Folklore Database · Browse
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 ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I90 | Behind the rolling ball. | The character goes towards their goal, following a rolling ball of thread (less often an apple or a ball). | 52 | 81 |
| K49 | Dead mother nursing a baby, E323.1. | A woman who has been transformed into an animal or found herself outside the human world returns to her child to feed and care for it. Cf. motif K33. | 73 | 81 |
| K56a In K56 family | The unworthy fail, the worthy succeed, ATU 431. | Two or three sisters successively go to a powerful character. The first or the first two act incorrectly, perish or fail to achieve their goal. The last one acts correctly, is saved or rewarded. | 51 | 81 |
| K88b In K88 family | Food in exchange for eyes. | The character suffers from thirst or hunger. His companion promises to share water or food with him (to make him rich) if he allows himself to be blinded. | 64 | 81 |
| K93b1 In K93 family | Conception from eaten fish. | After eating fish, a childless woman gives birth to a boy or twins. | 44 | 81 |
| L108a In L108 family | The goat kills the antagonist. | A predator or cannibal swallows people and animals. A goat (rarely a sheep) punishes it and usually rescues those who have been swallowed (most often by cutting open its belly, allowing those who have been swallowed to escape alive). | 66 | 81 |
| M135a In M135 family | The wolf's misfortunes, ATU 122A. | A wolf (or, less commonly, another predator) approaches various (more than one type of) domestic animals (animals and humans) in order to eat them, but, agreeing to fulfil the request, remains hungry and is usually beaten. | 71 | 81 |
| M151A In M151 family | Supports a rock, ATU 1530, J2273.1. | The character pretends to hold a rock, tree, etc., which is supposedly about to fall. See Dixon 1916: 189. (It is possible that in America the motif is of late African origin). | 77 | 81 |
| M157a4 In M157 family | Fishing on a mountain. | The character proves the absurdity of another's statements by claiming that he (or someone else) fished on a mountain, extinguished a fire with straw, sowed wheat in the sea, watched flying fish, etc. (or he himself imitates such actions). The absurdity of the statements stems from the incorrectly chosen locus or means for performing certain actions. | 68 | 81 |
| B14A In B14 family | Tears turn into water. | Rivers, springs, the sea, floodwaters, and rain arise from tears (for rivers of tears in the world of the dead, see motif H16). | 68 | 82 |
| B1f In B1 family | Two brothers: the winner and the loser. | In the era of creation, two men have a common origin, are not antagonists, and display their characteristics in a series of episodes. One is intelligent and successful, the other is simple-minded and irresponsible. | 36 | 82 |
| I48 | Locked in the underworld. | The character is deprived of the ability to move, after which he acquires cosmic dimensions: he supports the earth (sky) or his movements cause earthquakes (less often - storms). | 51 | 82 |
| J66 | The straps are bitten through. | The character cuts or bites through bowstrings and other straps in advance, punctures boats, preventing opponents from fighting or pursuing him. | 63 | 82 |
| L65a In L65 family | The Cannibal Sister, ATU 315A. | A daughter is born, or people find a girl; she is a monster or turns into a monster and devours everyone. Her brother escapes (usually leaves, marries, returns), and she pursues him unsuccessfully. | 65 | 82 |
| M127a In M127 family | The bird tricks the fox, ATU 223. | In response to a character's request to make him laugh or feed him, a bird sits on a person's or animal's head or on a fragile object. Another person tries to knock the bird down, kills or maims the person on whom the bird has landed, or breaks the object. Alternatively, the bird distracts the person's attention, and during this time the character eats the food that the person was carrying. | 74 | 82 |
| M28 | Icarus(failed flight on artificial wings), K1041.1. | When able to take off, the character takes off but falls or stays in a remote place from where he can no longer take off. | 47 | 82 |
| N27 | Bird's milk | Bird milk (variant: chicken, pigeon, hawkish, etc.) milk is mentioned in fairy tales, riddles, paroemias and conspiracies as something very rare and difficult to obtain or non-existent actually. | 51 | 82 |
| C16 | Products of labour become animals, E161, E168. | Contrary to human desire, processed skins, tools, and (meat) food (again) turn into (those) animals (from whose body parts they were made). Cf. motif M84. | 64 | 83 |
| F16 | Men and women: exchange of characteristics. | Men possessed biological characteristics that are now characteristic of women, or vice versa (beards, menstruation, breasts, childbearing). | 59 | 83 |
| I38 | Dog-headed creatures. | There are creatures that combine the characteristics of dogs and humans (usually people with dog faces or heads). | 54 | 83 |
| I8f In I8 family | Pillars of the world: one object. | The sky, the world rests on a single object (a pillar or tree). | 70 | 83 |
| K86 | The Crying Child. | A small (usually capricious) child is ignored, sent away from home, abandoned on the road, or given to another person for a time. As a result, the child is carried away by an animal or a spirit. | 71 | 83 |
| L108b In L108 family | The Thin Voice, (ATU 327F). | To prevent his victim from recognising him, the predator, the cannibal, makes his voice thinner by mechanical means - he smears his throat (tongue) with fat, cauterises it with a hot stone or iron, exposes it to ant bites, consults a blacksmith, etc. | 59 | 83 |
| L125 | The Werewolf Wife, ATU 411. | After meeting a beautiful woman, a man finds her in a situation where her inhuman nature is revealed. After that, the marriage falls apart. | 49 | 83 |
| M106f In M106 family | Guest from the Other World, ATU 1540. | A stranger tells a woman that he has come from the other world. The woman gives him money and belongings with a request to pass them on to her deceased son, husband, etc. Usually, the woman's (new) husband (or son), upon learning of the deception, rides after him, and as a result, the deceiver steals his horse. | 83 | 83 |
| M171a In M171 family | Mena: gets a girl, ATU 1655. | A character (often zoomorphic) gets a girl (boy) by successively exchanging smaller values for larger ones. | 83 | 83 |
| M29k In M29 family | The turtle (toad, frog) is a cunning winner | A turtle (toad, frog) defeats strong opponents by cunning or perseverance. See the motives in square brackets. The character is named if it is a toad or frog; otherwise, a turtle. | 172 | 83 |
| C6j1 In C6 family | The earth is brought by the antagonist of the deity. | An anthropomorphic deity sends someone to fetch earth from the bottom of his enemy. At first, the enemy or both characters sometimes have the appearance of birds. After the enemy brings the earth, a confrontation begins between the two characters, who now always have anthropomorphic appearances. | 45 | 84 |
| E8 | Wooden people. | The first humans or the wife of the first ancestor were made of wood. | 66 | 84 |
| G20 | A woman turns into plants. | Edible (cultivated or wild) plants emerge from the body of an old woman, a young woman or a girl. | 61 | 84 |
| I58 | The Milky Way – the path of birds. | The Milky Way is called the bird path and is associated with migratory birds. | 51 | 84 |
| I6 | Birds that bring storms. | A person encounters a huge bird carrying clouds, rain, snow, thunderstorms, etc. | 53 | 84 |
| L42g In L42 family | Hansel and Gretel, ATU 327A. | The stepmother, and more often the father (usually at the insistence of his new wife), leaves the children in a deserted place or sends them into the forest. They end up in the house of a cannibal or cannibals, all (or at least one of them) survive and achieve success. | 79 | 84 |
| M145 | The lion in the well, ATU 92. | One character (usually zoomorphic) shows another his reflection in a body of water. The latter believes that a beast resembling him is challenging his seniority, invites him to visit, etc.; usually throws himself into the water and perishes. | 60 | 84 |
| M29w2 In M29 family | The tiger is a loser and a loser | As a result of its stupidity or antisocial behavior, the tiger dies or suffers damage. See the motives in square brackets. | 74 | 84 |
| M49a In M49 family | A substituted shaman | hero needs to penetrate unnoticed into the locus of dangerous creatures; he meets an old woman (usually a shaman, a doctor) going there, puts on her skin, and penetrates into dangerous ones in her guise creatures. | 47 | 84 |
| H28a In H28 family | The ashes of the burned turn into gnus. | When a character is burned, the smoke and sparks turn into mosquitoes and other blood-sucking insects that scatter throughout the world. | 40 | 85 |
| H34g In H34 family | Porridge from a grain. | One grain was enough to prepare a meal. | 41 | 85 |
| J32f In J32 family | Stolen apples. | While standing guard, the hero discovers who is stealing fruit (usually apples) from the garden. | 61 | 85 |
| J45 | The leg serves as a bridge, R246. | The character extends his leg (dafla: arm; upper tanana: tail) or neck as a bridge across a water barrier. Usually, those being pursued or walking ahead cross such a bridge to the other side, while the pursuer or those walking behind fall into the water because the character removes his bridge. See motif J44. | 67 | 85 |
| K100b In K100 family | The Grateful Dead Man, ATU 505. | A person helps to bury a dead man (pays his remaining debt, honours a saint). The revived dead man (saint) helps him overcome difficulties. See motif K100A. | 55 | 85 |
| L114 | The younger brother saves from the werewolf. | A group of young men or women arrives at the demon's lair. The younger brother or sister, or a character who is considered sick, unpleasant, unfit, and often goes with others against their will, saves them all. See motif L113. | 70 | 85 |
| M29z4 In M29 family | Anthropomorphic trickster (miscellaneous) | 89 | 85 | |
| M41 | Eye juggling, J2423 | The character throws his eyes (an inhaler has a tooth) up or into the distance. At first they return to the eye sockets, but then they disappear. | 54 | 85 |
| M51 | The meat is on the tree | One of the two characters gets meat. The weaker deceives the stronger one, hiding the meat in his absence to eat alone later. | 58 | 85 |
| M91b1 In M91 family | Leather sold, (ATU 1535) | A man is going to sell a pet skin. On the way, he gets big money by deception or by chance. Usually, upon return, a person says that he received money for the skin, after which others slaughter their livestock and try unsuccessfully to sell the skins for money they are not worth. (In India, the hero sometimes supposedly sells not skin, but beef, which is forbidden to brahmanas). | 68 | 85 |
| F27 | Girls and water spirits. | It is dangerous for girls or women to approach water (water creatures drag them away or swallow them; a girl who approaches water dies; she becomes pregnant by a snake; through her fault, a flood or other disaster occurs; water spirits themselves come to a girl who has her first period). | 49 | 86 |
| H1a In H1 family | He who wished death upon another is himself in mourning. | The character decides that people should die. His or her child, mother, or some other being whose life is dear to him or her dies. Now the decision-maker agrees to make people immortal, but it is impossible to change the decision that has been made. | 57 | 86 |
| H45 | The Stained Flatbread, ATU 779G. | A woman or child treats food disrespectfully by smearing it with excrement. For this, people (rarely: only the culprit) are punished. | 61 | 86 |
| H6c In H6 family | The immortal raven. | The raven (crow, vulture) is associated with death or contrasted with humans as immortal among mortals (sent to bring the elixir of immortality or water that revives the dead; drinks this water himself; teaches people funeral rites; etc.). | 54 | 86 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.