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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F18a In F18 family | Long penis. | The penis of a male character is much longer than normal or becomes so. During intercourse, it usually crawls towards the woman like a snake. (Only texts with a focus on authenticity are included, not anecdotes). | 118 | 170 |
| A38a In A38 family | Loop made of pubic hair. | The sun is caught in a loop made of a woman's pubic hair. | 11 | 16 |
| M129 | Loss of birthright, K1988. | A parent intends to transfer primogeniture (royalty, other privileges) to a chosen son. Another son or brother comes under the guise of the chosen one and receives primogeniture. | 14 | 16 |
| H32b In H32 family | Lost abundance: the offended child. | A girl and/or boy, who are the children of a deity, come to live with humans, leading to an abundance of food/resources. Due to the hurt they have caused, the children return to their own world, and human life becomes difficult or meagre. | 8 | 2 |
| H32C In H32 family | Lost abundance: the wronged spouse. | The woman's husband has a non-human nature and possesses magical knowledge and values. He is wronged, he leaves, and his knowledge and abilities can no longer be used by humans. | 1 | 1 |
| H32a In H32 family | Lost abundance: the wronged wife. | A young woman is the embodiment of fertility; she comes to live with people, and food becomes readily available. The woman is wronged, she leaves, and the superabundance ends. | 32 | 39 |
| M65b In M65 family | Lost loot | Having resorted to deception, the character kills the game, but the thieves take the loot. See M53 motif. | 30 | 33 |
| K27z2e In K27 family | Lost objects and meeting at the end, ATU 434. | During a meeting (sometimes not in their true form), a young man or woman takes certain objects (jewelry) from the other. One of those who met falls ill. A new meeting leads to the healing of the sick person, the identification of the objects, and a wedding. | 7 | 7 |
| H6bb In H6 family | Lost objects. | A character is sent to deliver a certain object or substance to people, the possession of which is essential to them. The messenger loses these objects or brings others. Usually, this refers to the ability to be reborn after death. Traditions not related to the explanation of human mortality are marked with an asterisk*. | 23 | 30 |
| L100f1 In L100 family | Lover fleeing from her husband, ATU 1725. | A worker (the young son of the master) arranges things so that the food prepared by the mistress for her lover, who is working in the field, goes to the master, and when the master goes to the man, not knowing that he is his wife's lover, the man thinks that the husband is coming to kill him and flees. | 45 | 22 |
| F34b In F34 family | Lover of non-human nature. | A girl, woman or group of women voluntarily take as their lover a penis that exists as a special creature, snake, moray eel, lizard, worm, crab, large aquatic animal or aquatic monster, or large terrestrial mammal. People kill or maim the lover, the woman and/or her offspring, or she herself loses her human nature. The woman's behaviour is condemned. | 156 | 315 |
| F20 | Lovers stuck together. | After copulation, the man and woman are unable to break their embrace. | 40 | 40 |
| B77 | Low sky, A625.2; A660. | The sky was close to the ground, then rose. | 197 | 399 |
| I25D In I25 family | Lubricate the gate with grease. | On the way to a dangerous character, a person greases the gate (door hinges) with grease or oil. On the way back, the grateful gate refuses to hold him back. | 14 | 22 |
| A21 | Luminaries thrown into the sky, A700.I, A714, A741. | The sun and/or moon were objects that were thrown or placed into the sky. | 95 | 175 |
| K120a5 In K120 family | Luring a woman onto a ship. | To obtain a woman, a man lures her onto a ship (boat, flying machine, etc.) and takes her away. | 28 | 34 |
| D4a1 In D4 family | Luring fire. | A certain character possesses fire or steals it. His attention is attracted or distracted by singing, music, dancing, unusual gifts, indecent or strange behaviour, offers of sex, food and/or alcohol. | 19 | 22 |
| L108f In L108 family | Luring from the bottom. | A character (girl, boy) finds themselves in water, and the antagonist lures them to shore by imitating the voice of their father, brother or sister. | 4 | 5 |
| C18 | Luring the sun. | A character embodying or controlling the sun hides or is hidden. In order to restore or obtain light and warmth for the first time, the character's attention is attracted or distracted by songs, music, dances, unusual gifts, indecent or strange behaviour, offers of sex, food and/or alcohol. | 25 | 40 |
| I141 | Magic wand. | The wand is an instrument for performing actions whose results cannot be explained rationally. | 55 | 88 |
| L72 | Magical flight, D672, D673. | While fleeing, the character throws small objects behind him, which turn into powerful obstacles in the path of the pursuer, or (rarely) the pursuer creates such obstacles in the path of the fugitives. (Cf. SUS 1979, No. 313H = AA 313I, p. 114: escape by throwing magical objects, an episode in various types of fairy tales). | 252 | 551 |
| L103 | Magical flight: Atalanta, R231. | The fugitive throws or creates objects behind him, which the pursuer, wasting time, collects, eats or destroys, even though they do not hinder his progress. | 128 | 167 |
| K131b In K131 family | Magical objects exchanged and returned, ATU 569. | Having received and then lost a magical object, the hero returns it with the help of a new one (a club, a box with an army, etc.), received in exchange for the first or obtained by the hero's brother. The episode may be repeated several times. | 54 | 64 |
| D13d In D13 family | Making the hidden one laugh. | One character tries to make another character, who is hiding somewhere in the house, laugh in order to find them. | 18 | 22 |
| K117a In K117 family | Making the silent speak. | A girl who is constantly silent is promised to the one who can make her speak; or a husband struggles to make his magical wife speak. | 44 | 45 |
| I6a In I6 family | Male and female: different types of precipitation. | The male and female of a huge bird carry different types of precipitation (for example, the eagle carries snow, and the eagle carries rain). Or (Buryats of Mongolia) the same bird carries different types of precipitation depending on whether it is angry or not. See motif i6. Traditions associated with Na-Dene languages are highlighted in italics in the list. | 32 | 7 |
| I82a In I82 family | Male Venus. | The Morning and/or Evening Star – a male character. | 148 | 218 |
| K65c2 In K65 family | Man and tiger. | A woman or female animal gives birth to several sons, including a human and a tiger. | 4 | 7 |
| B62 | Man and vulture. | Man believes that vultures live better than humans, changes his appearance to that of a vulture. The former vulture lives with the man's wife, and the man usually does not like his new life. | 20 | 30 |
| I8h In I8 family | Man and woman hold up the earth. | The earth is supported by a man and a woman in the underworld. | 6 | 8 |
| L129a In L129 family | Man asks, wolf explains. | The wolf or demon is asked why its body parts and organs are the way they are. It explains sequentially. | 17 | 16 |
| B109 | Man became a bear. | A man grows fur and becomes a bear (the origin of bears). | 55 | 96 |
| J22e In J22 family | Man from the afterbirth, T541.12. | The second character emerges from the afterbirth of the first. | 17 | 15 |
| K22b In K22 family | Man helps the inhabitants of another world. | The inhabitants of another world are attacked by certain enemies. A human helps them to defeat these enemies, because these creatures are not dangerous to humans. See motif K22. | 58 | 50 |
| K176 | Man in search of a woman, ATU 400. | A man sets out on a journey to find or bring back a bride or wife. | 322 | 613 |
| F59 | Man in woman: modelling the figure. | Pretending to be a woman, the trickster transforms part of his body, another character, or some object into a swaddled baby, female genitalia, or a female household item, or disguises an animal or object as a baby born to a new husband. | 22 | 26 |
| I56a In I56 family | Man is an evil spirit in the world of spirits. | When a person who has entered another world touches the local inhabitants, they become ill or die. | 29 | 42 |
| E1c In E1 family | Man made of excrement. | Man made from human excrement or (Inupiat) from carrion. | 36 | 31 |
| E1b In E1 family | Man made of unsuitable material. | A character made of unsuitable material and turns out to be short-lived or poorly suited to performing his functions. | 61 | 81 |
| F63 | Man marries, K1321.1, ATU 1538*. | A male trickster transforms into a woman and gets married. In the end, he is exposed or runs away from his husband. | 64 | 74 |
| A32d In A32 family | Man on the moon, A751. | The figure or imprint of an anthropomorphic creature is visible on the lunar disc. | 265 | 658 |
| M101b In M101 family | Man past, future, present, ATU 157. | A large predator wants to see a human being. First, it meets a child and learns that this is a future human being, then an old man – a former human being. The encounter with a present human being (a hunter, a soldier) ends badly for the beast. | 37 | 33 |
| A32d2 In A32 family | Man with a pitchfork on the moon. | A man with a pitchfork in his hands can be seen in the silhouette of the moon's spots. | 14 | 32 |
| A32dd In A32 family | Man with brushwood on the moon. | The lunar disc shows the figure or imprint of an anthropomorphic character carrying a bundle of wood or brushwood. | 24 | 76 |
| D1b In D1 family | Man-fire. | The man is the master or embodiment of fire (alone or alongside the woman-fire). | 94 | 132 |
| I50 | Many-legged beast (hoofed animal), B15.6.3. | Describes or depicts a hoofed animal with six or more legs. | 53 | 94 |
| I50b In I50 family | Many-legged beast (predator). | Describes or depicts a predatory animal with six or more legs. | 7 | 8 |
| B33b In B33 family | March bird. | At the border between winter and spring, a bird (usually a thrush) flies away prematurely into the cold and dies, or raises chicks and they die or suffer from the cold. | 9 | 14 |
| M75b1 In M75 family | Marco Rich, ATU 930 | A person (usually of high status) learns that a poor boy who is born will inherit his property or become king. He tries to stop it, but what he predicted comes true. | 94 | 111 |
| B2d In B2 family | Marriage of heaven and earth, A625. | The sky (the Sun, Thunder, the Wind living in the sky) is considered male and marries the Earth, who is female; The sky is combined with the female Water; with the daughter of the Earth; the creator (master) of the sky and the creator (mistress) of the earth are husband and wife; rarely: the female Sky (or Sun) is combined with the male Earth. | 111 | 167 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.