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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F70e In F70 family | Girl turns into a man, ATU 514. | A girl pretends to be a man, magically acquires male nature and lives with his wife. Cf. motif K137 (in Uther 2004, plot 514 mistakenly includes a Karakalpak text with our motif K137). | 45 | 35 |
| F70e1 In F70 family | Daughter in the role of son, AT 884B. | An old man needs a son to do men's work. (Only the youngest) daughter takes on this task (successfully passing the test set by her father), pretending to be a man. | 38 | 42 |
| F70e2 In F70 family | Father tests his daughters or sons. | The father sends his daughters or sons on a difficult task one by one. At the very beginning of the journey, their courage is put to the test. Only the youngest son or daughter passes the test. Usually, the father stands in their way, taking the form of an enemy or a predator, but only the youngest son or daughter bravely enters the fight. | 17 | 20 |
| F70f In F70 family | Accidental change of gender. | Finding themselves in a deserted place, people accidentally change their gender. | 11 | 16 |
| F71 | Susanna and the Elders, ATU 883A. | After being rejected, the man falsely accuses the woman of promiscuity; others believe him and try to punish her severely. | 72 | 70 |
| F72 | Imitation of rape. | A woman asks a man to tie her up before intercourse so that it looks like she is being raped. | 2 | 3 |
| F73 | Imaginary wound. | The character mistakes the vulva or anus for a wound. See motifs F73A, F73B. (In the traditions of South and Central America, it is impossible to distinguish local variants from European borrowings). | 59 | 59 |
| F73a In F73 family | The vulva as a wound (first humans). | The vulva is an unhealed wound on the body of the first women, or the first humans did not copulate because they thought that the vulva was a wound. | 6 | 6 |
| F73b In F73 family | The bear believes that the vulva is a wound (ATU 153). | The bear (wolf, lion, dragon) believes that the vulva is a wound inflicted on a human being. | 23 | 15 |
| F74 | The naked man pretends to be dead. | Upon seeing a dangerous character, a man or woman undresses and pretends to be dead (or the character undresses the woman). Examining and sniffing the supposed corpse, the character finds what he takes to be a wound or signs of decay and leaves. | 32 | 30 |
| F75 | Siren and tapir. | A hunter sees a tapir summoning a woman who lives in the water with a secret signal; she emerges from the lake or river, and the tapir mates with her. The hunter himself summons the woman and becomes her lover. | 5 | 8 |
| F76 | Animals teach love. | People learn how to make love by watching birds, fish or animals mating; animals teach people how to make love or arouse desire in them. | 26 | 36 |
| F77a In F77 family | Penis bridge. | A huge penis serves as a bridge. | 8 | 9 |
| F77B In F77 family | Hanging on the penis. | A man cannot free himself for a long time after copulating with his partner, as a result of which his penis ends up high above the ground. See motif F19, motif F21. | 4 | 2 |
| F77C In F77 family | Penis-rope. | The character climbs a tree or descends a huge penis, which turns into a rope or vine. | 3 | 3 |
| F78 | Toothy anus. | The character has teeth in the anus or a second head in place of the anus. | 7 | 7 |
| F79 | Animal wives, B600.1. | The character successively marries various women of non-human nature, but each time (usually, except for the last) he is disappointed. | 14 | 20 |
| F80 | First humans without genitals. | The first men and/or women have no genitals, then they acquire them. | 25 | 24 |
| F80a In F80 family | Removable genitals. | Genitals exist independently of people; they can be left behind, attached to the body, etc. | 33 | 33 |
| F80B In F80 family | Left unattended. | The vaginas were left unattended and became damaged. See motif F80. | 4 | 4 |
| F80C In F80 family | The dead with genitals in their hands. | In the afterlife, women carry the penises of their lovers, and men carry the vulvas of their lovers. See motif F80. | 2 | 1 |
| F80D In F80 family | Genitals flew like geese. | Female genitals flew like geese. | 2 | 2 |
| F81 | The bride in the river. | The character does not recognise his reflection in the water, thinks that a person (usually a woman, with whom he immediately falls in love) is looking at him, and jumps into the water. (Cf. J1793, "Diving for a woman's reflection"; among the Kwinolts, diving for a real reflection of a woman; among the Menominee, diving for a woman in the water). | 19 | 23 |
| F82 | Incest with mother-in-law, T417. | The son-in-law resorts to trickery to sleep with his mother-in-law, or the mother-in-law with her son-in-law. Usually, the son-in-law insists that his mother-in-law, rather than his wife, accompany him on a hunt. | 35 | 36 |
| F82a In F82 family | What the owl cries about. | In order to lure a forbidden marriage partner into their hammock, the character cries out in the voices of birds and animals or interprets their voices in their own way. | 4 | 4 |
| F83 | News precedes the hero. | The character does something forbidden and indecent in a place hidden from prying eyes, and then asks people what's new. They reply that there is no news – except that so-and-so (the character) did such-and-such. | 28 | 34 |
| F83a In F83 family | Insult conveyed through children, ATU 36. | One character asks the children of another to convey an insult to their mother or father – usually announcing his intention to make love to their mother. {ATU data is included in the correlation table, but not in the text}. | 21 | 23 |
| F83b In F83 family | Rape of a woman in distress, ATU 36. | A strong female animal chases a weak male, but gets stuck between trees, rocks, etc. The fugitive mocks his pursuer, usually raping her. {In ATU, motifs f83a and f83b are described as one plot type, ATU 36. The degree of their plot connection can only be determined by having the original texts}. | 26 | 31 |
| F84 | Imitation of chastity. | A guest or younger brother has sexual intercourse with the wife of the host or older brother. Wanting to demonstrate long abstinence, the character sprinkles ash on the head of his penis or smears it with fruit juice. | 4 | 5 |
| F85 | The Moon: women against men. | The moon/moon leads women in their confrontation with men or takes women away from men. | 6 | 5 |
| F86 | Conditional signal. | A character calls another character of non-human nature (a mate or ward) with a conventional signal; the other character sees this, makes the same signal or utters the same words, takes on the appearance of the character they have come to replace, kills those who come out to meet them, or makes use of their sexual services. | 127 | 191 |
| F86a In F86 family | The pet is eaten. | The character cares for a fish, crab or other creature. Others watch the character, kill and eat his pet, or try to do so. | 17 | 18 |
| F87 | Children transformed by a snake woman, ATU 425M. | The snake forces the girl to promise to marry him and takes her to the underwater world. She is happy there and gives birth to a son (or two sons) and a daughter. Together with her children, she returns to visit her relatives. They learn what words she must use to summon her husband from the water, summon him, and kill him. Seeing the bloody water, the snake's wife (rarely the snake himself) turns the children and herself into birds or trees. | 28 | 50 |
| F87a In F87 family | The snake wife and her children: transformation into birds. | A snake crawls onto the clothes of a girl bathing, climbs down in exchange for a promise to marry him, and takes her to the underwater world. She is happy there and gives birth to children. Together with them, she visits her relatives. They call the snake out of the water and kill it. After that, the wife transforms her children and/or herself into birds. | 12 | 26 |
| F87b In F87 family | The snake wife and her children: transformation into trees. | A snake crawls onto the clothes of a bathing girl, climbs down in exchange for a promise to marry him, and takes her to the underwater world. She is happy there and gives birth to children. Together with them, she visits her relatives. They call the snake out of the water and kill it. After that, the wife transforms her children and/or herself into plants. | 12 | 14 |
| F88 | The scent of women. | Female genitals are initially fragrant or odourless, but then acquire an unpleasant odour (they do not acquire a fragrant odour). | 21 | 24 |
| F89 | The sister's cunning. | A sister and brother live alone. The brother refuses to commit incest. The sister resorts to cunning, as a result of which the brother mistakes her for a stranger and marries her. | 9 | 14 |
| F90 | Tragic incest. | A brother and sister marry. When the children born of this union learn of their origins, the marriage breaks down (the children kill their parents, the father kills or attempts to kill the children, the parents commit suicide, the wife/sister commits suicide after the death of her husband/brother, the wife/sister leaves her husband/brother). | 24 | 33 |
| F91 | The worm grower. | A man finds or breeds monstrous worms to eat his wife. | 10 | 19 |
| F92 | A pair of pederasts. | A male character allows himself to be used as a sexual object. | 18 | 23 |
| F93 | Talking penis, D1610.6.2. | After a person performs a certain action, his penis begins to speak (often repeating what the person has said). | 8 | 4 |
| F93a In F93 family | The talking penis and the mother-in-law. | A man's penis begins to talk incessantly, falling silent only after his mother-in-law takes it in her hand. | 6 | 3 |
| F94 | Betrayal in the sky. | A man ascends to the upper world, where he can choose a wife associated with either life or death. | 10 | 10 |
| F95 | The wife of one of the brothers. | Two companions or brothers live together. One has a wife, whom he hides. The other suspects her existence, destroys her, or tries to get a wife for himself. | 10 | 12 |
| F96 | Becoming handsome. | A girl or wife rejects an unattractive man. He becomes handsome (usually after encountering a supernatural being), and those who treated him badly are punished. | 17 | 27 |
| F97 | Forbidden fruit: people become sexually mature, C621. | After eating certain foods, people become sexually mature and/or lose their body hair or skin. Cf. motif H56 (people become mortal). | 41 | 39 |
| F97a In F97 family | The snake loses its legs. | The snake is to blame for others eating food forbidden by the deity. For this, it is deprived of the limbs it once had. {The Efik variant may not be related to the biblical one, but the South Asian ones are most likely related. | 6 | 6 |
| F97a5 In F97 family | Snake is deprived of its limbs | Being responsible for breaking food tabou by humans, snake lost its limbs as a punishment | 0 | 0 |
| F98 | God and the cow. | A heavenly anthropomorphic deity descends to earth and mates with a cow. | 11 | 24 |
| F99 | An infant copulates with its mother. | An infant turns into an adult man, copulates with his mother, then returns to his former appearance. | 8 | 10 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.