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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 ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C2 | Flood and fire. | The inhabitants of the middle world (in part) are destroyed (or will be destroyed) once by fire or drought, another time by a flood, or the world is flooded with a stream of fire and boiling water. | 163 | 319 |
| H12 | The living go to the dead after someone's death, F81. | The living visit the afterlife to bring back the dead (except for texts about a shaman bringing back the soul of a sick person), or, without a specific goal, go there accompanied by or following in the footsteps of the recently deceased. | 186 | 321 |
| E5a In E5 family | People from the underworld, A1234. | The first humans (or only the first men or first women) were not created by a demiurge, but emerged from under the ground (from a cave) or from a small object on its surface (a tree, stone, pumpkin, etc.). There are many emerging humans (or humans and animals). Cf. motif E5B: first ancestors from the underworld. | 144 | 323 |
| K37 | Recognising one's own among similar ones, H62.1, H161, H324. | In order to return or obtain a wife, son or husband (in Africa also a domestic animal or object), a person must identify her or him among several identical people or animals (objects). | 141 | 324 |
| L93a In L93 family | The fox as helper. | The fox, jackal or coyote, resorting to cunning, helps the hero, heroine or people in general, saving them. | 162 | 324 |
| K27n In K27 family | Tasks of relatives, H310, H331. | A young man must complete difficult tasks or win a competition in order to obtain permission to marry. The person giving the tasks is indicated in square brackets. See motif K27. | 373 | 325 |
| L19b In L19 family | Creature with an odd number of heads. | Creatures (any, except ornithomorphic ones) with more than 10 heads or an odd (but more than one) number of heads are described or depicted (in the case of listing creatures in order of increasing number of heads, the series ends with an odd number). | 197 | 325 |
| L94 | Promised to the demon. | A demon or animal helps a person or agrees to let them go, but in return takes a promise to give them a daughter or son. | 151 | 328 |
| C19 | Finding the sun. | The missing, hidden, concealed or stolen sun (daylight) reappears. See motif C18 | 197 | 336 |
| L42 | The cannibal brings the hero to his home, ATU 327C. | After capturing the character, the enemy brings the prey home or to the place where he intends to eat it. The character runs away and escapes. | 198 | 342 |
| H24 | A vessel opened too early. | A vessel or other small container with valuables or living beings (creatures) is opened (prematurely). Its contents get out of control or disappear. | 202 | 343 |
| M30 | The trickster falls, (ATU 225, 225A) | character who has no natural wings or can't fly long distances rises into the air, but falls or, having lost its wings, stays where he can't return from. (The motive includes several options, but even when taken together, they don't cover the whole world. Texts with M25 and M28 motifs are counted as including the M30 motif). | 226 | 343 |
| M38 | Inept imitation | Person sees how others act using magic or according to their animal nature. He or she imitates their actions and gets into trouble. Actions are not heroic deeds, competitions or tests and refer to everyday activity, mostly to providing and cooking food | 203 | 348 |
| I22 | Moving objects, D931.3, D1553. | There are objects that, while remaining in place, move constantly or periodically (collide and diverge, fall and rise, open and close, rotate). | 195 | 352 |
| I41 | Rainbow serpent, A791.2. | A rainbow is a reptile (usually a snake), less often a fish or snake-like, usually dangerous, object (snake tongue, scorpion tail). | 152 | 363 |
| K56b In K56 family | The worthy are rewarded, the unworthy are punished. | Two men take turns meeting a character who can reward and punish. One behaves correctly and is rewarded, the other (or two others) behave incorrectly and are punished (rarely: not rewarded). | 200 | 366 |
| H7 | Personification of death. | Death (as well as illness and old age) is a special character, distinct from the lord of the underworld. It takes away a person's soul or otherwise causes their death. | 183 | 370 |
| K73 | Children of the younger wife, ATU 707. | A young wife (promises to give birth and) gives birth to wonderful children (or one son). In the absence of her husband, attempts are made to kill the wife or her child (usually by slandering them to the husband), but they remain alive. (For medieval European variants, see Newell 1906). | 188 | 395 |
| K177 | The wandering heroine. | A girl or woman sets off on a journey to find or return her fiancé or husband, or flees from danger, and her journey ends in a successful marriage. | 236 | 398 |
| B77 | Low sky, A625.2; A660. | The sky was close to the ground, then rose. | 197 | 399 |
| L15d In L15 family | Life is stored outside the body, E700, (ATU 302). | The object in which the character's life is concentrated is separate from him. The character dies when this external form is destroyed. | 207 | 399 |
| K8a In K8 family | Jonah: swallowed by an aquatic or chthonic creature. | The character enters the belly of an aquatic creature or a giant creature whose appearance and habitat are not precisely described. He kills the creature from within (K952) and/or returns to the outside without outside help. Upon emerging from the belly, he often finds himself bald (K921). Cf. motifs I81B (Charybdis) and L110 (Devourer). | 234 | 402 |
| J4 | Revenge for the death of male relatives. | The heroes avenge the death (enslavement) of their father, uncle, grandfather, or mother and father, or in general their descendants, with the loss of men being the most painful. | 197 | 428 |
| K12 | Kidnapped and returned. | The hero returns the woman whom his enemy or rival tried to take away from him. | 252 | 429 |
| K75 | The younger daughter agrees, ATU 433B. | The girl (usually the youngest of the sisters) does not reject the hero, who temporarily takes the form of an animal, a freak, an old man, a poor man, or a loser, or she picks up the hero's remains and he comes back to life. After some time, the hero reveals his true nature. | 250 | 432 |
| C6 | Obtaining valuables from the underworld. | In texts with an emphasis on authenticity, characters dive or otherwise descend into the underworld to bring back to earth something desirable that is located at the bottom (deep below) (aka "The Earth Diver" motifs) (cf. fairy tale motif k27x9). | 188 | 439 |
| M29b In M29 family | Trickster - Fox, Jackal, Coyote | Fox (a), Jackal, Coyote (or Wolf when, apparently, we mean a steppenwolf, i.e. the same coyote). See the motives in square brackets. | 352 | 447 |
| K56 | The worthy are rewarded, the unworthy are punished, ATU 480, 480D*. | One of the girls, young women or young girls (wives of one man) meets a character who is able to reward and punish. She behaves correctly and receives a reward. Another (others) tries to repeat everything, but behaves incorrectly and is punished (rarely: not rewarded). | 187 | 449 |
| E9 | The Unknown Mistress, N831.1. | The character notices that someone is running the house in his absence and catches the person doing so by surprise. | 227 | 453 |
| A4 | Sun-woman, A736.2. | The Sun is a woman (the Moon is usually a man, sometimes also a woman, see motif A6; highlighted in bold italics in the list of ethnic groups below). | 236 | 472 |
| B2a In B2 family | The earth is a female being, A401. | The earth is a female character (alone or alongside a male character) and is considered to be female or associated with women. | 272 | 484 |
| K1A In K1 family | Trap: a young man or man is abandoned. | A young man or man finds himself in a place where he is unable to move, but which is isolated from the ground: the top of a tree, a rock, a cave, a burrow, an island. This happens through someone else's fault: the antagonist lures or traps the hero, or (less often) leaves him no other option but isolation. After some time, the hero either finds a way to salvation himself, or is saved by someone else (often a bird or animal), or (rarely) undergoes a metamorphosis and no longer returns to his normal life. For texts with a fairy-tale episode in which the hero is sent down to the underworld and abandoned there, see motif K2A. | 262 | 490 |
| A12 | Eclipses: attacks by monsters, A737.1. | A creature or creatures regularly (sunrise and sunset, winter and summer, night and day, phases of the moon) or occasionally (eclipses, eschatological catastrophes) attack the luminaries or block their light. | 300 | 530 |
| L72 | Magical flight, D672, D673. | While fleeing, the character throws small objects behind him, which turn into powerful obstacles in the path of the pursuer, or (rarely) the pursuer creates such obstacles in the path of the fugitives. (Cf. SUS 1979, No. 313H = AA 313I, p. 114: escape by throwing magical objects, an episode in various types of fairy tales). | 252 | 551 |
| K24 | Hidden clothes of a supernatural woman, F202.4.2. | Women (rarely men) possessing magical powers and usually coming from another world (from the sky, from under water, they are winged creatures, bird-people, animal-people; rarely: a girl of higher social status than the hero) take off their clothes (feather coverings, etc.) or part of them. The character hides the clothes (one of them), forcing him (rarely her) to fulfil his (rarely her) desire. | 238 | 560 |
| K176 | Man in search of a woman, ATU 400. | A man sets out on a journey to find or bring back a bride or wife. | 322 | 613 |
| D4a In D4 family | Theft of fire, A1415. | Fire is stolen from its original owner, returned to people by the thief, or (the motif of theft is not expressed) brought with difficulty from a distant place. | 294 | 627 |
| A5 | The Sun and the Moon are male, A711.1, A736.3. | The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (rarely) has no gender. | 353 | 637 |
| K32 | The Substituted Woman, K1911; ATU 403, 404. | The man does not (immediately) notice that another woman, an evil spirit or (in Chaco) a male trickster has replaced his wife or bride, who is banished, imprisoned in the underworld, killed, etc. | 274 | 652 |
| A32d In A32 family | Man on the moon, A751. | The figure or imprint of an anthropomorphic creature is visible on the lunar disc. | 265 | 658 |
| A3 | The Sun-Man and the Moon-Woman, A716.1. | The Moon is female or hermaphroditic, the Sun is male or, possibly, male. | 354 | 669 |
| B3a In B3 family | Primary waters, A810. | The waters are primary. The earth is lowered onto the water, appears above the water, grows from a piece of solid substance placed on the surface of the water or liquid mud, from an island in the ocean, is exposed when the waters recede, etc. | 300 | 674 |
| K25 | The magical wife. | A man consciously marries a woman who belongs to the non-human world. | 422 | 1196 |
| K27 | Tasks and competitions. | The character receives tasks that are deadly dangerous or can only be accomplished with supernatural abilities or helpers; the hero completes the tasks and/or miraculously survives. The confrontation between the characters unfolds as a game or competition in which the loser loses their life or status. | 477 | 1424 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.