Folklore Database · Browse
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| J27 | Cast out and at home, Z210.1. | A little boy (several babies) was abandoned, born to a mother who had already died, lives in a river, in a forest, etc. Another boy lives with his father or mother, but in the end the first one moves to live in the locus of the second. Often (see motif J25, "Infants hide and return"), the brother living in the river, in the forest, etc., first secretly meets with his "home" brother (with his brothers; with other children from his clan; with a puppy nursed by his mother). | 67 | 94 |
| L72g In L72 family | Cast salt. | Fleeing for his life, the character throws salt behind him, preventing his pursuer from continuing the chase. | 31 | 34 |
| M191 | Cat and wild animals, ATU 103A, 103A*. | The fox (dog, squirrel) lives with the cat and pretends to be a strong beast; forest predators are frightened and bring meat to appease the cat. | 39 | 38 |
| K33h In K33 family | Cat, dog and magical object, ATU 560. | A person finds a magical object that grants any wish. This object is stolen. It is returned by animals (which the hero had previously saved). | 119 | 159 |
| K27yy2 In K27 family | Catching the chick of a dangerous bird. | The hero is sent to bring the chick of a dangerous bird. | 7 | 8 |
| H18b In H18 family | Cattle return to the water. | Having received livestock from supernatural characters, a person (usually due to violating a prohibition on looking, shouting, etc.) immediately loses all or most of the animals (they go into the water, into the sky, scatter, etc.). | 23 | 36 |
| B34 | Caught by the first night. | After the vessel of night is opened, a person caught by the onset of darkness turns into a bird or animal. | 9 | 16 |
| F24 | Cause of menstruation: bite. | Women lose blood when they are bitten by fish, snakes, etc. | 10 | 11 |
| F26 | Cause of menstruation: loss of sacred objects. | The transfer of sacred musical instruments (horns, trumpets) from women to men is associated with the onset of menstruation in women. | 6 | 10 |
| F23 | Cause of menstruation: sexual intercourse. | Blood spilled during sexual intercourse or artificial defloration at the time of creation is the reason why menstruation occurs to this day. | 23 | 27 |
| I41c In I41 family | Celestial object – reflection of a snake. | Rainbow or Milky Way – reflection of a snake (fish) on land or in the sea. | 7 | 9 |
| M38d5 In M38 family | Cereals talking to each other, ATU 293E* | Two or three types of cereals talk to each other, act together, etc. | 9 | 8 |
| J58 | Chain of arrows, F53. | Characters shoot arrows (darts) that stick into each other and form a chain. They usually climb up the chain to the upper world. | 79 | 165 |
| I35a1 In I35 family | Challenging the thunderer. | The character claims the role of the thunder god and imitates him. | 21 | 37 |
| F15 | Character sticks his penis out of the ground, K1315.2.1. | The character sticks his plant-like penis out of the ground (provoking a woman to sit on it). | 14 | 16 |
| A32e In A32 family | Character with an object in their hands. | On the lunar (rarely: solar) disc, a character holding an object or animal is visible. See motif A32D. | 154 | 256 |
| K27xy In K27 family | Characters with different properties in the enemy camp. | Several men (animals), each of whom can do something better than the others, work together to accomplish difficult tasks set before them by their opponents. The competition is not intended to find a worthy suitor for a girl or to get rid of an unwanted suitor. Cf. motif K27o3 (Competition between two teams). | 16 | 21 |
| I81b In I81 family | Charybdis (ebb and flow). | During high tide, a certain creature spews seawater or displaces it with its body, and during low tide, it swallows the water or makes room for it (or it is simply reported that the water is either spewed or recedes). | 14 | 15 |
| M143A In M143 family | Cheese mistaken for the moon, ATU 34. | A character mistakes the reflection of the moon in a body of water for cheese. | 6 | 5 |
| M39a5a1 In M39 family | Chicken Army | Realizing that a son or wife, by telling the truth, will cause trouble for the family, the mother or husband makes them believe in the invasion of chickens (geese, crows), in the rain of stones, in the rain, from which they go blind, etc. In all cases, gullible people are planted in a hole covered with skin, in a barrel, etc., and let in the skin of poultry pecking grain (in Kyurins, chickens bite grain in the yard). See M39a5a motif. | 13 | 15 |
| F4 | Child in a vessel, T561. | In the days of the first ancestors, children were conceived not through sexual intercourse, but in vessels, piles of earth, lumps of clay, etc. | 23 | 34 |
| K73a In K73 family | Child substitution. | Malicious women replace the newborn with an animal or an inanimate object (they tell the baby's father that his wife gave birth to an animal or an object). See motif K73. | 162 | 318 |
| F30a In F30 family | Child-worm. | A woman nurses a worm (caterpillar, reptile, fish) instead of a child; people kill the monster. | 18 | 27 |
| A20 | Childhood and youth of the Sun and Moon. | The Sun and the Moon (less often the Sun and a star, the Moon and a star) are brothers (sisters, brother and sister) who initially live on earth, but at the end of the story, as teenagers or young adults, ascend to the sky and become celestial bodies. | 56 | 79 |
| F36 | Children against the lover. | (Adopted) children of a woman or man kill the lover (or spouse of non-human nature) of their father or (adoptive) mother. | 41 | 35 |
| F28d In F28 family | Children are born from a wooden penis. | By masturbating with an artificial penis, a woman conceives children. | 17 | 18 |
| H9b In H9 family | Children as plant shoots. | People have become like plants, which, although mortal, live on in their descendants (shoots). | 11 | 18 |
| F50 | Children born multiple times. | Children have the ability to leave their mother's womb and return to it again. | 33 | 51 |
| L31a In L31 family | Children carried away to the sky. | An object descends from the sky. Children playing climb into it or stick to it, and it carries them away to the sky. See motif L31. | 0 | 0 |
| J9 | Children from their mother's womb show her the way. | Even before they are born, children speak from their mother's womb, showing her the way. | 20 | 39 |
| J52 | Children kill children in revenge for their parents. | A character (usually zoomorphic and female) treacherously kills another. The victim's children take revenge by killing the murderer's children. | 49 | 90 |
| L108e In L108 family | Children of the fox, ATU 123A. | A fox has a child, usually adopted (she cares for a lamb, a foal, etc.), a wolf or a bear kills it, and the fox takes revenge. | 15 | 8 |
| 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 |
| L86 | Children run away from their demon mother. | Having turned into a demon, a woman pursues her children. Cf. motif K102a2: A mother seeks to destroy her son (children) because he interferes with her love affair and/or sides with his father in a conflict between his parents. | 26 | 38 |
| L41c In L41 family | Children sledding down a hill. | A cannibal grabs children as they slide down a hill. | 9 | 13 |
| 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 |
| H33 | Children walk from birth. | At first, children walked, had to walk, or could walk immediately after birth. | 36 | 35 |
| M103 | Children with beautiful spots. | One character asks another how her (his) children acquired valuable qualities (became beautiful, obedient, etc.). The other replies that children must be baked in ashes, kept in fire, burned, etc. The first character does so, and her or his children die or are maimed. | 20 | 25 |
| H25 | Choose life or death. | People are offered a choice between two objects, one of which represents death and the other life, or they are asked whether they want to be reborn or die forever. Death is chosen. | 15 | 21 |
| K116 | Choosing a companion (ATU 516C). | To choose an assistant, a young man asks the candidates to perform simple tasks (eat bread, set off on a journey). The behaviour of the chosen candidate shows that he will take care of the hero, while the behaviour of the others shows that they will only think of themselves. | 16 | 18 |
| K33e In K33 family | Chosen and returned children (Griselda), ATU 887. | Newborn children disappear (die) one after another, but are returned to their wife or husband grown up and in good health. | 47 | 60 |
| I81a In I81 family | Chthonic crab. | The giant crab causes earthquakes or floods, closes or can close the water outlet. | 14 | 22 |
| I44 | Chthonic serpent. | A huge serpent encircles, embodies or supports the earth. | 52 | 81 |
| K57 | Cinderella, ATU 510A. | A girl hides her beauty and/or lives in poverty, a man of high status sees her in her true form/in luxurious attire and takes her as his wife, recognising her by an item he gave her or she lost, usually a slipper or shoe, or by seeing her change her clothes. {All texts with this motif are also considered to contain the f62 motif}. | 116 | 230 |
| E1d In E1 family | Clay boats. | (The first) boat is made of obviously unsuitable material. | 9 | 15 |
| L110c In L110 family | Clay child. | An elderly couple makes a child out of clay (wood, straw, dough). The doll comes to life and eats everyone it sees. Usually a goat (ram) breaks it, and those who have been swallowed come out alive. | 16 | 21 |
| M8c In M8 family | Cleaned eyes | Birds pierce through a layer of clay, wax, resin, etc., that covers the character's eyes or anus. | 10 | 14 |
| 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 |
| M39a6a In M39 family | Clever daughter-in-law and captive khan | After a long search, the ruler finds an intelligent wife for his son. At the mercy of his enemies, he sends a message with one of them, the true content of which is understood only by his daughter-in-law. She destroys enemies and frees her father-in-law. (The boys have a younger wife instead of an intelligent daughter-in-law). | 24 | 38 |
| 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 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.