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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B44a In B44 family | Units of time. | Characters argue about the number of discrete units of time that determine the duration of a certain period of time (most often winter or night). See motif B44. | 57 | 14 |
| B5b In B5 family | Universal mother. | A woman (alone or with her companion) creates or gives birth not only to humans, but also to various creatures, objects, and parts of the universe. | 39 | 52 |
| M197e In M197 family | Unknown beast, ATU 1091. | A man smears himself with resin, rolls around in feathers, crawls backwards on all fours, lets his hair down, etc. The demon thinks he is facing an unknown beast. The man escapes. | 36 | 38 |
| B83 | Unliftable weight. | A character attempts to lift a small object or creature, which turns out to be gigantic and unliftable. Cf. motif I87ab. | 18 | 17 |
| M91c5 In M91 family | Unprofitable sale, ATU 1551 | The person himself or his little son goes to the bazaar to sell a cow (or another large pet). The crook convinces him that it is a sheep (or another animal that is smaller and cheaper). Each of the crook's friends confirms the score or gives an even lower grade. A man at a loss sells a cow for the price of a sheep. | 46 | 30 |
| B28d In B28 family | Unrecognised transformer. | Not understanding who they are dealing with, the characters respond to the wandering Transformer that they are preparing weapons to kill so-and-so or a hiding place to escape from so-and-so. The Transformer kills them himself or turns them into animals. | 21 | 32 |
| B38 | Unsuccessful colouring. | The character decorates birds or animals, or they decorate each other. Some are dissatisfied with the result. | 81 | 121 |
| M123c In M123 family | Unsuccessful flight south. | A non-migratory bird sets off south with migratory birds, but is unable to reach its destination. | 23 | 27 |
| H36h In H36 family | Unsuccessful jump (frog and death). | Creatures, including a frog or toad, must cross an obstacle. This does not go as planned and results in humans becoming mortal. | 7 | 9 |
| L84 | Unsuitable axes. | The character attempts to chop down a tree with an axe made of obviously unsuitable material. Cf. motif K27g5. | 16 | 17 |
| N29 | Until the boiler boils | time required to perform an action or elapsed since the event described is estimated by comparing it with the time it takes for water to boil and/ or food has been prepared. | 13 | 15 |
| K44b In K44 family | Upon returning, throws food. | The hero or heroine returns after a long absence. Seeing (usually from the roof of the house) his or her parents (mother, husband) languishing in poverty, he or she throws food at them, extinguishes the fire, pushes them, etc. At first, they usually do not understand what is going on. | 13 | 20 |
| I124 | Ursa Major – a boat. | The Big Dipper is considered a boat. | 30 | 23 |
| I128 | Ursa Major – a ladle. | The Big Dipper – a ladle, a scoop. | 25 | 36 |
| B42p In B42 family | Ursa Major – bear. | The Big Dipper is identified with a bear. | 38 | 45 |
| I127 | Ursa Major – bed. | Ursa Major – bed, couch. | 23 | 34 |
| B42q In B42 family | Ursa Major – cart. | Ursa Major – chariot, cart. | 57 | 136 |
| B42f In B42 family | Ursa Major – hoofed animal. | The Big Dipper (as a whole or only the dipper) is identified with a large hoofed animal (elk, deer, mountain sheep). Unless otherwise specified, see motif B42 in the description of cosmic hunting. | 49 | 60 |
| H6c1 In H6 family | Values in exchange for a child. | To obtain the desired object, the character grabs the young or the female bird (snake, crab) and promises to release them if the father (mother, male) bird delivers the desired object. | 34 | 51 |
| B27 | Variants of metamorphosis. | The characters ponder what object or creature they should transform into, and once they have made their choice, they undergo metamorphosis. | 39 | 57 |
| H54 | Veki Vija, F571.1. | In order for a character's eyes to be (wide) open, their eyelids (eyelashes, eyebrows) must be raised, propped up, spread apart (rarely: cut off). | 62 | 160 |
| I82h In I82 family | Venus – Cholpan/Cholbon. | The name of Venus sounds like Cholpan, Cholbon, Tsolmon, etc. (čol- 'to sparkle, to shine' [Vámbéri 1879: 155]). | 50 | 72 |
| I82j In I82 family | Venus – husband of the Moon. | Venus-man or another star is the husband of the Moon-woman. See motif I82a. | 3 | 3 |
| I82g In I82 family | Venus – Shepherd's Star. | Venus or another star (Arcturus, Sirius, etc.) is called the Shepherd's Star (the star of the Shepherd, Sheepherder, Cowherd, Swineherd, etc.). | 21 | 20 |
| I82f In I82 family | Venus – Wolf Star. | (Evening) Venus is associated with a predatory beast, usually a she-wolf. | 13 | 18 |
| I82i In I82 family | Venus – Zahra/Zura. | The name of the object in the night sky (usually Venus) sounds like Zukhra, Zahra, Zura, etc. | 25 | 29 |
| I82b In I82 family | Venus-woman. | The Morning and/or Evening Star – a female character. | 170 | 234 |
| K77a In K77 family | Verlioka, ATU 210. | Various objects and animals (rarely: only animals, but including those that are safe in reality) defeat a strong enemy (usually joining the hero who is going to take revenge on the strong enemy for an insult and hiding in the house where the enemy is supposed to appear), attacking him in turn; he dies or flees. Either someone or the attacked character himself places objects in his dwelling that then harm that character. | 99 | 135 |
| I15a In I15 family | Vertical incision of the mouth. | Due to ignorance or haste, the mouth of anthropomorphic creatures is first cut vertically. | 5 | 5 |
| I15a1 In I15 family | Vertical slit eyes. | The demonic character has vertical slits for eyes. | 2 | 2 |
| E18 | Vessels and snakes. | People learn to make or decorate ceramics or baskets (usually learning to apply patterns) thanks to a water creature. | 17 | 26 |
| I85c In I85 family | Vessels with weather. | The character goes up to the sky and finds vessels containing various (two or more) types of precipitation, weather phenomena, seasons and/or celestial bodies. | 18 | 20 |
| H3A In H3 family | Violated sexual taboo. | People die (fall ill) and cannot come back to life because a taboo related to sexual contact or pregnancy was once violated. {The motif may be composite, including historically unrelated variants}. | 52 | 62 |
| M81a In M81 family | Vivid female ducks | The hero meets two blind women and makes them sighted. These women are birds (geese, ducks, hazel grouses, partridges). | 13 | 20 |
| L15a In L15 family | Vulnerable spot on the body, | The character's vulnerable spot is located on the surface of the body, but not in vital internal organs. | 115 | 163 |
| M75d In M75 family | Vulture knife | A man bereaves vultures of their hunting weapons or amulets | 10 | 11 |
| D9 | Vultures and fire. | The raven or other large dark-coloured bird of prey is the owner, embodiment, spouse, provider or thief of fire, the sun or daylight. | 66 | 130 |
| L12 | Vultures and incomplete bodies. | Vultures lift into the sky a creature that has lost some of its limbs or has only one head left. | 6 | 11 |
| M7 | Waiting for transport | The character goes to the lower world, to the sky, to the country on the horizon, etc. and waits for someone to give him a ride to his goal. Usually, some animals/birds or celestial bodies follow by, and the last (often the Sun or Month) delivers. | 27 | 46 |
| B6 | Walking towards each other, they get married. | The first or only remaining man and woman move towards each other, going around a mountain, a pole or otherwise following a circle from opposite sides, and when they meet, they get married. | 17 | 24 |
| K1h In K1 family | Walled up in a hollow. | The character finds himself inside a tree trunk or inside a rock; someone frees him by making a hole from the outside. | 36 | 58 |
| K62 | War of animals, Th B260-B263. | Animals, birds, etc. fight or play with each other, divided into two hostile camps. The stakes are high, often life itself. {Data incomplete}. ATU 222. B261, war between birds and animals. ATU 222A. B261.1, the bat joins first one side, then the other. K2323.1, the raised tail of a fox serves as a signal. | 55 | 69 |
| C9 | Warning of the flood. | God, an animal, or a certain character warns one of the people about an impending catastrophe (usually a flood) in which most people will perish. | 62 | 112 |
| L108g In L108 family | Wash away the black. | The character is black and must sit in water until he turns white. The antagonist carries him away. | 3 | 5 |
| K56a4c In K56 family | Wash black until white. | A person is tasked with washing something black until it is white or something white until it is black (yarn, clothing, a board, etc.). | 16 | 17 |
| K56a2b In K56 family | Wash lizards and beetles. | A supernatural character asks a girl to redeem (feed) his (her) children. These are snakes, beetles or wild animals. The girl does everything she is asked and is rewarded. | 14 | 20 |
| K56a2a In K56 family | Washing in red water. | A girl becomes beautiful or ugly after washing herself with water of a certain colour. | 15 | 14 |
| J10 | Wasp sting. | A woman loses her way after being stung by a wasp (or bee, ant, snake). She slaps her stomach (either to kill the insect or to punish her unborn sons, because of whom she went to pick a flower and was stung; see motif J11). The offended sons fall silent, ceasing to show the way. See motif J9. | 14 | 17 |
| I54 | Water creature filled with fish. | Inside a snake or other aquatic creature are aquatic animals or live fish; an aquatic monster gives birth to fish, is the master of fish; turns into many fish. | 18 | 31 |
| J27b In J27 family | Water Father. | An infant is thrown into a lake or river and occasionally comes ashore. In addition to his earthly parents, he has a father (and mother) in the underwater world. He does not want to part with them, nor do they want to let him go. | 16 | 14 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.