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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F47a In F47 family | Parts of the female body. | Men use each part of the body of a single woman for copulation, or each man takes a part of her body cut into pieces. | 7 | 9 |
| F47b In F47 family | New people in the same place. | In order to create new people (new women) to replace those who have been destroyed, the character leaves something (feathers or pieces of flesh) in each empty hut (in the hearth, in the hammock, in the village), from which new people (new women) appear. | 9 | 10 |
| F48 | Why women are different. | Individual women differ physically because the pieces of flesh divided from the first woman were not identical, or because the males who copulated with the first woman were animals of different species. | 4 | 5 |
| F49 | Caesarean section, T584. | Women had their stomachs cut open to remove the baby. Someone explains how to give birth or makes childbirth possible. | 76 | 106 |
| F49a In F49 family | An animal teaches how to give birth. | A small animal (mouse, rat, rabbit, two-wombed animal, bird) explains how to give birth. See motif F49. | 12 | 8 |
| F49B In F49 family | In a distant land, they do not know how to give birth. | The hero comes to a people whose women do not know how to give birth. See motif F49. | 5 | 3 |
| F49C In F49 family | The first humans do not know how to give birth. | In the beginning of time, women do not know how to give birth. See motif F49. | 27 | 7 |
| F50 | Children born multiple times. | Children have the ability to leave their mother's womb and return to it again. | 33 | 51 |
| 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 |
| F51a In F51 family | Aggressive sister. | After incest is discovered, the sister openly demands her brother as her husband, turns into a monster, and kills people. | 6 | 6 |
| F51b In F51 family | Finds by the thread. | To find out the nature or location of a character's locus, another person secretly attaches a long thread to it and follows it. | 23 | 32 |
| F51c In F51 family | Provocative behaviour after incest. | Upon learning that her unknown lover is her own brother, the girl shows him her genitals or bare breasts, offering him what he so desired. After that, she runs away, and he rushes after her. | 9 | 12 |
| F51d In F51 family | Ginseng child. | Ginseng roots – boys or girls who help the hero. | 6 | 8 |
| F52 | Bird's crest made of pubic hair. | The first ancestor bird puts pubic hair or part of a woman's genitals on its head; since then, birds of this species have had a crest. | 13 | 17 |
| F53 | The ugly husband. | An unattractive man marries, but hides his face. When he is seen, the marriage is dissolved. | 26 | 32 |
| F53a In F53 family | The Bat or Owl hides its face. | The husband hides his face from his wife because she does not know that he is a bat or an owl. | 22 | 23 |
| F54 | Oedipus, ATU 931, 933. | Unaware of this, the son and mother (Konkani: daughter and father) engage in sexual relations and later learn of the incest they have committed. Cf. motifs c8c, f54e. | 54 | 39 |
| F54a In F54 family | The invisible scar (the husband turns out to be the son). | In her husband's appearance, the woman discovers signs that are not immediately noticeable, indicating that he has hidden his true nature from her and is not the right marriage partner (he is an animal, or her son, brother or father); or the husband discovers in the same way that his wife is his sister. | 16 | 18 |
| F54b In F54 family | Stuck feathers. | A young man or boy copulates with his mother or sister. This becomes known from the remains of paint or feathers with which he was covered during sexual intercourse. | 3 | 3 |
| F54c In F54 family | Recognised by nail marks. | A husband sees someone's fingernail marks on his wife's body and gathers the men to find out who left the marks. | 3 | 3 |
| F54d In F54 family | Conceives after drinking urine. | A woman gives birth to a boy after accidentally drinking animal urine, or a female animal gives birth to a boy after drinking a man's urine. | 4 | 5 |
| F54e In F54 family | Unintentional killing of a father. | Not knowing who is in front of him, a young man kills his father. | 45 | 28 |
| F55 | What do you want? | Not understanding what her interlocutor of the opposite sex wants, a woman or girl names or shows various objects and body parts. The interlocutor is satisfied when she names or exposes her genitals. Cf. motif f55a. | 22 | 25 |
| F55a In F55 family | Placing on the naked body (demon and woman). | A demonic character persuades a woman to expose a certain part of her body, because that is the only place where a certain object should be placed. The demon kills the woman, tearing off that part of her body. Usually, the woman uses or names various locations, and the character rejects each one in turn until he finds the right one. | 8 | 15 |
| F56 | Temptation and incest. | Upon seeing the vagina of his mother, daughter, daughter-in-law, sister, niece, or mother-in-law, a man or boy thinks about incest or commits it. | 29 | 37 |
| F56a In F56 family | Shavings in the fire. | To see a woman's genitals, a man throws something that flashes brightly into the hearth. The woman recoils, exposing her genitals. | 8 | 8 |
| F57 | Persephone picks a flower. | A girl or her father (rarely: mother) picks a plant (usually a flower) and as a result encounters a character with a non-human appearance and/or inhabiting the underworld. The girl becomes the character's wife. In some cases, the picked plant is the character's hair, but more often there is no direct association of this kind. | 8 | 13 |
| F58 | The trickster and women. | The character spends the night with a group of women, concealing his nature and/or intentions. In the end, he is either identified and punished, or he slips away to continue his mischief. | 59 | 63 |
| F59 | Man in woman: modelling the figure. | Pretending to be a woman, the trickster transforms part of his body, another character, or some object into a swaddled baby, female genitalia, or a female household item, or disguises an animal or object as a baby born to a new husband. | 22 | 26 |
| F60 | The trickster heals the girl. | A girl or woman falls ill. A character comes to heal her. The treatment consists of him copulating with her or attempting to do so. | 23 | 26 |
| F61 | A woman carries a trickster. | A male character pretends to be sick, weak, unconscious; a woman carries him on her back, he copulates or tries to copulate with her on the go. | 25 | 28 |
| F62 | Incognito at a festival. | A (supposedly) sick (weak, unattractive, poorly dressed) character is left alone when others leave for the festival; he (she) arrives there later in the guise of a handsome man or beautiful woman; those who arrived earlier do not recognise him (her) and take an interest in him (her). (This motif is also found in texts containing the motif k57, Cinderella). | 112 | 198 |
| F63 | Man marries, K1321.1, ATU 1538*. | A male trickster transforms into a woman and gets married. In the end, he is exposed or runs away from his husband. | 64 | 74 |
| F64 | Incestuous parent, T411.1.1. | The character is presented as another person in order to mate with a close relative in the descending or (less commonly) ascending line. | 81 | 121 |
| F64a In F64 family | Describes the future spouse. | Leaving or pretending to be dying, the character gives instructions to a relative regarding what he or she should do to get married, indicating a partner with certain characteristics, or the character indicates the place of a future meeting with this partner; or (Philippines) describes a person who should be accepted as a guest; comes himself under the guise of the person mentioned. See motif F64. | 58 | 10 |
| F64b In F64 family | Incestuous woman. | A woman pretends to be someone else in order to seduce her son, brother, daughter or grandson. See motif F64. | 14 | 20 |
| F65 | The imaginary dead man. | To satisfy their secret desire, which involves breaking social norms (forbidden sex, refusing to share food with relatives), the character pretends to be dying, abandoned at the burial site. | 119 | 26 |
| F65a In F65 family | The Imaginary Dead Man: Meeting with a Lover, ATU 885A. | The spouse leaves the character at the burial site; the (pretend) dead person comes back to life and leaves to be with their lover. | 59 | 68 |
| F65b In F65 family | The imaginary dead man: eats alone, K1867. | The character fakes death in order to eat greedily alone. | 34 | 57 |
| F65c In F65 family | The imaginary dead man: the boy reveals the deception. | A man pretends to be dead (in order to marry his daughter or to be able to eat the meat of hunted animals alone). One of his younger children recognises their (adoptive) father or notices that the supposed dead man is alive (he runs away from the funeral pyre, laughs, etc.). | 22 | 12 |
| F65d In F65 family | The fake dead man: the wife doesn't believe it. | The character pretends to be dying and is left at the burial site. However, his wife (mother, aunt) finds out about the deception and provokes the supposed dead man, forcing him to reveal himself. | 10 | 25 |
| F66 | False house. | In order to commit incest with his daughter, grandmother, sister (brother), father, grandson, brother (sister), the man pretends to be a stranger, or the husband takes on the appearance of his wife's brother so that she treats him as a blood relative. To do this, the character secretly moves to another house for a while, where the object of his desire mistakes him for someone else. | 13 | 13 |
| F67 | An old woman pretends to be a man. | An old woman lives with her (adopted) daughter, niece or daughter-in-law. She (supposedly) turns into a man, marries a girl or tries to do so. | 11 | 12 |
| F68 | The supposed dead woman dresses up as a man. | A woman pretends to be dead or actually dies. Her (former) lover comes to her grave. She goes with him, trying to avoid exposure, puts on men's clothes, but is eventually recognised. | 4 | 5 |
| F69 | Indecent invitation. | A woman's husband (male relative) invites her through her children to come and make love to him; the invitation is made in a veiled form; the woman comes. | 9 | 8 |
| F70 | Potiphar's Wife, K2111, T418, ATU 318. | A woman falsely accuses a man of assaulting her. | 105 | 139 |
| F70a In F70 family | Scratches his body. | Accusing a man or young man of assaulting her (usually sexually), a woman presents fabricated material evidence (tearing her clothes, scratching her body, etc.). See motif F70. | 58 | 42 |
| F70b In F70 family | Revenge of the rejected. | A woman takes revenge on a man who rejected her love (but does not necessarily pretend that the man tried to force himself on her). | 86 | 107 |
| F70c In F70 family | The castrated becomes a man (ATU 318). | A young man loses his male organ, but restores it with magic (and marries happily). Cf. ATU 750K. In ATU 318, this episode is described as one of many possible ones related to the theme of the unfaithful wife. | 16 | 15 |
| F70d In F70 family | The disgraced informer. | A girl pretends to be a man or a eunuch, or a girl hides a disability, or a man pretends to be a girl. Someone reveals a secret. At the last moment, the hero or heroine magically gets rid of the disability (acquires male or female nature), the informer is disgraced (executed). | 14 | 14 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.