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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| L121 | The hunter and his werewolf wife. | An animal or cannibal (man-eater) transforms into a woman and marries a hunter with the sole intention of killing him. Usually, the wife takes on her true form when she goes into the forest with the hunter. | 18 | 37 |
| L29 | Fish from a puddle. | A person catches fish where it should not be, usually in a small forest pond isolated from running water; those who eat this fish die, undergo metamorphosis and/or are attacked by monsters. See motif L28. | 18 | 24 |
| L33b In L33 family | The trickster provokes a stone. | The character challenges someone who, at first glance, is unable to move (a stump, a boulder, fire) to race or roll over it. The challenged party sets off, crushes or burns the character, or runs away with their property. | 18 | 22 |
| L42c In L42 family | Inside the house, outside the house. | The character hides from someone stronger, sometimes inside the house, sometimes outside, and the stronger character cannot catch him. | 18 | 20 |
| L5c In L5 family | Head-chaser, D1641.7, D992, D1602.12, R261.1. | The monster head pursues celestial bodies, people, or attaches itself to someone else's body. See motif L5. | 18 | 21 |
| L65b4 In L65 family | Tooth-axe. | The character pulls out his tooth to use it as a weapon or tool (often an axe). | 18 | 22 |
| L89 | One secretly feeds another. | One person, wishing to harm another, secretly gives him certain food to eat or a certain object to use. As a result, the other person dies (usually undergoing a metamorphosis). Cf. motif K82a. | 18 | 16 |
| M187a In M187 family | Fish race, ATU 250. | Two fish (a fish and a whale, a dolphin, a squid and a dolphin, etc.) agree to race each other. | 18 | 14 |
| M18b In M18 family | Obtaining a hook, spear. | The character turns into a fishing object in order to carry away the hook with which he is caught or the spear with which they try to harpoon him, or he turns into a hook to catch fish. See motif M18. | 18 | 2 |
| M198a4 In M198 family | Who is nobler? ATU 976. | Those who listened to the story must answer who they liked more: the husband who let his wife go to another man after the wedding, the robber who did not harm her, or the man who immediately sent her back to her husband. | 18 | 22 |
| M199l In M199 family | Convinces the enemy that he can fly (ATU 1098*). | When the giant blew, sneezed, etc., or let go of the bent tree on which the man was sitting, the man was thrown far away. The man says that he did it of his own free will (to show how he can fly, to repair the roof, etc.). | 18 | 23 |
| M29r In M29 family | Trickster - Porcupine | See the motives in square brackets. | 18 | 8 |
| M59a In M59 family | Porcupine at the crossing | After asking a large animal to transport it across the river, a porcupine kills or damages it. See M59 motif. | 18 | 1 |
| M60a2 In M60 family | The imaginary servant licks his heels | The servant must lick the master or mistress's feet or wound. The hero comes disguised as a servant and instead of licking his heels, touches them with the animal's cut off tongue. | 18 | 19 |
| M62b In M62 family | When aiming at a hero, they hit each other | Two or more characters aim their weapons at the hero in between, but they hit each other. | 18 | 26 |
| M65a In M65 family | A squeaky tree | The trees are creaking in the wind. Hearing a creak, the character climbs a tree and gets stuck. See M65 motif. | 18 | 1 |
| M69 | The head gets stuck in the skull | character is attracted by the inside of a large animal's skull (small animals or insects are dancing or feasting inside, or eating some meat); he sticks his head inside , it gets stuck. | 18 | 27 |
| M78c In M78 family | The boy is a severed finger | A tiny little man emerges from a severed finger. | 18 | 19 |
| M91d In M91 family | The drowned shaman | The character deceives others by passing off the dead as alive, directing suspicions of murder to innocent people, etc. When a shaman (less often a shaman) is ready to discover the truth, he succeeds in it kill and avoid being charged with murder. | 18 | 20 |
| M93a In M93 family | The guard was punished | The character punishes a part of his body (burns his ass, breaks his eyes) for not sounding the alarm. See Motive M93; cf. Motive M142. | 18 | 19 |
| A22c In A22 family | Sacrifice to the Sun. | In order for the sun to rise, move to the right distance from the earth, or follow its heavenly path, a human being must be sacrificed. | 19 | 33 |
| B103 | Cornelian cherry. | The character thinks that since the cornel blooms earlier than other fruit trees, its fruits will ripen earlier than others. The character is mistaken and is left without fruit. | 19 | 25 |
| B125b In B125 family | A person going to a festival borrows someone else's organ. | A zoomorphic character goes to a festival and asks another to lend him a part of his body, which will make him look more attractive. | 19 | 20 |
| B41a In B41 family | Animals tell about the lives of their owners. | A dog or other domestic animal reveals details about its owners' lives that they would prefer to keep private; it is punished for this by losing its ability to speak. | 19 | 21 |
| C25c In C25 family | The Big Dipper and the end of the world. | A change in the configuration of a certain constellation (usually the Big Dipper) or its disappearance from the sky will signal a global catastrophe. | 19 | 24 |
| C38 | People will appear soon. | Characters from the time of creation say that real people will appear soon, so we must do this and that. | 19 | 23 |
| C6c1 In C6 family | Birds: successful and unsuccessful divers. | Two or more different birds (in Siberia, often a loon and a duck) successively try to retrieve something from the bottom. Only one succeeds. | 19 | 34 |
| D4a1 In D4 family | Luring fire. | A certain character possesses fire or steals it. His attention is attracted or distracted by singing, music, dancing, unusual gifts, indecent or strange behaviour, offers of sex, food and/or alcohol. | 19 | 22 |
| D4g In D4 family | The hummingbird obtains fire. | Hummingbird steals, finds or spreads fire. See motif D4A. | 19 | 8 |
| D6a In D6 family | Crocodile and fire. | The crocodile/caiman is the temporary or original owner of fire or lightning. | 19 | 40 |
| E30a In E30 family | The ersatz spouse is replaced by the real one. | A man without a wife or a woman without a husband uses a substitute spouse made of wood or other material until a real spouse appears. | 19 | 27 |
| E39 | Pig ancestor. | The child of a pig or boar is a woman or man – the ancestor of a certain group of people. | 19 | 21 |
| e8b In e8 family | Woman hides in a fruit. | A woman hides inside a fruit brought into the house and comes out when no one is around or when the fruit is cut open. | 19 | 22 |
| F43a In F43 family | Women kill men. | In the community of the first ancestors, women kill, attempt to kill, or transform men. | 19 | 28 |
| F45a In F45 family | Intentional conception by the wind. | A woman or female animal conceives by deliberately exposing her genitals to the wind. | 19 | 41 |
| F81 | The bride in the river. | The character does not recognise his reflection in the water, thinks that a person (usually a woman, with whom he immediately falls in love) is looking at him, and jumps into the water. (Cf. J1793, "Diving for a woman's reflection"; among the Kwinolts, diving for a real reflection of a woman; among the Menominee, diving for a woman in the water). | 19 | 23 |
| F9d In F9 family | Scorpions in the genitals. | Small stinging creatures dangerous to the partner are found in the genitals of women or men. | 19 | 21 |
| G11 | The squirrel-woodcutter. | The squirrel plays an important role in cutting down a giant tree (usually chopping or trying to chop the vine that holds it, see motif G10). | 19 | 1 |
| G28 | Tree with fish. | The tree contains a fish in its trunk. | 19 | 28 |
| H27a1 In H27 family | Diseases and reptiles from holes in the ground. | Reptiles and insects crawl out of holes in the ground, bringing disease. | 19 | 27 |
| H7g In H7 family | Life as a candle. | A person sees many burning candles or lamps. When one of them burns out, someone dies. | 19 | 22 |
| I101 | The Great Bear – stakes. | The Big Dipper or several bright stars of another constellation are stakes, pillars supporting a platform, or some object is stretched, dried, or stored on these stakes. | 19 | 41 |
| I3a In I3 family | Lightning – whip. | During a thunderstorm, the character strikes with a whip – these are flashes of lightning. | 19 | 19 |
| I45c In I45 family | Prohibition on counting stars. | Those who count stars are destined for misfortune and illness. | 19 | 23 |
| I87 | Skull cave. | The characters use an object belonging to the world of giants (a skull, an animal shoulder blade, a mitten) as a shelter. Cf. I87C: animals use an object belonging to the world of humans (a skull, a mitten, a sieve, etc.) as a shelter. | 19 | 29 |
| I87a1 In I87 family | Small or large – dialogue. | Two people engage in a dialogue, contradicting each other in their descriptions of the sizes of creatures and objects. | 19 | 27 |
| I87c In I87 family | The mitten house, ATU 283B. | Animals use a small object belonging to the human world (skull, mitten, jug, etc.) for shelter or transportation. Cf. motif I87: characters use an object (skull, animal shoulder blade, mitten) belonging to the world of giants as a shelter. | 19 | 39 |
| I95a In I95 family | Orion – scales. | Orion (probably always Orion's Belt) is Libra. | 19 | 21 |
| 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 |
| K127a In K127 family | The silent heroine. | The heroine must remain silent for a long time and therefore cannot respond to the accusations. They want to execute her, but at that moment the restrictions expire and she is saved. | 19 | 29 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.