| Motif | Name | Description |
| a12 | Eclipses: monster’s attack | Some creature or creatures regularly (sunrise and sunset, summer and winter, lunar phases) or irregularly (solar and lunar eclipses, eschatological events) attack the luminaries or shade their light |
| a19a | By horse in the morning, by ox in the evening | During its everyday travel across the sky, the Sun changes its draught animals (usually in the morning the Sun rides a slow animal and in the evening a quick one) |
| a3 | Male sun and female moon | The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male |
| a32 | Figure on lunar disc | A figure or an imprint of some being or object are seen in the Moon. (For statistical analysis motifs A32A – A32J are also included into A32) |
| a32d | Man in the Moon | Human being or imprint of human being is seen in the moon |
| a32e | Person with an object in hands | Person who holds some object in his or her hands is seen in the moon (rare: in the sun) |
| a32f | Water-carrier in the Moon | Person who went to fetch water and/or holds in hands a container for liquid is seen in the moon |
| a44 | Moon the protector | A person pursued by an enemy or tyrannized by others asks the Moon to take her or him to the sky. The request is granted and the person is now seen in the Moon |
| a5 | The Sun and the Moon are males | The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (much more rare) asexual |
| a8a | The Sun, the Moon and the star: released by the hero | |
| b1 | Two male creators | Two male anthropomorphic creators compete in producing things. One of them is or becomes master of the underworld and/or spirits while another is associated with humans |
| b110 | If by back, the ravines, if by head the red flowers | Person dragged on the ground disintegrates or touches the ground with different parts of her or his body producing particular features of landscape, different plants, etc. |
| b116 | The first book eaten up | An animal or a person eats up the first book (writing, important document). (In some of European traditions the eating up of the book is not directly described but follows from the context) |
| b116c | Sacred book lost | In the past a particular groups of people possessed scripture and knowledge that were later lost or the people missed opportunity to obtain them |
| b117 | The dogs' certificate | The animals (usually dogs) got a certificate which was lost because of the cat (is swallowed by the cat, burned, eaten by mice). Since them dogs and cats are enemies, usually also cats and mice |
| b2a | The female earth | The earth is a female person (alone or together with a male person); she is female being or associated with a woman |
| b2e | The male earth | The earth or the world as a whole is a male person (alone or together with a female person) |
| b33 | Mother of wind | Female person is incarnation of wind, mother of winds, etc. |
| b3a | Primeval waters | Water is the original element, the dry earth appears later |
| b3b | Earth grows big | Original earth was small and later increased in size or the fertile soil grew from a small amount of original substance |
| b42 | Cosmic hunt | Certain stars or constellations are interpreted as hunters, their dogs and game that the hunters pursue |
| b42g | Ursa major is a game animal(s) | Ursus major (seven stars or only four stars of a dipper) is identified with the game animal or anmials (usually pursued by the hunter) |
| b42t | Ursa major is a big mammal | Seven main stars of Ursa major are interpreted as a figure of a mammal: bear, deer, mountain sheep, camel, dog |
| b46b | Seven star sisters | Every one of the seven main stars of the Ursa major is a female person |
| b46c | Big Dipper is seven persons or animals | Every main star of the Big Dipper is interpreted as a particular person or animal |
| b50 | Whose blood is sweeter? | An insect feeds on human blood (flesh). Dangerous person asks it where it had sucked blood or whose blood (flesh) is the most delicious. Usually the insect lies or cannot answer (its tongue is cut off) and thanks to this dangerous person attacks certain plants or animals and not people |
| b51a | The snake is an enemy of the swallow | The snake is an enemy of the swallow (usually because swallow does not let snake to destroy people; the snake sends mosquito or other bloodsucking insect to get know whose blood is the most delicious; the insect flies back to report that human blood is the sweetest; swallow bites its tongue off and the snake gets to pull off feathers from the swallow's tail) |
| b52b | Some earth is concealed | Person spits out earth that he swallowed or concealed otherwise. This way the broken landscape is created |
| b77 | Primeval sky close to earth | Originally the sky was close to the earth, then it has risen up |
| b77b | Sky touched with a long object | The sky rose to its present height and/or the direct relations of the sky deity with the people were broken off when the sky or the deity was touched or struck with a long object (a pestle, a broom, etc.) |
| b79 | Cosmic egg | From the primeval egg, eggs, or egg-like ball emerge the earth, the sky, sky bodies, different animals (all or part of the items of this list) |
| b79a | A bird laid an egg | In the beginning of time a bird flies, lays an egg or eggs, different objects and creatures emerge from them or a bird drops some solid substance on the waters and the dry land or an island appear |
| b87b | A harnessed wolf | Big Dipper is a cart with a harnessed wolf or bear. Usually it is explained that the handle of the Big Dipper is not straight because a wolf or a bear (identified with Alcor or with the last star of the handle, η) attacked an ox that was dragging a cart and was harnessed instead of it |
| b90 | Master of wolves | There is an anthropomorphic patron or patroness of wolves. Usually he or she gives instructions to wolves on particular day of the year |
| c19 | Acquisition of the sun | The Sun (the day light) that was absent, stolen or hidden appears (again) |
| c29 | A listened in secret | People or God get know a secret thanks to listening in its possessor when he speaks aloud with himself or with his relations. The received knowledge is related to cosmogony or acquisition of cultural values |
| c3 | Snakes stops up a hole in the Noah’s arch | When a hole is opened in the arch (rare: in the ground) from which a torrent of water flows, a snake (eel, frog) stops it up with its own body |
| c31 | The wise hedgehog (cosmology) | A hedgehog proves to be smarter than gods and than other animals; he possesses the knowledge that is of crucial importance for survival of humans |
| c32c (motif is not in the correlation table) | Beware of cut off nails | The cut off nails (and hair) have special significance for the fate of the soul in the beyond or for the future of the entire world |
| c6 | Valuables brought from the lower world | Persons or animals dive or otherwise decend to the lower world to get a desired object and to bring it to earth (besides episodes in the fairytales, cf. motif k27x9) |
| c6c | The diver is a bird | An aquatic bird dives and brings the desired object from the bottom |
| c6c3 | The loon is successful diver | The loon dives and brings a piece of earth (a blade of grass etc.) that is transformed into the dry land or it brings other object which everybody is eager to get (the loon is the only or the only successful diver) |
| c6d | The aquisition of the earth from the lower world | The dry land (the earth) grows from a small amount of solid substance (sand, clay, dirt and the like) brought from the lower world (usually from the bottom of the ocean) |
| c6j | The acquiring of the earth linked to the creation of man | The acquiring of the earth from the sea bottom or from the lower world, the creation of humans and attempt to spoil it are successive episodes of the same narrative |
| c6j1 | The earth is brought by the God's enemy | God sends his enemy to bring earth from the bottom of the waterbody. In the beginning, the enemy or also the god can have guise of birds. When the earth is brought up and dry land created, two persons, now always anthropomorphic, are engaged into confrontation |
| d1 | Female spirit of fire | Fire is personified as an (elder) woman, alone or with her husband, master of fire |
| d1b | Male spirit of fire | The fire is personified as an elder man (alone or with his wife, mistress of fire) |
| e31c | Rescuers of an abducted girl | Every one of several men had learned a unique skill thanks to which they save a girl abducted by demon or animal |
| e9 | The mysterious housekeeper | Person observes traces of some activity that takes place in his (rare: her) house in his (her) absence and then takes by surprise the responsible one |
| e9h | Dove-wife | A man marries dove-woman |
| e9i1 | Swan-wife | A man marries supernatural woman who is a swan |
| e9i3 | Goose-wife | A man marries supernatural woman who is a goose |
| f16 | Men and women: exchange of anatomical characteristics | Initially men possessed women's biological traits and vice versa (beard, menses, breasts, bearing children) |
| f30 | Snake paramour | A woman or a girl takes a snake, an eel (i.e. Pacific snake-eel), a lizard, or a worm for husband or paramour. People kill or badly injure him, the woman and/or her progeny or the woman herself is transformed into snake. Cf. motif k76b: the snake-husband becomes and remains a handsome man |
| f63 | Trickster poses as woman and marries man | A male person turns into woman and marries a man. He is either unmasked or abandons his "husband" by his own will |
| f7 | The underwater-maiden | Man takes or attempts to take a wife who is connected with the underwater world (fish, crab, snake, water animal and the like) |
| f83 | News precede man | Person commits something shameful, obscene. Presumably, nobody could see him doing it. When he asks people, "What's the news?", they answer that so-and-so (this person) has done such a thing |
| f86 | Conditional signal | Person summons with a certain signal a non-human being (usually his or her sexual partner or his or her protégé). Another person spies, uses the same signal or pronounces the same words and kills the being who comes to him (or uses this being sexually himself) |
| f87 | Transformed children of serpent’s wife | A serpent creates stuation when a girl must promise to marry him, and takes her to his realm. After some time she comes with her children to visit her relations. Her close kin (father, mother, brother) gets to know from her children how their mother calls her husband, summons the serpent with the same signal and kills him. Seeing her husband dead, the woman transforms her children (and herself) into birds or trees |
| f87a | Snake’s wife and her children: transformation into birds | A snake crawls on the clothes of a bathing girl and lets her take them not before she gives a promice to marry him. He takes her to the underwater world. She is happy and they have children. She visits her kin taking her children with her. Her relations summon the snake and kill him. After this his wife transforms their childred and/or herself into birds |
| g23 | Alive being turns into many objects | Person or creature is transformed. Separate parts of its (his, her) body give origin to different objects or creatures (only etiological narratives are considered) |
| g29 | Demon made of artifacts | Demonic person turns into or consists of different household objects or tools (and into elements of a landscape) |
| g6 | Primeval tree | One of the trees is the principal, original one (emerged before all the other; ancestor of wild or cultivated plants; ocean or rivers inside it; world axis; higher than all the others; overshadows sky) |
| g6a | Tree of the year | Year is described as a tree with the number of branches, twigs, leaves etc. corresponding to the number of seasons, months, days, etc. |
| h16b | The basin of milk | A river (wave, lake, basin) of milk that exists on earth (and not among the stars) is mentioned in narratives (in different context) |
| h24 | Container opened too early | Container with valuables or with dangerous creatures is opened (before time). Its content goes out of control or disappear |
| h27 | Mosquitoes let lose | Stinging insects (rare diseases) had been inside a container or some enclosure. They escaped to the world when the container or enclosure was foolishly opened |
| h27a | A hole through the ground made with a pole | The Creator's antagonist demands for himself as much ground as would be enough to put a pole or staff |
| h27a1 | Plagues emerge from a hole in the ground | Болезни из дырки в земле |
| h28 | Plagues from the body of a person or creature | Killed and destroyed (often burned) person or creature (usually ogre, fierce animal, powerful shaman) turns into a multitude of biting insects or into other small molesting creatures |
| h33 | Walking babies | Children walked or could walk from the very birth but this ability was lost or never obtained |
| h33a | Babies thrown across a hedge | A woman did not allow God to throw her baby across a hedge, roof, etc. Because of this babies lost or never got ability to walk from the very birth |
| h34d | Piece of sky bitten off | Animal person climbs (or attempts to climb) to the sky or to the Moon to bite off a piece of it |
| h40 | Dog is the guard of man | Dog guards (successfully or unsuccessfully) the (still unfinished) physical body of man or the entrance to paradise |
| h41 | Death and the dog | Dog is responsible for people being mortal or imperfect. Usually the antagonist bribes dog with a warm fur and the dog lets him spoil the half-ready human figures |
| h42 | Creator goes away for a while | After creating the bodies of the first people or after getting a conception how to do it the Creator goes away for a while. During his absence another person, because of his or her ignorance or intentionally, spoils the creation or makes himself or herself what the Creator would make in a better way. Usually because of this people are mortal and subject to diseases |
| h43aa | Figure of the first man smeared with filth | After making human body, creator goes away for a time. In his absence another person spits on the human figure that was not yet alive, smears it with filth, etc. |
| h46 | The dog’s part | Somebody (usually God) is going to deprive humans of their staple food (usually cereals) but does not do it thanks to the dog (and/or cat; rare – birds) |
| h46a | The dog and the spike | Properties of the cereals (usually the size of the spike) are defined by what the dog did in time of creation |
| h47 | Offended sky or earth | The sky (or the earth) is offended by people’s behavior in respect to it and reacts accordingly (e.g. rises higher than it was before) |
| h54 | The eyelids of Viy | Eyelids (eyelashes, eyebrows) of personage hang long down over his eyes. To make the eyes widely opened, the eyelids (eyelashes, eyebrows) should be propped up with poles, folks, sticks, etc. (rare: cut off) |
| h7 | The personified Death | Death (also Old Age, Disease, etc.) is a particular person not identical with the Master of the Dead. He kills people usually carrying away their souls |
| h7f | Death asks God whom he should eat | God gives instructions according to which particular categories of people must die or suffer. Person who receives these instructions distors them out of sympathy for the people |
| h7f2 | Death becomes invisible | The incarnation of death had a body that was visible for the people. Later Death becomes invisible |
| i10a | Colored layers of the sky | Different sky levels or different categories of clouds have different colors |
| i113 | Pig with the golden bristle | A pig made of gold or having golden bristles is a treasure |
| i12 | The world axis | A tree or post pierces and unites different layers of the universe |
| i121 | Twin constellations | Two constellations (usually Ursa major and Ursa minor) are interpreted as twin objects of the same type (two animals, two carts, etc.) |
| i128 | Ursa major is a dipper | Ursa major is a dipper, a ladle |
| i13b | A horned snake | Snake of natural size has horns on its head |
| i27 | Chthonic canine | A dog is the lord, guard or guide of/to the land of the dead; or dogs live on the way to the land of the dead |
| i27c | The four-eyed dog | Dogs having spots over the eyes are called the four-eyed and believed to have special properties (e.g. to see ghosts) |
| i39 | Rainbow road or bridge | Rainbow is a road, a bridge or a ladder |
| i39a | Souls of the dead walk upon the rainbow | Souls of the dead walk upon the rainbow to the other world |
| i3a | Lightning is a whip | During the thunderstorm supernatural person beats somthing or somebody with a whip. This is the lightning |
| i4 | Thunder rides in the sky | Thunder is heard when a vehicle moves in the sky |
| i41b | Rainbow drinks water | Rainbow drinks (soaks up) water |
| i45a | Not to point at the Moon or a star | Person who points at the Moon or a star or looks intently at them will get sick or die or his pointing finger will rot or wither |
| i48a | Falling down into the underworld | At the terminal part of the narrative the antagonist of the hero descends into the underworld |
| i50 | Ungulate animal with more than four legs | An ungulate animal (a horse, an elk, a moose) with six or more legs is described or represented in art |
| i50a1 | Torn off legs of a dog | Person tears off one by one legs of a dog but the dog continues to do what it considers to be its duty |
| i52 | Fish the earth-holder | World is supported by fish or fish-like monster or the earth itself is such a monster |
| i57 | Thunder pursues his enemy | Thunder's enemies are evil spirits, reptiles, animals living in burrows. They hide from him in different objects, Thunder destroys these objects |
| i58 | Milky Way is the way of birds | Milky Way is the path of migratory birds (especially wild geese) |
| i68 | Opening of the sky | On a certain moment, a crack, a window or the like opens in the sky vault (rains flows though it, the upper world is seen, communication with inhabitants of the upper world becomes possible) |
| i68b | Night of the fulfilled wishes | In a certain night of the year any wish that was thought of or voiced is fulfilled |
| i78 | The square earth | The earth is square, the sky is usually round |
| i85 | Polaris is a pole, a nail | Polaris is a (tethering) pole or a nail |
| i87d | Men in the time of giants | The earth was inhabited by the giants. One of them finds a tiny person, brings him to his parents. Usually his father or mother esplains that this is one of those men who will live on the earth in the future instead of the present day giants |
| i8e | Four men at the cardinal points | Four (or eight) anthropomorphic male persons support the earth or the sky or are placed at the four cardinal points |
| i8e1 | Four supports of the world | The sky or the earth rests upon four or five (cardinal points and the center) supports of any kind (poles, mountains, giants) |
| i9 | Colors of the cardinal directions | Four cardinal directions and/or some objects associated with them are associated with different colors |
| i90 | To follow the rolling ball of threads | To reach his or her destination, person follows a ball of threads (rare: some ball, apple) which is rolling in front of him or her |
| i91 | Water body at the base of a tree | There is a source or body of water at the base of a tree which connects layers of the universe and/or has gigantic dimensions and considered to be the main tree of the world |
| i92 | Rainbow transforms sex | Person who gets to walk under, over or through the rainbow changes his or her sex |
| i94 | The Pleiades are openings | The Pleiades are holes in the firmament |
| i95 | The Pleiades are a sieve for grain | The Pleiades are a sieve to process agricultural products |
| i95b | Orion is a shoulder-yoke | Orion is a shoulder-yoke |
| j17 | Frogs in hair | Instead of lice, there are other (bigger or dangerous) creatures in the hair of some persons or he or she pretends that his or her hair is infested with them |
| j23 | A late son kills monsters | People (elder brothers, elder siblings, elder sister) disappear (one by one). A lonely woman has a baby or finds a baby or she becomes pregnant magically and gives birth to a boy or twins. The boy grows up, exterminates the antagonists, usually revives and releases those who had disappeared |
| j23c | Youngest brother kills monsters | People (elder brothers, elder siblings, elder sister) disappear (one by one). A lonely woman has a baby or finds a baby or she becomes pregnant magically and gives birth to a boy. The boy grows up, exterminates the antagonists, usually revives and releases those who had disappeared |
| j28b | A hot scone | A youth gets to know that a woman (usually his mother) conceals from him important information about his father, brothers or bride. He causes her pain (usually putting hot scone, handful of hot grain, etc. into her hand) making her tell him the truth |
| j32 | To identify the night thief | Some valuables (foals, hay, apples, etc.) are regularly stolen. Nobody (the elder brothers) is able to catch the thief and only the hero (the younger brother) finds who it is |
| j32a | To guard father’s grave | Before passing away a man asks his sons to guard his grave for a certain time or to bring something to his grave. The youngest son goes and obtains valuables |
| j32a1 | The night wreckers are horses | Every night somebody tramples down the grain field, steals hay, etc. The hero discovers that horses do it |
| j32d | Princess in a tower (The glass mountain) | The girl will marry a man who (riding on a horse or otherwise) would quickly reach a place that is almost inaccessible (the top of a tower, a mountain, the upper floor of a palace, the top of a staircase, bridge, the bottom of a deep cavity, etc.). Usually the girl herself is in the corresponding place |
| j41c | Trials before confrontation with the antagonist | A man sets off for a confrontation with dangerous adversary. On his way, he is suggested to fulfill difficult tasks and does it successfully. Usually the same tasks had been suggested before to another man who failed to fulfill them and was killed or imprisoned by the adversary |
| j62 | People turned into stones | Person transforms people who come to him or her into inanimate objects, usually stones |
| k10 | Fight with the monstrous bird | Monstrous bird (giant bat) predates on humans. Heroes fight with it |
| k100a | Tobias | A young man lets free a fish or an animal that was caught or he or his father renders a help to somebody. When the young man sets off for a journey, the grateful creature or person in guise of a stranger or animal becomes his companion and protector |
| k102 | Woman associated with the hero conspires in favor of his enemy | A woman who initially is friendly to the hero (his mother, sister, more rare his wife, sexual partner) begins to cooperate with his enemy. For this she provokes the hero to do something that is mortally dangerous for him |
| k102a2 | Conflict between mother and son | Mother tries to kill her son (children) because he interferes with her love affair
|
| k102a5 | To fill a vessel with tears | A woman must fill a vessel or two with her teas (rare: blood). Usually after this the time of her punishment will come to the end or the punishment depends on which of the vessels will contain more tears |
| k102b | To ride for the last time | To kill a boy (a girl), the antagonist first needs to get rid of his or her horse. When they are ready to kill the horse, the boy (the girl) rides on his horse away saving his or her life |
| k108 | A revived wife betrays her husband | Wife dies, husband revives her, she abandons him for another man and is punished |
| k112 | Farm-hand revenges on the Sun | A poor man condemns the Sun and other supernatural personages responsible for weather, wild animals, etc. that because of them he lost his property. He finds them and punishes them |
| k113a | To take wife where arrow falls | A young man shoots an arrow or throws an object on the off-chance He finds the girl to be married or something that helps to obtain her at the place where his arrow (other object) falls |
| k114 | Brothers leave home after their sister is born | Several brothers leave home immediately after their mother gives birth to a girl. Usually they do not want to have another brother and hope that this time a girl will be born but chance or by evil intent a signal is given that not a girl but a boy is born again. The brothers are disappointed and leave, the girl grows up and travels in search of them |
| k117 | Woman who never laughs (a bride) | A woman should marry a man who would be able to make her laugh; a man promises a reward to the person who would make laugh his daughter, mother or son |
| k117b | Stuck together | Using a magic object or spell, hero makes people (and animals) attached to the object or to each other |
| k118 | The prohibited room | Master of the house allows person to feel himself (herself) free bit not to look into particular place. The person breaks prohibition |
| k118a | A portrait of an unknown beauty | After seeing a portrait of an unknown beauty, a man is eager to meet her |
| k119 | Animal helper marries a poor boy to a princess | To make a poor man rich (usually to marry him to a rich girl or to marry a poor girl to a prince), an animal makes other people believe that the groom is rich already. The man becomes prosperous indeed |
| k11a1 | Birds emerge from the monstrous bird | Pierces of flesh or feathers of monstrous/unusual bird turn into common birds (or into their plumage) |
| k12 | Woman is lost and returned | By trick or by force, a rival or adversary kidnaps hero's wife or bride. The man gets her back |
| k120 | The averted incest (daughter and father) | A man is going to marry his daughter (rare: his stepdaughter; sometimes certain conditions are put on his future marriage and only his daughter complies with them). The girl gets to escape |
| k120a | The averted incest (sister and brother) | A man is going to marry his sister (often puts certain condition on his future marriage, only his sister complies with them). The girl gets to escape |
| k120a4 | To fill a vessel with tears | Person must fill a vessel (to cover a floor) with tears |
| k120a5 | Luring a woman to a ship | To trap a desired woman, person lures her to a ship (boat, flying machine, etc.) and carries away |
| k122 | Queen of the other world comes to identify the hero | A man gets to the powerful woman who lives in the world unreachable without the supernatural helpers, and then returns back. An imposter claims hero's deeds for himself. The powerful woman comes and finds the real hero, punishes (rejects) the imposter |
| k128 | Grazing animals to be preserved by a herdsman | A man had to graze animals or birds. If at least one is lost, the master would kill (not reward) him. Cf. K128B (ATU 570) |
| k128b | The rabbit-herd | King offers his daughter in marriage to whoever can herd (catch, tame, train) a particular number of rabbits (roosters, sheep, goats, geese, partridges) without losing any. A poor boy receives a magic whistle or other device with which he can summon the rabbits. In order to avoid the marriage, members (deputies) of the royal family (in disguise) try to but pne of his rabbits. The young man demands a degrading humiliating act and after the demands are fulfilled, the rabbit comes back to him. |
| k130 | Am I the most beautiful? | A woman (rare: a man) asks if she (he) is the most beautiful among female (men) folk and always receives a positive answer. It continues till she or he receives the negative one |
| k131b | Magic objects are exchanged and returned | A man loses a magic object that he got before but gets it back thanks to another object (a cudgel, a box with soldiers, etc.) that is exchanged for the first one or obtained by the man’s brother. The episode can be repeated several times |
| k133 | Foam-flecked horse | Every morning a horse is exhausted because animals or demonic creatures ride it at night |
| k135 | Seven with one stroke | A weak and timid man or boy overcomes accidentally powerful enemies and gets high esteem |
| k14 | Precious advices | A man gives his last money for simple advices. Each of them saves his life or helps to achieve success or he does not follow the advices and gets into trouble |
| k14d | The make believe crime | To test his wife (friend, member of his household), a man pretends to commit a crime or his behavior seems to be strange and deserved to be punished. At the last moment he presents evidence that proves his innocence |
| k150 | Horse eats coals | Magic horse eats (hot) coals, nails, etc. or they try to feed the horse with such a staff |
| k152 | The devil is frightened and runs away | A man saves a devil (snake, dangerous animal) who suffers from proximity of certain object or person. The grateful devil promises to enter a princess and abandon her as soon as the man comes to cure her. The man will get a reward but he should not try such a trick again. The man scares the devil forever telling him that the object or person of which the devil is afraid will be near soon |
| k152a | The evil woman and the devil in one pit | A man throws his evil wife into the pit or well. The devil (snake, predator animal, etc.) who had been there before is grateful when the man pulls him to the surface or jumps our himself: even he is afraid of the shrewish woman |
| k15b | Substituted barrel of water | Because containers with alive and dead water (one makes one stronger, another weaker) are imperceptibly exchanged, during the battle the hero drinks the alive water and overcomes his enemy who drinks the dead water |
| k160a | Demon’s answers to his wife’s questions | A woman who lives in the house of a supernatural person conceals the man who had come to her and puts questions to this person. The answers that are received and became known to the man are of great importance for him |
| k169 | Pregnant doe | A hunter spares life of an animal when he understands that it is pregnant female who reminds him his own wife, also pregnant |
| k174 | Fingering thrown into a pitcher | A person puts (usually inconspicuously) his or her fingering or other small personal object into a pitcher with which a servant (girl) has come to take water. The servant's mistress or master finds the ring and understands that the person is nearby |
| k176 | A man in search of the woman | A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife |
| k18 | Infant picks out his unknown father | A boy is born whose father or (rare) mother is unknown. He himself points at his parent who as a rule occupies the lowest social position. Usually many men (women) come together and everyone hopes that the boy points at him (her) |
| k181a | To put the arm on the back of a horse | When a man puts his arm on the back of a horse, the horse gives way, falls. It is a sign of the man’s unusual strength |
| k182 | The deceived defender | Supernatural person comes to help every time when he hears a signal of alarm but refuses to do it since the signal was given without a reason |
| k182a | The sleeping defender | Mighty hero is retired to the cave (tomb etc.) will come back to the world (to help his people) or he could come but decided not to do it |
| k18d | A lazy boy and a fish | A lazy (stupid) boy releases a fish (frog, serpent, supernatural being) which gives him a power of making all his wishes come true; he marries a princess |
| k1f | Conflict because of a woman | A man maroons another because of jealousy or because he plans to take hold of his wife |
| k2 | The destroyed ladder | Hero climbs up (e.g. to a tree) or down (e.g. into a deep cave) by ladder, rope, from branch to branch, etc. The rope etc. breaks or is intentionally destroyed and the hero cannot return to the ground. (All cases of motif K2A, besides the Koreans, also contain motif K2) |
| k24 | Stolen clothes of supernatural woman | Women (rare: men) who possess supernatural power and usually come from a non-human world (from sky, from under the water, they are winged beings, bird- or animal-persons; rare: a girl of higher social status than the hero) take off their clothes (feather skins and the like) or part of it. Because a person hides the clothes (of one of them), their owner(s) have (has) to marry him or help him (rare: her) |
| k24a | Supernatural male hides clothes of human girl | Supernatural male person (often a snake, a dragon) hides clothes of a human girl or sits on it. To return her clothes she had to become his wife |
| k25 | Magic wife | A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world |
| k25a1 | Magic wife finds her clothes | Magic wife abandons her mortal husband when she finds her clothes (often, her feathers if she is a bird-woman), makes herself the new clothes, receives them from her kin or her husband gives her her clothing believing that she will not abandon him. (Versions with magic wife abandoning her husband because she feels herself offended is not alternative to the “found clothes but in most of the texts these motifs are not combined) |
| k25a2 | Thrown down feathers | Person flies (makes attempt to fly) away after sticking feathers to his or her body dropped by migratory birds that fly above in the sky |
| k27 (motif is not in the correlation table) | Competitions and difficult tasks | Person is suggested to fulfill tasks that are mortally dangerous or cannot be fulfilled without supernatural helpers or capacities. The person fulfills the tasks and remains alive. A contest between persons has form of a competition or game in which the loser is deprived of his status or life |
| k27e | Eating or drinking contest | Person or animal must eat (drink) enormous quantity of food (beverage) or eat or drink poisonous beverage or food |
| k27f | The task: to get a woman | A task-giver asks the hero to get for him a particular woman |
| k27f1 | To build a bridge | Person builds a bridge (usually of gold etc.) during a very short time |
| k27g | Ordeal: to bathe in a boiling liquid | Person is ordered to bathe in a (boiling) milk or other hot liquid or to jump into fire. He remains unharmed but his adversary usually dies |
| k27g4 | To plow, to sow and to reap in one day | During impossibly short time person must to realize all works of agricultural cycle and to present food made of new crops |
| k27n | Difficult tasks of the in-laws | A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage |
| k27n1 | Task-giver is a king or a chief | Person who gives difficult tasks to the hero and/or person who demands the fulfillment of certain conditions from those who want to marry his daughter is a prominent figure in social hierarchy. He is a head of the socio-political unit of community or super-community level and is neither a member of the hero’s household nor a mythical being |
| k27nn | Envious minister | Not the powerful person himself but his official or adviser tries to get rid of the hero and suggests that the person should give the hero difficult tasks |
| k27p1 | Antagonistic father-in-law acquires guise of an animal | When father-in-law (rare: mother-in-law) asks the hero to killl or to tame a dangerous animal or not to kill certain animal during a hunt, he (she) turns into this animal himself or transforms into it his daughter(s) or wife (husband) |
| k27q2 | To bring musical instrument | Hero is sent to get musical instrument, usually a (self-playing) psaltery |
| k27u | Hide-and-seek | Hero and his adversary play hide-and-seek. The hero finds his adversary but the adversary cannot find him |
| k27w | Monster brought by the hero kills the task-giver | Task-giver asks to bring him dangerous being or object possessed by a moster or deity. Hero fulfills the task. The beast, monster, deity or the object itself kills the task-giver |
| k27x1 | Invisible servant (“Bring don’t know what”) | Hero receives a difficult task (usually to bring an object or creature that have no particular indications and properties) and comes across an invisible person who is a powerful and well-disposed servant to anybody who becomes his master. The hero is kind with him and the person helps him |
| k27x3 | The man persecuted because of his beautiful bride | A powerful person coverts a beautiful bride or wife of a man and gives him impossible tasks to get rid of him |
| k27x3a | Recognition by magic wife’s towel | When the hero goes to fulfill a difficult task, his magic wife gives him her towel or handkerchief and orders to use only them (usually her relatives recognize him as their son-in-law when they see the object in question) |
| k27x5 | Helpful persons of different age | Setting off for a search of a woman or magic objects, a man comes across several (usually three) supernatural (often demonic) persons who help him. All the persons are similar but usually every next one is older (younger) than another |
| k27x8 | The frog directs to the aim | The hero (heroine) is in search of the place that is not achievable for common people. Only the frog (toad) knows the way (and helps to achieve destination) |
| k29a | Surviving in a fire | Hero demonstrates his supernatural abilities remaining alive in a burning hot chamber, stove, bonfire, among burning vegetation |
| k29d | The drunk elephants | When water in a spring is replaced with alcohol, honey, etc. or bottles of alcohol seem to be left without supervison, a creature of person becomes drunk and is caught |
| k2a | Hero marooned in the underworld | Hero is sent to the lower world though a well, precipice, etc. After he obtains valuables (young women), his envious companions cut the rope to get rid of him but he succeeds in returning back |
| k2b | The Mountain-man and the Oak-man | The pastimes or only names of the hero’s companions are unusual and different but their specific qualities that they must possess considering their names are irrelevant for the plot. Cf. motif K66, “Extraordinary companions” |
| k32 | The false wife | An ugly, old, lazy, etc. woman or (in Chaco) a male trickster comes to man under disguise of his wife or bride who is driven out, confined to the underworld, killed, etc. |
| k32d | Sister sent to feed geese, servant taken for the sister | A girl (rare: boy) is walking to her or his relations or to her bridegroom. On the way the imposter lures her (him) to exchange clothes and takes her (his) place while the real girl (boy) is sent to look after crops or fee domestic fowl or animals. People hear her (his) song in which all the story is told. The deception is disclosed, the imposter killed |
| k32g | Punishment: torn apart by horses | To punish an antagonist, he or she is tied to a horse (camel, bull) and dragged or he or she is torn apart (usually by horses) |
| k32g1 | Forty horses or forty knives? | Person is asked to choose between objects that have utilitarian value, often forty (seven, etc.) horses or forty knives. Usually the person does not understand that the question is about different kinds of execution |
| k33 | Drowned woman remains alive | A young woman is transformed into an animal, pushed into the water, into the underworld or she herself has to plunge into water (acquire animal form). Her connection with the human world is not completely lost, however, and usually she is helped to return to the people |
| k35a1 | Not to pick up a feather of fire-bird | On his way a man picks up a precious feather (often despite the warning of his magic horse). When a powerful person gets to know about the feather he tells the man to fulfill difficult tasks |
| k35a7 | The fertile feather | Person finds a feather that has a quality to make alive beings healthy and handsome |
| k37 | Recognition-test | To return or to get his or her son, wife, husband, domestic animal or (rare) object, person must recognize her, him or it among several identical persons, animals or objects |
| k37a | To recognize a man | Person must recognize her (or his) son or husband among several identical persons or animals |
| k38 | Hero helps the nestlings | For helping its children, their powerful mother or father who is a giant bird or (rare) other flying being helps the hero |
| k38a | White and black rams | Getting to the underworld, hero should take a white ram (horse) which would carry him back to earth. By chance, he takes the black one which carries him even deeper to the lower level of the underworld. Or the hero grabs not the right but the left horn of the animal and because of this gets to the wrong place |
| k38b | The nestlings and the aggressive snake | A serpent or water monster regularly devours or injures children of a bird or other flying creature (almost always nestlings of giant bird). The hero kills the serpent (monster) |
| k38d | Monster blocks waters | A monster blocks sources of water (or sends floods) and usually gives some (promises not to send floods) in exchange for human victims or valuables. Hero kills the monster |
| k38e | Of copper, of silver, of gold | Loci or objects of three (rare – four) different materials are mentioned in such a way that all of them have positive connotations though unequal value (copper, silver and gold; silver, gold and diamonds, etc.) |
| k38f | The dragon-slayer | A reptile monster demands humans (usually virgins) as a sacrifice or abducts a girl or closes sources of water. Hero kills him. Monster’s victims do not play an active part in the plot |
| k38f4 | Fire-breathing monster | From the mouth of a monstrous creature or person who is the enemy of the hero fire is coming out; its breath is fire |
| k39 | Man feeds his own flesh to a creature who helps him | Person has to feed powerful creature (usually a giant bird) giving it regularly pieces of meat. When meat supply is exhausted, he cuts off a piece of his own flesh |
| k49 | Dead mother returns to nurse her baby | A woman who is transformed into animal or driven out of the human world returns to her baby to feed and to care for him |
| k52c | The flood in a dwelling | A shaman, wizard or other character with magical powers demonstrates his skill. The dwelling in which he and other people are situated begins to fill with water. It is sometimes said that this water is an illusion and that the people also see animals (waterfowl, fish or marine mammals) swimming around |
| k56 | The kind and the unkind girls | One of (step)sisters, co-spouses or young female neighbors meets a being that is able to reward and to punish. She behaves herself properly and is rewarded. Another (other) girl comes to the same being but behaves in a wrong way and is punished (not rewarded). |
| k56a2a | To wash herself in the red water | The girl becomes beautiful or ugly after washing herself in the water of particular color |
| k56a4f | The unkind girl becomes ugly | The supernatural person does not like the behavior of the unkind girl and punishes her making her ugly (disfigured) |
| k56a6 | Food asks to be eaten | On the way to the non-human world people or objects ask a child (a young girl) to taste certain food or to fulfill some work. The child (girl) does (rare: does not) what she was asked to do and thanks to this achieve his or her destination and safely returns |
| k56b | The worthy man is rewarded, the unworthy punished | First one, then another man meets a powerful person or persons. The first man is worthy and rewarded with treasure, prestige or the like. The second man (or two men) follows him, behaves in a wrong way and is punished |
| k56e | Two humpbacks | Two men have a similar defect (a hump, a lump). One spends a night in a place where spirits free him from his defect. Another comes to the same place but spirits double his defect giving him what they had taken off from the first man |
| k60b | Invitation to coffin | Person is lured into a trap being invited to lie in a box or a hole to measure it. Being unable to liberate himself from the box etc., the person remains in power of his enemies |
| k65 | Genii loci | Being thrown out, put into certain places, born by primeval couple some beings turn into spirits of particular loci |
| k65a | Spirits fall from the sky | Being thrown down (usually from the sky), some beings get to different places and turn into spirits or animals with particular functions and names |
| k66 | Extraordinary companions | Several companions have extraordinary abilities (one who runs fast, one who eats great quantities, one who produces or can withstand severe frost, etc.); a hero comes across and takes for companions several men, each of them being involved into a special and unusual activity |
| k66a | The land and water ship | The man who is able to build (to get) a ship which can fly (travel on land) marries the princess (inherits property) |
| k67a | A drowned wife | A man who has a low social position is a nuisance for persons of high position. He gets to know that they plan to drown him or his preperty (rare: to strangle him) and tricks them to drown instead one of them or their own property |
| k67b | Bargain not to become angry | Person of a low social position (a man) makes an agreement with a person of high social position (an ogre) that the master must never become angry with the servant. The servant abuses the master until the latter erupts in anger and has to be severely punished or to pay a great fee |
| k67c | Skin ribbon ripped off from the back | Person agrees that under certain conditions another may rip off some skin from his back or cut off his ears, nose, etc. |
| k67d | Flight of the master with his goods in the bag | A master (ogre, devil, wife) tries to get away from his farmhand (her husband). The farmhand hides in the master’s bag (chest) so that the master unwittingly takes him along |
| k67h | The bear in the cattle-shed | When the farmhand is sent to the place where he is expected to be killed by wild beasts, he subdues them, brings home and lets into the cattle-shed (stable), and the beasts destroy the master’s cattle (pigs, horse) |
| k73b1 | Mother and child in a barrel | A woman with her new-born child (or a woman pregnant with a boy) or a young girl and a young boy is put into a barrel (box, skin bag, boat) and thrown into the sea (river) |
| k74 | Hero, his companions and a dwarf | The hero and his companion or companions live together. Every morning one stays at home while another or others go to hunt, etc. A demonic person comes, eats up all the food and beats the cook. Or the man who remained at home comes to the demon himself in search of fire and is maltreated by him. The hero kills or neutralizes the demon |
| k74a | Only the hero gets to overcome the demon whose track he then follows | Every time a demon commits an outrage upon one of the men who remains at home. When it is the hero’s turn, he overcomes the demon and follows his track to his world |
| k75 | The youngest daughter is willing (The loathsome bridegroom) | A girl (usually the youngest of several sisters) does not reject but marries a poor, sick, dirty, old, too young, non-human, etc. man who later demonstrates his supernatural qualities |
| k75a3 | The groom | The unrecognized hero works as a groom for the powerful person |
| k77b | The animals in night quarters (Bremen town musicians) | Domestic animals abandon their masters. They find an empty house or build a house. Robbers or the predator animals come there. The domestic animals attack (or just frighten) them. The robbers (predators) do not understand who are their enemies, are scared and run away |
| k77b1 | The wolf flees from the wolf-head | When domestic animals meat the predators, they – deliberately or unintentionally – behave in such a way that the predators escape in panic |
| k79 | Snake serves an example of resuscitation | Person in a desperate situation gets to see how a snake or other small animal uses remedy to revive or to cure itself or other animals. The person uses the remedy, succeeds |
| k80a | A bird or an object tell about a murder | An object or a creature that emerged from remains, decorations, etc. of a killed person tells about his or her fate. Usually a reed grows from the person's grave and a pipe made from the reed tells the story |
| k80a1 | Bird tells about a murder | A bird (that usually emerges from the remains of a murdered person or being incarnation of his or her soul) punishes the murderer or tells people about the crime |
| k80a2 | Pipe tells about a murder | Body part of a murdered person or a plant that grew on the place of the crime tells people about the crime |
| k80b | My mother slew me, my father ate me | The (step)mother kills or orders to kill her small (step)son, eats him or feeds his flesh to her husband. The son revives, usually in the form of a bird who tells about the crime.
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| k81 | The handless girl | For minor offence or because of false accusation a young girl or woman is maimed and expelled from home (rare: killed or she kills herself). The maimed person magically obtains her body integrity (the dead revives) |
| k82 | Evil sister-in-law | Wife of a man or wives of a group of brothers envy his (their) sister and tries (try) to destroy her |
| k83 | The sons on a quest for a wonderful remedy for their father | To cure a sick person or to make him (rare: her) young again it is necessary to bring a remedy from a distant country. The medicine is brought and the sick person is cured (becomes young) |
| k84 | Sisters married to animals | Young man gives his sisters to the first bridegrooms who claim them. These are demons or animals who usually later help him |
| k88 | The two travellers (Truth and Falsehood) | Two men travel or argue about whether truth or falsehood (justice or injustice, etc.) is more powerful. The evil one abandons the good one robbing or blinding (maiming) him but the good one gets back his sight and becomes rich. The evil one usually perishes |
| k8c | Jonah: swallowed by terrestrial animal | Person gets into the belly of ground animal or bird. He kills it from the inside and/or returns to earth by himself (i.e. not extracted by other people) |
| k8c1 | First swallowed by herbivorous animal and then by wolf | Tiny boy is first swallowed by chance by a big herbivorous animal and then carried away by a wolf began to eat the animal's offal |
| k92c | Wife is weaving, husband is selling | A princess or a fairy becomes the wife of a poor man. She weaves or embroiders a kerchief (or something else) and sends him to sell it. This is the first step to their ultimate success |
| k93 | Twin brothers and a woman | After a series of adventures and victories, the hero gets into trouble. His twin brother or the best friend follows his traces, gets across the same persons but overcomes the last enemy and revives (liberates) the hero |
| k93b1 | Conception from eaten fish | After eating a fish, the sterile woman gives birth to a son or twins |
| k93b3 | Boys, colts and puppies are born the same day | To have children, a woman eats a fish, apple or something else. A mare, a bitch or other domestic animals eat part of this food (often skin, broth, etc.). The woman gives birth to a boy (twins) a mare to colts, a bitch to puppies |
| k95 | The twining branches (united in death) | Two persons who loved each other (usually a man and a girl) are buried in one grave or not far from each other. After the burial something related to this event takes place (two plants grow up and stretch their branches to each other, smoke of two funeral pyres is merged, two birds flu out from the grave, two stars appear on the sky, etc.) |
| k96 | Fifty sons | Many brothers marry or have to marry in such a way that all their wives are (were) sisters |
| k97 | Now you are grieved as I was | A man is going to kill but spares a giant bird. Later when the bird carries him high in the air it pretends to drop him or to abandon him on a rock. This way the bird wants him to feel the same terror that it felt when the man was going to kill it. Or the bird first drops and picks up a man and he later makes the bird feel a similar terror |
| k99 | Prophecy of future sovereiniy | A young man or (rare) a girl has a (day-)dream that predicts his or her future triumph. The dreamer either conceals or reports its contest to his family and in both cases is punished for too high opinion of himself. In the beginning the dreamer sometimes sells his dream to another young man, who becomes the protagonist of the tale. Adventures that follow explain the contest of the dream. The youth becomes rich and happy (e.g. marries heiresses of two kingdoms, that in the dream were symbolized by two suns or a sun and a moon), the girl marries king's son |
| k99a | The father will humble himself before the son | A lad or a girl (often after having a prophetic dream) claims that he (she) will achieve extraordinary social position (usually that his or her parents, brothers, sisters will demonstrate signs of high respect to him or her). The lad (girl) is expelled out of the family but the prophecy is fulfilled |
| l100 | Transformation flight | A youth and a girl who run away from pursuer transform themselves into a pair of persons, creatures or objects (pond and duck, church and priest, etc.) in order to escape detection by the pursuer |
| l100e | The lover, the husband and the guest | Before coming in, a guest gets to notice that the housewife is with her lover. When the husband comes home, the guest pretends to possess magic object or the like that helps him to reveal where the good food and the lover are hidden |
| l103 | Obstacle flight (Atalanta type) | Treasure, or the like, is thrown back to tempt pursuer to delay |
| l103a | Relatives do not open the door for the girl | A girl or young woman runs away from the demonic person, knocks at the door of her house but her relatives do not open the door and she is devoured by the demon. (Musical instrument is made from her hair or bowels) |
| l104 | Fugitive and pursuer change guises | A fugitive turns in succession into different animals or objects. A pursuer does the same, every time becoming an animal or a person who is dangerous for the fugitive in his given guise |
| l106b | Journey to the other world in search of the lost object | In search of a lost object, usually carried away by water or wind, a girl or (rare) a boy comes to a powerful person, gets the object back and/or is rewarded. The object is related to the everyday life, it has no ritual significance and is not a weapon |
| l108 | The wolf and the kids | An (animal) person gives a signal (special song, etc.) to his relative or friend who lets him or her in. Antagonist imitates the person's voice or guise and the relative lets him in |
| l108b | The thin voice | To make himself unrecognizable by the victim, a predator or ogre modifies his throat or tongue mechanically (oils or burns it, asks blacksmith to remake it, etc.) |
| l108b1 | A smith makes the voice thin | Person asks the smith to make his voice thin |
| l108f | Lured from river-bottom | A person (a girl, a small boy) gets into the water and remains there. Antagonist lures him out imitating his father's or sibling's voice |
| l110 | The devourer | A demonic being swallows a multitude of people and animals. When it is killed and cut open, the swallowed ones come out alive or are revived |
| l114b | To bring ogre's property | Getting a task or by his own initiative, a trickster several times comes to a person (usually an ogre) and steals in succession objects in his possession or members of his family |
| l114c | To exchange clothes with ogre's daughters | Children or youths (usually a group of brothers) exchange clothes (headgears, ornaments, blankets, sleeping places) with their enemy’s children. The enemy kills his or her own children by mistake. Usually brothers get to the ogre or ogress and the youngest advices to exchange places (clothes, etc.) with ogre’s daughters). Outside of Europe the actors can be animals |
| l118 | Caught in a split log | (Animal) person provokes another to put a part of his body into a split log (between two planks, etc.) and removes the wedge |
| l120 | Snake-women turn into apple-trees | Hero listens in conversation of demonic beings who plan to turn into something edible, attractive, etc. and to destroy those who touch them. The hero neutralize the demons beforehand |
| l120a | Tongue of dragoness and the smith’s pincers | Hero hides in a smithy from a dragoness who pursues him. She destroys the door or wall (with her tongue) but the hero (smith) burns her (usually grips tight her tongue with his hot pincers or throws hot iron club in her mouth) |
| l15d | The external soul | Life of a person or creature is preserved outside of his (her, its) body. Person or creature dies after the corresponding object is destroyed |
| l15d1 | The feigned location of soul | Being asked where his soul (death) is located, person initially gives a false answer. The inquirer usually becomes to show concern to corresponding object or locus (decorates it, etc.) |
| l15h | The external soul: three or more objects one inside the other | An object that contains the life (soul) of a person is inside two or more creatures or other objects (like an egg in a duck, a duck in a hare, etc.) or the zoomorphic soul container tries to escape and turns in succession to other animals (three or more transformations) |
| l15h1 | Person’s soul is in the egg | An object that contains certain person’s soul / death is inside other object, the latter is in the third one (etc.). The last receptacle of the life is an egg |
| l17a | Eyes on the back of the head | Person or creature has another pair of eyes (or one eye) on the back of his head or (rare) on his back |
| l17b | Two faces | Person or creature has another face (another mouth) on the back of his (her, its) head |
| l19b | Beings with odd number of heads | Being (any besides birds) with more than ten heads or with odd (but more than one) number of heads are described in tales or represented in art. If beings with ever more number of heads are named, the row ends with a being that has odd (or more than ten) number of heads |
| l19b2 | The nine-headed monster | A monster with nine heads is mentioned either alone or at the end of the row of creatures with ever bigger number of heads |
| l19b3 | The twelve-headed monster | A monster with twelve heads is mentioned either alone or at the end of the row of creatures with ever bigger number of heads |
| l23 | Proteus | Person gets hold of another. Trying to free himself, the latter turns into different materials, elements, animals or (Urarina and Setebo) orders different dangerous creature to attack the person |
| l23a | Transformation into the fire | Being seized, person changes his or her guise in succession, one of the transformations is into the fire (and also into the water) |
| l23d | Metamorphosis of the caught female person | Being seized by a person, a female person turns into different materials, elements or animals (Urarina and Setebo: sends different dangerous creature to attack the one who caught her) |
| l37a | To get know causes of problems | |
| l37b | Secrets accidentally overheard | Person accidentally overhears secrets of animals or demons and thus gets to know the causes of his and other people's misfortunes |
| l37c1 | Luck (good or bad) as a person | Good or bad luck of a man are particular persons with whom the man meets |
| l42g | Hansel and Gretel | Step mother or more often father (persuaded by his wife) abandons children in a desolate place. Getting to the ogre or ogress, children (or at least one of them) survive and ultimately achieve success |
| l42g1 | Chops are heard, woodcutter is gone | Father (step mother) abandons children in the forest. He (she) hangs a plank (gourd, shoe, etc.) on a tree that is striking trunk under the wind. Children believe that he is still nearby cutting woods |
| l42i | Sister sets out to save her little brother | A demon carries away a little boy but his sister finds him, takes and back escapes from the pursuer. Usually the boy has three sisters but only the youngest one is successful |
| l65b | Dogs save their master | A demonic woman or (rare) her paramour or a monster is going to kill a man usually after driving him up a tree. At the last moment the man's dogs or other animals or birds who are the man's pets come and kill the demon |
| l81 | Demon’s fire | Person sets off in search of fire and finds it in the house of a demon. The demon makes harm to the person |
| l85 | One-sided people | One-sided people have one leg and/or also one arm, one half of a head, etc. The second leg is not cut or burned off, preserved as a stump but is absent completely |
| l90 | Mouth from the earth to the sky | Monster's upper lip (fang, horn, etc.) touches the sky, lower touches the ground |
| l90c | Horns reaching the sky and the earth | An animal (deer, ram, goat, bull, cow or wolverine) has the horns, one of which touches the ground, and the other one rises to the sky or reaches the heaven |
| l93a | Helpful fox | Cunning fox, jackal or coyote saves particular person or many people, helps them |
| l94 | Child promised to demon | A demon helps a man or a woman or lets him or her free. As a reward, the person is forced to promise to give the demon his child |
| l94a | Caught by his beard | A man, stooping down to water, is caught and held by his beard, and has to give the promise in order to be relieved |
| l94b | Give me what you do not know at home! | Person promises to give (sacrifice) to a supernatural the being that will be the first to come to him when he will return home (or something that he has never seen in his house, or an object that he will first see behind the door; etc.). The person thinks that it will be something insignificant but it is his own child |
| l94b1 | Demon puts the spilled treasure back into bag | A man receives a box or bag as a gift and is told that he should open it not before he comes to his place. The curious man opens it before time and everything that must make him rich (cattle, houses, etc.) falls out. A demon puts everything back but under certain condition. Usually the man does not understand that he promised to the demon his child |
| l94e``` | White wolf | Supernatural being who helps the hero (heroine) if the latter fulfills certain demands is the white wolf |
| l96 | Sold in animal’s guise and comes back | Person can transform himself or herself into an animal or an object. Being sold in this guise, he or she achieves his or her aims and becomes a human again |
| m101a | Animals learn to fear men | A big predator (bear, lion, tiger) boasts about being stronger than a man. Being told that it’s not so, he finds a man and suggests to struggle but is killed or badly injured as a result. Cf. motif M101 |
| m101b | Three men: the former, the future, the present one | A big predator is eager to see a man. He comes across a boy but gets to know that he will be a man later, then an old person who is not a man anymore. The encounter with the real man (hunter, soldier) has for the animal the unpleasant consequences |
| m106f | A guest from the paradise | A stranger tells a woman that he comes from the other world and had seen there her dead relative. The woman gives him money and goods for the latter. Usually when her husband goes after the trickster to retrieve the money, the trickster steals his horse |
| m106g | The cow is taken to the roof to graze | A cow (donkey, ox, etc.) is taken to the roof to graze grass that was grown there. Or the wife is raised with a rope on her neck |
| m109 | The tail-fisher | Animal person puts his tail (penis) down and waits in hope to get something edible. The tail (penis) is torn or cut off, the person escapes or dies |
| m109b | Sick animal carries the healthy one | A healthy animal tricks an injured one (a wolf, a bear) into carrying him on his back by pretending to be injured himself |
| m112 | Animals dig a well | An animal person refuses to dig or clean a source of drinking water together with other animals or birds but takes advantage of the results of the work |
| m112b | Animals build a road | When animals build a rode, some of them (mole, shrew, earthworm) refuses to take part in the work and are punished: cannot live under the sunshine |
| m113 | For certain bird water is taboo | During the hottest month of the summer or permanently birds of certain species are prohibited to drink from the water bodies. Usually they can quench their thirst only from rain drops and dew on leaves and cry calling for rain |
| m114 | Rope of sand | Person is suggested to twist (or he really twists) a rope or make other object of sand, ash, smoke, etc. |
| m114a | Clothes of stone | Person is suggested to make clothes of stone or iron or to skin a stone |
| m114b | Not clothed and not naked | When a person is suggested to make something and simultaneously not to make it or to make it differently than it could be made at all (to come clothed and naked, with and without a gift, etc.), he or she finds the solution |
| m114b1 | What is the fattest, sweetest, swiftest? | Answering to a question what is the fatties, sweetest, swiftest, etc., the clever person names abstract notions and non-material values (and a fool names particular objects or creatures) |
| m114b3 | Cloth from a handful of yarn and loom from three sticks | When a girl is asked to prepare cloth from a handful of yarn, she asks to prepare for her weaving tools from a straw (chip, small stick, etc.) |
| m114d1 | The boiled eggs: chicken should hatch tomorrow | Person wants another to receive chickens from (boiled) eggs (and grow a hen) during one day. The opponent suggests equally impossible task |
| m127a | The quail makes the fox laugh | Trickster animal asks a bird to make him laugh. The bird sits on the head of a woman (child, cow, etc.), other person tries to kill the bird, hits the wife (breaks cow's horn, etc.). Or the bird distracts person attention to let the trickster steal the person’s food |
| m128 | Speckled animals | Hero comes to an agreement with antagonist that he can take animals of particular appearance or with particular behavior and takes all or most of them |
| m13 | The short-sighted wish is granted | Some person makes a wish not taking in mind that his words can have other meaning or accidentally replacing one word with another. As a result, something quite undesirable takes place |
| m130 | Fox and bird in one hole | Fox and bird hide from a hunter together in one and the same hole. The bird makes believe he is dead and escapes (with the fox or alone) |
| m134b | Wolf measured by tailor | When a predator is going to eat a man, the latter asks permission first to measure him and beats with his (feigned) measuring tool |
| m135a | The wolf's reverses | Wolf (more rare other predator animal) comes to different (more than two species) domestic animals (animals and people) to eat them but agrees to fulfill their requests and remains without his meal and usually becomes beaten (killed) |
| m136 | Sickle as an unknown beast | Grain is harvested with inappropriate tools. Seeing sickle for the first time, people take it for a dangerous animal |
| m136b | Cutting off the branch | Man sitting on branch of a tree cuts it off and similar variants (man climbs a rope and cuts it off; men cut a tree and climb on it to fell it; man climbs with difficulty on a dead branch of a tree, which breaks off) |
| m136c | The man takes seriously the prediction of death | Considering indirect signs or somebody’s word, a numskull thinks that he is dead and lies motionless |
| m136d | The air castles | A person plans to turn his (future) possessions into a great wealth (milk, eggs, small money, animal to be killed, etc.) but imagining this wealth, he destroys what he already has (eggs are broken, the animal runs away, etc.). Or two persons are involved into quarrel about possessions that they do not yet have |
| m140 | The theft of fish | Trickster pretends to be dead, sick or weak and is picked up by those who carry something edible in a cart (sledge, boat, bag, etc.). The trickster secretly eats the food, often after throwing it out of the cart (sledge, etc.) |
| m141 | Animals in a pit | Several different animals get into a pit (well) and cannot climb out from it, They eat each other up until only one (usually the fox) is left and escapes from the pit |
| m141b | The animals flee in fear of the end of the world | A small bird or animal (chicken, cat, mouse, etc.) takes a trivial event (a leaf or an acorn falls, etc.) for a catastrophe (a war, the end of the world, the fall of the sky, etc.) and flees. Other animals share its fear and go along with it. |
| m142 | Fox blames his tail | Fox blames his tail for being useless when escaping from the pursuers (usually he punishes his tail and gets killed himself as a result) |
| m152 | Why only one wolf? | When a weak animal or a person gets to see a predator animal or an ogre, he says in a loud voice (or asks to say his wife or children) something that frightens the predator (ogre): why the predator (ogre) brought to him is lean (small; only one instead of several), or it is good that more food gets to his house, etc. The predator (ogre) runs away |
| m153 | Letter on the hoof | The wolf (lion, etc.) is going to eat a horse (mule, etc.). The horse asks him to look at his hoof (for different reasons) or eat him from his hindquarters forward; then he kicks him |
| m154b | The man who does his wife's work | Husband remains home instead of his wife (rare: son instead of his mother) but does everything wrong so as he suffers a series of accidents |
| m156 | The ungrateful one returned to captivity | An (animal) person saves a dangerous animal from a snare or the like. The saved one is going to kill his savior but the third person saves the second (usually tricks the first one to captivity again) |
| m157 | The impossible giving birth | Person claims that a man or a male animal had given birth (or is menstruating) or that a female gave birth to a young of another species or that a woman gave birth to an animal |
| m157a1 | Father is giving birth | Person proves the absurdity of the claims of another person saying that his or her father (or other man or a male animal) had given or is giving birth or is menstruating |
| m157a2 | Bull or cart gives birth | Person claims that a calf (colt, kid, etc.) was born (brought to the place) not by the cow (mare, etc.) of another person but by his own male animal (bull, stallion, etc.), his own animal of another species or by inanimate object (usually a cart) |
| m157a3 | To milk a bull | Person demands from the other to bring him an offspring or milk of a male animal |
| m157a4 | To fish on a hill | Person demonstrates the absurdity of the claims of another person saying that he (or somebody else) was fishing on a hill, putting out a fire spilling straw, looking how the fish fly etc. or he is imitating such an activity. Either the place chosen for the activity or the means are irrational |
| m157a6 | You imagine that you speak with the abbot | A man is not wise enough to answer questions put by a king (prince, etc.). His servant or friend takes his place and guise and gives clever answers. Usually one of the questions is like “What I think now?” and the answer, “You think that you speak with the abbot (minister, etc.) but I am a shepherd (a miller, etc.) |
| m158 | Tops or buts | Two animals (an animal and a person, an ogre and a person, etc.) agree to divide a crop in such a way that one would take what is above the ground and another what is beneath ground. One of them (several times makes a wrong choice (takes turnip tops and wheat roots) |
| m162 | Eating his own innards | Person pretends to eat his own innards or flesh and persuades the other to do the same. Other believes and kills themselves |
| m170 | Pilgrimage of the animals | An animal person pretends to have no other interests than to fulfill religious rules and prescriptions (to confess his sins, to make a pilgrimage, to become vegetarian, etc.) and kills those who have believed him |
| m176 | A test: to jump across an obstacle | (Animal) persons agree to jump across a brook, hole, fire or other obstacle or to walk upon a log, a rope and the like. One or all of them fall down |
| m180 | Fox and crane invite each other | An animal person invites another and serves his food in such a way that he is unable to taste it. Then the other invites the first animal and puts him in similar situation |
| m181a | Fire at the sunset | Person believes that unachievable natural phenomena are objects of culture. Usually he agrees to bring a the fire mistaking for it a sunset, a firefly, etc. |
| m185 | On the tail of the fast one (animals) | A slow and a fast animals (or not flying bird) agree to race. The slow one imperceptibly sticks to the fast one’s body (or to a vehicle) and getting to the finish pretends to come there simultaneously with the fast one or before him |
| m191 | Cat and wild animals | The fox (dog, squirrel) lives with the cat and poses him as a strong and dangerous animal. The wild predator animals are scared and bring him meat |
| m193a | The fleeing pancake | Колобок |
| m199 | Squeezing the (supposed) stone | A man or a weak animal and an ogre (giant, devil) have a contest to see which of them can squeeze a stone. The man squeezes a cheese (egg, turnip) and thus intimidates the ogre |
| m199b | Not a stone but a bird is thrown | An ogre (devil etc.) and a man compete to determine who can throw a stone higher or to a greater distance. The man throws not a stone but a bird. |
| m199c | Throwing a club | A man pretends that he had thrown or is going to throw a heavy object to the sky (to the clouds). His adversary asks him not to do it. |
| m199d | Wrestling and running contests | An ogre (devil, etc.) challenges a man to a wrestling and/or running contest. The man sends his “relative” – a bear to wrestle and a hare to run |
| m199f | Pulling the lake together | Person threatens the devils (water dwellers, etc.) that he will deprive them of their home (pull together or stir up a lake, dry the sea, build a church where the devils live, etc.). The devils (fish, etc.) fulfill person’s demands |
| m199g1 | Carrying a tree with an ogre | An ogre (devil, a strong animal, etc.) and a man (a weaker animal) carry a tree. The man tricks the ogre who carries the heavy bottom-end while the man sits on a branch or walks pretending to carry his burden |
| m199i | Screaming or whistling context | A man (boy) and an ogre (devil, bear, etc.) have a screaming or whistling context. The man uses a trick (binds ogre’s eyes and strikes him on his head with a heavy object; blows a horn at the ogre’s ear; pretends to bind their heads that they would not break because of his whistling, etc.). The ogre acknowledges the man to be stronger than he |
| m199m | It’s my granny’s spindle whorl | Walking together, a man and a demon come across heavy objects like a harrow or a quern that lie on the ground. The man explains that they are but small decorations or working tools used by his (grand)mother like a comb or a spindle whorl |
| m199n | Counting out pay | The demon has to give the man a hat (boot, bag or other container) full of gold. The man plans his hat (pot etc.) with a hole in it in such a way that the gold falls out of the container as soon as it is put into it. The man gets enormous treasure |
| m29b | Trickster-fox, jackal or coyote | In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is fox, jackal or coyote |
| m29b1 | The wolf is a failure | Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the wolf suffers a reverse, is injured or dies |
| m29b2 | The bear is a failure/enemy | Because of its stupidity or unsocial behavior, the bear suffers a reverse, is injured or dies |
| m29z1 | The Bald-headed | A bald person acts in narratives (thence his usual name: Taz, Tazchi, Kal, Keloglan, Kechal etc.) |
| m39a | Fool takes off boots from animals’ legs | Two or three brothers live together (with their mother). One of them makes stupid actions like (all or some of them): lets free animals that got into a snare but kills his mother; cuts off the legs of domestic animals or flays them; thinks that a certain place on a head of a baby is a tumor, sucks baby's brains out; cuts a cloth into pieces and ties them to reeds of to branches of a tree; hearing a murmur of water throws food into the water; tries to build a hut not on a river bank but in the river |
| m39a | Fool takes off boots from animals’ legs | Two or three brothers live together (with their mother). One of them makes stupid actions like (all or some of them): lets free animals that got into a snare but kills his mother; cuts off the legs of domestic animals or flays them; thinks that a certain place on a head of a baby is a tumor, sucks baby's brains out; cuts a cloth into pieces and ties them to reeds of to branches of a tree; hearing a murmur of water throws food into the water; tries to build a hut not on a river bank but in the river |
| m39a2a | A fool buys spoons and a table | A fool buys wooden spoons and a table. He orders the table to walk because it has legs and throws the spoons away because they rattle when he is walking. Both episodes are usually found in the same story |
| m39a2b | A fool salts the river | A fool buys salt or sugar but throws them into a river to salt or to sweeten the water |
| m39a3a | The oiled ground | Fool gets to see objects that are cracked (stumps, ground, ice) and oils them with sympathy |
| m39a4c | Conversation of the fool with a bird | Hearing the cry of a bird (often, an owl) and thinking that the bird speaks with him, the fool eventually finds treasure |
| m39a5a | The sausage rain | Because telling the truth a stupid son (wife, husband)) can bring misfortune upon the family, his mother (wife; her husband) mystifies him (her) making him or her describe events that are definitely impossible. People take him (her) for a fool and let alone. |
| m39a5a1 | The chicken army | Husband (mother) understands that his stupid wife (her son) can report about certain deeds of the family members and inflict a severe punishment. The fool is put into a hole (barrel, etc.), covered with a skin and the domestic fowl is let to pick up the grain above it. The fool takes the knocking for the attack of the birds, the rain of stones, etc. See motif m39a5a
A woman plants fish in the field where her husband is sure to plow them up. He finds them and believes that the fish got there by itself. People take him for mad.
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| m39a5b | Husband discredited by absurd truth | A woman plants fish in the field where her husband is sure to plow them up. He finds them and believes that the fish got there by itself. People take him for mad. |
| m39a6g | Four coins (The sharing of bread and money) | Man explains that one part of his incomes he puts out at interest while another part is used to pay debts, i.e. he cares for his children and keeps up his parents |
| m39a6h | Plucking geese | King asks a commoner to pluck (skin, milk, cut) a goose (geese, other birds, animals) that he sends him. The commoner understands correctly that he is allowed to fleece a courtier |
| m39a8 | A fool carries a door on his back | A fool or a buffoon takes the door of the house and carries it on his back |
| m39c | Pumpkin sold as a donkey’s egg | A numskull finds or buys an unknown fruit (pumpkin, melon, etc.). He mistakes it for an egg of a donkey (mare. camel, etc.). When he drops it or throws it off he scares a hidden hare (rabbit, fox, mouse, etc.). The fool thinks the fugitive is a young animal hatched from the egg |
| m39g | Girl bewails the loss of her child before she has any (Clever Elsie) | Girl bewails the loss of her future child before she has any; thinking about an event that could have been tragic; is jealous of her sisters before any of them have fiancée; thinks out the name of her child that does not exist instead of coming to meet her fiancée. |
| m39g1 | Jumping into the breeches | A fool does not know how to pull on his breeches (boots) and jumps down into them from a high place |
| m57c | Gold producing animal | An animal (ass, cow, horse, goat, bear, leopard) extracts gold or food from its body or person makes others believe that it is so |
| m57d | Beat, cudgel! | Person gets one by one magic objects that bring food or treasure. Other people replace them with common objects or take them away by force. The person takes his property back (usually beating the thieves with magic cudgel or whip) |
| m57d1 | Bird presents objects and fulfills wishes | A bird gives a man several magic objects in succession (or one object which helps to get others) or fulfills in succession a series of his wishes |
| m57d3 | Wind grants a wish | Wind person grants a wish to a man |
| m57d4 | Frost grants a wish | Frost grants a wish to a person |
| m62a | Quarrel provoked by action [not in correlation table] | Hero imperceptibly causes detriment to two persons or creatures. They accuse each other and fight |
| m74a | Strange names of the babies | An animal person pretends to be invited to be godfather or he gives names to different places along which he travels in a sledge, boat, etc. The names look strange but become understandable when other people or animals get to know that their companion has devoured all the supplies |
| m74aa | Theft of food by playing godfather | An animal person pretends (several times) that he has to make a visit (that he has been invited to be godfather at a baptism or invited to a funeral or wedding) but instead eats secretly food supplies |
| m74b | Who has eaten up the fat? | To demonstrate that the thief who had eaten food supplies is somebody else or to declare somebody else as a victim to be eaten up, animal person smears his sleeping companion with remains of the food or body excretions (exchanges the excretions)
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| m75b1a | The predestined wife | A man (usually of high social position) learns by a prediction that a (newborn) girl will be his future wife or a girl from rich family gets to know that her future husband is a poor man. The man (the girl, something else) attempts to kill the predestined marriage partner but only wounds her or him. After the wedding it becomes clear that the prediction is fulfilled |
| m78 | A tiny boy (Thumbling) | Tiny boy as small as a thumb, a pea and the like taunts people, predator animals, ogres |
| m83b | Whose dream is better? | Two (or more) (animal)-persons agree that whichever of them has the most wonderful dream may eat all the food. The first one tells about a feast that he participated in his dream. His companion answers that he was sure that after such a feast (after getting into the paradise, etc.) the first one would not need the food, so he has eaten it alone |
| m84 | Revived from bones | Person, animal, fish or (rare) a fruit is eaten up and then revived, usually after all bones (all seeds) being put together |
| m84a | Goat resuscitated | Supernatural beings kill and eat an animal and then put all the bones together (in the animal's skin). After the feast the animal becomes whole (and usually revives) |
| m85 | The fox bluffs | An animal person (usually a fox or a jackal) threatens to cut down a tree on which mother bird (squirrel) made its nest unless she will throw down one of her nestlings (squirrel children) or eggs. Another bird lets the mother bird know that the predator is unable to realize his threat |
| m91 | The killed corpse | Person pretends that a person (often his or her mother, spouse or lover) who recently died is alive, claims that the death of the false alive resulted from negligence of others and gets a reward |
| m91b1 | The sold skin | A man goes to sell a skin of domestic animal and on his way, by trick or thanks to chance, gets a big sum of money. Usually coming back he explains that this was the price of the skin but when other people kill their animals they cannot sell skins for such a sum. (In India the hero sometimes pretends to sold cow meat to brahmins for whom it is forbidden) |
| m91c1 | Herd from the river bottom | Person gets other person’s possessions by trick (or pretends to get it; usually another person is drowned instead of him) and then demonstrates his possessions (usually a herd) and explains that he had received everything at the river bottom. His enemies believe him |
| m91c2 | Put into the bag | Person is put into a bag (a cage, tied up, etc.) to be drowned, burned, etc. He pretends to be in this situation by his own will or because he refuses to marry a princess, to become a chief and the like. Another person is willing to take his place and is killed |
| n10 | The transparent body | A woman (rare: a man) with transparent body is described. This transparence is an evidence of the beauty |
| n10a | The transparent bones | A woman (rare: a man) with transparent body is described: bones are seen through the skin and marrow through the bones. This transparence is an evidence of the beauty |
| n14 | Storyteller on the wedding | Closing formula of the folktale: the teller represents himself as being present at the wedding and/or feast, which were organized by characters of the tale |
| n21 | The Dough-strong man | The warrior-hero was made of dough and then became alive (his name is “The Dough”) |
| n27 | The milk of birds | Bird’s (hen’s) milk is mentioned in fairy tales, riddles and proverbs as something very rare and difficult to obtain |
| n27c | The bird has no milk | It is claimed that the bird has no milk and/or breasts |
| n28b | Ladder to the sky | In a list of things that do not exist in the world, a ladder or stairway to the sky (variant: a ladder in the sky) is mentioned |
| n28f | Water has no boughs | It is said that water has no boughs or twigs |
| n28h | Horse has no horns | In a list of things that do not exist in the world, horns of the horse are mentioned |
| n32 | Sitting on several trees | It is told about an ornithomorphic person or creature that he is sitting on several (three or more) trees |
| n33 | Pressing adversary into the ground | The hero presses his adversary into the ground or both of them press each other (ankle-, waist-, breast-deep and the like) |
| n6 | Horse tells to whip him strongly | A horse tells his rider to whip him with such force that his blood would splash out, skin would come off, flesh would be gashed to the very bone, etc. The rider follows these instructions |