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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K27p2 In K27 family | The enemy father-in-law takes the form of a bear. | Demanding that the hero kill the bear, the father-in-law (rarely: mother-in-law) himself takes on the form of a bear or turns his daughter or wife (husband) into a bear (bear). | 14 | 15 |
| K27x4 In K27 family | Not spilling water, climbing a tree. | The character is told to climb a tree (pole, mountain, etc.) while holding a full open vessel in his hand and not spilling a drop from it. | 14 | 17 |
| K27zz3 In K27 family | The pit by the apple tree. | The father or stepmother (werewolf) pushes/locks the sisters (the girl and her servants) into a pit. The heroine manages to escape and triumphs over her antagonists. | 14 | 17 |
| K33c1 In K33 family | Transformation into a lotus. | A character thrown into the water is transformed into a flower (usually a lotus). | 14 | 17 |
| K38b3a In K38 family | The hero feeds the chicks. | A mighty bird helps a man for feeding its chicks. | 14 | 15 |
| K47d In K47 family | The dog fulfils the condition of marriage. | A girl gives herself to a dog because it fulfils the condition of marriage set by her or her father for her future husband. See motif K47A. | 14 | 7 |
| K51b In K51 family | Smiles on the faces of the dead. | The bodies of the slain are left in such a position that it seems as if they are rejoicing – smiling, laughing, dancing. | 14 | 24 |
| 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 |
| K56a4e In K56 family | The stepmother's daughter burned to death. | After meeting a supernatural character, a kind person receives valuables, while a greedy person burns to death upon returning home. | 14 | 17 |
| K56a5c In K56 family | Conversation with the months. | A man who kindly answers the questions of characters representing the weather in certain months of the year is rewarded. Another man scolds them and is punished. | 14 | 16 |
| K58 | Canal builder. | To win the hand of his beloved, the character builds a canal or aqueduct or digs a well. Usually, the woman does not end up marrying the person who completed the work, and either she herself or the suitor perishes. | 14 | 36 |
| K58a In K58 family | Water in exchange for love. | The character brings water for irrigation or a fish river to the place where the girl agrees to meet him, and does not bring water if she refuses. (The parallel between the myths of Peru and Oregon was first noted in Lehmann-Nitsche 1935a; 1936). | 14 | 24 |
| 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 |
| K65e1 In K65 family | Midwife to a toad. | A woman delivers a baby (baptises a child) for a creature that in the human world has the appearance of a toad or frog. | 14 | 15 |
| K67f In K67 family | Slaughter the sheep that looks at you. | A fool or a rogue is instructed to slaughter the sheep (cow, bull) that looks at him, i.e. any one. He slaughters them all, because they all looked at him. | 14 | 15 |
| K89b In K89 family | The brother left on the tree. | At the beginning of the story, the sister parts with her brothers (or one brother), who die, remain on trees, on a hill, ascend to the sky, etc. Usually, after a successful marriage, the sister meets her brothers again, who have acquired superhuman nature. | 14 | 24 |
| K8c2 In K8 family | The swallowed mouse. | The mouse is swallowed by a large land animal and comes out by cutting it open from the inside. | 14 | 20 |
| K90b In K90 family | Deer antlers in the dragon's mouth. | The antlers of a deer or the tusks of an elephant, which a snake or dragon is trying to swallow, get stuck in its mouth. | 14 | 14 |
| K93b4 In K93 family | A woman, a mare, and a dog give birth to boys. | When a woman gives birth to a son, at the same time a mare (dog, and/or other domestic animals) give birth to a boy. These boys grow up together and then set off on a journey. | 14 | 28 |
| K93b5 In K93 family | Disguised as a puppy. | The character infiltrates the enemy camp disguised as a kitten or puppy. Usually, one of the enemies suspects deception, but the others believe that the cute animal is harmless. | 14 | 17 |
| L117 | Imposed companions. | A man is going to get married. An evil spirit, animal, etc. imposes itself on him as a companion (usually helping, feeding, or simply saying that it will then demand half of the wife). After the wedding, it takes or tries to take the bride or demands to share her. In the Gola text, a man obtains a wife for the spirit and demands to share her. | 14 | 16 |
| L130 | One eye for three, ATU 328*. | Two or more characters have only one eye between them. | 14 | 18 |
| L1f In L1 family | Sister avenges her lover. | The sister, using magic or transforming herself into a monster, kills her brothers in revenge for the death of her lover or husband. | 14 | 14 |
| L23e In L23 family | Transformations of the captured man. | A man captures a male character. Trying to free himself, the latter transforms into various substances or animals. | 14 | 15 |
| L33c In L33 family | The boulder crushes the trickster. | The trickster and the boulder agree to race down the slope. The boulder rolls faster and faster and crushes the trickster. See motif L33. | 14 | 7 |
| L9e In L9 family | Copper nose. | The anthropomorphic character has a nose resembling a copper or iron beak. | 14 | 21 |
| M118b In M118 family | The bull-hiding place. | Climbing inside the animal, the character obtains food there without harming the animal. | 14 | 18 |
| M129 | Loss of birthright, K1988. | A parent intends to transfer primogeniture (royalty, other privileges) to a chosen son. Another son or brother comes under the guise of the chosen one and receives primogeniture. | 14 | 16 |
| M134a In M134 family | Three Little Pigs, ATU 124. | A predator/cannibal destroys a flimsy house but cannot destroy a sturdy one. Usually, two or three weak characters build three houses to protect themselves from the predator, only one of which is sturdy. | 14 | 19 |
| M147a In M147 family | Foxes meet at the market. | When the foxes (wolves) meet and one of them (one of the wolves) asks when they will see each other again, the other replies that it will be at the fur market (at the furrier's, etc.). | 14 | 13 |
| M174 | Eats from behind. | The weaker character manipulates the stronger one so that he loses the ability to move, although he is still alive. The weak one begins to eat the strong one from behind, refusing, under one pretext or another, to approach from the front, or refrains from eating while the victim is still alive. | 14 | 18 |
| M205 | Birds set fire to the city. | Soldiers besieging a city or palace capture or obtain as ransom the birds living there. They smear them with an oily liquid or tie objects to them (shells with resin, shavings, tinder, etc.), which are then set on fire. The released birds fly back to the city or palace. Thanks to the fire that has started, the warriors capture it. | 14 | 16 |
| M29j In M29 family | A trickster is a waterfowl or marsh bird | See the motives in square brackets. | 14 | 9 |
| M29z2 In M29 family | Gypsy - a cunning winner | Being smart and witty, the Gipsy overcomes strong adversaries | 14 | 12 |
| 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 |
| M42c In M42 family | When it falls off a cliff, it eats its bone marrow | Falling off a cliff and breaking his leg, the character eats his bone marrow. | 14 | 12 |
| M57d4 In M57 family | Frost donor | A person receives a reward from a character who is associated with frost. | 14 | 15 |
| M70 | The elder poisons the younger ones with intestinal gases | The oldest character poisons the youngest with his intestinal gases. | 14 | 16 |
| M75a In M75 family | Revenge for falling from heaven | The character lures a veteran to avenge his fall from the sky. Either the (potauatomi) shovel drops the character or leaves him on top to avenge being lured and caught. | 14 | 18 |
| M84b1 In M84 family | A trip to the land of fish | A person enters a country from where fish come to people (and comes back). | 14 | 21 |
| M84c In M84 family | Spirit Guest | Sleeping in a deserted place, a person finds himself among spirits. One of them explains that he has a guest, that is the same person. | 14 | 17 |
| M90a2 In M90 family | What did the tree grow from? | It should be guessed that the plant grew from a part of the body of a man or a snake or from dirt scraped off from the body | 14 | 15 |
| N1 | Origins: when Altai was the size of a bump | The fabulous and epic texts start from the beginning, which states that today's huge objects were tiny at the time. | 14 | 39 |
| N2 | Origins: when the goat was a commander | Fabulous and epic texts start from the beginning, which states that animals were performing human social or economic functions at that time. | 14 | 46 |
| N21 | Hero dough | The warrior-hero was made of dough and then became alive (his name is “The Dough”) | 14 | 15 |
| A23d In A23 family | Who is first in the calendar? | Animals argue about which of them should start the cycle of 12 months or years. The mouse wins the primacy. | 15 | 21 |
| A2d In A2 family | Suns of different worlds. | Other suns illuminate other levels of the universe or will shine sequentially in the future. | 15 | 20 |
| A35c In A35 family | Scratches and wounds on the face of the moon. | Moon spots are scratches and wounds on the face of a character. | 15 | 19 |
| B102 | Clouds – smoke. | Clouds are formed from smoke rising from the ground. | 15 | 14 |
| B11a In B11 family | The mammoth – creator of the landscape. | The mammoth, represented as an underground fish-like creature, creates rugged terrain on wet ground and digs river beds. | 15 | 13 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.