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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I35a In I35 family | Thunder – an old woman. | Thunder is produced by an old woman in the sky. | 14 | 18 |
| I5 | Thunder – animal. | Thunder (lightning, rain) has the appearance of a four-legged mammal - a pig, buffalo, camel, anteater, tapir, dog, cat, leopard, monkey, etc. | 48 | 74 |
| I35a2 In I35 family | Thunder – rolling stones, vessels. | Thunder is heard when stones or large vessels are rolled, dragged or overturned in the sky. | 20 | 22 |
| I4F In I4 family | Thunder – two combatants. | The hero and his opponent engage in single combat and are still fighting in the sky. This is thunder. | 2 | 3 |
| I1 | Thunderbirds, A284.2. | Creatures that cause or embody rain and/or thunderstorms are birds or winged anthropomorphic characters. {Traditions in which birds are associated with thunderstorms and rain, but Thunder itself is not a bird, are marked with an asterisk (*). | 183 | 303 |
| M114e In M114 family | Tie to winter or summer. | A girl offers a visitor to tie his horse to winter or summer, which means to a sleigh or a cart. | 20 | 17 |
| M15 | Tied to a tree. | A man ties a girl or young woman to the top of a tree or places her on the treetop as if on a stake. People try to rescue her. | 7 | 10 |
| K57d In K57 family | Tight shoe, cut-off toes. | The prince marries the girl who fits the shoe. The girl cuts off her toes or heel so that the shoe will fit. | 24 | 26 |
| M78 | Tiny boy, ATU 700 | A tiny little man performs a series of tricks, mocks people he meets and opponents. | 101 | 121 |
| K27g In K27 family | To bathe in boiling water. | The character is ordered to bathe in (hot) milk, in boiling water, to jump into the fire; he remains unharmed, while his opponent usually perishes. | 62 | 87 |
| B44c In B44 family | To be warm and light. | The characters argue about whether there should be darkness or light, cold or warmth on earth. See motif B44. | 22 | 23 |
| K27v2 In K27 family | To hit a copper object with an arrow. | The character must hit an object or creature made of copper with an arrow. | 5 | 5 |
| K27v1 In K27 family | To hit a needle with an arrow. | The character must hit the eye of a needle with an arrow (the eye of a needle). | 10 | 16 |
| L15b In L15 family | To kill with a cane. | The character can only be killed with a specific plant, which is not usually used for making weapons. | 22 | 19 |
| L37a In L37 family | To learn the causes of misfortune, Th H1291, ATU 460A. | On the way to a powerful being, a person meets characters who ask him to ask questions on their behalf (usually to find out the cause of their misfortunes). | 113 | 174 |
| K27z7 In K27 family | To learn what the rose of the heart is. | The character promises to fulfil a request if the other person reveals the secret behind someone's strange behaviour. | 23 | 24 |
| M60b2 In M60 family | To make the bear beautiful, ATU 8 | A large predator asks (agrees with the proposal) to make his skin beautiful (variegated). The deceiver burns it (scalds it, burns his eyes, etc.). | 10 | 14 |
| K27f In K27 family | To obtain a woman. | An authoritative character demands that the hero obtain a woman. | 115 | 179 |
| M39g2 In M39 family | To rake nuts with a pitchfork, ATU 1229* | Numskulls try to shovel nuts with a pitchfork. F stranger shows them how to do this work more easily with a shovel (a basket) | 14 | 11 |
| K80a3 In K80 family | To the forest for berries. | Members of the same family (girls, young women or children) go to the forest to pick berries and kill (bewitch) the one who is the object of their envy. | 12 | 43 |
| I132 | To the sky on deer antlers. | A deer props its antlers against the sky, and a person climbs them to reach the upper world. Alternatively, a person finds themselves in the sky when they touch the deer's antlers. | 6 | 12 |
| I29 | To the underworld through an animal's burrow. | A character climbs into an animal's burrow and finds himself in the underworld, or digs a deep hole and finds himself in a world inhabited by burrowing animals. | 33 | 37 |
| D7 | Toad and fire. | The frog or toad possesses the first fire, steals it from its original owner, and tries to extinguish it or save it from dying out. See motif D4. | 41 | 74 |
| L37b1 In L37 family | Toad under a stone. | To cure a sick person or rid a house of other misfortunes, one must kill (catch, expel) a toad, frog or snake hiding in the house (in the garden, under the roots). | 30 | 42 |
| L78 | Toad-jaguar. | In the images, the character has the features of a jaguar and a toad; the toad/frog turns into a jaguar; the toad/frog is the mother or wife of the jaguar. | 21 | 22 |
| K100a In K100 family | Tobiah, (ATU 505). | Setting off on a journey, a young man releases a caught fish or animal, or he or his father does someone a favour. As a reward for their help, a person or creature in the guise of a stranger or animal comes to the young man, becomes his companion and protector. | 62 | 94 |
| K95 | Together and after death, ATU 970. | Two people who love each other (usually a man and a woman) die prematurely and are buried in the same grave or nearby. After or during the burial, something unusual happens that is connected with the story (special plants grow in that place, the smoke from the two funeral pyres joins together, the dead turn into two birds, two stars, etc.). | 77 | 77 |
| L95b In L95 family | Together with the demon against the child. | Having promised to give the child to the demon, the mother or father does not try to save him or her, but arranges for the child to fall into the demon's hands. Against all odds, the son or daughter is saved.[1] Motif L85 "Half-creatures, F525" (the character has only half a body (vertically) or only one leg, which does not prevent him from moving) [AKB]. See also text No. 35.[2] Voracity is a characteristic feature of šǝʔōl in Is 5:14, Hab 2:5, Pr 1:12, Ps 141:7 (see Gaster 1950:189, O’Callahan 1954:169). | 35 | 43 |
| M39a8b In M39 family | Tongueless Robber | Using a stratagem, someone who hides in a tree cuts (bits) off the tongue of a dangerous person and the latter is unable to describe situation to his partners | 12 | 12 |
| M78b In M78 family | Too many kids | Wishing a baby, a childless woman gives birth to many tiny boys. She or her husband kill them or throw them away, but she stays alone and helps their parents. | 13 | 15 |
| L65b4 In L65 family | Tooth-axe. | The character pulls out his tooth to use it as a weapon or tool (often an axe). | 18 | 22 |
| F78 | Toothy anus. | The character has teeth in the anus or a second head in place of the anus. | 7 | 7 |
| F9a In F9 family | Toothy womb. | There are teeth, blades or sharp stones in a woman's vagina or on the inside of her thighs; the vagina is a toothy mouth. (Only texts with a focus on authenticity are taken into account, not anecdotes). | 114 | 204 |
| M158 | Tops and roots, ATU 1030. | A human and an animal (devil) or two animals decide to cultivate a field and divide the harvest so that one gets the above-ground part and the other gets the underground part. One of the characters (always) loses out. | 87 | 139 |
| A7a In A7 family | Torches in the hands of celestial bodies. | The light of the sun (moon, Venus) is a burning torch in the hand of a celestial body. | 22 | 32 |
| K32g In K32 family | Torn apart by horses. | The antagonist is executed by being tied to a horse (camel, bull), which drags him along the ground or tears him to pieces. | 96 | 242 |
| A29a In A29 family | Torn apart by two women. | Heavenly and earthly women (demons) pull a man in different directions. As a result, he (or his half) turns into a heavenly object. | 10 | 7 |
| J19c In J19 family | Torn out tongue. | A demonic character comes to a woman and tears out her tongue. She dies (and comes back to life when her tongue is found and returned). | 4 | 7 |
| M134 | Tower of Wolves, ATU 121. | Animals, demons or people stand on top of each other to reach something. The one at the bottom jumps off (leans, jerks), and everyone falls after him. | 54 | 68 |
| M164 | Traces in one direction, ATU 50A. | The character refuses to enter the predator's lair when he sees that all the tracks lead inside, but not outside. | 35 | 30 |
| L123 | Traces lead in all directions. | In order to confuse the pursuer, the character leaves traces leading in all directions before running away. | 8 | 8 |
| F90 | Tragic incest. | A brother and sister marry. When the children born of this union learn of their origins, the marriage breaks down (the children kill their parents, the father kills or attempts to kill the children, the parents commit suicide, the wife/sister commits suicide after the death of her husband/brother, the wife/sister leaves her husband/brother). | 24 | 33 |
| H1c In H1 family | Trampled grave. | People cease to be reborn (or no longer come to the living) after the deceased is buried in the ground for the first time or someone tramples the earth on a fresh grave, preventing the deceased from rising from the grave. | 36 | 40 |
| N33A In N33 family | Trampled into the ground | The character's opponents trample him into the ground. | 2 | 3 |
| K33c1 In K33 family | Transformation into a lotus. | A character thrown into the water is transformed into a flower (usually a lotus). | 14 | 17 |
| L23b In L23 family | Transformation into a spindle. | Trying to free himself, the captured character sequentially changes his appearance. The last transformation is into a spindle. | 9 | 24 |
| L23a In L23 family | Transformation into flame. | In an attempt to free himself, the captured character sequentially changes his appearance, in particular turning into fire (and water). | 9 | 8 |
| J56a In J56 family | Transformation into frying pans. | Heroic brothers are transformed into pots or frying pans, but only the elder is able to sit in the fire long enough. | 3 | 5 |
| B27b In B27 family | Transformation into stars. | The characters ponder what they should transform into and decide to become a celestial object. | 13 | 23 |
| B27a In B27 family | Transformation into thunder and lightning. | The characters ponder what they should transform into and decide to become thunder and/or lightning. | 10 | 8 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.