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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K33d In K33 family | Donkey Skin, ATU 510B. | A man discovers that a beautiful girl is hiding under the guise of an ugly hag or under the skin of an animal. | 87 | 107 |
| M57d1 In M57 family | Donor Bird | bird consistently gives a person magical objects (or gives one, with which he receives the rest) or consistently fulfills his wishes. | 37 | 56 |
| J58b In J58 family | Door to the sky. | With the help of a chain of arrows, the sky or the sun is pulled down or pushed up, or a hole is made in the sky. | 4 | 4 |
| K115A In K115 family | Dove at the entrance. | When a character hides in a shelter, a dove builds a nest there. The enemies decide that no one has entered the cave or room for a long time and leave. | 3 | 4 |
| I86 | Down in birds, scales in fish. | The inhabitants of the upper world produce down, wool, and scales, which turn into birds, animals, and fish. | 18 | 16 |
| I86a In I86 family | Down turns into snow. | Snow arises from bird down when a bird shakes itself in the sky or when a character shakes out down or fur clothing, plucks birds, etc. | 21 | 24 |
| 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 |
| L120a In L120 family | Dragon tongue and blacksmith's tongs. | The hero hides in a smithy from the dragon chasing him. When the monster breaks through and rubs the door (with its tongue), the blacksmith (or the hero himself) burns it (usually clamping its tongue with red-hot tongs or throwing a red-hot club into its mouth). | 25 | 34 |
| K27i In K27 family | Drain a body of water. | Task: to drain a large body of water. | 0 | 0 |
| M100 | Dream on the edge of a cliff, ATU 10***. | Zoomorphic characters lie down to sleep on the edge of a cliff. At night, one of them suggests moving (turning), and his companion (companions) falls and breaks. | 25 | 43 |
| K120a3 In K120 family | Dress in a nut. | The character receives a nut containing valuables (beautiful clothes, jewellery, animal helpers, etc.), or (Germans, Latvians) hides the valuables in the nut himself to use them later. | 38 | 64 |
| K27z4b In K27 family | Dressed as a man, the wife rescues her husband. | The husband leaves, meets a swindler and loses everything he has to him. The wife comes disguised as a man, punishes the swindler and rescues her husband. | 22 | 20 |
| M192a In M192 family | Dried belts. | The character agrees to have a freshly removed skin put on him or to be wrapped in wet belts. The skin or belts cause suffering or death (usually because they dry out and shrink). | 9 | 9 |
| M192 | Dried carcass, ATU 68. | A scavenger who has climbed into an animal carcass or put on a fresh animal skin cannot get out of it (usually because the skin has dried out in the heat). He gets out when the skin becomes soft again or someone helps him. | 16 | 19 |
| L2 | Dried mask. | The mask or costume becomes part of the person wearing it; the character is transformed in accordance with the painting on their body, which reproduces the pattern on the animal's skin. See motif L1A. | 31 | 18 |
| L73 | Drink the river! G522 | Trying to drink a river, lake, or sea, the antagonist bursts. | 61 | 90 |
| C30c In C30 family | Drinking the sea. | A man promises to drink the sea (to count how many drops of water there are in the sea), but asks his opponent to first separate the sea water from the water of the rivers flowing into the sea. | 13 | 13 |
| N33 | Drives the enemy into the ground | hero drives the enemy into the ground, or he and the enemy alternately drive each other into the ground (ankle-deep, waist-deep, etc.). | 47 | 65 |
| L80 | Drop of blood. | A demonic creature or animal is killed, but comes back to life or can come back to life if even a small piece of its flesh or blood is left behind, unnoticed. | 16 | 22 |
| M39a8 In M39 family | Drops a door from a tree, (ATU 1653) | A fool drags the door from the house with him (usually raises it to a tree and drops it, scaring the crowd under the tree). | 35 | 48 |
| M39a8a In M39 family | Drops a heavy object from a tree | A fool or buffoon climbs a tree taking a heavy objects with him and then drops it frightening those who are under the tree | 37 | 46 |
| C21 | Drought. | During a severe drought, birds (and animals) go in search of the rainmakers and bring them back. | 6 | 6 |
| B10 | Drunk water, A1013. | The character drinks a lake or all the water in the world, or the only water is in his stomach. They pierce his stomach or remove the plug, forcing him to burp up the water - the water pours out. See motif B7. | 45 | 58 |
| K29d In K29 family | Drunken elephants. | To catch an animal or supernatural character, the water in a reservoir is replaced with wine, honey, etc., or containers with alcohol are left in plain sight. The creature, having lost control of itself, is captured. | 23 | 33 |
| D4o In D4 family | Dry by the fire. | In order to steal fire from its owner, the character pretends to be wet and cold, and after receiving permission to dry off, runs away, bringing fire to the people. | 31 | 60 |
| C6c4 In C6 family | Duck – a successful diver. | A duck or similar waterfowl dives and brings back a piece of earth, which turns into land (it is the only or the only successful diver). | 57 | 103 |
| E15 | Ducks and boats. | People learn how to build boats and row from birds; a bird or part of its body serves as a model for building a boat. | 21 | 34 |
| M26 | Ducks carry the catcher (grabbed by the legs) | The character dives under waterfowl and ties a rope to their legs to catch them. Birds soar into the air, lifting the catcher with them. It later falls. | 16 | 18 |
| M26a In M26 family | Ducks carry the catcher (strung on a rope), ATU 1881 | The character catches birds by feeding them bait tied to a rope, which they swallow one by one, or by shooting several birds with one bullet, or by soldering birds drunk and tying up. Birds usually take off and carry away a catcher holding a rope. | 16 | 7 |
| I17a In I17 family | Dwarfs without bodily orifices. | Creatures without an anal opening or mouth - dwarves. | 13 | 16 |
| I87e In I87 family | Dwarves after humans. | After the present humans, dwarves will live on earth. | 7 | 7 |
| K22a In K22 family | Dwarves are attacked. | Birds or other creatures that are harmless to ordinary people attack dwarves living in another world. See motif K22. | 29 | 5 |
| I20c2 In I20 family | Dwarves in the land on the horizon. | The inhabitants of the land on the horizon (where the sky meets the earth) are dwarves. | 20 | 27 |
| I20c1 In I20 family | Dwarves – inhabitants of rocks and hills. | Dwarves do not live deep underground, but inside hills, in rocks, in mines, etc., and usually come out from there onto the ground. | 22 | 62 |
| I20c In I20 family | Dwarves – inhabitants of the underworld. | Dwarves live in an underground world that partly resembles the earthly world. If dwarves and humans meet, it happens underground. | 43 | 64 |
| M132 | Ears instead of sandals. | The enemy is ready to seize the character. The character asks the enemy to first take and throw away his clothes or shoes, and then offers his ears. The enemy grabs him by the ears and throws him away, and the character runs away. | 6 | 8 |
| 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 |
| L107 | Ears-blankets. | People have disproportionately large ears (rarely: lips): they cover themselves with them like a blanket, use them as an umbrella, can step on them, etc. | 33 | 53 |
| I51b In I51 family | Earth – animal. | The earth or sky is perceived as a large mammal or created from parts of its body. | 31 | 41 |
| B2e In B2 family | Earth-man. | The Earth or the world as a whole is a male character (alone or alongside a female character). | 57 | 71 |
| I119a In I119 family | Earthquake – are there any survivors? | Creatures shake the earth, either upon learning that there are no longer any inhabitants on it, or to check whether they are still alive, or to show that they themselves are still there. | 12 | 11 |
| K27e In K27 family | Eat or drink a lot, ATU 1088). | The character is offered to eat or drink an unusually large amount or poison. | 133 | 155 |
| M84b3 In M84 family | Eaten and revived goose (Wondrous wondrous). | 2 | 4 | |
| L28a In L28 family | Eating a snake causes a flood. | People (or a certain person) eat the meat of a snake (dragon, unusual fish). This results in a flood, landslide, or the appearance of a river or lake. | 17 | 34 |
| L125b In L125 family | Eats carrion. | After following his wife (husband), the husband (wife) discovers that she or he goes around devouring dead bodies. | 17 | 16 |
| M174 | Eats from behind. | The weaker character manipulates the stronger one so that he loses the ability to move, although he is still alive. The weak one begins to eat the strong one from behind, refusing, under one pretext or another, to approach from the front, or refrains from eating while the victim is still alive. | 14 | 18 |
| M162 | Eats his own entrails, ATU 21. | The character pretends to eat his own entrails or flesh. Others believe him and kill themselves (or allow themselves to be killed). | 45 | 49 |
| M125 | Eats one's own eyes. | One character lies to another, pretending to eat his own eyes. The other agrees to eat his own. The first character gouges out one of his eyes and gives him something tasty in its place. The character believes that this is the same eye that was gouged out and agrees to give up the second. | 16 | 27 |
| M32a In M32 family | Eats what falls out | character's insides or pieces of flesh fall out of his back. He eats them, mistaking them for regular meat and fat. | 9 | 11 |
| L63 | Eats with the anus or vagina. | The character eats food with the womb or anus. See motif F9A. | 21 | 16 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.