Folklore Database · Browse
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K27yy In K27 family | Approach a dangerous tree. | The hero is sent to a tree that is supposed to fall on him. | 11 | 9 |
| E25 | Arachne (spider weaver). | People learn the art of weaving from a spider or from a person who later becomes a spider; the spider makes fabrics for humans. | 28 | 29 |
| K60a In K60 family | Are the bonds strong? | Unaware of the danger, the character allows himself to be tightly bound. | 65 | 77 |
| B64d In B64 family | Arrow bones. | Certain bones in the bodies of living creatures (usually birds and fish) are arrows shot into them. | 22 | 27 |
| B48c In B48 family | Artefacts in the pike's head. | In the head of the pike there are (visible) tools used by people. | 18 | 14 |
| F5b In F5 family | Artificial bride. | The character (listed in square brackets in the list of ethnic groups) offers another woman. Not having one or not wanting to give her away, he makes a bride out of wood, snow, etc., turns an animal into a girl, sends a servant instead of his daughter, turns himself into a woman, or confesses to the lie when the trouble is over. See motif E8. | 26 | 40 |
| K179 | As much gold as the bride weighs. | For an object (usually a girl), as much (or more) gold (silver) is given or promised as it weighs, or a pile of valuables as tall as the person being bought. | 18 | 25 |
| L85b1 In L85 family | Ascending to heaven, he regains his physical wholeness. | After ascending to the sky (meeting God, returning from the sky to earth), a physically disabled young man (usually with only half a body) becomes whole. | 16 | 20 |
| M91b In M91 family | Ash sold, (ATU 1535) | A person manages to fraudulently sell or exchange ash for gold and money. Others are unsuccessfully offering ash for sale. | 60 | 76 |
| I66 | Ashes on the Milky Way. | The Milky Way is ash or smouldering embers. | 20 | 30 |
| K56a4d In K56 family | Ashes turn into flour. | A stepmother sends her stepdaughter to a house in the forest, giving her ashes, sand, etc. instead of food. The stepdaughter turns them into flour, groats, etc. | 5 | 9 |
| L6a In L6 family | Asks to be carried. | An unremarkable, weak-looking character asks a person to carry him or her on their back, and then refuses to get off. | 27 | 28 |
| K56a2 In K56 family | Asks to do worse. | A character (usually a girl) comes to another (usually an old woman). The latter asks the visitor to perform absurd and harmful actions (to mess up the house, bring dirty water, etc.). The visitor does the opposite of what is asked (cleans the house, brings clean water) and is rewarded. The other character does everything literally and is punished. | 34 | 31 |
| J11 | Asks to pick flowers. | The son in his mother's womb asks her to pick flowers or fruit for him (usually when a woman picks flowers, she is bitten by an insect). See motif J9. | 19 | 18 |
| F9f In F9 family | Asmodeus. | Without the woman's knowledge, the demon regularly kills her suitors on their wedding night. | 38 | 44 |
| I8i In I8 family | At first, the earth swayed. | Initially, the earth rocks, unstable, and must be specially secured. | 45 | 62 |
| J32a In J32 family | At night by his father's grave, ATU 530. | When dying, a person orders that someone spend the night at his grave or bring something to the grave. | 61 | 89 |
| D12a In D12 family | At sunrise, the sun's heat is sufficient to cook food. | People living in the east or west prepare food using the heat of the passing sun. | 4 | 6 |
| K18d In K18 family | At the pike's command, ATU 675. | A young man releases or saves a fish (frog, snake, supernatural creature), it grants his wishes, and he marries a princess. {References to ATU are not entirely reliable. In particular, Uther 2004 includes a Corsican variant (Massignon 1984, No. 66), in which the main part of the plot is missing. References to Balkan variants probably correspond to the definition of the plot, since it does exist among the Bulgarians}. | 55 | 47 |
| I8g In I8 family | Atlas, A842. | A single giant holds up the earth or the sky. | 78 | 108 |
| L112 | Attaining physical completeness. | A physically defective boy is born (tiny, with one head, half a body, etc.). After a series of adventures, he gains physical completeness. | 20 | 27 |
| B3c In B3 family | Attempt to drown God. | When the creator, having created the land, lies down to rest, the antagonist tries to drown him, dragging him to the edge of the earth. As a result, the earth expands, and the antagonist is unable to reach its edge. | 15 | 17 |
| J50 | Attempt to resurrect the dead. | The father or mother of twin heroes dies or is killed. An attempt to revive the deceased fails. | 36 | 40 |
| B68b In B68 family | Attempted to frighten God. | A character who, by his appearance, behaviour or unexpected appearance, tried to frighten God (people) and was turned into an animal (with a different appearance than before) for this. | 35 | 50 |
| J40A In J40 family | Avenged captives. | Returning after a long absence, the hero finds his parents or other close relatives in humiliating slavery, orders them to demonstratively show disobedience, and punishes those who humiliated them. | 22 | 12 |
| J40b In J40 family | Avenged prisoners | After the hero comes back after a long absence and finds his parents enslaved, he tells them to demonstrate openly a lack of respect to their masters and punishes those who were cruel with them | 0 | 0 |
| J1 | Avenging heroes (all variants). | The characters avenge the death of their father, mother or other relatives who are older than them by a generation (less often by two generations). | 1 | 3 |
| j1c In j1 family | Avenging heroes - with a missing or distorted final part of the plot (revenge is not described). | Avenging heroes - with a missing or distorted final part of the plot (revenge is not described). | 13 | 15 |
| M78e In M78 family | Baby ear | A tiny boy comes from an animal's ear, compared in size to an ear, his name is “ear”. | 5 | 9 |
| L47 | Backwards – the slain enemy. | The hero's enemy approaches him upside down or backwards, giving the hero the opportunity to kill him or escape. See motif L46. | 21 | 18 |
| H24a In H24 family | Bag of stars. | Opening the bag, the character releases stars that rush chaotically into the sky. | 8 | 12 |
| M43 | Bait figure | To kill or catch a monster, he sees a figure made of wood or clay or a living person. Most often, a monster's claws or sharp leg get stuck when they pierce a tree. | 31 | 39 |
| J43 | Bait for enemies. | To destroy his antagonists, the hero creates edible bait for them, usually a fruit tree on the other side of the river. | 2 | 4 |
| M19 | Bait man. | The character ties another person (usually a child) to the end of a line, using them as bait or forcing them to catch fish with their hands. | 16 | 20 |
| K27o In K27 family | Ball game. | The confrontation between heroes and antagonists unfolds in the form of a ball game. | 47 | 51 |
| K27o1 In K27 family | Ball – human head. | Severed human heads are compared to balls. Either a character plays with a severed human head or skull as a ball. | 25 | 36 |
| M179 | Bark and ice huts, ATU 43. | Two zoomorphic characters live nearby, one's house is destroyed, he asks the other to shelter him. Usually he breaks in and drives out the owner, strong animals fear the invader, while weak or small ones drive him away. | 16 | 32 |
| M39a6e In M39 family | Basket Maker, ATU 888A* | A person learns a craft (weaving, painting) in order to earn a living for the family. His wife is kidnapped (separated if he is with him). The wife finds out that her husband is there when she sees baskets or other items he has made. | 7 | 7 |
| H34f In H34 family | Baskets carried heavy loads themselves. | Baskets or clay vessels carried heavy loads themselves. | 11 | 11 |
| L119 | Battle in the air. | The hero and antagonist fight in the air, tearing off each other's limbs. Usually, their allies on the ground try to preserve the limbs of their leader and destroy those of their enemy. | 4 | 8 |
| K10 | Battle with a bird. | A monstrous bird (bat) attacks people, heroes engage in battle with it. See motifs K10A – K10G. | 142 | 222 |
| K10a In K10 family | Battle with a bird: hiding. | Heroes kill a dangerous bird; during or before the battle, they hide in a shelter (hut, cage, vessel, sack, well) or cover themselves with an object that protects the body. | 17 | 26 |
| K23 | Battle with birds. | Birds attack inhabitants of another world or a person who has entered another world. See motif K22. | 46 | 19 |
| M57d In M57 family | Bay, baton, ATU 563, 564 | A person consistently receives magical items that bring wealth. Others replace them or take them away. A person returns what has been taken - usually by receiving another wonderful object (baton, whip) that hits the kidnappers. | 120 | 202 |
| M57a In M57 family | Beads are like body secretions | Instead of the usual secretions from the human body, beads, flowers, gold and other valuables pour in. | 143 | 284 |
| K66d In K66 family | Bear fosterling. | A boy who grew up (was conceived) in a bear's den (lion's cave) becomes a bogatyr. | 57 | 66 |
| B109a In B109 family | Bear from the sky. | Originally, the (human) bear lived in the sky, then descended to earth (and became a bear). | 3 | 7 |
| B42c In B42 family | Bear hunting. | In the cosmic hunting plot, the object of pursuit is a bear. See motifs B42 and B42P. | 30 | 2 |
| K67h In K67 family | Bear in the barn | When a worker is sent to a place where he is to be torn apart by a predator, he tames it and lets it into the barn (stable) at home. As a result, the predator destroys the owner's livestock. | 12 | 14 |
| K66c In K66 family | Bear marriage. | A bear (lion) takes a woman away, or a she-bear takes a man away. They have children who are either human or bear-like in appearance. Less commonly, a woman gives birth to a son in a den because she was pregnant at the time of her abduction by the bear. | 82 | 115 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.