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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C8a2 In C8 family | Stone lion. | The lion (often stone) helps to survive the flood. | 2 | 4 |
| L62 | Stone Man. | The Stone Man kills people, but is then killed himself. | 19 | 17 |
| L33g In L33 family | Stone with a beard. | A tree, a creature on a tree, a stone kills (seriously injures) anyone who calls it a certain way, climbs on it, etc. The character provokes others to do this and eats the dead, the last of the invited guests deceives the provocateur himself. | 6 | 7 |
| M198a2 In M198 family | Stone with a wormhole. | A person determines, based on characteristics invisible to others, that a valuable item (a gemstone, an expensive sword) has a flaw and is of little value. | 11 | 10 |
| C40 | Stones fall from the sky. | At first, stones fell from the sky and crushed people. | 3 | 4 |
| L53 | Stones in the mouth, K951. | The terrifying creature is killed or neutralised by throwing (red-hot) stones, pieces of iron, etc. into its mouth or anus, or the creature retreats when threatened with a stone being thrown into its mouth. | 133 | 183 |
| J67 | Stones on the eyes. | At night, the character places light-coloured stones or shells over his eyes. Thinking that the character's eyes are open, the antagonist either does not dare to attack him or takes the stones away instead of gouging out his eyes. | 9 | 11 |
| L108d In L108 family | Stones sewn into the belly. | A character who swallowed his prey alive falls asleep. When his belly was cut open, the swallowed prey was removed and replaced with stones, but he did not notice anything. | 12 | 15 |
| G9B In G9 family | Stop working – there will be a flood. | A man clears a plot of land of vegetation, but by morning it has grown back. At night, a certain character orders the trees and grass to rise up, turning the cultivated field back into virgin soil. He explains that there will be a flood, that there is no point in working, and advises people to prepare a means of transportation. | 12 | 27 |
| M74a In M74 family | Strange newborn names, ATU 15 | The character pretends to be invited to visit several times in connection with the birth of a child, or gives names to various tracts that the boat passes by. The names and titles sound strange, but they become clear when it turns out that the character ate supplies. | 87 | 91 |
| K33f In K33 family | Stream of honey and stream of oil. | Sources of at least two valuable liquid edible products (honey, oil, etc.) are available or imagined. Cf. motif N34. | 24 | 41 |
| B69 | Striped chipmunk, A2217.2. | Wishing to reward or punish a small rodent (chipmunk, marmot, squirrel), the character makes it striped, usually by running a paw or hand down its back. | 51 | 69 |
| B69b In B69 family | Striped frog. | Wanting to reward or punish the frog, the character runs his hand or paw along its back, and since then, stripes have been visible on the frog's back. | 2 | 2 |
| B101 | Stripes on a birch tree. | Angry at the birch tree, the character beats or cuts it, leaving stripes on the bark that remain to this day. | 11 | 15 |
| H9 | Strong and fragile. | People are mortal (they get sick and grow old) because they are compared to something weak, fragile, easily subject to destruction or decay (upper Tanana: people have not died out because they are made of durable material rather than ephemeral material). | 66 | 99 |
| K60c In K60 family | Stropiva with the king, patient with the groom. | The stubborn wife of a worthy man goes on a date with a demon or a servant. He beats her, but she patiently endures her lover's beatings. | 21 | 25 |
| J38 | Stuck claws. | A mighty bird sinks its claws into a huge aquatic creature. The claws get stuck in its body. The bird is dragged underwater or struggles to free itself. | 24 | 27 |
| F54b In F54 family | Stuck feathers. | A young man or boy copulates with his mother or sister. This becomes known from the remains of paint or feathers with which he was covered during sexual intercourse. | 3 | 3 |
| E7 | Stuck in a hole in the sky. | The path from one part of the world to another passes through a narrow opening. The character gets stuck in the opening, permanently severing the connection between the worlds. | 23 | 23 |
| C6i In C6 family | Stuck mud turns into earth. | A zoomorphic character returns from the underworld covered in mud. He shakes himself off, or the mud is scraped off him, and earth emerges from it. | 8 | 12 |
| L59a In L59 family | Stuck to the whale. | People who mocked the hero or his son were dragged into the sea and turned into sea animals or parts of its body or parasites on its skin. | 7 | 11 |
| K117b In K117 family | Stuck Together, ATU 571, 571B. | The hero causes various people (and animals) to stick to each other (or to objects). | 69 | 58 |
| F22 | Studying the partner's body. | The character asks a person of the opposite sex about the purpose of the part of the body used for sexual intercourse (usually after asking questions about other parts). Alternatively, the character tries out different parts of the body for sexual intercourse or for placing the genitals. Cf. motif M63. | 49 | 58 |
| K15c In K15 family | Substituted clothing. | The owner of stone (ice) clothing kills people. By hiding or replacing his clothing, the hero kills him. | 5 | 6 |
| M78f In M78 family | Substituted embryo | When a woman falls asleep, a joker (usually a tiny boy) places an embryo or the entrails of an animal or something similar next to her to make the woman herself or others think she has a miscarriage or that her viscera has fallen out. | 21 | 23 |
| J7 | Substituted signs. | A woman or girl sets off to her husband (beloved) or relatives, or a man sets off to find a bride. She or he loses their way after a certain character substitutes the signs indicating the way. See motif J12. | 46 | 50 |
| K15a In K15 family | Substituted weapon. | The hero secretly replaces the weapon or magical tool of a powerful character with a worthless fake. Traditions in which the replaced weapon belongs to Grom are highlighted in bold. | 38 | 50 |
| M73a In M73 family | Substitution of feces | Two (animal) persons compare their feces (with different purpose). One of them gets to exchange them | 20 | 27 |
| L24 | Suffocating demons with smoke. | Demons (or one of them) attack people and then hide. People destroy the demons' lair and kill all or most of them by spreading a smoky fire around the demons' refuge. | 55 | 96 |
| I87f In I87 family | Suicide of the Narts. | Before modern humans, there lived others who differed in strength, height, nobility, or other qualities. They disappeared after committing suicide. | 9 | 7 |
| A19E In A19 family | Summer and winter suns. | The summer and winter suns are two different characters. | 2 | 2 |
| A36a In A36 family | Sun and immortality. | The sun is contrasted with humans as immortal to mortals; responsible for the mortal nature of humans. | 17 | 24 |
| A33 | Sun Ram. | The sun has the appearance of a large, non-predatory mammal (bull, ram, pig, antelope, rhinoceros, etc.) or rides on it. | 13 | 16 |
| A4 | Sun-woman, A736.2. | The Sun is a woman (the Moon is usually a man, sometimes also a woman, see motif A6; highlighted in bold italics in the list of ethnic groups below). | 236 | 472 |
| I21 | Sunburnt. | The inhabitants of the underworld or the land of the rising sun have red (yellow) hair and/or red or black skin and/or suffer from the heat of the sun, which passes them by at a short distance. See motif I20. | 27 | 35 |
| A2d In A2 family | Suns of different worlds. | Other suns illuminate other levels of the universe or will shine sequentially in the future. | 15 | 20 |
| A2F In A2 family | Suns – fruits. | Suns grow on tree branches. | 5 | 9 |
| M151A In M151 family | Supports a rock, ATU 1530, J2273.1. | The character pretends to hold a rock, tree, etc., which is supposedly about to fall. See Dixon 1916: 189. (It is possible that in America the motif is of late African origin). | 77 | 81 |
| F71 | Susanna and the Elders, ATU 883A. | After being rejected, the man falsely accuses the woman of promiscuity; others believe him and try to punish her severely. | 72 | 70 |
| I8c In I8 family | Suspended Earth. | The earth is prevented from falling or swaying because it is tied with ropes. | 33 | 39 |
| K8c1 In K8 family | Swallowed by a herbivore, then by a wolf. | A tiny man is first accidentally swallowed by a large herbivore, then carried off by a wolf that began to eat the carcass of this animal. | 28 | 36 |
| G26 | Swallowed food: obtained for people. | After swallowing or hiding food in their mouth, the character brings it to earth (passes it on to people). | 14 | 19 |
| M46c In M46 family | Swallowed needle | The character turns into a needle, a garbage, a small insect. A woman swallows it and becomes pregnant. See M46B motif. | 15 | 18 |
| K78 | Swallowed, extracted from the little finger. | The cannibal swallows people. When he is killed, it turns out that they are not in his belly or that they are dead there. They are found alive not in the belly, but in the cannibal's finger, or there is a means of reviving them in the little finger, or the cannibal's finger must be cut or severed to find the people. | 37 | 53 |
| K78a In K78 family | Swallows and heals. | A demonic character swallows cripples and regurgitates them healthy and beautiful. | 16 | 24 |
| K93a In K93 family | Sword on the marriage bed, T351. | When lying down with a woman, a man places a sharp or pointed object between her and himself as a sign that he will abstain from sex during the night (sometimes the woman places the sword herself). | 52 | 69 |
| K38f3 In K38 family | Sword strike from a pit. | To kill the dragon, the hero digs a pit and hides in it. When the dragon crawls nearby or over the pit, the hero strikes it with a fatal blow of his sword. | 2 | 4 |
| M82a In M82 family | Tail bells: tied unnoticed | One animal person inconspicuously ties rattles to the tail of another. The latter thinks that he is pursued and runs in panic | 5 | 8 |
| M82 | Tail bells: tied voluntarily, J2155 | The character sees that something is tied to the other's tail. He also wants such a tail for himself, and as a result he suffers damage. | 10 | 16 |
| M109 | Tail in the ice hole, K1021, ATU 2. | A zoomorphic character sits down, lowering his tail (penis) so that something edible will stick to it, but as a result he is left without a tail (penis) or dies. Cf. motifs M109A, M109C. | 102 | 151 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.