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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M147 | The fox runs ahead of the tiger. | A weak animal tells a strong animal that everyone is afraid of him, the weak one, and suggests testing this. He walks in front of the strong animal, everyone runs away, and the strong animal believes that they are running away from the weak one. | 6 | 6 |
| M162b In M162 family | Cranberry juice in the bear's eyes. | The character pretends to rub sour berry juice into his eyes. Another (always a bear) wants the same thing, goes blind, and the character kills him. | 6 | 7 |
| M173 | Pretends to be dead several times. | A zoomorphic character pretends to be dead where a traveller carrying luggage is supposed to pass. The traveller passes by, but the deceiver quietly runs ahead and repeats his trick. The traveller puts his luggage on the ground and returns to pick up the first dead person (for the skin or meat), and the deceiver takes the luggage away. | 6 | 6 |
| M195b In M195 family | Three dolls. | A person sticks a needle (thread, stick) into the ear of two or three dolls (skulls). In different dolls or skulls, the object comes out of different holes (or does not go inside at all, remains inside, etc.). This refers to people who react differently to what they hear (inattentive, talkative, wise). | 6 | 6 |
| m198b6 In m198 family | A fortune teller named Zhaba (Frog). | An authoritative character asks a person to guess what is in his box. The person says that now he, so-and-so, has been caught, or utters an exclamation. This exclamation or name sounds like "toad" or "frog," and the character believes that the person has a special gift. | 6 | 7 |
| M1a In M1 family | The caiman carries the Pleiades brothers. | The caiman transports one of the brothers or a group of brothers, who then turn into the Pleiades. It usually bites off the leg of the youngest. Cf. motif K13B. | 6 | 10 |
| M203a In M203 family | Tell them that I have died. | A supernatural being conveys a message to an unknown recipient via a passer-by, who dies or suffers harm after delivering the message. | 6 | 4 |
| M39a5a2 In M39 family | The screaming judge | My husband found a treasure. He knows his wife will talk about it. In order not to believe her, her husband says, and the wife then repeats, that the judge suffered from the hail that fell at that time (soup spilled from the sky) (lost an eye, ulcers on his face). The judge furiously drives the woman away, the treasure remains with her husband. | 6 | 6 |
| M53a In M53 family | Crows and seals | raven gathers seals or other marine mammals around and deceives them into killing them. | 6 | 6 |
| M62e In M62 family | One field and two employees | A weak character alternately negotiates with two strong ones to cultivate the site. Each of the strong works in due time and does not know about the existence of the other. As a result, a weak character takes the entire crop. | 6 | 7 |
| M84d In M84 family | A sick tree | A person hears trees talking, one of which is (fatally) ill and suffers. | 6 | 7 |
| N12 | Beard cloak | A powerful character makes or tells you to make a cloak or fur coat from human beards and/or mustaches. | 6 | 11 |
| N28e In N28 family | The bridge across the sea | In a list of things that do not exist in the world, a bridge across the sea, ocean or lake is mentioned | 6 | 10 |
| A11c In A11 family | The Sun, the Moon, and the Eyes of the Monster. | The Sun and Moon kill a monster whose eyes shine differently. At first, the Moon takes the brighter eye, but then swaps with the Sun. | 7 | 14 |
| B104b In B104 family | A woman turns into a woodpecker. | A woman refuses to share bread with Jesus, who has come to her, and he turns her into a woodpecker. | 7 | 8 |
| B111 | Bees from the body of an animal. | Bees or wasps fly out of the carcass or body of a large animal (lion, bull) (usually the episode explains the origin of bees). | 7 | 8 |
| B115B In B115 family | The slain person turns into a viburnum. | One brother kills another, or one sister kills another, or a brother kills a sister. A viburnum or other shrub with red berries grows in this place. | 7 | 12 |
| B25 | Pigs fall from trees. | Characters who climb trees or vines and then fall turn into wild pigs or other game animals. | 7 | 16 |
| B28a In B28 family | Nailed to the ground. | A character pinned to the ground by a rod, transported somewhere to the edge of the world and associated with an object that continues to influence people. | 7 | 18 |
| B33e In B33 family | If February were like January. | The last cold month regrets that it did not come earlier or that it is too short. In that case, it would have frozen everyone. | 7 | 6 |
| B42e In B42 family | Hunting the rhea. | In the cosmic hunting plot, the object of pursuit is the rhea (Rhea americana, a large flightless bird). See motif B42. | 7 | 3 |
| B42o In B42 family | The Hunchback Constellation. | A certain constellation is represented by a person who has been struck or wounded in the back. | 7 | 7 |
| B42o1 In B42 family | The Great Bear – the fisher. | The Big Dipper is identified with the fisher (Mustela pennati). | 7 | 5 |
| B47a In B47 family | The cow's split hoof. 33.34. | A cow steps on the Pleiades stars lying on the ground, which were demonic creatures. Some of the stars slipped through her split hoof. | 7 | 11 |
| B61 | The mole's paw. | The mole had to hold up the fallen sky and sun. Since then, its paw (hand) has remained dislocated backwards. | 7 | 10 |
| B75b1 In B75 family | Sounds of the era of creation: the voice of a wife or mother-in-law. | The character pushes his mother-in-law or wife into a hollow, and she turns into the creaking of trees or an echo. | 7 | 9 |
| B75d In B75 family | Sounds of the creation era: the rustling of leaves. | The sound of leaves or grass rustling in the wind has been heard since the time of creation. | 7 | 7 |
| C12a In C12 family | The Flood and the Dog. | The dog warns of an impending global flood or fire and advises what to do. | 7 | 10 |
| C25a In C25 family | Cooking soup on the moon. | In the sky, on the moon, somewhere outside our world, a character (usually an old woman) cooks soup. The fate of the universe depends on his (her) behaviour. | 7 | 7 |
| C2a In C2 family | The Woodpecker's Fire. | Two characters meet a woodpecker and receive an object from it, which causes the ground to catch fire upon contact. The stronger and smarter of the two characters escapes, while the weaker and stupider one is burned or burned to death. | 7 | 12 |
| D13c In D13 family | The trickster makes his brother's wife laugh. | Two companions or brothers live together. The older one has a wife, whom he hides. To discover her, the younger one, left alone in the house, makes her laugh. | 7 | 8 |
| D13hh In D13 family | Those who visit another world should not laugh. | A person visiting another world should not laugh or show surprise when seeing strange things. Those who break this rule will perish or suffer harm. | 7 | 9 |
| D4b In D4 family | Retribution for fire. | Those who stole or asked for fire and/or those who received fire are punished by the deity. | 7 | 15 |
| D4q1 In D4 family | The bat and fire. | The bat participates in obtaining fire. | 7 | 8 |
| D6b In D6 family | The burned one becomes a caiman. | The one who is burned turns into a crocodile/caiman. | 7 | 8 |
| E21 | The victim of aquatic creatures finds revenge. | A child catches fish (with poison), or fish poison is secreted from his body. Fish or water snakes kill him. Death is avenged. | 7 | 10 |
| E41 | The blacksmith kneads iron with his hands. | A skilled blacksmith, as a special gift, can take iron heated in a furnace with his bare hands, knead it like dough, and shape it as desired. Usually, he breaks a certain taboo and loses his gift. (The motif was identified and the material collected by Ruslan Doutalieyev). | 7 | 9 |
| E9b In E9 family | The magical wife – the elephant. | Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife, helper) has the image of an elephant (elephant tusk). | 7 | 8 |
| F28a4 In F28 family | Penises on plants. | The fruits or stems of plants are penises. | 7 | 7 |
| F45a1 In F45 family | Accidental conception by the wind. | A woman, against her will, conceives from the wind. | 7 | 9 |
| F47a In F47 family | Parts of the female body. | Men use each part of the body of a single woman for copulation, or each man takes a part of her body cut into pieces. | 7 | 9 |
| F78 | Toothy anus. | The character has teeth in the anus or a second head in place of the anus. | 7 | 7 |
| G30 | The penis turns into plants. | A long penis is cut into pieces, which turn into many edible plants or different types of trees. Cf. motif B53. | 7 | 7 |
| H12b In H12 family | The dead feed on excrement. | In the afterlife, the dead or demons feed on excrement. | 7 | 11 |
| H1f In H1 family | People learn to bury the dead. | People learn how to treat the dead by observing the behaviour of crows. | 7 | 5 |
| 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 |
| H36j In H36 family | The lark betrays man. | The lark is to blame for the fact that man is mortal. | 7 | 9 |
| H44a In H44 family | Heaven and Earth divide children. | Two characters, one associated with the sky or water, and the other with the earth or the world of spirits and humans, divide the child they have given birth to or the people they have created. Usually, the sky (water, spirit) takes the imperishable part, and the earth (human) takes the perishable part. | 7 | 23 |
| H55a In H55 family | Two under one blanket. | Finding himself in another world, a man sees a husband and wife trying to cover themselves with a single blanket, which is not big enough for them, or they do not have enough room for two on the bed. See motif H55A. | 7 | 9 |
| H7i In H7 family | Old Age, Hunger, Illness. | Old Age, Illness, or Hunger are special characters, but Death is not mentioned. | 7 | 9 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.