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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M157d In M157 family | Grandfather and the Turnip, ATU 2044. | Animals (mainly domestic) and/or people join forces to achieve a goal (usually to pull a root vegetable out of the ground). They succeed after the last participant (usually the weakest) joins in. | 16 | 11 |
| M163a In M163 family | What do cats eat? | A man sells a cat (rooster) to people who do not know about cats (or chickens). Having received a cat or rooster, people do not know what to feed them and fear that they will eat people. | 16 | 17 |
| M171b In M171 family | A shoulder blade without meat. | The character pretends to have brought meat on a shoulder blade and gives it to the hosts to cook. Taking a bare bone without meat out of the pot, he accuses the hosts of stealing the meat. | 16 | 20 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| M192 | Dried carcass, ATU 68. | A scavenger who has climbed into an animal carcass or put on a fresh animal skin cannot get out of it (usually because the skin has dried out in the heat). He gets out when the skin becomes soft again or someone helps him. | 16 | 19 |
| M197c In M197 family | Remedy against fleas, ATU 1862A. | A man sells sand, dust, etc. as a remedy against fleas, mice, etc. He explains that you need to catch a flea and pour sand into its eyes. The buyer replies that you can crush a caught flea. The seller: that's even easier. | 16 | 12 |
| M199a In M199 family | Squeezing brains out of the ground. | A man buried something soft and liquid in the ground, and when he stamped on it (shot an arrow into it) and the buried object splashed onto the surface, he said that he had squeezed the brain (innards) out of the earth. | 16 | 28 |
| M26 | Ducks carry the catcher (grabbed by the legs) | The character dives under waterfowl and ties a rope to their legs to catch them. Birds soar into the air, lifting the catcher with them. It later falls. | 16 | 18 |
| M26a In M26 family | Ducks carry the catcher (strung on a rope), ATU 1881 | The character catches birds by feeding them bait tied to a rope, which they swallow one by one, or by shooting several birds with one bullet, or by soldering birds drunk and tying up. Birds usually take off and carry away a catcher holding a rope. | 16 | 7 |
| M38b2 In M38 family | Three daughters-in-law at the king's feast | Each of the three brothers comes to his father with his wife (fiancée). The younger brother or his fiancée is considered worthless, but the girl turns out to be a sorceress and surpasses the brides of her older brothers in everything. | 16 | 23 |
| M38e In M38 family | Mushroom and oak, ATU 293B* | mushroom (pumpkin) thinks that it is as durable as a tree. | 16 | 8 |
| M45c In M45 family | Plant boiled tubers | The character advises the other person to plant or sow boiled or roasted seeds or tubers, who follows the advice. | 16 | 13 |
| M56a In M56 family | The crocodile's secret | A weak character hits a crocodile, but the crocodile is safe. He says he would be killed if the attack hit a specific location. Next time, the same character hits this place and kills a crocodile. | 16 | 14 |
| M58 | A trail or bush saves you from the heat | The earth is burning, the fire is chasing the character. A number of elements and objects refuse to cover him, saying they will burn or heat up; the last in the row shelters him. The earth cools down, the character leaves the shelter. | 16 | 25 |
| M60a1 In M60 family | The shepherd explains how to cross | The hero meets a servant (usually a shepherd) and takes his form, after asking how he acts, how he talks to the hostess (usually finds out what to say in order transport the herd across the river). | 16 | 19 |
| M91E In M91 family | The Tsar orders himself to be burned | The ruler, the leader, believes that a man who escaped death by cunning returned from the world where he received benefits. It tells you to burn, drown, etc. yourself or your close associates. | 16 | 11 |
| M97a2 In M97 family | The blind man asks the trees to get to the water. | 16 | 21 | |
| N27a In N27 family | There is even bird milk | It is said that somewhere there is (or was) even bird’s milk | 16 | 13 |
| A36a In A36 family | Sun and immortality. | The sun is contrasted with humans as immortal to mortals; responsible for the mortal nature of humans. | 17 | 24 |
| A38d In A38 family | The sun damages the cloak. | Because the Sun has harmed the character (ruined or burned his cloak, the fur on his skin, etc.), he catches it in a trap or kills it. | 17 | 15 |
| A43 | One foot is shod, the other is not. | The character runs away in a hurry and undergoes a metamorphosis, turning into a bird or rising into the sky. He is missing one trouser leg, or a shoe on one foot, or one mitten. | 17 | 30 |
| A47 | The sun is born from an egg. | The sun is born or emerges from an egg. | 17 | 23 |
| B102a In B102 family | Clouds – cows. | Clouds are associated with horned cattle, especially cows (and rain is their milk). | 17 | 21 |
| B116a In B116 family | Knowledge is stored in the stomach. | A person or animal eats a sacred book or its remains. During the ritual, this knowledge is actualised in oral speech, in the sounds of a musical instrument made from part of an animal's body, or in parts of an animal's body used for divination. | 17 | 23 |
| B116d In B116 family | The "book" as part of the stomach. | Part of the stomach of ruminants is called a "book". | 17 | 22 |
| 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 |
| B86A In B86 family | Reaching for the moon in the sky. | People try to climb up to the sky to get the moon. (In brackets are traditions in which the goal of building a tower to the sky is the moon, but the task of getting it is not mentioned). | 17 | 19 |
| D13f In D13 family | Laughter and fire. | Laughter causes the appearance or spread of fire or the sun. Usually, the owner of fire or the sun loses it after bursting into laughter. | 17 | 41 |
| D13i In D13 family | Broken tooth. | The character amuses the audience in order to identify the deceiver and thief by his broken tooth. The latter laughs and gives himself away. | 17 | 27 |
| 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 |
| E20 | The origin of fish poison. | When a certain person enters the water, the fish die. A plant grows from parts of his body or on his grave, from which fish poison (timbó) is made. | 17 | 27 |
| E29 | The lizard makes hands for humans, A1311.1. | Two characters (usually a coyote and a lizard) argue about whether human hands should be shaped like paws or end in fingers. | 17 | 24 |
| F28d In F28 family | Children are born from a wooden penis. | By masturbating with an artificial penis, a woman conceives children. | 17 | 18 |
| F3a In F3 family | Pregnant man. | A man carries a child like a woman. | 17 | 17 |
| F70e2 In F70 family | Father tests his daughters or sons. | The father sends his daughters or sons on a difficult task one by one. At the very beginning of the journey, their courage is put to the test. Only the youngest son or daughter passes the test. Usually, the father stands in their way, taking the form of an enemy or a predator, but only the youngest son or daughter bravely enters the fight. | 17 | 20 |
| F86a In F86 family | The pet is eaten. | The character cares for a fish, crab or other creature. Others watch the character, kill and eat his pet, or try to do so. | 17 | 18 |
| F96 | Becoming handsome. | A girl or wife rejects an unattractive man. He becomes handsome (usually after encountering a supernatural being), and those who treated him badly are punished. | 17 | 27 |
| F9a1 In F9 family | The pike's mouth, ATU 1686A*. | A girl or young woman says (pretends) that she has a predatory mouth in her vagina. {Unlike variants characteristic of the circum-Pacific region, the corresponding texts do not suggest that the female womb is actually dangerous}. | 17 | 19 |
| F9b In F9 family | Piranha in the vagina. | A biting piranha in a woman's genitals. | 17 | 27 |
| H34d1 In H34 family | Edible sky. | The sky or celestial objects were edible, but then this source of food became inaccessible or is now only used by inhabitants of a country beyond the human world. | 17 | 20 |
| H49b In H49 family | The debtor gives his dog as collateral, Th B221.2.2; ATU 178B. | A man gives his dog to another man. The dog is of great use to him (it finds stolen goods and drives away thieves). The man who received the dog sends it back with a letter of thanks. The owner thinks that the dog has run away, kills it, and only then finds the letter. | 17 | 18 |
| I10a In I10 family | Coloured layers of the sky. | Individual layers or categories of the sky or clouds differ in colour. | 17 | 19 |
| I125 | Hyades – animal jaw. | Hyades (sometimes, possibly, Pleiades or Orion) – jaw or severed head of a large animal or anthropomorphic creature. | 17 | 29 |
| I71 | Stars – roots. | Stars – roots of plants growing in the upper world. | 17 | 23 |
| I73 | Stars – sparks. | Stars (rarely suns and moons) – sparks, hot coals. | 17 | 21 |
| I87ac In I87 family | A bone in the eye. | Something huge gets into a person's eye, which he mistakes for a speck of dust. Usually, a bird carries away an animal or fish and drops a bone into the man's eye. It is difficult to find and remove (to do this, they get into a boat and float it inside the eye, throw a net into the eye, pull it out with oxen, etc.). | 17 | 29 |
| I91 | A body of water at the foot of a tree. | At the foot or around the base of a tree connecting the tiers of the universe or of gigantic size and considered the main tree of the world, there is a spring or water body, the water of which usually has unusual properties. | 17 | 18 |
| J14 | The flute player. | To find the man of her dreams, a woman follows the sounds of music or singing; she usually distinguishes imposters by listening to their clumsy performance. See motif J12. | 17 | 7 |
| J22e In J22 family | Man from the afterbirth, T541.12. | The second character emerges from the afterbirth of the first. | 17 | 15 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.