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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 ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K132 | The Invincible Rooster, ATU 715, 715A. | A small character (usually a rooster) comes to a powerful enemy. Thanks to creatures and objects that he encounters along the way and hides in his body or bag, the character remains unharmed after all attempts to destroy him. Cf. motif L126. | 64 | 86 |
| K27f1 In K27 family | Building a bridge. | A character builds a bridge (usually from precious materials) in an implausibly short time. | 51 | 86 |
| K73b In K73 family | Punishment of the innocent. | A woman falsely accused of murdering her newborn child, or of giving birth to a puppy instead of a child, etc., is subjected to cruel and humiliating punishment or execution. See motif K73. | 66 | 86 |
| J62c In J62 family | A sister asks her brother to obtain the impossible. | In order to destroy the young man, the antagonist arouses in his sister (rarely: in him himself) a desire to possess wonderful objects, the attempt to obtain which is deadly dangerous. The young man sets off to obtain the objects. | 57 | 87 |
| K27g In K27 family | To bathe in boiling water. | The character is ordered to bathe in (hot) milk, in boiling water, to jump into the fire; he remains unharmed, while his opponent usually perishes. | 62 | 87 |
| K34 | Dangerous swings, K855. | The character puts others on the swing and, after swinging them, throws them (or threatens to throw them) into the water, onto rocks, etc. | 61 | 87 |
| I121 | Paired constellations. | Constellations (usually Ursa Major and Ursa Minor) are considered as two similar, paired objects. (For Africa, Eurasia and Alaska – paired names; for most of America – semantic association, but the names are not paired). | 70 | 88 |
| I141 | Magic wand. | The wand is an instrument for performing actions whose results cannot be explained rationally. | 55 | 88 |
| M39a1 In M39 family | Misunderstood instructions: one step behind, ATU 1696 | character misunderstands the first instruction, promises to do the right thing next time; literally follows a memorized rule that does not correspond to the new situation; so multiple times. | 88 | 88 |
| M39a6d In M39 family | Encrypted message | One of the relatives or spouses transfers a text or object to the other through third parties. Only the recipient understands the meaning of the words or the item handed over, saves the sender and/or destroys his enemies. | 53 | 88 |
| B36a In B36 family | Two adorn each other. | Two zoomorphic characters adorn each other, after which one is satisfied with the result and the other is not. | 59 | 89 |
| H55 | Sinners in the Other World, ATU 471, (ATU 470). | A person going to the other world sees people who are punished or rewarded for their actions in life. | 75 | 89 |
| J32a In J32 family | At night by his father's grave, ATU 530. | When dying, a person orders that someone spend the night at his grave or bring something to the grave. | 61 | 89 |
| K76b In K76 family | Son-snake and husband-snake. | The son or foster son of snake spouses. He turns into a human. The snake is the princess's magical spouse, lost and returned. | 69 | 89 |
| I41b In I41 family | The rainbow drinks water. | The rainbow drinks (draws into itself) water (and living creatures). | 60 | 90 |
| J52 | Children kill children in revenge for their parents. | A character (usually zoomorphic and female) treacherously kills another. The victim's children take revenge by killing the murderer's children. | 49 | 90 |
| K38d1 In K38 family | Girl sacrificed to the dragon. | Fearing a monster living in the water or wishing to end a flood or drought, a girl is sacrificed or voluntarily hides in the waters. | 63 | 90 |
| K73a8 In K73 family | Miraculous children: brother and sister. | A woman gives birth to a miraculous boy and girl. They are replaced by animals or objects and thrown away, but they escape and triumph over their enemies. | 58 | 90 |
| L73 | Drink the river! G522 | Trying to drink a river, lake, or sea, the antagonist bursts. | 61 | 90 |
| M120 | The Cannibal Nanny, ATU 37, Th. K931. | A zoomorphic character takes on the responsibility of caring for other people's children (raising them, teaching them, healing them), but in reality has no intention of doing so, and usually eats the children. | 71 | 90 |
| C34 | The Flood: the wounded creature. | The flood begins after people kill (harm, maim) some kind of creature (usually aquatic). | 65 | 91 |
| I108 | The Pleiades – a single character. | The Pleiades are a single character, not a group of people. | 76 | 91 |
| K106 | Thrown to the cows. | The hero (a miraculous infant, a magical rooster) is thrown at the feet of animals, but they do not trample him. | 61 | 91 |
| K80d In K80 family | The stuck pin. | A young woman or man is enchanted (turned into a bird, animal, immobilised) when a pin or other sharp object is stuck into their body. | 52 | 91 |
| M74a In M74 family | Strange newborn names, ATU 15 | The character pretends to be invited to visit several times in connection with the birth of a child, or gives names to various tracts that the boat passes by. The names and titles sound strange, but they become clear when it turns out that the character ate supplies. | 87 | 91 |
| A12c In A12 family | Reptiles or fish eclipse the sun. | Eclipses of the sun, moon or their setting (marked*) are caused by a snake, lizard, dragon, fish or crocodile; these creatures attack the luminaries now or attacked them at the beginning of time. See motif A12. | 76 | 92 |
| A39a In A39 family | Twelve months, ATU 294. | Each of the calendar segments (usually months) that make up the year is represented by a special object or creature. | 54 | 92 |
| C6b In C6 family | Diver – muskrat (beaver, otter). | The desired object is brought up from the bottom by a muskrat (rarely a beaver or otter). | 44 | 92 |
| D3 | The invention of fire. | The first fire was obtained by friction or striking; a certain character gives fire or shows how to obtain it, teaches how to cook food on fire; fire was obtained from lightning. {The section is incomplete, there is much more data. A specific plot of the invention of fire hardly exists. Variants involving abduction and invention are often intertwined in the same narrative}. | 74 | 92 |
| K128 | Graze without loss. | A character orders the hero to graze animals (or birds) and promises to execute him (deprive him of his reward) if even one animal is lost. Cf. K128B (ATU 570). | 59 | 92 |
| K99 | The Untold Dream, ATU 725. | A person dreams about an upcoming celebration for himself or a member of his family (rarely: he daydreams about it). Either another person buys the dream and becomes the protagonist of the story, or the person who saw it hides its content from everyone, or he is persecuted for excessive conceit, as evidenced by the content of the dream. The meaning of the dream is revealed at the end of the story. Often, the young man ascends to the throne and marries the heiresses of two kingdoms (in the dream, these were two suns or the sun and the moon). | 70 | 92 |
| L28 | Snake meat. | A person who eats unusual or forbidden meat or fish, or touches something forbidden, turns into a reptile or a fish. | 65 | 92 |
| L38 | The demon trap. | The demon sets a trap, and people fall into it. Cf. motif K64A. | 57 | 92 |
| L68 | Two in the night. | Left alone (usually at night in a deserted place) with his companion, a man undergoes a monstrous metamorphosis. | 55 | 92 |
| M42 | Eyes taken out and lost, E781 | The character takes his eyes out of his orbits and loses them. He usually regains his eyes later, makes new ones, takes away from another character, etc. See the M41 motif. | 93 | 92 |
| M60b In M60 family | Imaginary doctor: finishing off the victim | The deceiver, promising to cure a wounded or sick person, finishes him off and eats him or offers a remedy that is only worse for him. | 48 | 92 |
| B37 | Living beings are given their appearance. | The character decorates various birds (less often fish) and distributes fat to animals. Since then, the corresponding species have possessed their current characteristics. | 56 | 93 |
| G2 | The Return of Persephone. | A character embodying fertility and life, who first disappears and then (periodically) returns. | 70 | 93 |
| I117 | The spider carries from world to world. | A spider or spider woman lifts a hero or heroine up to the sky, helps them descend to earth, or otherwise helps them cross the path leading to another world. | 60 | 93 |
| K160a In K160 family | The demon's answers to his wife's questions, ATU 461. | A woman living in the house of a supernatural character hides a man who has come to her and asks the character questions, the answers to which the man must find out. | 72 | 93 |
| K1f In K1 family | Conflict over a woman. | One man traps another, driven by jealousy or the desire to possess his rival's wife. See motifs K1A, K1E, K2A. | 172 | 93 |
| L106b In L106 family | For disappearance into another world. | A girl, a young girl or (rarely) a boy loses an everyday object, usually carried away by water or wind. In search of the lost object, she (he) encounters powerful characters, returns the object and/or receives valuables. Traditions recorded only in Roberts 1994: 103-110 are highlighted in italics. | 74 | 93 |
| L113 | Married to a werewolf (ATU 363). | A girl who has long rejected suitors falls in love with a handsome man who turns out to be a demon, a werewolf, or a dangerous animal. The girl barely escapes or perishes. | 67 | 93 |
| B36 | Living beings acquire their appearance. | Birds, fish, and four-legged animals deliberately or accidentally smear themselves with colouring substances or divide parts of another's body among themselves, thereby acquiring their current appearance. | 48 | 94 |
| B42g In B42 family | The Great Bear – a hunted animal. | The Big Dipper (as a whole or only the dipper) is identified with an animal (animals) pursued by hunters / attacked by other characters. | 44 | 94 |
| I50 | Many-legged beast (hoofed animal), B15.6.3. | Describes or depicts a hoofed animal with six or more legs. | 53 | 94 |
| J27 | Cast out and at home, Z210.1. | A little boy (several babies) was abandoned, born to a mother who had already died, lives in a river, in a forest, etc. Another boy lives with his father or mother, but in the end the first one moves to live in the locus of the second. Often (see motif J25, "Infants hide and return"), the brother living in the river, in the forest, etc., first secretly meets with his "home" brother (with his brothers; with other children from his clan; with a puppy nursed by his mother). | 67 | 94 |
| K100a In K100 family | Tobiah, (ATU 505). | Setting off on a journey, a young man releases a caught fish or animal, or he or his father does someone a favour. As a reward for their help, a person or creature in the guise of a stranger or animal comes to the young man, becomes his companion and protector. | 62 | 94 |
| K123 | The old woman's curse. | A boy, a young man, or, less commonly, a girl deliberately or accidentally offends an elderly woman (or a cripple). She utters words that cause him or her to want to do something dangerous (most often to find a marriage partner). | 51 | 94 |
| K35 | The replaced man. | The deceiver pretends to be a hero in order to take his place (to possess his woman). (This motif includes all texts with motif K35a3). | 71 | 94 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.