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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

Showing 2,101–2,150 of 3,494 · Page 43 of 70

Ref Title Summary Traditions ▲ Narratives
K27k In K27 family Dive long or deep. Test: to dive underwater for a long time or deeply. See motif K27. 26 15
K27z5 In K27 family Agreement to marry children, (926C*). Two men agree to marry their children if one has a son and the other has a daughter. The girl's parents do not fulfil the agreement. The boy grows up and finds his betrothed. 26 31
k33c3 In k33 family The girl in the orange. A young man obtains a girl who is inside an orange or other citrus fruit. 26 42
K38e2 In K38 family The collapsed kingdom. Returning from the underworld to earth, the princess places the objects surrounding her (clothes, house, "kingdom") into a small object (egg, ball of yarn, etc.), which she takes with her. 26 51
K38f6 In K38 family Fire creature. A creature consisting of fire is mentioned. 26 30
K57c In K57 family The ring in the pie. The prince puts a ring on the finger of a beautiful girl, not knowing that she is the very girl who works in his kitchen. The girl slips the ring into the prince's food, and he recognises it. 26 35
K73a1 In K73 family The child is replaced by an inanimate object. After hiding or discarding a newborn baby, the woman's rivals replace it with an inanimate object and/or inform the father that his wife has given birth to a stone, a broom, etc. See motifs k73a2, k73a2a, k73a3. 26 39
K73a7 In K73 family Miraculous children: a sister with two brothers. A woman gives birth to three (not two or many) miraculous children – two boys and a girl. They grow up and triumph over their enemies. 26 33
K75b In K75 family Three melons from three daughters. Wanting to show that it is time for them to marry, daughters of different ages send their father fruits of varying degrees of ripeness (bread baked in different ways). 26 31
K77b2 In K77 family Weapons of the goat. The goat (goat, ram, etc.) responds to the predator's questions in the sense that parts of its body are weapons and other objects designed to kill the questioner, or that the goat is actually armed. 26 39
L86 Children run away from their demon mother. Having turned into a demon, a woman pursues her children. Cf. motif K102a2: A mother seeks to destroy her son (children) because he interferes with her love affair and/or sides with his father in a conflict between his parents. 26 38
L90E In L90 family Heads on stakes. Human heads are impaled on stakes outside the house of a dangerous character, and one head is missing (or there is a wall of heads, with one missing). It is assumed that the head of the hero of the story should be there. 26 30
M114d1 In M114 family Boiled eggs: by morning there should be chicks. The character demands that chicks be hatched (from boiled eggs), a chicken be raised, and it be cooked within a day. Another character responds with equally absurd demands. 26 26
M127b In M127 family Jug on a tail, ATU 68A. A character attaches a vessel or part of a vessel to their body, lowers it into the water, and the vessel pulls them along. 26 29
M38a1 In M38 family Imitates relatives or wives, ATU 552B, J2411.3. The character imitates the sisters' sons-in-law or husbands, or the wife's brothers (shoshone's) or wives (comox and chalkomel). {ATU combines a motive with another}. 26 36
M39a6c In M39 family The Tsar Craftsman The poor girl agrees to marry the prince only if he learns a craft. The prince fulfills the condition, then falls into the hands of enemies. He promises to make them an expensive item, let them sell it. His wife or (father, vizier) learns the job, the prisoner is released, the attackers are executed. 26 29
M39aa In M39 family Misunderstood instructions: a play on words 26 29
M42b In M42 family Resin eyes After losing his eyes, the character makes new ones out of resin or wax, sees again (often this is an episode on the way to finding good eyes, while tar eyes do not see well). 26 32
M46e In M46 family The Sun is a Toy They (promise to) give a child the Sun (and or the Moon) to play with 26 59
A32g In A32 family Holding on to a bush. On the lunar disc, a character can be seen holding onto a tree or bush and ending up on the moon with them. See motif A32D. 27 32
A8b In A8 family The sun in the world of the dead. Setting beyond the horizon, the sun shines on the anthropomorphic inhabitants of the underworld – the dead, dwarves, etc. 27 35
B33a1 In B33 family Insulted March. A person (animal, bird) teases or insults March or another calendar month and is punished as a result. 27 48
B42h1 In B42 family The arrow pierced the animal. In the plot of cosmic hunting, one of the astral objects is identified with an arrow or bullet, and it is emphasised that it struck an animal or three animals, which are identified with Orion's Belt. {In the Khoisan variants, it is emphasised that the arrow did not reach its target}. 27 35
B64 Bony fish. Bones in the bodies of fish are the result of fights, battles, military expeditions; they are arrows stuck in them (gill openings – from stuck arrows), or small bones – fragments of the original large bones. 27 37
B72 The cuckoo was not given water. Since the children do not give their mother water, she turns into a bird (usually a cuckoo) and flies away. 27 43
B92 Flint turns into flints. A character whose body is hard and has broken into small pieces, or (rarely) a small object, turns into flint or other hard stones (the origin of flint). 27 35
C33a In C33 family The restored chain. Throughout the year, someone tries to saw through or break the chain or rope that holds him or another character. On a certain day of the year, when the chain has become completely thin, it is restored to its former state, or the pole to which the chain is attached is reinserted into the ground. Cf. motif G8d. 27 41
E6 Because of a woman, the connection between worlds is broken. When a woman of childbearing age (she is menstruating, miscarrying, pregnant, with a child, or simply fat) tries to pass from one world to another, the connection between the worlds is severed forever. 27 43
e8c In e8 family Woman hides in a splinter. A woman hides inside a splinter or branch brought into the house and comes out when no one is around. 27 33
F45b In F45 family Conception by the sun. A woman gives birth to a son conceived by (the rays or light of) the sun. 27 30
F49C In F49 family The first humans do not know how to give birth. In the beginning of time, women do not know how to give birth. See motif F49. 27 7
H29 Progenitor of foreign tribes. A woman mates with an animal. The people of a hostile tribe originate from or derive their culture from the descendants of this union, from the relatives of the animal or from the children of the woman's brothers. 27 42
H44 The bloody division of offspring (ATU 485). A human enters into a relationship with a non-human being. When they part, the being tears apart (or intends to tear apart) their child. (Most of the data was collected by S.Y. Neklyudov). 27 47
I21 Sunburnt. The inhabitants of the underworld or the land of the rising sun have red (yellow) hair and/or red or black skin and/or suffer from the heat of the sun, which passes them by at a short distance. See motif I20. 27 35
I32 The tree of infants. There was or is a tree on which babies grow; the souls of unborn babies; whose leaves have turned into people; whose trunk is covered with many female nipples or flowers from which babies suck milk or juice. 27 44
I89 The lost caravan. There is a star that brings death and misfortune; it is usually told how people mistake a star or constellation rising at night for the Morning Star, set off on a journey and lose their way. 27 39
K103b In K103 family The spinning cow. A cow (goat) miraculously spins or weaves: it chews tow, turning it into thread, orders the yarn to be wound onto its horns, put into its ear, etc. 27 44
K110 Reflection of the golden sword. The character is asked to retrieve treasure from the bottom of a pond. He does not understand that he is only seeing a reflection and that the treasure is located above. 27 22
K114 Brothers leave after the birth of their sister (ATU 451). Several brothers leave home immediately after or shortly before their mother gives birth to a girl (usually they want a brother and wait for news about who their mother has given birth to, but accidentally or maliciously a signal is given that a boy has been born). The girl grows up and goes in search of her brothers. 27 32
K119b In K119 family Animals as gifts to the king. After tricking wild animals, the fox brings them to the king as a gift from her rich master. 27 35
K146 The hero is revived by the remedy he was sent to fetch. The hero is sent to fetch a remedy that can cure the sick or revive the dead. On the way back, a woman who is friendly to the hero keeps part of the remedy (or all of it, replacing it with a fake) and, when the hero is treacherously killed, revives him. 27 34
K27x6 In K27 family The stars and the wind guide the hero. Setting out in search of a marriage partner, the hero or heroine successively encounters the embodiments (masters) of celestial bodies and atmospheric phenomena (the sun, moon, stars, wind). 27 55
K32g1 In K32 family Forty horses or forty knives? The guilty party is offered a choice of items of utilitarian value (often forty, seven, three, etc. horses or the same number of knives). The person usually does not understand that these are methods of execution. 27 38
K38b3b In K38 family The hero shelters the chicks. A mighty bird (rarely – another creature) helps a person for sheltering (warming) its chicks (offspring, children). 27 47
K38e3 In K38 family The Diamond Kingdom. Among three (less often two or four) loci or objects associated with materials of high but varying degrees of value, the highest belongs to precious stones (usually diamonds, but also glass and crystal). 27 44
K73c In K73 family The girl in the bird's nest, (ATU 705A, 709A). A girl finds herself in a bird's nest (usually the bird carries the baby girl away). The bird takes care of the girl, who grows up to be a beauty. 27 28
K75a3 In K75 family Groom. Appearing incognito to an authoritative character, the hero works for him as a groom. 27 33
L65a1 In L65 family The horse's legs eaten away. A demonic character successively devours parts of the horse on which the hero arrived, each time returning to the hero and then leaving to devour another part. (Often asks whether the hero arrived on a three-legged, two-legged or one-legged horse). 27 34
L6a In L6 family Asks to be carried. An unremarkable, weak-looking character asks a person to carry him or her on their back, and then refuses to get off. 27 28
L96b In L96 family The demon is thrown into a cauldron. A person encounters an ascetic, demon, etc. The latter intends to kill him by pushing him into a boiling cauldron or cutting off his head when he bows before the deity. The person asks the ascetic to do everything first, then pushes him into the cauldron or cuts off his head himself. 27 35

Showing 2,101–2,150 of 3,494 · Page 43 of 70

Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.