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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| E30b In E30 family | Pygmalion. | A man makes a figure or receives a woman. She comes to life and becomes his wife. | 12 | 8 |
| F44 | Quarrel between men and women. | In the community of the first ancestors, women and men quarrel, leave, kill, maim each other, etc. | 46 | 73 |
| I64a In I64 family | Race on the Milky Way. | Two different hoofed animals race across the sky. Usually, the Milky Way is the dusty trail they leave behind. | 11 | 13 |
| M187c In M187 family | Race: crab/crayfish – participant. | Participating in a race, the crab defeats its faster opponent. | 35 | 41 |
| M187 | Race: snail – participant. | Participating in a race, a snail (mollusc, sea cucumber, etc.) defeats a faster opponent. | 32 | 53 |
| I7c In I7 family | Rain or dew – urine. | When a character in the upper world urinates, it rains (dew falls) on earth. | 20 | 23 |
| I46 | Rainbow belt. | Rainbow – an ornamented part of clothing, bright fabric, decoration, belt. | 96 | 141 |
| I40 | Rainbow bow. | The rainbow is a bow. | 98 | 125 |
| I39 | Rainbow bridge, F152. | The rainbow is a bridge, a road, a staircase. | 102 | 169 |
| I41a In I41 family | Rainbow from an anthill. | A rainbow rises from an anthill or termite mound. | 18 | 16 |
| I97 | Rainbow horse. | Rainbow – hoofed animal (horse, bull, goat, sheep). | 24 | 24 |
| I46d In I46 family | Rainbow loop. | Rainbow – a hunting loop, a trap. | 7 | 7 |
| I46c In I46 family | Rainbow rope. | The rainbow is a rope to which cattle are tied. | 9 | 11 |
| I41 | Rainbow serpent, A791.2. | A rainbow is a reptile (usually a snake), less often a fish or snake-like, usually dangerous, object (snake tongue, scorpion tail). | 152 | 363 |
| I46e In I46 family | Rainbow sword. | Rainbow - sword, cutting weapon. | 8 | 10 |
| I42 | Rainbow – a pair of creatures. | The rainbow is a pair of creatures, usually a man and a woman, male and female. | 40 | 60 |
| I47a In I47 family | Rainbow – fox wedding. | The rainbow is associated with the wedding of a fox or jackal. | 10 | 16 |
| F83b In F83 family | Rape of a woman in distress, ATU 36. | A strong female animal chases a weak male, but gets stuck between trees, rocks, etc. The fugitive mocks his pursuer, usually raping her. {In ATU, motifs f83a and f83b are described as one plot type, ATU 36. The degree of their plot connection can only be determined by having the original texts}. | 26 | 31 |
| C28 | Rash promise. | A demonic character takes possession of a valuable item without which another character (and people) will perish. The demon is tricked into returning the valuable item. | 12 | 14 |
| B38d In B38 family | Raven and owl. | The Raven and the Owl paint each other. | 8 | 11 |
| M29a1 In M29 family | Raven(s) - main trickster | In three or more different episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is raven (crow) | 37 | 39 |
| L20 | Raw meat eater. | Two characters hunt or fish. One turns out to be or becomes a cannibal, which is revealed when he/she begins to eat the prey raw. | 22 | 49 |
| B86A In B86 family | Reaching for the moon in the sky. | People try to climb up to the sky to get the moon. (In brackets are traditions in which the goal of building a tower to the sky is the moon, but the task of getting it is not mentioned). | 17 | 19 |
| C13 | Rebellion of things. | During or before the onset of a global catastrophe (flood, darkness) or (surui) at night, household items and/or stones, trees, domestic animals, and cultivated plants turn into wild birds and animals or come to life. | 36 | 50 |
| K27x3a In K27 family | Recognise by the scarf. | When a husband sets off on a difficult mission, his magical wife gives him her towel or scarf, instructing him to use only those items (usually so that her relatives will recognise him as their son-in-law). | 24 | 27 |
| F54c In F54 family | Recognised by nail marks. | A husband sees someone's fingernail marks on his wife's body and gathers the men to find out who left the marks. | 3 | 3 |
| K37d In K37 family | Recognised by teeth marks. | The character recognises the presence of another by noticing traces of their teeth or nails on fruit or leaves. | 11 | 12 |
| K37a In K37 family | Recognising a man. | The character must identify his son or husband among many identical people or animals. See motif K37. | 56 | 70 |
| K37b In K37 family | Recognising a woman by her missing little finger. | A man must identify his chosen one blindfolded. He does this by touch, knowing that one of her fingers is damaged or missing. | 9 | 21 |
| K37 | Recognising one's own among similar ones, H62.1, H161, H324. | In order to return or obtain a wife, son or husband (in Africa also a domestic animal or object), a person must identify her or him among several identical people or animals (objects). | 141 | 324 |
| K158 | Recognising the woman in the portrait, (ATU 881A). | In order to find her missing husband (and other men who helped her or caused her harm), a woman displays her image and calls to her those who, by their behaviour, show that they are familiar with the features in the portrait. | 19 | 20 |
| K18 | Recognition of father or mother, H481, ATU 675. | A boy is born whose father (rarely mother) is unknown. He chooses his true father (mother), who usually occupies the lowest social position. Usually, a group of men or women gather together, each of whom wants the boy to choose him or her. | 118 | 167 |
| L81a1 In L81 family | Red bead in the hearth. | Noticing a red bead (pebble) that has fallen into the hearth, the character thinks it is a coal and does not understand that the fire in the hearth has gone out. | 5 | 5 |
| B74a In B74 family | Red cloths over the eyes. | Red cloths are sewn over the character's eyes (threads, eyelids are painted red) or he does it himself. He sees everything in red or his eyes have turned red forever. | 9 | 10 |
| B57a In B57 family | Red sunset – an indication of what has happened. | Seeing the reddened sky, the character understands that another's blood has been spilled, or that another has spilled red liquid. See motif B57. | 13 | 4 |
| B74 | Red-eyed capercaillie. | The eyes of the capercaillie or black grouse turned red from tears. | 18 | 31 |
| M53c In M53 family | Reddened eyes | trickster, inviting birds to dance around him with their eyes closed, kills them one at a time and threatens to turn red at the one that opens their eyes; this is an empty threat, or for a bird that opens eyes and eyes have really turned red ever since. | 17 | 30 |
| B42h2 In B42 family | Reddish star – arrow. | A large reddish star (Betelgeuse or Aldebaran) is identified with an arrow. | 8 | 13 |
| M79 | Reed Dancer, J1883 | A person joins the dancers; it turns out that the dancers are reeds or trees in the wind. | 9 | 13 |
| K11b In K11 family | Reed made from bird bones. | The bones of a huge bird are turned into reeds or bamboo for making arrows or sarbacanes. | 5 | 6 |
| L40 | Reflection and shadow, R351. | The character discovers (rarely: cannot discover) another person on a tree or rock, noticing their reflection or shadow. See motif L39. | 108 | 133 |
| K110 | Reflection of the golden sword. | The character is asked to retrieve treasure from the bottom of a pond. He does not understand that he is only seeing a reflection and that the treasure is located above. | 27 | 22 |
| J16 | Refuses to eat insects. | The character perishes because, being forced to look for insects in the head of another, he refuses to chew insects, spits them out in disgust, or is suspected of doing so. | 15 | 21 |
| B85a In B85 family | Regulating the wind. | The wind stops blowing (after blowing too strongly). A character approaches it and establishes the necessary balance. Since then, the wind blows, but usually not too strongly. | 13 | 10 |
| M74 | Regurgitated food | A weak character regurgitates previously swallowed unusual food, or replaces his belching with a strong character's belching, or interprets his secretions as remains strong animals he ate. The strong believe that the weak are strong or have unusual abilities. | 22 | 27 |
| M90a6 In M90 family | Rejuvenating apples | Owning some apples ensures eternal youth. | 12 | 15 |
| H18 | Released animals, A1421. | Hunted animals were concentrated in one place. A certain character creates them there or allows them to scatter. | 130 | 168 |
| M139 | Released birds. | The fox caught the birds and put them in a bag. Another character secretly replaced them with thorns. | 7 | 11 |
| H20 | Released fish. | All the fish or (rarely) molluscs were concentrated in one place. A certain character allows them to escape or deliberately releases them into rivers or the sea. {In some cases, the theme of the spread of fish concentrated in a small container is difficult to separate from the theme of the spread of water. In any case, neither of these exist in Africa}. | 57 | 130 |
| H27 | Released mosquitoes. | Before spreading throughout the world, stinging or blood-sucking insects or reptiles, diseases or evil spirits were kept in a vessel, bag or other small container. See motif H24. | 84 | 120 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.