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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M187b In M187 family | Harvest to the fastest runner. | Two animal characters agree to give the harvest from the field they have cultivated together to the one who runs faster than the other. | 19 | 23 |
| K102c In K102 family | Having changed his appearance, the hero recovers the magical object (ATU 318). | The enemy seizes the object that makes the hero invulnerable and kills him. The hero is revived. Changing his appearance, he provokes the enemy to put the magical object on the ground, seizes it again and kills the enemy. | 20 | 25 |
| M134c In M134 family | Having eaten his fill in the storeroom, he cannot get out, ATU 41. | A zoomorphic character climbs into a cellar (pantry, garden, etc.) and eats so much that he cannot get out. | 49 | 45 |
| C8D In C8 family | Having had smallpox, they did not recognise each other. | A brother and sister survived the flood. They married after having had smallpox and therefore did not recognise each other. | 6 | 9 |
| M39b In M39 family | He attacks his own plague | A person does not notice that he turned and swam back on the way, so he takes his home for enemies, kills his own relatives. | 13 | 10 |
| M83a In M83 family | He cries for dead children | The characters are arguing which one is older. After some people tell us how long they were born, the latter says that this and that happened in his memory at that time. | 19 | 34 |
| M38c2 In M38 family | He cuts off a horse's leg to shove it | To shove a horse or donkey, Jesus (the saint) cuts off his leg, nails a horseshoe to his hoof, and attaches his leg back. The other character tries to imitate in vain. | 12 | 11 |
| M199b In M199 family | He did not throw a stone, but released a bird, ATU 1062. | A man and his opponent agree to test their strength by throwing a stone. The opponent throws the stone, and the man releases a bird he had hidden beforehand. The bird does not return, and the opponent admits defeat. | 47 | 36 |
| M30c In M30 family | He falls, breaking the ban | A character flying through the air falls, violating the ban on talking, looking down, flying over villages, etc. (The character is not dropped by the person carrying it and flies above the ground, not descends from the sky or rises to the sky). | 33 | 47 |
| L96c In L96 family | He hasn't learned anything! | A young man is learning magic. In order for the sorcerer to let him go, he must pretend that he is incapable of learning. | 17 | 21 |
| N30 | He looks one way, cries, looks the other way, laughs | formula that describes the confusion of feelings: when a character looks in one direction, he cries, and when he laughs or smiles in the other direction. | 37 | 80 |
| M64 | He pretends to own valuables | The character comes to the owner of valuables (food, fire) and pretends that he already owns them. As a result, valuables are made available (littoral is exposed at low tide, salmon spreads in waters, etc.). | 17 | 27 |
| M61a4 In M61 family | He tells everyone that the other is dying | character lies to each of the spouses as if the other had a misfortune. They run to each other in panic. | 2 | 2 |
| 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 |
| L40c In L40 family | He who buys the bridle leads away the camel. | Relying on the ambiguity of the statement, the buyer of a cheap item claims rights to a much more valuable one. | 3 | 4 |
| K1c In K1 family | He who comes to look at the bones perishes himself. | A man is abandoned on an island but survives. After some time, the person who abandoned him comes to look at his bones. The abandoned man sails away in his boat, leaving him to die. | 19 | 25 |
| L30 | He who eats a snake wants to drink. | The one who broke the food taboo experiences terrible thirst and drinks a huge amount of water. | 15 | 21 |
| D13h In D13 family | He who goes to the dead must not laugh. | Those who have entered the world of the dead should not laugh. | 10 | 12 |
| L87 | He who has tasted blood becomes a cannibal. | A character accidentally tastes blood or human flesh, after which he devours himself and/or others. | 31 | 31 |
| K108a In K108 family | He who kills his wife loses everything. | A man acquires a magical wife. Another woman orders him to kill her or divorce her, then she will become his wife. Having fulfilled the request, he loses everything. | 3 | 4 |
| K27z7a In K27 family | He who learns the family secret will die. | A man is going to kill the person who found out why he severely punished his ex-wife. | 7 | 7 |
| H1a In H1 family | He who wished death upon another is himself in mourning. | The character decides that people should die. His or her child, mother, or some other being whose life is dear to him or her dies. Now the decision-maker agrees to make people immortal, but it is impossible to change the decision that has been made. | 57 | 86 |
| L46 | Head down. | The character walks, climbs or descends upside down, or sees the world turned upside down. | 61 | 76 |
| 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 |
| M117 | Head under the wing, ATU 56D. | A fox or other predator asks a bird what it does when the wind blows. The bird shows how it puts its head under its wing, and the fox catches it. | 13 | 10 |
| L5c In L5 family | Head-chaser, D1641.7, D992, D1602.12, R261.1. | The monster head pursues celestial bodies, people, or attaches itself to someone else's body. See motif L5. | 18 | 21 |
| A32de In A32 family | Headless man on the moon. | A headless man is visible on the lunar disc. | 10 | 6 |
| L90E In L90 family | Heads on stakes. | Human heads are impaled on stakes outside the house of a dangerous character, and one head is missing (or there is a wall of heads, with one missing). It is assumed that the head of the hero of the story should be there. | 26 | 30 |
| M81d In M81 family | Healed blind people | A person meets (most often in the sky) one or two blind people and restores their sight. | 34 | 44 |
| H44a In H44 family | Heaven and Earth divide children. | Two characters, one associated with the sky or water, and the other with the earth or the world of spirits and humans, divide the child they have given birth to or the people they have created. Usually, the sky (water, spirit) takes the imperishable part, and the earth (human) takes the perishable part. | 7 | 23 |
| I69 | Heavenly excrement. | Luminous celestial objects or atmospheric phenomena are bodily secretions of celestial beings. | 55 | 38 |
| I110 | Heavenly farmers. | Constellations are associated with agricultural tools or with people engaged in agricultural work (most often ploughing and haymaking). See motifs I110A (plough), I110B (haymaking). | 61 | 119 |
| I20a In I20 family | Heavenly giants. | Anthropomorphic inhabitants of the upper world – giants. | 9 | 11 |
| I130 | Heavenly net. | One of the constellations – a hunting or fishing net, a seine, a trap, a snare. | 31 | 41 |
| I135 | Heavenly skin or cloth. | The sky (Milky Way, clouds) is an animal skin or a piece of cloth. | 15 | 17 |
| I85c1 In I85 family | Heavenly vessel for rain, A1131.4, A1131.4.1. | In the sky there is a vessel, a box or an indescribable container for storing rain (rain clouds). | 38 | 47 |
| A19 | Heliophores. | Anthropomorphic or zoomorphic creatures help the luminary move across the sky (and the underworld). See motif A17: zoomorphic creatures are helmsmen or rowers in the sun boat. | 32 | 39 |
| M151 | Hello, house! ATU 66A, 66B | A dangerous character pretends to be dead or absent, or pretends to be an inanimate object. The potential victim says aloud that the deceased (object or place – house, burrow, log, etc.) should do or say something. The character does so, revealing himself. | 31 | 51 |
| K27x5 In K27 family | Helpers of different ages. | When setting out in search of a woman or miraculous objects, a person consistently encounters characters of a non-human (often demonic) nature who help him. The characters are similar, but usually each subsequent one is older (younger) than the other. | 85 | 146 |
| N21 | Hero dough | The warrior-hero was made of dough and then became alive (his name is “The Dough”) | 14 | 15 |
| M38b3b In M38 family | Hero warms and covers the nestlings | Mighty bird (more rare other creature/mythological person) helps a man (rare: a woman) because he (she) warms/covers from bad weather its/hers nestlings (children) | 0 | 0 |
| J52b In J52 family | Heroes – female hares or baby hares. | A girl, young woman or children associated with hares (rabbits) are heroes-victors or successful tricksters. | 26 | 50 |
| j1d In j1 family | Heroic avengers - Like J1D, but the role of potential heroes is reduced to a minimum: a woman with a baby is saved from the antagonist and receives help from <i>the patron </i>. | Heroic avengers - Like J1D, but the role of potential heroes is reduced to a minimum: a woman with a baby is saved from the antagonist and receives help from the patron . | 13 | 19 |
| j1b In j1 family | Heroic avengers - with a missing or altered plot start: it is unclear whether the characters with whom the heroes live are their real or adoptive parents; the hero's mother herself tries to destroy him in infancy. | Heroic avengers - with a missing or altered plot start: it is unclear whether the characters with whom the heroes live are their real or adoptive parents; the hero's mother herself tries to destroy him in infancy. | 11 | 20 |
| K33a1a In K33 family | Heroine in the belly of a whale. | A woman thrown into the water finds herself in the belly of a fish (whale), but is then rescued. | 16 | 25 |
| K33a4 In K33 family | Heroine transformed into a forest animal (ATU 409). | A woman, transformed into a medium-sized forest animal (lynx, wolf, vixen) by the machinations of a rival, tries to establish contact with her children or husband. | 18 | 25 |
| K24 | Hidden clothes of a supernatural woman, F202.4.2. | Women (rarely men) possessing magical powers and usually coming from another world (from the sky, from under water, they are winged creatures, bird-people, animal-people; rarely: a girl of higher social status than the hero) take off their clothes (feather coverings, etc.) or part of them. The character hides the clothes (one of them), forcing him (rarely her) to fulfil his (rarely her) desire. | 238 | 560 |
| K33d1 In K33 family | Hidden in a lantern, ATU 510B*. | The young man does not know that a beautiful girl is hiding inside the object brought to his house. | 25 | 36 |
| I87ad In I87 family | Hidden in a tooth cavity. | A giant hides a persecuted person in his mouth – usually (perhaps always) in a tooth cavity; or the person remains alive in the giant's mouth, hiding in a tooth cavity. Cf. motif M21a. | 11 | 10 |
| K27u In K27 family | Hide, ATU 329. | Task: to hide (the hero finds the antagonist, and/or the antagonist cannot find the hero). See motif K27. | 80 | 73 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.