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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A36 | The moon and immortality. | The moon (month) is contrasted with humans as immortal to mortals; it decides whether humans will be mortal; those who live on the moon are immortal. (Cf. Latvians, Dolgans). | 79 | 147 |
| A9 | The Moon as protector of humans. | The moon-woman does not allow her son or husband, the Sun, to destroy people. | 5 | 6 |
| B28e In B28 family | The Moon as the Creator of the World. | The Moon (alone or together with the Sun) transforms the original "incorrect" world into the one in which people now live. | 14 | 21 |
| A31 | The Moon in Love. | As a result of intimate contact or romantic conflict, the night light takes on its current appearance – rising from the earth to the sky and/or spots appearing on it, which are now visible. | 107 | 172 |
| A43a In A43 family | The moon in one moccasin. | The moon or character currently visible on the moon hastily ascends to the sky. He is missing one trouser leg or shoe on one foot. Cf. motifs A43 and K13A. | 8 | 14 |
| A48 | The moon obtained and lost. | A character brings the moon from another world and uses it as a lamp. Another character drops the moon, and it rises into the sky and remains there. | 5 | 4 |
| A2a1 In A2 family | The moon shone like the sun. | At first, the moon was as bright and hot as the sun. | 28 | 40 |
| C25b In C25 family | The Moon Spinner. | In the sky, on the moon (rarely – on the sun), somewhere outside our world, a certain character spins, weaves, knits, embroiders or makes bast fabric. | 54 | 66 |
| I82c1 In I82 family | The Moon's two wives. | The Moon has two wives (usually the Morning Star and the Evening Star). With the caring one, he grows fat, with the other, he starves and grows thin. | 8 | 7 |
| J49 | The Moon's wife falls down. | The wife and/or sister of the Moon unsuccessfully tries to climb up to him in the sky or reaches him but returns to earth. | 10 | 14 |
| F85 | The Moon: women against men. | The moon/moon leads women in their confrontation with men or takes women away from men. | 6 | 5 |
| B51 | The Mosquito and Thunder. | Thanks to a deliberate lie, Thunder did not learn from the bloodsucking insect that it had drunk human blood. | 21 | 23 |
| K35b In K35 family | The most delicious dish. | The hero gives his rivals the food that the king sent them all to get, but what the rivals got turns out to be poisonous, useless, or tasteless, while what the hero brought, regardless of how it looks, gets praised. | 19 | 20 |
| K56a9 In K56 family | The mouse helper rings a bell. | When a small animal (usually a mouse) rings a bell, beats a drum, etc., a blind or distant antagonist believes that these sounds are made by the hero (heroine). Thanks to this, the hero (heroine) is saved. | 35 | 58 |
| M207 | The Mouse in the Bowl, ATU 1416. | The poor blame Adam and Eve for their misfortunes. An authoritative character gives them the opportunity to live comfortably on the condition that they do not violate a certain prohibition (usually not to open a certain vessel). They are unable to resist the temptation and are then returned to their previous state. | 31 | 15 |
| I27d In I27 family | The mouth of a black dog. | There is a certain black or red dog that (is associated with objects in the night sky and) negatively affects people's lives. | 3 | 3 |
| I88 | The multi-tailed beast. | Describes a creature with several tails. | 13 | 16 |
| K27z2b In K27 family | The Murdered Doll, ATU 879. | The complicated relationship between a simple girl and a prince leads to the prince intending to kill his bride on their wedding night. The girl substitutes a doll for herself, the prince stabs the doll with his sword, mistakes the spurting juice (syrup, honey) for blood, and repents of the murder. The real girl appears, and the young couple are happy. | 41 | 34 |
| J1A In J1 family | The myth of the avengers with a full plot | 153 | 297 | |
| jia | The myth of the avengers with a full plot. | The myth of the avengers with a full plot. | 0 | 0 |
| F74 | The naked man pretends to be dead. | Upon seeing a dangerous character, a man or woman undresses and pretends to be dead (or the character undresses the woman). Examining and sniffing the supposed corpse, the character finds what he takes to be a wound or signs of decay and leaves. | 32 | 30 |
| B39 | The narrow waist of an insect. | An insect or character, which later turns into an insect, knows where food (cultivated plants) or water is located, but refuses to share this knowledge. To find the valuables (usually to force the insect to reveal its secret), the first ancestors pull on a rope tied around the character's waist (the origin of the bridge between the abdominal and thoracic sections of insects). | 14 | 19 |
| K145b In K145 family | The newlywed eats her groom. | After a man and a woman are left alone (usually on their wedding night), the woman turns into a predator or monster and eats the man. | 9 | 9 |
| I68b In I68 family | The night of fulfilled wishes. | On a certain night of the year, any wish that is expressed or conceived will come true. Cf. motif M13. | 39 | 67 |
| I68a In I68 family | The night of magical water. | Once a year, water briefly acquires unusual properties. | 12 | 14 |
| B125a In B125 family | The nightingale and the copperhead. | The nightingale (or, less commonly, someone else) takes the copper's eyes and does not return them, leaving her blind. | 4 | 5 |
| L33f In L33 family | The nightjar breaks the rock. | A rock or boulder pursues a character. The character calls for help, and the nightjar splits the rock into pieces. | 17 | 28 |
| I85a1 In I85 family | The North Star – a hole in the sky. | The North Star – a hole leading to the upper world. | 14 | 13 |
| I85b In I85 family | The North Star – Man. | The North Star – one person. | 31 | 35 |
| C16a In C16 family | The offended mistress of animals. | The offended mistress of animals or fish takes them and food supplies away. See motif H32A. | 9 | 1 |
| B22 | The offended person knocks down the tree. | The character left under the tree is offended by those who climbed up the tree (usually they do not share their food with him or her). In retaliation, he or she knocks down the tree. The events described are of cosmic proportions. | 12 | 26 |
| L42k In L42 family | The ogre regurgitates the axe. | A demonic character regurgitates an axe (adze) to cut down a tree. | 8 | 17 |
| L21 | The ogre runs away to pick up his prey. | A cannibal or demon under a tree intends to grab a person who has climbed a tree; the person throws his prey or some object far away, and while the cannibal is looking for, picking up or eating what has been thrown, he runs away. | 19 | 18 |
| M200 | The old donkey carries the young one, ATU 1215. | An old man and a boy set off on a journey, taking a donkey with them. They try all the options: only the old man rides the donkey, only the boy rides the donkey, both ride together, both walk alongside the donkey, they drag the donkey behind them. Each time, people make unflattering comments. | 46 | 18 |
| M45a In M45 family | The old man and the beasts | A person is sleeping or pretending to be asleep or dead. Animals take him for a dead man - they mourn him, carry him to bury him, they are going to eat it, etc. A person beats the crowd and/or obtains benefits. | 50 | 73 |
| K56b1 In K56 family | The Old Man with Golden Coals, ATU 751B*. | A poor man goes in search of fire. An old man by the fire gives him coals. At home, they turn into gold. An envious neighbour (brother) deliberately extinguishes the fire in his house and asks the old man for coals. His house burns down. | 9 | 5 |
| K56a5 In K56 family | The Old Woman Becomes Beautiful, ATU 877. | An old or ugly woman unexpectedly becomes a young beauty or acquires wealth. Usually, another woman tries to repeat her actions and either dies or suffers damage. | 20 | 21 |
| B33d In B33 family | The Old Woman of Winter. | An elderly woman embodies winter, is associated with snow, and/or at the border between winter and spring (autumn) there are several very cold days associated with a certain old woman. | 35 | 53 |
| K123 | The old woman's curse. | A boy, a young man, or, less commonly, a girl deliberately or accidentally offends an elderly woman (or a cripple). She utters words that cause him or her to want to do something dangerous (most often to find a marriage partner). | 51 | 94 |
| I46a In I46 family | The Old Woman's Rainbow. | The rainbow is associated with a woman, usually an elderly one. | 38 | 52 |
| D1a1 In D1 family | The old woman-fire takes the child away. | Because a woman offended the fire, its mistress takes her child away. | 8 | 11 |
| B33f In B33 family | The old woman-night unravels the yarn. | A certain character performs actions that determine the change from dark to light times of day. It always involves yarn, thread, rope, or fabric, which the character unravels or winds up, or with which the hero binds the entity responsible for the daily cycle. | 21 | 21 |
| K27n3b In K27 family | The one who gives tasks dwells in the sky. | The character who gives the hero or heroine difficult tasks or subjects them to trials lives in the sky, but is not associated with the sun, moon, thunder or wind. See motif K27. | 70 | 51 |
| K27n1 In K27 family | The one who gives tasks – a king or a chief. | A character who gives the hero tasks that are impossible for an ordinary person (subjecting the hero to difficult trials), or a character who requires the suitors of his daughter to fulfil certain conditions, is the head of a community or supra-community collective and is neither a member of the same family collective as the hero nor a mythical creature. See motif K27. | 229 | 211 |
| K27n3c In K27 family | The one who gives tasks – a zoomorphic creature. | A character who gives the hero difficult tasks or subjects him to trials is associated with a land or water animal or a fish. See motif K27. | 48 | 22 |
| K61e In K61 family | The one who laughs rewards. | Seeing an absurd situation, a powerful (supernatural) character laughs and is thereby usually cured of his ailment. For this, the people involved in the situation are rewarded and saved from danger. | 14 | 16 |
| M177a In M177 family | The one who looks away eats. | One zoomorphic character teaches another to remain silent, to look at him or away when a third character asks who ate the best piece. It is a trap: the third character decides that the second is guilty. | 10 | 9 |
| B40a In B40 family | The one who lost his horns. | Nowadays, hornless animals lose their horns or are deprived of the opportunity to grow them. See motif B40. | 52 | 65 |
| B112 | The one who returned the stolen goods decorated. | The character is called upon to help perform a task (usually to transport property or provisions across a river) and takes away what has been entrusted to him. A woodpecker or titmouse returns the stolen goods. The owner of the property paints or dresses the bird, hence the colour of its plumage | 11 | 5 |
| H1d In H1 family | The one who returned to the people was rejected. | The deceased returns, but people send him back, dissatisfied with his appearance, refusing to accept him or burying him again. From then on, death is final. | 21 | 23 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.