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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| k76c1 In k76 family | A woman gave birth to a pumpkin. | A woman gives birth to a pumpkin, inside which there is a person (many people) or which turns into a person. | 22 | 23 |
| K82a In K82 family | Pregnancy from snake eggs. | A malevolent woman forces a woman to swallow a snake egg (snake, something else) so that a man will think that the woman is pregnant out of wedlock (rarely: so that snakes will suck the juices out of her). Cf. motif L89. | 22 | 30 |
| L15b In L15 family | To kill with a cane. | The character can only be killed with a specific plant, which is not usually used for making weapons. | 22 | 19 |
| l15h2 In l15 family | The soul of a character in a bird. | The object in which the character's life is contained is enclosed in another, which is enclosed in a third (and so on). The final repository of the soul is a bird (a chick, several birds or chicks). | 22 | 28 |
| L20 | Raw meat eater. | Two characters hunt or fish. One turns out to be or becomes a cannibal, which is revealed when he/she begins to eat the prey raw. | 22 | 49 |
| L39d In L39 family | Give an apple to someone. | A boy climbs a tree to pick fruit. A demonic character asks him to share, but not to throw the fruit on the ground, but to pass it from hand to hand. He grabs the boy and carries him away. | 22 | 30 |
| l73a1 In l73 family | The fugitive creates fog. | Throwing some object behind him, the fleeing character creates fog or darkness in the path of his pursuer. | 22 | 21 |
| L81a In L81 family | The cat extinguishes the fire. | A girl offends a cat (rarely: a dog, a rooster) and the cat takes revenge by causing misfortune to befall the girl (usually by extinguishing the fire, after which the girl falls into the hands of a demon). | 22 | 33 |
| L81b In L81 family | The hero's severed legs. | The hero's rivals abandon him, cutting off his legs (usually leaving a sword at the entrance to his tent, and when the hero rushes out, the blade wounds him). | 22 | 32 |
| L97 | Those rooted in the earth. | Seeing a character who is unable to move (nailed to the ground, his lower body rooted to the ground, petrified, completely absent), the hero himself manages to avoid a similar fate. | 22 | 20 |
| M182b In M182 family | Animals in a sleigh, ATU 158. | Animals ask to be taken for a ride in a sleigh. The sleigh breaks down, and the animals bring unsuitable materials from the forest to repair it. While the owner of the sleigh goes into the forest to look for a replacement for the broken shaft (or leaves to chop wood), the animals eat the horse (bull) and leave a stuffed animal in its place. | 22 | 30 |
| M199o In M199 family | Who will pierce the tree, ATU 1085. | A man and his opponent agree to pierce a hole in a tree trunk (stump) with their head (finger, penis) or to knock down a tree with a blow to the head. The man has made a hole in advance (sawed the tree). | 22 | 17 |
| M29m In M29 family | The Trickster is the Rat | See the motives in square brackets. | 22 | 8 |
| M74 | Regurgitated food | A weak character regurgitates previously swallowed unusual food, or replaces his belching with a strong character's belching, or interprets his secretions as remains strong animals he ate. The strong believe that the weak are strong or have unusual abilities. | 22 | 27 |
| M80 | The partridge scares the offender, K932 | The character insults a partridge bird, kills or offends its chickens; the partridge suddenly takes off in front of the offender, he falls (usually into a lake or river). | 22 | 27 |
| N20 | We have achieved our wishes | fairy tale text ends with a formula that says that the characters have achieved their desires, goals and/or happiness, or that God has fulfilled their wishes. | 22 | 156 |
| N5 | Winter is recognized by frost, summer by rain | Long trips, hikes, flights, or battles are described using a formula that indicates that characters learn about winter through snow or frost, and summer through warmth, rain, dew or other similar signs. | 22 | 47 |
| A12b In A12 family | The frog swallows the sun. | During an eclipse or at sunset (marked *), the luminaries are swallowed by a toad or frog. | 23 | 34 |
| A19c1 In A19 family | The Sun Chariot. | The sun or moon travels across the sky in a chariot or sleigh. | 23 | 36 |
| A32c In A32 family | Dog and man on the moon. | The figures of a man and a dog are visible (or should have been visible) on the lunar disc. | 23 | 29 |
| B110 | Where the back is – swamps, where the head is – red poppies. | A character who is dragged along the ground or who runs, falls apart or hits the ground with different parts of his body. This determines the characteristics of the landscape and flora. | 23 | 31 |
| B42l In B42 family | Ladle – beast, handle – hunters. | The stars of the handle of the Big Dipper are hunters, the dipper itself is a bear, an elk or a meat storehouse where the bear climbs. | 23 | 12 |
| B68 | Giant hazel grouse. | The giant hazel grouse became small – it was usually torn into pieces, which turned into the current hazel grouse. | 23 | 42 |
| B97a In B97 family | Bird or animal necklace. | A strip of light or dark feathers (rarely: wool) on the neck of a bird (animal) is its necklace (scarf). | 23 | 27 |
| C19a In C19 family | The child is playing with the sun | The character (except Quileut: Raven) turns into a child, asks for and receives heavenly bodies to play, or (Chukchi) comes to play with the little daughter of the owner of the stars. | 23 | 69 |
| C31 | The wise hedgehog (cosmology). | The hedgehog is wiser or more cunning than all the gods and animals; it possesses knowledge that is vital for human existence. | 23 | 40 |
| C6c3 In C6 family | The loon – a successful diver. | The loon dives and brings back a piece of earth (grass, etc.), which turns into land (it is the only or the only successful diver). | 23 | 40 |
| D13A In D13 family | Obscene dance for the Sun. | To amuse the owner of fire or the Sun, others dance indecently, imitate copulation, display their genitals, or publicly relieve themselves. | 23 | 28 |
| E38a In E38 family | People made of pieces. | A woman gives birth to a pumpkin, a sack, a sack of eggs, a piece of meat. The newborn is cut open, chopped up, and the pieces turn into new people; numerous people (usually tribal ancestors) emerge from the pumpkin or sack. Cf. motif F47. | 23 | 50 |
| E7 | Stuck in a hole in the sky. | The path from one part of the world to another passes through a narrow opening. The character gets stuck in the opening, permanently severing the connection between the worlds. | 23 | 23 |
| F23 | Cause of menstruation: sexual intercourse. | Blood spilled during sexual intercourse or artificial defloration at the time of creation is the reason why menstruation occurs to this day. | 23 | 27 |
| F4 | Child in a vessel, T561. | In the days of the first ancestors, children were conceived not through sexual intercourse, but in vessels, piles of earth, lumps of clay, etc. | 23 | 34 |
| F46 | One for all. | At the beginning of time, two or more men (human-animals) had only one woman. | 23 | 30 |
| F5 | Brides for the first humans. | The character does not want to or cannot give all the suitors his daughters in marriage and turns them into girls of various animals. (Usually after the flood or at the beginning of time, men want to marry the only daughter of a deity or patriarch). | 23 | 21 |
| F51b In F51 family | Finds by the thread. | To find out the nature or location of a character's locus, another person secretly attaches a long thread to it and follows it. | 23 | 32 |
| F5a In F5 family | Woman from a tail, ATU 798. | God was going to make Eve from Adam's rib. The rib was stolen by a dog (cat, fox, monkey, devil). God (or an angel sent by him) chased after the thief, grabbed him by the tail and tore it off. God made Eve from this tail. Either God first made a woman from edible material and the dog ate this figure. He had to make a new one from Adam's rib. Or God cut off Adam's tail and made Eve from it. | 23 | 24 |
| F6 | Hollowed-out vagina. | (The first) woman does not have a vagina at first. Usually, it is made for her by a bird, animal, fish, etc. | 23 | 32 |
| F60 | The trickster heals the girl. | A girl or woman falls ill. A character comes to heal her. The treatment consists of him copulating with her or attempting to do so. | 23 | 26 |
| F73b In F73 family | The bear believes that the vulva is a wound (ATU 153). | The bear (wolf, lion, dragon) believes that the vulva is a wound inflicted on a human being. | 23 | 15 |
| H18b In H18 family | Cattle return to the water. | Having received livestock from supernatural characters, a person (usually due to violating a prohibition on looking, shouting, etc.) immediately loses all or most of the animals (they go into the water, into the sky, scatter, etc.). | 23 | 36 |
| H6bb In H6 family | Lost objects. | A character is sent to deliver a certain object or substance to people, the possession of which is essential to them. The messenger loses these objects or brings others. Usually, this refers to the ability to be reborn after death. Traditions not related to the explanation of human mortality are marked with an asterisk*. | 23 | 30 |
| I119 | The dead shake the earth. | Earthquakes are caused by inhabitants of the underworld; during earthquakes, they try to get to the surface of the earth to check whether people are still alive. | 23 | 31 |
| I127 | Ursa Major – bed. | Ursa Major – bed, couch. | 23 | 34 |
| I131 | The thread of life. | Every person's life corresponds to a thread; when the thread breaks, the person dies. | 23 | 30 |
| I133 | Constellation across the sky. | Star objects in different parts of the sky are associated with separate parts (as well as items of clothing, jewellery, etc.) of a single anthropomorphic or zoomorphic figure. | 23 | 32 |
| I35a1a In I35 family | Insulting a deity. | The character considers himself equal to the deity, imitating him, mocking him or trying to kill him. | 23 | 42 |
| I39a In I39 family | The souls of the dead walk on the rainbow. | The souls of the dead walk across the rainbow to another world; a rainbow bridge spans the river separating the world of the dead from the world of the living. | 23 | 23 |
| I61 | Milk on the Milky Way, A778.5. | The Milky Way is a trail of spilled milk. | 23 | 34 |
| I80b In I80 family | The forgotten wind, ATU 752B. | Man is allowed to control the weather in his own interests. He sends rain at the right time, but cannot take all factors into account (he usually forgets about the wind). The bread will not grow or will be unpalatable. | 23 | 8 |
| I85a In I85 family | Animals around the North Star. | Animals walk around the North Star, or the movement of the stars is compared to the movement of animals around a pole. See motif I85. | 23 | 25 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.