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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M138 | The lifespan of humans and animals, ATU 173. | At first, everyone was given 20 or 30 years. For animals, this is a long time, but for humans, it is short. Humans received part of the lifespan of animals. | 40 | 31 |
| M199k In M199 family | Digging a well, ATU 1049. | A giant sends a man to fetch water, giving him a huge wineskin. The man cannot carry so much water, but he gets out of the situation with a trick (he pretends that he wants to bring the whole well at once; that he has already brought the water and drunk it all himself; etc.). | 40 | 50 |
| M25 | A holiday in heaven, K1041 | To take part in a festival in heaven or visit a deity, a flightless character manages to climb high into the sky. He usually cannot go down the same way, falls and as a result dies, maims or metamorphoses. | 40 | 64 |
| M39a6 In M39 family | Misunderstood instructions: shorten the road | During the journey, a person allegorically asks someone else to say something, sing, etc., so that time on the road passes faster. He understands instructions literally by doing ridiculous actions. | 40 | 48 |
| M46b In M46 family | A born infant | The character turns into a tiny object or creature, swallowing or touching which a woman (usually a virgin) becomes pregnant and gives birth to a boy. He steals valuables or gets along with a woman. See M46 motif. | 40 | 45 |
| M81e In M81 family | Don't herd cattle on giant land, ATU 314A, 321 | young man undertakes to herd cattle and is warned not to cross the borders of a giant, dragon, witch, etc. The young man violates the ban and kills a giant. | 40 | 47 |
| B33h In B33 family | Mother of the Sun. | The sun has a mother who lives with him (less often with her) in the same house. Cf. motif K27x6b ("The character goes to the mother of the sun") | 41 | 51 |
| c4a In c4 family | The Flood: Salvation on a Tree. | During the flood, those who climbed trees were saved. | 41 | 71 |
| D7 | Toad and fire. | The frog or toad possesses the first fire, steals it from its original owner, and tries to extinguish it or save it from dying out. See motif D4. | 41 | 74 |
| F1 | Transformed man. | The first woman, female deity, or female animals were originally men (males) who then changed their gender. | 41 | 60 |
| F36 | Children against the lover. | (Adopted) children of a woman or man kill the lover (or spouse of non-human nature) of their father or (adoptive) mother. | 41 | 35 |
| F97 | Forbidden fruit: people become sexually mature, C621. | After eating certain foods, people become sexually mature and/or lose their body hair or skin. Cf. motif H56 (people become mortal). | 41 | 39 |
| G32 | Food from the underworld. | People obtain cultivated plants from the underwater or underground world. | 41 | 47 |
| H34g In H34 family | Porridge from a grain. | One grain was enough to prepare a meal. | 41 | 85 |
| I13b In I13 family | Horned snake, B91.3. | A small snake, the snake has horns on its head. | 41 | 50 |
| I22f In I22 family | Talking trees. | The character must pass small objects (trees, logs, blades) that constantly collide and diverge, fall and rise. | 41 | 60 |
| I92 | The rainbow changes gender. | A person who has come into contact with a rainbow in a certain way (walked under it, drunk water where the rainbow drinks, etc.) changes their gender. | 41 | 56 |
| J40 | Enemy from the sky. | The sky is inhabited by creatures that descend to kill people. Usually, the creature carries away a person or many people, or a human head. The hero (usually a close relative of the deceased) avenges the killer and/or returns the kidnapped person (persons; the carried-away body part). | 41 | 65 |
| K101a In K101 family | The girl rising from the coffin, ATU 307. | A man spends several nights next to a dead girl who has become a dangerous demonic creature. As a result, the girl is exorcised. | 41 | 38 |
| K123a In K123 family | The broken jug. | A boy or young man accidentally, or more often out of mischief, breaks or overturns a vessel belonging to a woman or girl. This episode forms the basis of the rest of the story. | 41 | 64 |
| K27z2b In K27 family | The Murdered Doll, ATU 879. | The complicated relationship between a simple girl and a prince leads to the prince intending to kill his bride on their wedding night. The girl substitutes a doll for herself, the prince stabs the doll with his sword, mistakes the spurting juice (syrup, honey) for blood, and repents of the murder. The real girl appears, and the young couple are happy. | 41 | 34 |
| K32i In K32 family | Two nurses beside a sleeping man, ATU 894. | A girl finds the body of a young man who shows no signs of life and must sit next to him for a certain amount of time so that he comes back to life and takes her as his wife. Usually, she leaves at the last moment and an impostor becomes the wife of the revived man. | 41 | 43 |
| K56a6 In K56 family | Food asks her to taste it. | On the way to another world, people or objects ask a child (girl) to taste the food they offer or to do some work. The child (girl) does everything (rarely does not do) and therefore achieves the goal. | 41 | 58 |
| K61d In K61 family | From work became a beetle, ATU 501. | A young woman accidentally gives her fiancé, husband or mother-in-law the impression that she works a lot. To prevent the deception from being revealed, she or someone else makes others believe that women's work makes them ugly or turns them into animals. The husband forbids his wife to work. | 41 | 36 |
| K8c4 In K8 family | The elk dies after swallowing a mouse. | A small animal (bird, mouse, porcupine, fox) or (rarely) a tiny human being allows itself to be swallowed by a large ungulate (elk, deer, bison, tapir) in order to rip open its belly (and eat it). | 41 | 60 |
| K90 | Black and red, (ATU 156B*). | A person sees two opposing monsters or animals (usually of contrasting colours: red and black, black and white) and helps one of them, or one of the combatants helps the person. (Cf. ATU 156B, 738). | 41 | 45 |
| L100e In L100 family | The lover, the master and the guest, ATU 1358A, (ATU 1360B). | Before entering, the guest notices the mistress with her lover in the house. When the husband arrives, the guest pretends to be clairvoyant and shows the husband where the lover is hiding and where the food prepared for him is. | 41 | 51 |
| L85a In L85 family | The half-child. | The character is born as half a person or becomes one as a result of an accident. He or she does not belong to a special category of mythical half-beings and usually regains physical completeness. See motif L85, cf. motif L112. | 41 | 32 |
| M114b1 In M114 family | What is the fattest, sweetest, fastest? | When answering the question of what is the sweetest (fattest, fastest, etc.), a clever person names abstract concepts and entities (while a foolish person names specific objects or creatures). | 41 | 42 |
| M136 | The Unknown Sickle, ATU 1202. | Some people do not know what to do with cutting tools; they try to use tools that are not suitable for these purposes instead. | 41 | 49 |
| M29X2 In M29 family | Trickster other creatures | See the motives in square brackets. | 41 | 28 |
| M46d In M46 family | The child asks for a toy | A small child cries and calms down only after being given a valuable item hidden in the house to play with. After receiving an item, a child or an associated character takes it away. | 41 | 75 |
| M50 | Next to the stars | The character tries to join a group of stars (usually the Pleiades) or catch up with characters who run away from him and turn into stars; the goal of the persecution is sexual contact or the desire to be reunited with family. | 41 | 55 |
| B31 | Women turn into aquatic mammals. | A woman (usually after coming into conflict with a man or being left alone), or a man and a woman (spouses, lovers, brother and sister) turn into aquatic mammals. | 42 | 55 |
| E35 | Webbing between the fingers. | The first humans or creatures created by the Creator's rival were incomplete, not fully anthropomorphic (they resembled larvae, had webbing on their fingers, etc.). | 42 | 52 |
| H43aa In H43 family | Spat-upon figures. | Having created the human body, the creator leaves. At this time, his opponent spits on the figure, which has not yet come to life, smears it with mud, etc. | 42 | 60 |
| I47 | The rainbow as a stream of secretions. | The rainbow smells disgusting, is associated with foul-smelling animals, is a stream of excretions, is associated with the lower body, causes inflammation or skin diseases, and is associated with death. | 42 | 40 |
| I56 | Spirits cannot see the living. | Moving between worlds, the same living person is visible to some and invisible to others. | 42 | 63 |
| J59a In J59 family | Flight after the arrow, D1092, D1526.1. | After shooting an arrow (rarely: throwing a ball), a person flies on it, behind it or in front of it, or sends another person on the flying arrow. Cf. motif J59. | 42 | 40 |
| K161 | The Released Dragon, (ATU 302C*). | A character who has deprived a dragon (demon, thunder) of its freedom orders others not to unlock the dungeon (not to enter a certain room, not to give the chained creature anything to drink, etc.). The prohibition is violated, the chained creature is freed, which leads to disaster. Cf. motif K100f1. | 42 | 58 |
| k27z2a2 In k27 family | The unrecognised wife visits her husband, ATU 891. | The husband leaves his wife without agreeing with her. The wife visits her husband incognito, and in the end he realises who is with him. Usually, the wife spends the night with her husband, gives birth to a son (three children), and the husband is convinced that the son is his. | 42 | 39 |
| K38b3 In K38 family | The hero cares for the chicks. | A powerful bird or other flying creature helps a person for taking care of its chicks/offspring: feeding them, sheltering them, decorating them, etc. | 42 | 59 |
| K75a1 In K75 family | The younger brother-in-law's place is in the barn. | The ruler orders his youngest daughter (and her chosen husband) to live in conditions that do not correspond to her status. He does not know that her chosen one is not a poor wretch, as he seems, but a mighty warrior and a handsome man. | 42 | 44 |
| K88a In K88 family | Blinded heroine, ATU 404. | The stepmother (aunt, rival) blinds a young woman. The latter regains her eyesight (often by exchanging them for some valuable item). | 42 | 48 |
| K99a In K99 family | Father will serve his son, ATU 517, (725). | A young man or woman (often after having a dream) declares that a great future awaits him or her (usually that his or her father, parents, brothers, or sisters will show him or her signs of respect). The young man or woman is expelled, but the prophecy comes true. | 42 | 42 |
| L42g1 In L42 family | A knock is heard, the father has left. | Father (stepfather) takes children into the forest and slips away unnoticed. To make the children think he is nearby chopping wood, father hangs a board, pumpkin, etc. on a tree, which bangs against the trunk in the wind. | 42 | 59 |
| L48 | Demons devour their own kind. | The hero (usually somewhere on high ground - on a tree, rock, at the edge of a precipice or well) kills and/or throws one of his opponents down from there. The other opponents do not recognise their comrade and believe that the slain man is the hero they are pursuing. | 42 | 55 |
| L81a2 In L81 family | The demon comes to drink the girl's blood (ATU 709A). | While the men are away, a demonic character comes to a girl or woman to drink her blood or otherwise torment her. The men notice that the girl is wasting away, but at first they do not know the reason. | 42 | 50 |
| M110 | The forgotten liver, ATU 91. | Upon learning that it is being transported by water to be eaten, the land animal explains to the transporter that it has forgotten on the shore the organ without which the meat is not tasty, which must be used as medicine, etc. The transporter agrees to return for this organ, and the animal runs away. | 42 | 47 |
| M154a In M154 family | The ox, the donkey and work, ATU 207A. | One of the domestic animals (usually a donkey) persuades another to pretend to be sick. After that, the advisor has to work for both of them. Then he tells the pretend sick animal that the owner is going to slaughter him, and the animal rushes to work. | 42 | 36 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.