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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H36aa In H36 family | False news: incorrect instructions. | The messenger must tell people what they should do if they want to avoid death, but he distorts the instructions and people become mortal. In Mesoamerican variants, it is not about people in general, but about a specific character. | 9 | 16 |
| H36a In H36 family | False news: the origin of death, A1335.1. | The character distorts the message conveyed to him, deliberately lies, brings the wrong thing, loses what he is carrying, delays (and is overtaken by another messenger). As a result, people become mortal (they do not revive after death). | 79 | 156 |
| K32k In K32 family | False wife – beetle or larva. | The false wife, replacing the real one – a foul-smelling beetle or larva. | 7 | 6 |
| L90b In L90 family | Fangs reaching the sky and the earth. | One tooth (fang) of the creature touches the sky, the other reaches the earth or the underworld. | 6 | 14 |
| B36c In B36 family | Fat animals. | Animals receive meat and fat rendered from a certain creature or obtained in some other way. Some received a lot, others remained thin. | 21 | 23 |
| C8c1 In C8 family | Father and daughter give birth to humans. | At the beginning of time or after the destruction of the rest of humanity, a father and daughter (daughters) remain. They marry and give rise to humans or certain ethnic groups. | 6 | 6 |
| M157a1 In M157 family | Father gives birth. | The character proves the absurdity of another's statements by responding that his or her father (or another male or male animal) has given birth or is about to give birth, or that he or she is menstruating. | 69 | 100 |
| K102a In K102 family | Father knew what he was doing. | A man orders the killing of a young man's sister, wife or mother. The young man does not allow such an order to be carried out, and then repents of this. | 20 | 24 |
| K28 | Father or uncle – enemy and rival. | The uncle on the mother's side or the father of the young hero (or grandfather, if he replaces the father, who is not mentioned) is his enemy and rival, giving him difficult tasks with the aim of destroying him. | 190 | 302 |
| 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 |
| K99a In K99 family | Father will serve his son, ATU 517, (725). | A young man or woman (often after having a dream) declares that a great future awaits him or her (usually that his or her father, parents, brothers, or sisters will show him or her signs of respect). The young man or woman is expelled, but the prophecy comes true. | 42 | 42 |
| J31 | Father's weapon. | Heroes receive weapons or other items that belonged to their deceased father and are necessary for fighting their antagonists. | 47 | 58 |
| H23 | Fatty horns. | This hard and now inedible object originally consisted of fat. | 13 | 14 |
| J53 | Fawns and bear cubs | The children of a character associated with a hoofed animal (deer, antelope) come into conflict with an enemy associated with a predator or a larger hoofed animal. They kill his children and/or run away from him. See motif J52. | 28 | 20 |
| J8 | Feathers at the crossroads. | A woman or girl sets out in search of a husband (fiancé, etc.). Bird feathers left on the trail, at a crossroads or near a dwelling mark the right or wrong path. See motif J7. | 21 | 14 |
| K11a In K11 family | Feathers turn into birds and people. | Plucked feathers of a (huge) bird turn into actual birds (or their plumage) or humans emerge from them. | 35 | 41 |
| K23a In K23 family | Feathers – birds' weapons. | Birds use their feathers as arrows, or falling feathers cover the mouths of their victims. | 9 | 11 |
| F35 | Feeding meat from a lover. | A character offers another person the meat of his sexual partner, and the other person, unaware, eats or cooks it. | 99 | 139 |
| F35a In F35 family | Feeding meat from a relative. | The character, unaware of this, eats or prepares meat (slowly kills) a member of his household (a relative, rarely a servant or spouse) or feeds it to his acquaintances, or uses its bones for household needs. | 182 | 295 |
| K39 | Feeding the Simurgh bird, B322.1. | The character must feed a powerful creature by regularly throwing it pieces of meat. When the prepared meat runs out, he cuts off the last piece from his own flesh. See motif K38 (the bird carries the hero where he needs to go; on the way, he throws pieces of prepared meat into its beak; when the supplies run out, he gives the bird a piece of his own flesh). | 107 | 142 |
| M23 | Feigned fear of imaginary danger, ATU 1310–1310C; K581. | The character pretends to be afraid of only one method of killing, which in reality is not dangerous for him (K581: turtle: If you throw me into the water, I will drown! ). {All American variants with a rabbit are most likely of African origin and are not included in the correlation table}. | 100 | 154 |
| E31b In E31 family | Female saviours of men. | Several women participate in reviving a dead man and argue about who did more to revive him. | 9 | 11 |
| H48 | Fever sisters. | Illnesses – female sisters (less often male brothers), usually children of an evil spirit. | 34 | 42 |
| K96 | Fifty Sons, ATU 303A. | Several (more than three) brothers marry or must marry in such a way that their wives are sisters. | 73 | 99 |
| A32 | Figure on the surface of the Moon, A751. | A figure or imprint of some creature or object is visible on the lunar (Moon) surface. Statistical calculations also include motifs A32A – A32J (a rabbit, frog, predatory animal, human, tree, etc. are visible on the moon). | 29 | 35 |
| M199n In M199 family | Fill a holey cap with gold, ATU 1130. | A man offers a demon to fill his hat, bag, etc. with money. The demon does not notice that there is a hole in the hat and gives the man much more than he intended to give. | 31 | 30 |
| K73b4 In K73 family | Fill the bag with truth. | A person is asked to fill a bag (cauldron) with truth (lies, fairy tales). He fulfils the request by telling a revealing story. | 22 | 27 |
| K27f3 In K27 family | Fill the feather bed with feathers. | The character must quickly obtain enough feathers to fill a feather bed or pillow. | 4 | 7 |
| M56d In M56 family | Fill the vessel with flies | The character promises to fill the vessel with small flying living creatures. He bets with them that they will not be able to fill the vessel. Creatures climb inside, the character closes the lid. Cf. K60B motif. | 8 | 9 |
| K102a5 In K102 family | Fill the vessel with tears. | A woman must fill one or two vessels with tears (less often with blood). Usually, after this, her punishment must end, or the punishment depends on which of the vessels contains more tears. | 35 | 49 |
| K120a4 In K120 family | Fill the vessel with tears. | The character must fill a vessel with tears (pour them on the floor). | 30 | 34 |
| K61c In K61 family | Find out the name, ATU 500. | A demon agrees to help (agrees not to harm) a person on condition that the person guesses his name. At the last moment, the person accidentally learns the demon's name, and the demon disappears or rewards the person. | 50 | 48 |
| C19 | Finding the sun. | The missing, hidden, concealed or stolen sun (daylight) reappears. See motif C18 | 197 | 336 |
| 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 |
| K45a In K45 family | Fingers turn into aquatic animals. | A man sails away from a woman or girl in a boat or on a raft. When she tries to grab the edge of the boat (raft), he cuts off her fingers. The fingers turn into aquatic animals. | 9 | 14 |
| B44b In B44 family | Fingers, claws, hair, feathers. | The number and/or nature of the alternation of fingers, claws, feathers, hairs, and stripes on animal skins determines the number of time intervals in the calendar or daily cycle. See motif B44. | 29 | 8 |
| B23 | Fire and smoke in defiance of the ban. | The deity forbids the use of fire for cooking and punishes those who violate the prohibition. | 13 | 22 |
| M181a In M181 family | Fire at sunset. | The character believes that unattainable natural objects are accessible cultural objects. Usually agrees to go after fire upon seeing a red sunset, fireflies, etc. | 17 | 22 |
| K38f6 In K38 family | Fire creature. | A creature consisting of fire is mentioned. | 26 | 30 |
| D4l In D4 family | Fire from the sky. | The first fire is brought down to earth from the sky; the first ancestors go to the sky and bring back fire or warmth. See motif D4A. | 62 | 71 |
| D5a In D5 family | Fire in a woman's genitals. | The first fire is hidden in a woman's genitals or anus. | 10 | 15 |
| L56 | Fire in the belly of a monster. | A large animal or monster perishes from a fire kindled in its belly. See motif K8A. | 47 | 59 |
| M100a In M100 family | Fire on the edge of a cliff. | One of the characters leads another to the edge of a cliff with the aim of lighting a fire, or lights a fire at the edge of the cliff. As a result, the other falls and is killed. | 5 | 7 |
| C17 | Fire pit for people. | The men of the community of the first ancestors destroy most of the people and/or themselves on a pyre or in a fire pit. | 11 | 18 |
| K38f5 In K38 family | Fire-breathing horse, B15.5.1. | Flames burst from the horse's mouth and/or nostrils, or the entire horse is engulfed in fire. | 25 | 35 |
| K38f4 In K38 family | Fire-breathing monster, B11.2.11, B19.1, B742.3, B742.4. | Flames burst from the mouth and/or nostrils of a monstrous character hostile to the hero; his breath is fire. | 79 | 124 |
| H34h In H34 family | Firewood came home. | Firewood and brushwood came by themselves, flying into the house; there was no need to specially harvest and deliver them. | 14 | 15 |
| E5b In E5 family | First ancestors from the underworld. | The first human (a group of brothers) or the first human couple emerge from underground (from a cave) or from a small object on the surface (a mound, a reed, a tree, a stone, a pumpkin). Cf. motif E5A: people from the underworld. | 73 | 114 |
| A24a In A24 family | First day or night: transformation into spirits. | At the moment of the first day or the first night, people transform into supernatural characters. | 8 | 6 |
| F80 | First humans without genitals. | The first men and/or women have no genitals, then they acquire them. | 25 | 24 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.