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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 ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B42hh In B42 family | Cosmic hunting and Orion. | Orion is associated with the theme of cosmic hunting. (Including motifs b42h, b42h1, b42m, b42r). | 52 | 76 |
| E13a In E13 family | Knowledge from the underwater world. | Sacred knowledge, objects and rituals were first obtained by humans from the inhabitants of the underwater world. | 38 | 76 |
| H42 | The creator leaves. | Having created human bodies or conceived creation, the creator or his representative leaves for a time. Another character, out of malice or incompetence, spoils or tries to spoil the results of the work, creating something that the creator would have done better. Most often, this leads to humans being mortal or susceptible to disease. See motif H40. | 70 | 76 |
| K118a In K118 family | Portrait of an unknown beauty. | Upon seeing the portrait of a beauty, a man strives to meet her. | 53 | 76 |
| L46 | Head down. | The character walks, climbs or descends upside down, or sees the world turned upside down. | 61 | 76 |
| M202 | Pulling a splinter out of a lion's paw, ATU 156. | A man pulls a thorn out of the paw (a bone out of the throat) of a strong and dangerous animal or demon, who is grateful. | 83 | 76 |
| M91b In M91 family | Ash sold, (ATU 1535) | A person manages to fraudulently sell or exchange ash for gold and money. Others are unsuccessfully offering ash for sale. | 60 | 76 |
| B29 | Eschatological festival. | People turn into animals, birds or stones, living beings acquire their current characteristics at a general meeting, festival, after a festival, after performing a ritual or after defeating a common enemy. | 58 | 77 |
| B45A In B45 family | Winter versus summer. | The alternation of seasons and/or differences between the climates of different localities are explained by the struggle between characters associated with warmth and those associated with cold. See motif B45. | 64 | 77 |
| K107a1 In K107 family | The head of the household brings the promised gifts, (ATU 425C). | When the head of the household leaves on business, those left behind ask him to bring them gifts. The elders ask for something of obvious value (usually clothing and jewellery), while the youngest ask for something unusual and, at first glance, of little value (a flower, a bird, etc.). As a result, it is the youngest who, having overcome trials, achieves success in life. | 50 | 77 |
| K151 | The Golden Fish, ATU 555. | A magical helper grants a poor man's simple wish. The poor man or his wife ask for more and more. In the end, the helper punishes the beggar (usually by taking away everything that was given). {Many references to texts outside Europe in Uther 2004 are not related to the plot of ATU 555 and do not contain the K151 motif. This applies in particular to the Arabic and Ossetian variants}. | 69 | 77 |
| K60a In K60 family | Are the bonds strong? | Unaware of the danger, the character allows himself to be tightly bound. | 65 | 77 |
| K93b3 In K93 family | Boys, foals, puppies: born together. | To have a child, a woman eats fish, an apple or something else. Part of it (often the peel, broth, skin, etc.) is eaten by a mare, dog or other animals. The woman gives birth to a son (twins), the mare to a foal (foals), the dog to a puppy (puppies). | 53 | 77 |
| K95 | Together and after death, ATU 970. | Two people who love each other (usually a man and a woman) die prematurely and are buried in the same grave or nearby. After or during the burial, something unusual happens that is connected with the story (special plants grow in that place, the smoke from the two funeral pyres joins together, the dead turn into two birds, two stars, etc.). | 77 | 77 |
| L114b In L114 family | Task: to bring the property of the cannibal, ATU 328. | After receiving the task or on his own initiative, the trickster enters the character's house (usually that of the cannibal) several times, each time taking one of his belongings or one of his family members. | 70 | 77 |
| F40b In F40 family | A man in a village of women. | A single man finds himself in a village of women. Usually, he is forced to satisfy a woman against his will, or each woman demands to have sex with him. | 62 | 78 |
| I43a In I43 family | Cosmic serpent. | A giant reptile, serpent, fish, or chain of fish stretches across the earth and/or supports the sky. Usually associated with the Milky Way, sometimes with a rainbow. | 37 | 78 |
| I82c In I82 family | Wife of the Moon. | Venus or an unidentified star in the eastern and/or western sky – the wife of the Moon. See motif I82b. | 63 | 78 |
| K87 | Marriage to an animal ends badly. | A woman becomes the wife of an animal (rarely another non-human creature). The husband takes care of her, but the marriage ends with the murder of the husband, the woman, their offspring, the woman's relatives, the transformation of the woman herself into an animal, leading to hostility between humans and animals, etc. | 47 | 78 |
| K92a In K92 family | A woman builds a house, ATU 923B. | A girl who has been driven from her home or has become the wife of an insignificant pauper becomes rich and respected. | 58 | 78 |
| L11 | The turtle bench. | Everyday objects take the form of fish, invertebrates, reptiles, dangerous predators, or objects that transform into these animals under special circumstances. | 57 | 78 |
| L72b In L72 family | The whetstone mountain. | Fleeing for his life, the character throws small objects behind him, which turn into powerful obstacles in the path of his pursuer. One of the objects thrown is a whetstone. (In one of the Udmurt variants, the objects thrown destroy the obstacles in the character's path). See motif L72. | 53 | 78 |
| L98 | The man-eating owl. | The demon that carries off children and threatens heroes, people, etc., is the eagle owl; there is a race of owls that is hostile to humans. | 57 | 78 |
| M170 | Animals at repentance, ATU 20D*, 61A. | Pretending to be concerned only with performing religious rituals or following rules (confessing sins, going on pilgrimages, giving up meat, etc.), a zoomorphic character kills those who trust him. | 69 | 78 |
| M18 | Stolen tackle, D657.1. | The character turns into an object of fishing or hunting and presents himself as a target. The fisherman or hunter does not harm them, but they take away what they use: arrows, darts, harpoons, hooks, bait; or they catch fish, having turned themselves into hooks; or they are caught but escape death by taking on human form again. | 61 | 78 |
| A20 | Childhood and youth of the Sun and Moon. | The Sun and the Moon (less often the Sun and a star, the Moon and a star) are brothers (sisters, brother and sister) who initially live on earth, but at the end of the story, as teenagers or young adults, ascend to the sky and become celestial bodies. | 56 | 79 |
| B9 | Water in a tree. | A huge amount of water is contained in the trunk of a tree, or the tree turns into water. | 48 | 79 |
| H16b In H16 family | Milk pond. | The narratives (in various contexts) mention a milk pond (river, lake, wave in the sea) existing on earth (but not among the stars). Cf. motifs H16, K33F, N34. | 53 | 79 |
| I72a In I72 family | Stars – children of the moon, A764.1.3. | Stars – children of the moon and/or sun. | 66 | 79 |
| K67c In K67 family | Skin torn from the back. | The character agrees that under certain conditions another person may tear the skin from his back or cause him some other bodily harm. | 57 | 79 |
| L3 | A husband turns into a demon. | The demon takes on human form and comes to his wife (less often to another woman). Usually, the woman (alone or with a child) runs away and/or kills the monster, either by herself or with someone's help. | 54 | 79 |
| M114 | The rope of sand, ATU 1174. | The character is asked to make (or actually makes) a rope or other object out of sand, ash, smoke, etc. | 80 | 79 |
| M29gg In M29 family | The hedgehog is a cunning winner | hedgehog defeats or deceives strong opponents by cunning. | 43 | 79 |
| B33a In B33 family | Frozen in spring. | Deciding that it has become (or will soon become) warm, the character believes that winter is over (most often an old woman goes to graze cattle), but dies from the cold or the cattle driven out to pasture perish. Cf. motif I84A ("The frozen son of God"). | 40 | 80 |
| F51 | Secret lover, H58. | Someone under cover of night/incognito approaches a person of the opposite sex. The marriage partner deliberately (to determine who it is) or accidentally (thereby exposing the visitor) makes a mark on his/her body (clothing). See motif A31. | 112 | 80 |
| H16a In H16 family | Rivers of blood, A671.2.2. | The narratives (in various contexts) mention rivers (lakes) of blood (as well as water used to wash the dead, pus, bones, sweat). Cf. motifs H16, K33F, N34. | 73 | 80 |
| K48 | The hero's singing bird, ATU 550. | The antagonist orders the wonderful bird captured by the hero to sing or talk, but it remains silent or cries out inappropriately. The bird begins to sing (talk) after the hero has triumphed over his opponents. | 64 | 80 |
| L22 | Deep sleep. | Having broken some taboo, seen an unusual object or a strange character, people fall into a deep sleep; at night, while asleep, they are killed or maimed. | 44 | 80 |
| L23 | Proteus. | Trying to free himself, the captured character successively transforms into various substances, materials or animals, or (Urarina, Setebo) orders various dangerous animals to successively attack the person who captured him. (In some cases, only one variant of transformation is mentioned, but in the same context as in typical variants with a series of transformations). | 43 | 80 |
| M16 | The healed cripple. | The wife or relatives (often the mother) of the sick person do not care for him. He recovers, and those who treated him badly are punished. Cf. motifs F62 and F96. | 48 | 80 |
| M8a In M8 family | Birds are hammering the rock: release from the trap | Animals, and more often birds, find it difficult to break through a rock from the outside or inside, make a hole in the tree, in the body of an absorber creature, tear fetters, etc., to help a character or get out of the confined space by yourself. The list includes groups whose texts deal with the exit of the first ancestors to earth from a confined space. | 51 | 80 |
| M90a5 In M90 family | Golden apples | The story mentions the golden fruits (rarely leaves) of a tree, usually golden apples. | 55 | 80 |
| N30 | He looks one way, cries, looks the other way, laughs | formula that describes the confusion of feelings: when a character looks in one direction, he cries, and when he laughs or smiles in the other direction. | 37 | 80 |
| A44 | The protector moon. | A character fleeing from pursuit, wronged or suffering on earth, asks the Moon to take him to her, or climbs up to the moon himself using a ladder or rope that has descended from there. | 60 | 81 |
| B12 | Snake rivers. | The riverbed follows the path of a snake, fish, dragon, or crab; the river arises from parts of the snake's body; the river is a snake. | 76 | 81 |
| E1b In E1 family | Man made of unsuitable material. | A character made of unsuitable material and turns out to be short-lived or poorly suited to performing his functions. | 61 | 81 |
| F9e1 In F9 family | Dangerous animal in the vagina. | A woman's womb is dangerous because it contains a toothy or stinging animal (not just its mouth) or many such creatures. | 56 | 81 |
| I12 | World axis. | A tree, a pole with branches, rarely a smooth pole connects the tiers of the universe. The most distinct variants, according to which the tiers of the universe are strung on a tree, are marked in italics. | 50 | 81 |
| I44 | Chthonic serpent. | A huge serpent encircles, embodies or supports the earth. | 52 | 81 |
| I68 | Opening of the sky. | At a certain moment, a crack or window opens in the sky (rain pours through it, it is possible to see what is happening in heaven, perhaps communication with the celestials). | 49 | 81 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.