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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M74ab In M74 family | The fox is in the boat | Travelling in a boat or on a sledge, animal person (always the fox) steals food supplies or ruins objects and accordingly to his deeds, names different places. These names seem strange to the person’s companions (“River of broken arrows” and the like) | 17 | 23 |
| M75b2 In M75 family | Predetermined marriage: a bird tries to prevent | bird tries in vain to prevent the marriage, which she learned was inevitable when the future spouses were still children. | 17 | 16 |
| M78d In M78 family | Pea child | A tiny boy (rarely a girl) comes from a pea (bean, seed) or from a spool of goat droppings, he is almost as tall as a pea. Or he was born after his mother ate a pea. | 17 | 25 |
| M94b In M94 family | The wolf under the mill wheel | The character is lured to look under the mill wheel, he dies or is maimed. | 17 | 32 |
| N10a In N10 family | Transparent bones | A woman or (rarely) a man with a transparent body is described - bones are visible through the skin, bone marrow is visible through the bones. This transparency is a sign of beauty. | 17 | 45 |
| N27c In N27 family | The bird does not have milk | It is claimed that the bird has no milk and/or breasts | 17 | 29 |
| N7 | Three apples | fairy-tale text ends with a formula that says that three apples fell from the sky or tree, at least one of which went to the narrator. Or it is said that someone give/should give the narrator one or three apples. | 17 | 59 |
| A12H In A12 family | Woman covers the sun. | Eclipses of the sun or moon are caused by a woman's attack. | 18 | 31 |
| A29 | The sun and the demon compete for the hero. | A character associated with the upper world and a character associated with the earth or the lower world each strive to possess a human being and pull him towards themselves. One or both rivals are women. The character of the upper world and/or the one for whom the struggle is being waged is associated with the luminaries – the sun, the moon, Venus. | 18 | 34 |
| B116b In B116 family | The wet book. | A book containing sacred knowledge falls into the water at a crossing or gets wet in some other way. After that, the book disappears or the text becomes unreadable. Either the book is ruined (damaged) when it is dried. Or it is ruined while left unattended on the shore while the people who kept it are swimming; or it burns, although traces remain. | 18 | 20 |
| B2c In B2 family | The earth as an anthropomorphic body. | The earth as a whole, elements of the landscape or fertile soil arise from the human body and (or) the earth (islands) are born of a woman. | 18 | 24 |
| B3d In B3 family | Worm excrement. | The earth is obtained by a worm; it arises from worm excrement, extracted from the worm. | 18 | 40 |
| B42mn In B42 family | A hunter chases the Big Dipper. | Only one character (rather than several) chases an animal (elk or bear) across the sky, associated with one of the circumpolar constellations, but not with the Pleiades or Orion. (In the Kalevala tradition, there is no identification with stars). | 18 | 42 |
| 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 |
| B52a In B52 family | The vulture creates dry land. | Flying over the world, a bird (usually a vulture) dries the earth after a flood with its wings or otherwise gives it its present appearance. | 18 | 17 |
| B74 | Red-eyed capercaillie. | The eyes of the capercaillie or black grouse turned red from tears. | 18 | 31 |
| 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 |
| C35 | The cosmic marriage will not take place. | It becomes known that if characters representing natural phenomena and parts of the universe marry, it will lead to disaster. The marriage is broken off. | 18 | 32 |
| D11 | Food was heated on the body. | Before fire was known, food was prepared by warming it with the body (usually under the armpit); fire is kept under the character's armpit. | 18 | 32 |
| D13d In D13 family | Making the hidden one laugh. | One character tries to make another character, who is hiding somewhere in the house, laugh in order to find them. | 18 | 22 |
| E9f In E9 family | The magical wife – the parrot. | Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife, helper) has the image of a parrot. | 18 | 50 |
| F14A In F14 family | Birth from stone. | An anthropomorphic character emerges from stone. | 18 | 40 |
| F28 | Monstrous penis. | There is a separate penis character with whom the first women, Amazons, or simply some woman copulate. | 18 | 25 |
| F30a In F30 family | Child-worm. | A woman nurses a worm (caterpillar, reptile, fish) instead of a child; people kill the monster. | 18 | 27 |
| F34a In F34 family | The common husband of the first women. | All women of the community of the first ancestors or all Amazons have a common lover of non-human nature or simultaneously mate with animals of a certain species, summoning them with a conventional signal. | 18 | 33 |
| F92 | A pair of pederasts. | A male character allows himself to be used as a sexual object. | 18 | 23 |
| I116 | The Milky Way – the boundary between seasons. | The Milky Way separates the seasons of the year or worlds (dry from wet, sky from earth, etc.). | 18 | 19 |
| I32a In I32 family | The tree of destiny. | When a leaf or fruit from a certain tree falls, one of the people on earth dies. | 18 | 17 |
| I41a In I41 family | Rainbow from an anthill. | A rainbow rises from an anthill or termite mound. | 18 | 16 |
| I46b In I46 family | The rainbow predicts the harvest. | The colour of the rainbow can be used to predict the harvest of individual crops. | 18 | 29 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| I86 | Down in birds, scales in fish. | The inhabitants of the upper world produce down, wool, and scales, which turn into birds, animals, and fish. | 18 | 16 |
| I9a In I9 family | Zenith and nadir. | Zenith and/or nadir are considered together with the four cardinal directions as one (or two) more main directions. | 18 | 21 |
| J12j In J12 family | The false suitor turns out to be a jester. | A girl or sisters end up with a false groom who plays the role of a jester in the chief's house. See motif J12. | 18 | 1 |
| J15a In J15 family | Woman among the Jaguars. | Setting off on a journey (usually in search of a fiancé, husband, or relatives), a woman finds herself in the lair or settlement of large dangerous predators - pumas or jaguars. See motif J15. | 18 | 16 |
| J32e In J32 family | Stolen Foals. | Every time a mare foals, the foal is stolen. The hero finds out who is doing this. | 18 | 20 |
| J53a In J53 family | Inviting to play, kills. | A character invites another to play. The latter follows the rules, but the initiator of the game does not and kills the other. | 18 | 27 |
| J54a In J54 family | The Calf and the Tiger Cub, ATU 131. | Two women, both or one of whom are animal characters, live together and have children. One of them kills and eats the other or is about to do so. The son of the murderer kills his mother for this, remains the sworn brother of the son of the murdered woman, or the children of the murderer and the victim run away together. Cf. motif J54B. | 18 | 24 |
| K102a1 In K102 family | Imaginary grave. | To hide the truth, a person buries an animal or an inanimate object and says that the grave supposedly contains the remains of another person's wife (bride, mother, daughter, sister, children). | 18 | 19 |
| K141 | Tamed mischievous sisters. | Supernatural women harm people. The hero tames them and usually takes them as wives. | 18 | 23 |
| K150 | The horse eats coals. | A magical horse (rarely: dog) eats (hot) coals, nails, etc., or attempts are made to feed these to the horse. | 18 | 30 |
| 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 |
| K19c In K19 family | Mistress in a handbag. | A man brings home a small creature with which he makes love at night. The man's mother, sister or wife finds the creature in his bed or purse. | 18 | 35 |
| K27g5 In K27 family | Wooden axe. | A person tries or must try to chop or dig with a wooden (lead, felt) tool instead of a steel one. Cf. motif L84. | 18 | 29 |
| K33a4 In K33 family | Heroine transformed into a forest animal (ATU 409). | A woman, transformed into a medium-sized forest animal (lynx, wolf, vixen) by the machinations of a rival, tries to establish contact with her children or husband. | 18 | 25 |
| k56a8d In k56 family | Eaten by a boa constrictor. | A girl agrees to become the wife of a snake, which turns into a handsome man. Another girl (or her mother or father) brings the snake to her or offers it to become her husband, but it does not turn into a man and kills her. | 18 | 27 |
| K65c1 In K65 family | Division into servants and masters, (ATU 758). | A woman gives birth to many children, but hides some of them from God. Those who are hidden become the progenitors of people of low social status, and those who are shown become the progenitors of people of high status. {The definition of plot 758 in Uther 2004 largely coincides with ours, but the references also include traditions in which children hidden from God become spirits rather than people of low status}. | 18 | 20 |
| K95a In K95 family | Burdock among rose bushes. | The lovers are buried in the same grave or nearby. Two plants grow in this place, reaching towards each other, and between them is a thorny bush, embodying the character who separated the lovers. | 18 | 19 |
| L102 | Escape from an animal husband. | A girl or woman (for various reasons, jokingly or seriously) calls an animal or animal remains her husband, or steps on bones and addresses them. The animal (comes to life and) carries her away. Her human husband, parents or brother come for her, and they flee; usually the animal husband pursues them, but stops the chase or dies. | 18 | 22 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.