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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M104 | Allegedly murdered relatives. | A character suggests that another kill their close relatives (children, brothers, mother), hides their own, and assures them that they have killed them. When the other actually kills their children, mother or brothers, it turns out that the first character's relatives are unharmed. See motif A41 (The Moon hides her star children to provoke the Sun into killing his children). | 81 | 119 |
| 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 |
| M105a In M105 family | Allegedly murdered children. | A character hides his children, but tells another that he has killed them. The other believes him and kills his own children. See motif M104. | 6 | 10 |
| m105a1 In m105 family | Allegedly killed children: two birds. | One of two birds, both of which (rarely: only one) are flightless, suggests that the other break its eggs. The other agrees, but then sees that the first has kept its eggs. | 5 | 16 |
| M105B In M105 family | Carries his mother on his back. | The character replies that the load, hump or bulge on his back or head is his deceased mother or grandmother. Another kills his mother or wife and places her on his back or head. | 3 | 4 |
| M106 | Significant name, ATU 1135, 1137, 1138, 1541. | The character calls himself by a fictitious name, which others understand not as a proper name, but as a common noun with a specific meaning. | 107 | 150 |
| M106a In M106 family | "I Myself" and "No One" in the Demon's House. | The character who caused the damage calls himself by a fictitious name such as "Nobody," "I Myself," etc. Usually, others decide that the victim himself is to blame for what happened. | 31 | 46 |
| M106b In M106 family | "Last Year" in the demon's house. | The character who caused harm to the antagonist calls himself by a fictitious name such as "Last Year," and the other antagonists understand this to mean that everything happened a long time ago and there is no point in looking for the culprit. | 13 | 20 |
| M106c In M106 family | My name is "Guest". | Telling his companions that his name is "Guest," "For Guests," etc., the character appropriates the food intended for all who have come. | 16 | 21 |
| M106d In M106 family | My name is "Son-in-law". | By saying that his name is "Son-in-law" ("Husband," "Uncle," etc.), the character deceives others. The victims find no sympathy, since as a relative he has the right to behave in this manner. | 8 | 9 |
| M106e In M106 family | For a long winter, ATU 1541. | A man says that provisions have been made for the winter, in case of need, etc. In the absence of the owner, a man enters the house and claims that his name is Winter (Ramadan, Necessity, etc.). The woman thinks that her husband meant this man and gives him all the provisions. | 45 | 35 |
| M106f In M106 family | Guest from the Other World, ATU 1540. | A stranger tells a woman that he has come from the other world. The woman gives him money and belongings with a request to pass them on to her deceased son, husband, etc. Usually, the woman's (new) husband (or son), upon learning of the deception, rides after him, and as a result, the deceiver steals his horse. | 83 | 83 |
| M106g In M106 family | Dragging a cow onto the roof, ATU 1210. | A man lifts a cow (donkey, ox, wife) onto the roof so that the animal can eat the grass growing there (the wife has gathered turnips, etc.) – usually by throwing a noose around the neck of the wife or animal. | 54 | 38 |
| M106h In M106 family | Bird under a cap, ATU 1528. | A man puts his hat on the ground and pretends that there is something valuable under it. In reality, there is only shit. Those who believe the deceiver lose their property. | 34 | 17 |
| M107 | The turtle bites off the penis. | A small character kills or maims a large four-legged animal by clinging to its genitals. | 15 | 15 |
| M108 | The trickster takes away property. | The character is called upon to help perform a task (usually to transport property or provisions across a river) and takes away what has been entrusted to him. | 16 | 18 |
| M108a In M108 family | Trickster-adopted child. | A lonely elderly couple adopts a trickster. He steals from them (and runs away). | 17 | 18 |
| M108b In M108 family | The woodpecker helper. | The deceiver takes away someone else's property in a boat or carries it away. A bird (usually a woodpecker) deceives him and returns the property to its owners. | 11 | 7 |
| M109 | Tail in the ice hole, K1021, ATU 2. | A zoomorphic character sits down, lowering his tail (penis) so that something edible will stick to it, but as a result he is left without a tail (penis) or dies. Cf. motifs M109A, M109C. | 102 | 151 |
| M109a In M109 family | Sitting on the ice, waiting for food from the sky. | One zoomorphic character advises another to sit on the ice for a long time – usually until food falls from the sky. The one who sits on the ice freezes to it. | 11 | 13 |
| M109a1 In M109 family | Head in the dough, ATU 3. | A zoomorphic character smears his head with dough (sour milk, butter, etc.) to make it look as if his brains are spilling out from the beatings. | 43 | 43 |
| M109b In M109 family | The beaten one carries the unbeaten one, ATU 4. | A weaker character convinces a stronger one that he feels even worse than he does. Usually, the stronger one agrees to carry him on his back. | 52 | 54 |
| 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 |
| M109d In M109 family | Seized by the tail by a sea creature. | A zoomorphic character dips his tongue or tail into the water. An octopus or shell grabs it and holds it tight, so that the character drowns during high tide. | 3 | 3 |
| M110 | The forgotten liver, ATU 91. | Upon learning that it is being transported by water to be eaten, the land animal explains to the transporter that it has forgotten on the shore the organ without which the meat is not tasty, which must be used as medicine, etc. The transporter agrees to return for this organ, and the animal runs away. | 42 | 47 |
| M111 | Monkey on a banana. | Two animals (usually a monkey and a turtle) agree to gather fruit. The one who can climb trees eats the good fruit and throws one peel or rotten fruit to its companion. The companion takes revenge. | 20 | 24 |
| M112 | Animals at the well, ATU 55. | A zoomorphic character refuses to dig, clean or fill a source of drinking water and is forbidden to use the water. {List of African variants in Paulme 1977. In cases where the protagonist is a kite, hawk, buzzard, saker (and possibly also an eagle), it is most likely the same bird - Buteo buteo from the hawk family}. | 67 | 106 |
| M112a In M112 family | The turtle catches the thief. | Animals take turns guarding water or food or using water. The deceiver takes what he needs or prevents others from doing so. The turtle, toad or frog proves to be more cunning than the deceiver and catches him. See motif M112. | 23 | 14 |
| M112b In M112 family | Animals build a road, ATU 55. | Animals that do not see the sun (moles, shrews, earthworms) refuse to build the road with everyone else and are punished for it. | 13 | 10 |
| M113 | Birds are forbidden to drink. | In summer, during the height of the heat, or constantly, birds of a certain species are not allowed to drink from ponds and springs. It is generally believed that they drink only rainwater and cry out, begging for rain. See motif M112. | 52 | 66 |
| M113a In M113 family | A bird sees blood instead of water. | A certain type of bird cannot drink water from rivers and lakes because instead of water it sees blood, fire, etc. | 7 | 8 |
| M114 | The rope of sand, ATU 1174. | The character is asked to make (or actually makes) a rope or other object out of sand, ash, smoke, etc. | 80 | 79 |
| M114a In M114 family | Stone coat. | The character is offered to sew clothes or shoes from stone or iron, or to remove the skin from the stone. | 28 | 34 |
| M114b In M114 family | Come neither naked nor clothed (ATU 875). | When a character is asked to do and not do something at the same time, or not to do it in any of the possible ways (to come dressed and not naked, with a gift and without a gift, etc.), they figure out a solution. | 79 | 125 |
| M114b1 In M114 family | What is the fattest, sweetest, fastest? | When answering the question of what is the sweetest (fattest, fastest, etc.), a clever person names abstract concepts and entities (while a foolish person names specific objects or creatures). | 41 | 42 |
| M114b2 In M114 family | How many steps did your horse take? | A man (an authoritative character) asks a girl (a subordinate) a question about the number of routine actions she has performed (or small items she has), which no one counts. She asks a counter-question about the number of similar actions performed by the questioner. | 9 | 11 |
| M114b3 In M114 family | Clothing made from a bundle of flax and a loom made from three sticks. | When a girl is asked to weave clothes, given a negligible amount of yarn, she asks in return to make her weaving tools from sticks, twigs, straw, etc. | 21 | 21 |
| M114c In M114 family | Shielding from the rain with one's body. | The character is puzzled as to how the other person's clothes (firewood, etc.) remained dry after the rain – the other person covered them with their body (hid them in a vessel, waited out the rain in a shelter). | 17 | 27 |
| M114d In M114 family | Boiled eggs: eaten a year ago, ATU 821B. | A man eats boiled eggs and leaves without paying. Much later, he returns to repay his debt. The owner demands payment for the chickens that would have hatched from those eggs, become hens, laid eggs themselves, and so on. Someone comes to court and pretends to be boiling seeds for sowing. The judge agrees that chickens cannot hatch from boiled eggs. | 45 | 30 |
| M114d1 In M114 family | Boiled eggs: by morning there should be chicks. | The character demands that chicks be hatched (from boiled eggs), a chicken be raised, and it be cooked within a day. Another character responds with equally absurd demands. | 26 | 26 |
| M114e In M114 family | Tie to winter or summer. | A girl offers a visitor to tie his horse to winter or summer, which means to a sleigh or a cart. | 20 | 17 |
| M114f In M114 family | Crooked pipe. | The girl has a minor physical defect. Man: The house is nice, but the pipe is crooked. Girl: But the smoke comes out well. | 6 | 7 |
| M114g In M114 family | The long-bearded goat and the tall camel. | Only the boy, the young man, answers the questions of the authoritative character wisely. When he asks why someone older and taller was not sent to him, the boy says that the goat has the longest beard and the camel is taller than everyone else. | 9 | 9 |
| M114h In M114 family | Building a house in the air. | An authoritative character orders a house to be built in the air. A man finds a clever way out of the situation. | 9 | 9 |
| M114i In M114 family | What do your relatives do? ATU 875(4), 921. | When asked where her father, mother, brother, etc. are, the girl or boy answers in such a way that only an intelligent person can guess what is meant (father went to make an enemy out of a friend, mother went to make one out of two, etc.); or the girl explains the meaning of similar phrases uttered by others. | 64 | 55 |
| M114i1 In M114 family | He throws away the dead ones and brings the unkilled ones. | A man replies that his father (brother, etc.) hunts: he kills (discards) those he sees, and leaves (brings back) those he does not see (those not killed). This refers to lice or fleas. | 9 | 8 |
| M114j In M114 family | All women are the same, ATU 983. | A woman does not refuse those who harass her, but calmly explains that there is no point in trying to possess many, since they are all the same (they differ no more than eggs painted in different colours). | 28 | 16 |
| M114k In M114 family | Water that is neither earthly nor heavenly. | A liquid that is not normally used for drinking, washing or cooking is used once. It is necessary to guess what is meant, knowing that this water is neither from the earth nor from the sky (most often it is horse sweat). | 11 | 13 |
| M115 | The eaten wolf. | The character kills an animal that is dangerous to him by cunning. Relatives or friends of the killed animal find out about this and come to take revenge. The character escapes. | 20 | 25 |
| M116 | The undead father helps with advice, ATU 981. | People must kill their fathers (or mothers; Nyoro: deprive them of power and property; Baluchi: do not take them with you on a journey). One young man hides his father, and his wise advice helps to avoid trouble. | 66 | 69 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.