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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| L33 | Rolling Stone, R261. | The stone rolls after the character, trying to crush him. | 47 | 73 |
| K27g2 In K27 family | Roof made of feathers. | The character must build a house out of bird feathers or cover the roof, bridge, etc. with feathers. | 7 | 11 |
| K6 | Rope made from bodily secretions. | A vine or rope emerges from tears, snot, urine, saliva, and chewed substance. See motif K1A. | 21 | 30 |
| K136b In K136 family | Rubies from the river, (ATU 467). | A character finds precious stones or unusual flowers (usually in a river) and learns where they come from. | 10 | 13 |
| I49 | Runner-earthquake. | Earthquake – an anthropomorphic character (or category of characters) that moves around, shaking the earth. | 14 | 15 |
| M173B In M173 family | Running ahead. | The character repeatedly runs ahead of another person on the road to obtain food from them, each time pretending to be a different person. | 5 | 4 |
| M183 | Running race: one against many, ATU 275C, 1074. | Numerous relatives of the character, who all look the same, work together to accomplish a task that is impossible for one person to do alone, while their competitors believe that the task was accomplished by only one person. Usually, the fast and slow characters agree to race (jump over an obstacle). The slow one places others who look like him at the finish line or along the entire distance, and they respond to the fast one on his behalf. The fast one does not notice the substitution and admits defeat. | 141 | 175 |
| K27s In K27 family | Running, racing. | Competition: running, racing. See motif K27. | 133 | 140 |
| M197b In M197 family | Rusted stallions and foaled mares. | The owner claims that other mares foaled or aborted because his stallions, which were far away from the mares, whinnied, that any foal born was from his mare, etc. The young man begins to kill the owner's dogs: they did not chase away the wolves (they scared away the game, etc.), although they were far from the scene. The owner acknowledges the absurdity of his claim. | 15 | 14 |
| E34 | Sacred flutes made from the ashes of a cannibal. | The cannibal is killed. From his ashes arise musical instruments taboo for women, used in male rituals. | 4 | 4 |
| K100g In K100 family | Sacrifice a son, (ATU 516C). | In order to revive or heal a friend (to heal oneself, to fulfil a vow), the character agrees to sacrifice his son (children). The slain person usually comes back to life, or the person's willingness to make the sacrifice is sufficient to satisfy supernatural forces. | 74 | 104 |
| A22c In A22 family | Sacrifice to the Sun. | In order for the sun to rise, move to the right distance from the earth, or follow its heavenly path, a human being must be sacrificed. | 19 | 33 |
| K29b In K29 family | Safe in the pit, K959,6. | The hero is asked to climb (or is thrown) into a pit, which is immediately filled with earth or into which a pole or stones are lowered, K959,6 (Posthole murder). The hero proves his magical abilities by climbing out of the pit alive. | 38 | 49 |
| M39a2c In M39 family | Salt is sown ATU 1200, J1932.3. | A fool (or a character pretending to be crazy) sows salt (small objects) like a grain. | 54 | 38 |
| B16 | Salt water: bodily secretions, A1115. | The water of the sea, rivers, etc. comes from the fluid that flows from the body of a living being, or is contaminated by it; therefore, it is salty or opaque. | 34 | 40 |
| L61 | Samoyed, F1035. | The character eats himself, guts himself, or kills himself in order to be eaten. | 58 | 68 |
| M38d7 In M38 family | Sausage makes soup, (ATU 85) | Person who represents something fat (a sausage, a piece of fat, etc.) prepares a rich soup adding to it its own fat. Another person tries to repeat the trick and dies | 10 | 12 |
| M13B In M13 family | Sausage sticks to the nose. | People are promised the fulfilment of two (three, four) wishes. Without thinking, they wish for something they do not want at all. The last wish is spent on returning to the original state. | 7 | 9 |
| M149 | Say that I am a stump, ATU 154. | A strong enemy is ready to kill the hero (a human or a weak animal). Someone, seemingly unaware of this, loudly announces that the hero's enemy is being sought in order to kill him. The hero is saved. Usually, the enemy asks not to be betrayed, saying that he is a stump, a log, etc. This allows him to be treated as such – thrown, chopped, etc. (ATU data not entered; plot 154 includes several independent motifs; which of them are present in the traditions referred to by ATU cannot be determined without referring to the original sources). | 50 | 68 |
| J33 | Scarecrow. | A boy, a young man, or two children live in the house of an older character. In order to elicit a certain reaction from him, they kill a person or a large animal, stuff the scarecrow with insects, worms, ashes, grass, or inflate it. | 17 | 27 |
| H24e In H24 family | Scattered seeds. | Having brought the seeds of humanity into our world, the character drops or prematurely opens what he has brought. (Sometimes this explains the inequality of people and disorder in society). | 8 | 16 |
| F9d In F9 family | Scorpions in the genitals. | Small stinging creatures dangerous to the partner are found in the genitals of women or men. | 19 | 21 |
| C5a In C5 family | Scout birds. | A bird, various birds, or people who then turn into birds are sent to explore the earth (whether it exists, whether it has dried up, whether there are any survivors, why smoke is rising from the earth, etc.) or with the task of bringing back a piece of solid substance to create dry land. | 132 | 209 |
| A35c In A35 family | Scratches and wounds on the face of the moon. | Moon spots are scratches and wounds on the face of a character. | 15 | 19 |
| F70a In F70 family | Scratches his body. | Accusing a man or young man of assaulting her (usually sexually), a woman presents fabricated material evidence (tearing her clothes, scratching her body, etc.). See motif F70. | 58 | 42 |
| N28d In N28 family | Sea cover | In a list of things that do not exist in the world, a lid or covering for the sea, ocean or river are mentioned | 7 | 9 |
| K85e In K85 family | Sea horses. | Magical horses live in water. | 33 | 43 |
| B16a In B16 family | Sea of urine. | The sea is formed from urine or blood. | 14 | 12 |
| M33 | Sealed anus | The character plugs or seals his anus tightly (with wax, clay, grass, etc.), or someone else does it. See M32 motif. | 23 | 24 |
| M91c2 In M91 family | Seated in a bag | character is placed in a bag or chest, locked in a cage, tied, etc., to drown, burn, etc. When left for a while, the character pretends to be in the bag voluntarily or because he does not want to become a chief, marry, etc.; the other agrees to take his place. See M91c1 motif. | 170 | 236 |
| F51 | Secret lover, H58. | Someone under cover of night/incognito approaches a person of the opposite sex. The marriage partner deliberately (to determine who it is) or accidentally (thereby exposing the visitor) makes a mark on his/her body (clothing). See motif A31. | 112 | 80 |
| K45 | Sedna (severed fingers). | A man and a woman belonging to different generations (father – daughter, son – mother) come into conflict. The man sails away from the woman in a boat or on a raft, or leaves her on a sledge. When she tries to grab the edge of the boat (raft, sled), he cuts off her fingers. (The common motif among the Warrau and Eskimos was first noted by O. Zerries [Zerries 1954: 346, 376]). | 13 | 23 |
| G24a In G24 family | Seeds hidden on the body. | The character steals cultivated plants for people, hiding the seeds on/in his own body. | 13 | 15 |
| K165 | Seeking to experience fear, ATU 326. | The young man has never experienced fear and wants to know what it is like. Robbers and evil spirits do not frighten him. | 39 | 33 |
| M109d In M109 family | Seized by the tail by a sea creature. | A zoomorphic character dips his tongue or tail into the water. An octopus or shell grabs it and holds it tight, so that the character drowns during high tide. | 3 | 3 |
| N18 | Selected gifts | fairy-tale text ends with a formula stating that the narrator received food, drinks, money or other real world items from the characters described, but lost them against their own free will because of meeting dogs or people (robbers, boys, children or a neighbor). | 15 | 21 |
| M71 | Selected piece of wood | A character (usually carried away by a river or fallen from a height) turns into a piece of wood. Someone is picking it up. The character then takes on his true form, usually in the absence of the hosts. | 17 | 23 |
| M39a6f In M39 family | Sell and return the sheep | The father tells his son to sell the sheep (goat) and return it along with the proceeds. Usually a girl teaches how to sell trimmed wool. | 24 | 24 |
| M39a4a In M39 family | Sells a lizard a cow, ATU 1643 | fool sells or gives an animal (plant, statue) meat, pet, cloth, etc., believing that the buyer will pay; or the fool works where no one asked him to, and takes the animal for its owner. When he comes for money, he beats an animal (a tree, a statue, follows an animal) and as a result finds a treasure. | 72 | 64 |
| H22 | Sense of smell in animals. | Large game animals did not have a sense of smell. They acquired it and began to flee from hunters after someone created olfactory organs for them or gave them a strong smell to smell. Cf. motif H22A. | 14 | 22 |
| K27z2 In K27 family | Separated from her son, she avoided incest, ATU 674. | A noble woman is forced to leave her home, gives birth to a son, and is separated from him. The young man grows up and almost marries his mother, but at the last moment everything is explained. {The Sudanese text, attributed to this plot in el-Shamy 2004 and subsequently in Uther 2004, does not fit the definition; it is quite possible that the Latvians, Romanians and Ukrainians are also mentioned incorrectly in Uther 2004}. | 4 | 5 |
| B46a In B46 family | Separated star of the Pleiades. | One of the stars of the Pleiades was separated from the others (usually stolen by the stars of the Big Dipper and identified with Alcor). | 22 | 32 |
| I27a In I27 family | Settlements and dog trails. | The souls of dead dogs go to a special place in the afterlife and/or go to the afterlife along a special path. | 26 | 24 |
| B46 | Seven Star Brothers. | Each of the seven stars of the Big Dipper is an adult male. | 80 | 159 |
| B46b In B46 family | Seven Star Sisters. | Each of the seven main stars of the Big Dipper is a separate female character. {Included in the online database, but not in the correlation table in *sav)}. | 15 | 14 |
| K135 | Seven with one blow, ATU 1640. | By accidentally defeating powerful opponents, a physically weak and timid person gains honour. | 84 | 98 |
| L19b1 In L19 family | Seven-headed monster. | Describes or depicts a monster (usually a reptile) with seven heads (except in cases where snakes with an increasing number of heads are described sequentially and "seven" is not the largest number). | 85 | 155 |
| K131d In K131 family | Seven-league boots. | Mention is made of footwear that allows the character to quickly cover enormous distances. | 34 | 47 |
| A2G In A2 family | Several suns in one day. | At different times throughout the day, different suns shine in the sky. | 2 | 2 |
| A2 | Several suns. | There was a time when several, i.e. more than two, suns shone in the sky at the same time. | 67 | 142 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.