drags his father, intending to leave him to die in a deserted place, give him to an almshouse, throw him into a precipice, etc. He stops on the way. The father says that he also stopped at this place when he was dragging his father. Or the boy asks to keep the sledge, the skin, etc., on which his father is dragging his grandfather (or takes half of the cloak with which his father covered the old man): it will come in handy when he drags his father himself. Or the old man is given a wooden (broken, etc.) plate to eat from, and the boy says that he will give his father the same one when he grows old. The man brings his father home (begins to take care of him). | 53 | 67 |
| A45 | The insulted moon. | A man teases and insults the moon and is punished as a result. | 46 | 68 |
| C30 | Impossible condition. | In order to free himself from an obligation, the character sets a condition that is formally logical and uncomplicated, but in reality impossible to fulfil. | 60 | 68 |
| F65a In F65 family | The Imaginary Dead Man: Meeting with a Lover, ATU 885A. | The spouse leaves the character at the burial site; the (pretend) dead person comes back to life and leaves to be with their lover. | 59 | 68 |
| I75 | Previous worlds. | Before the emergence of the present world or present humans, there were others (at least two worlds or races). | 31 | 68 |
| I84 | The Milky Way – a ski trail. | The Milky Way – ski tracks. | 31 | 68 |
| K103d In K103 family | Enter the horse's ear and take it out of the cow's ear. | An animal (rarely a demonic creature) orders the hero or heroine to retrieve necessary items from its ear or to enter its ear in order to transform, fall asleep, etc. | 40 | 68 |
| K17 | Ornithomorphic groom. | A male character in the form of a winged creature approaches a girl and either magically or unnoticed by her impregnates her. See motif K16: taking the form of an animal or bird, he enters the girl's house. | 76 | 68 |
| K27g4 In K27 family | Sow, reap and bake bread in one day. | The character must complete all field work in an unimaginably short time and present the products of the new harvest. | 47 | 68 |
| K27x9 In K27 family | Retrieving an object from the bottom of the sea. | The hero must retrieve a small object (often a ring or signet ring) thrown into deep water (often the sea). Cf. motif C6 ("The Diver"). | 47 | 68 |
| L15a1 In L15 family | Achilles' heel. | The character's vulnerable spot is located at the bottom of the foot (heel, toe, sole, ankle). | 46 | 68 |
| L61 | Samoyed, F1035. | The character eats himself, guts himself, or kills himself in order to be eaten. | 58 | 68 |
| M134 | Tower of Wolves, ATU 121. | Animals, demons or people stand on top of each other to reach something. The one at the bottom jumps off (leans, jerks), and everyone falls after him. | 54 | 68 |
| M149 | Say that I am a stump, ATU 154. | A strong enemy is ready to kill the hero (a human or a weak animal). Someone, seemingly unaware of this, loudly announces that the hero's enemy is being sought in order to kill him. The hero is saved. Usually, the enemy asks not to be betrayed, saying that he is a stump, a log, etc. This allows him to be treated as such – thrown, chopped, etc. (ATU data not entered; plot 154 includes several independent motifs; which of them are present in the traditions referred to by ATU cannot be determined without referring to the original sources). | 50 | 68 |
| M161 | Dog in a bag. | A character gives another a sack that is supposed to contain food, but in fact contains a dog; or frees a girl (boy) from a sack or chest and replaces her with a dog or other dangerous animal. The animal attacks the person who opened the sack. | 45 | 68 |
| M29x In M29 family | The hyena is a loser and a loser | As a result of its stupidity or antisocial behavior, the hyena dies or suffers damage. See the motives in square brackets. | 66 | 68 |
| B42t In B42 family | The seven stars of the Big Dipper – animal. | All seven stars of the Big Dipper (and not just the stars of the dipper) are considered to be the figure of an animal - a bear, moose, deer, ram, camel, or dog. | 61 | 69 |
| B69 | Striped chipmunk, A2217.2. | Wishing to reward or punish a small rodent (chipmunk, marmot, squirrel), the character makes it striped, usually by running a paw or hand down its back. | 51 | 69 |
| C19a In C19 family | The child is playing with the sun | The character (except Quileut: Raven) turns into a child, asks for and receives heavenly bodies to play, or (Chukchi) comes to play with the little daughter of the owner of the stars. | 23 | 69 |
| F8 | Meeting of men and women. | In the beginning (.55.60.67.73.) women and men lived separately from each other, then came together. Cf. motif F45 (Amazons). | 35 | 69 |
| I22a In I22 family | The sky beats against the earth, F791. | The sky constantly beats against the earth like the lid of a boiling cauldron. | 54 | 69 |
| J28b In J28 family | Hot flatbread. | Upon learning that a woman (usually the hero's mother) is hiding the truth about his father, mother, brothers, or bride, a young man (rarely a young woman) causes her pain, forcing her to tell the truth (usually by pressing hot bread into her palm or sticking her fingers into hot food). | 44 | 69 |
| J54 | The last female escapes. | The heroes of the narrative exterminate animals or demons of a certain species. This species could have disappeared altogether if one or more individuals (often a pregnant female) had not been saved. {This motif does not include aetiological endings, according to which the current creatures of a certain species originate from a dismembered original creature}. | 53 | 69 |
| K117 | Nesmeyana (bride, young man), ATU 559, (571). | A woman will marry the man who makes her laugh; a man promises a reward to anyone who makes his daughter, mother or son laugh. | 51 | 69 |
| K27x7 In K27 family | The lord of the animals summons them and questions them. | On the way to their destination, people meet characters who have power over animals (birds, fish) or demons. They summon the animals (demons) and ask if anyone knows the way to a certain place. Only one person knows, usually the last to appear. | 43 | 69 |
| K62 | War of animals, Th B260-B263. | Animals, birds, etc. fight or play with each other, divided into two hostile camps. The stakes are high, often life itself. {Data incomplete}. ATU 222. B261, war between birds and animals. ATU 222A. B261.1, the bat joins first one side, then the other. K2323.1, the raised tail of a fox serves as a signal. | 55 | 69 |
| K93a In K93 family | Sword on the marriage bed, T351. | When lying down with a woman, a man places a sharp or pointed object between her and himself as a sign that he will abstain from sex during the night (sometimes the woman places the sword herself). | 52 | 69 |
| M116 | The undead father helps with advice, ATU 981. | People must kill their fathers (or mothers; Nyoro: deprive them of power and property; Baluchi: do not take them with you on a journey). One young man hides his father, and his wise advice helps to avoid trouble. | 66 | 69 |
| M3 | Human chain | The character crosses a water or air barrier on the backs of chained animals, birds, or fish. | 39 | 69 |
| M62a In M62 family | Incitement to quarrel (action) | The hero quietly damages each of the two characters; they accuse each other, quarrel, fight. | 73 | 69 |
| E9d In E9 family | The magical wife – the dog. | Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife, helper) has the image of a dog or puppy (wolf cub). | 40 | 70 |
| F71 | Susanna and the Elders, ATU 883A. | After being rejected, the man falsely accuses the woman of promiscuity; others believe him and try to punish her severely. | 72 | 70 |
| H47 | Offended sky/earth. | The sky (celestial deity) or Earth is offended by people's behaviour towards them and reacts accordingly. | 40 | 70 |
| K37a In K37 family | Recognising a man. | The character must identify his son or husband among many identical people or animals. See motif K37. | 56 | 70 |
| L15h1 In L15 family | The soul of a character in an egg. | The object in which the character's life is contained is enclosed in another, which is enclosed in a third (and so on). The final container of the soul is an egg (to kill the character, the egg must be broken over his head). | 45 | 70 |
| L90a In L90 family | A hut on chicken legs. | Describes a house that stands on the legs or a single leg of a bird or small animal and/or rotates (is capable of turning). | 23 | 70 |
| M198 | The Clever Brothers (the illegitimate khan), ATU 655. | In the house of the khan (judge, king, etc.), three brothers (rarely one person) determine that the food and drink served to them smell of dead flesh, dog, goat, etc., and (or that) the host who receives them is illegitimate or of low birth. After questioning the servants and his mother, the host is convinced that the brothers are right. | 65 | 70 |
| B2e In B2 family | Earth-man. | The Earth or the world as a whole is a male character (alone or alongside a female character). | 57 | 71 |
| c4a In c4 family | The Flood: Salvation on a Tree. | During the flood, those who climbed trees were saved. | 41 | 71 |
| D4l In D4 family | Fire from the sky. | The first fire is brought down to earth from the sky; the first ancestors go to the sky and bring back fire or warmth. See motif D4A. | 62 | 71 |
| I25a In I25 family | Bones for cows. | The character gives herbivorous animals food intended for carnivores, and carnivores food intended for herbivores; the character sees that the animals have food that is inedible for them and corrects the situation. | 50 | 71 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.