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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 ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H37a In H37 family | Jumping over firewood, lighting a fire. | A character gives another the ability to easily light a fire. The latter uses it unnecessarily and loses it. | 8 | 6 |
| I25b1 In I25 family | Hair instead of rope. | This refers to women who pull buckets of water out of a well using their own hair instead of a rope. | 3 | 6 |
| I37d In I37 family | Mushrooms - excrement. | Mushrooms are the excrement of a mythological character. See motif I37. | 8 | 6 |
| I37g In I37 family | Mushrooms - a step, a platform, an obstacle. | A tree mushroom is a step, a platform; an object that helps or hinders movement; provides shelter or refuge. See motif I37. | 1 | 6 |
| I4d In I4 family | The stolen weapon of Grom, ATU 1148B. | An enemy steals a weapon (usually a musical instrument) used by the thunder god to summon a storm. The thunder god or his assistant comes unrecognised to the thief, takes possession of his weapon and kills his enemies. | 14 | 6 |
| I81a1 In I81 family | Crab and snake. | The struggle between the crab and the snake (eel) determines the features of the relief of a particular area or has cosmic proportions. | 5 | 6 |
| J12l In J12 family | The hypocritical murderer. | The murderer pretends to mourn the victim along with everyone else. The deception is revealed, and the murderer is pursued. See motif J12. | 10 | 6 |
| J41a In J41 family | Son turns mother into a bird. | The son returns and finds his mother, who has been humiliated and tortured in his absence. The son turns his mother (and usually himself as well) into a bird of a certain species. | 10 | 6 |
| j4c In j4 family | The young man from the egg. | An egg remains from the deceased water character. The young hero who emerges from it avenges his father. | 5 | 6 |
| J59d In J59 family | Reviving the dead by stepping over their bones. | The character steps or jumps over the remains of the slain, and the latter comes back to life. | 5 | 6 |
| K104 | The red swan. | The youngest of the brothers stays at home, wounds a red swan or duck, and follows its trail. | 8 | 6 |
| K11b In K11 family | Reed made from bird bones. | The bones of a huge bird are turned into reeds or bamboo for making arrows or sarbacanes. | 5 | 6 |
| K13d In K13 family | Leg hanging in the sky. | A group of boys reaches the sky, the last one's leg is cut off or torn off. | 4 | 6 |
| k14c1 In k14 family | Treasures in a pomegranate. | A man who has gone away to work sends his wife a pomegranate, unaware of its value. His wife finds treasures in the pomegranate. | 6 | 6 |
| K15c In K15 family | Substituted clothing. | The owner of stone (ice) clothing kills people. By hiding or replacing his clothing, the hero kills him. | 5 | 6 |
| K16a In K16 family | Slipping, he drops the stuffed animal. | In an effort to show that he is a good hunter, a man regularly walks in front of a girl, pretending to carry prey. Once he slips, and the imaginary prey turns out to be a scarecrow stuffed with ashes or a bundle of termites. | 3 | 6 |
| K170 | Water without frogs, land without flies. | The character sets off in search of a place where there are no ordinary creatures that live everywhere (water without frogs, air without flies). | 4 | 6 |
| K181a In K181 family | Placing a hand on a horse's back. | When a person puts their hand on a horse's back, it bends over and falls. This is a sign of heroic strength. | 4 | 6 |
| K1g In K1 family | The deer gores its enemy. | The hero turns into a deer or creates a deer to gore the relative who sent him into a trap. | 7 | 6 |
| K25a3 In K25 family | Collected feathers. | The magical bird-wife flies away when she makes herself new feather clothing from feathers collected on the ground. | 6 | 6 |
| K27q1 In K27 family | Lioness's milk in a lion cub's skin. | The hero is sent to bring lioness milk in a wineskin made from a lion skin (usually from a lion cub's skin). | 5 | 6 |
| K27z2a1 In K27 family | An innocent woman is accused of promiscuity. | Noticing that a woman is pregnant, her relatives or in-laws accuse her of promiscuity, because, according to their calculations, she could not have conceived by her husband or fiancé. After severe trials, the woman meets again the father of the boy she gave birth to. | 5 | 6 |
| K27z2c In K27 family | Marries to lock up his wife. | After marrying a poor girl, the prince locks her up. She turns out to be more cunning than him. | 6 | 6 |
| K27zz2 In K27 family | Blind in one eye. | Several wives of one man (several sisters) go blind – the older ones in both eyes, and the younger one in one eye. | 6 | 6 |
| K32b In K32 family | Mother-in-law replaces daughter-in-law. | The man's mother takes on the appearance of his wife in order to take her place. | 5 | 6 |
| K32k In K32 family | False wife – beetle or larva. | The false wife, replacing the real one – a foul-smelling beetle or larva. | 7 | 6 |
| K38b3c In K38 family | The hero shields the sleepers from the sun. | Seeing sleeping fairies or their children, the hero covers them from the scorching rays of the sun. For this, they do him a favour. | 3 | 6 |
| K47c In K47 family | The origin of dogs. | The marriage of a woman and a dog gave rise to dogs – friends and helpers of humans. | 3 | 6 |
| K5 | False chicks. | To lure the hero into a trap and send him far away, the enemy makes fake birds from worthless materials (bodily secretions, etc.). See motif K4. | 13 | 6 |
| K56b2 In K56 family | Clenched jaws. | A supernatural creature (object) bestows wealth upon a modest person. A greedy person, trying to take more than their fair share, is caught and cannot free themselves (for a long time). Usually, the creature pinches the outstretched hand. | 5 | 6 |
| K73a2a In K73 family | The child is replaced with a log. | After hiding or discarding a newborn baby, ill-wishers replace it with a piece of wood and/or inform the father that his wife has given birth to a piece of wood. | 6 | 6 |
| K9a In K9 family | The punished person is suspended between heaven and earth. | The punished character is suspended on a chain or metal thread between heaven and earth. | 3 | 6 |
| L127 | Dancing ears. | Having entered another world, the character sees dancing body parts and other strange creatures. He must not be surprised, laugh, or mention God. | 6 | 6 |
| L133 | Without arms and legs. | The character keeps his limbs separately, connecting them to his body when necessary. | 8 | 6 |
| l15h4 In l15 family | The character's soul in a needle. | The object in which the character's life is concentrated is enclosed in another, which is enclosed in a third (and so on). The final container of the soul is a needle, which the hero breaks. | 5 | 6 |
| L22a In L22 family | People go blind. | Having broken some taboo, seen an unusual object or strange character, people fall into a deep sleep and wake up in the morning blind. See motif L22. Among the Watut, Khmou and Trumai, a spirit eats out a person's eyes and they die immediately without waking up). | 16 | 6 |
| L37b2 In L37 family | Overheard conversation: a snake inside a person. | From the conversation of snakes or crows, a person learns the cause of another's illness: a snake has crawled inside him. The person expels the snake and the sick person recovers. | 8 | 6 |
| L72f In L72 family | Discarded entrails. | Fleeing for his life, the character throws behind him the entrails or stomach contents of an animal, which become an obstacle in the path of his pursuer. | 6 | 6 |
| M105 | The supposedly murdered mother. | The character hides his mother (wife, mother-in-law), but tells another that he has killed or sold her, or demonstratively leads her away to be sold, but lets her escape. See motif M104. | 6 | 6 |
| M109c In M109 family | Invisibly tied tail. | A character is invisibly tied by the tail and tries to break free (successfully or unsuccessfully). Cf. motif M109. | 6 | 6 |
| M11b In M11 family | Meat extracted from the body. | A woman feeds a man with good-quality meat or fat, which she cuts from her own flesh or extracts from her body, and stops doing so when he learns about the source of the food. | 4 | 6 |
| M132a In M132 family | Ears, not horns. | Another animal thinks that a hornless herbivore has horns and is afraid of it, but these are just ears. | 6 | 6 |
| M140b In M140 family | The wolf adorns the bird. | The fox cunningly ties up the wolf. The bird unties him, and the grateful wolf adorns her plumage. See motifs b97, b97a. | 9 | 6 |
| M147 | The fox runs ahead of the tiger. | A weak animal tells a strong animal that everyone is afraid of him, the weak one, and suggests testing this. He walks in front of the strong animal, everyone runs away, and the strong animal believes that they are running away from the weak one. | 6 | 6 |
| M173 | Pretends to be dead several times. | A zoomorphic character pretends to be dead where a traveller carrying luggage is supposed to pass. The traveller passes by, but the deceiver quietly runs ahead and repeats his trick. The traveller puts his luggage on the ground and returns to pick up the first dead person (for the skin or meat), and the deceiver takes the luggage away. | 6 | 6 |
| M175 | A lion carcass behind a hyena. | The hyena sees the carcass of a larger predator behind it, does not realise that it is dead, and runs away in terror. | 5 | 6 |
| M191c In M191 family | The wolf's song, ATU 163. | Through singing (threats, pleasantries), the wolf (less often, the bear) gradually forces the old man to give him his domestic animals (and family members). | 11 | 6 |
| M195b In M195 family | Three dolls. | A person sticks a needle (thread, stick) into the ear of two or three dolls (skulls). In different dolls or skulls, the object comes out of different holes (or does not go inside at all, remains inside, etc.). This refers to people who react differently to what they hear (inattentive, talkative, wise). | 6 | 6 |
| M197f In M197 family | Black beard, grey head, ATU 921C. | The dialogue plays on the fact that in youth the beard is black, and in old age it is white. Usually a person explains why his head has turned grey but his beard has not: the beard is 20 years younger. | 10 | 6 |
| M198b5 In M198 family | The imaginary fortune teller: an overheard conversation. | The fake fortune teller accidentally overhears someone's conversation, otherwise he would not have been able to give the correct answer. | 5 | 6 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.