| Motif | Name | Description |
| a2 | Several suns | In a certain time in the past three or more suns were on the sky simultaneously |
| a21 | Luminaries are objects fixed in the sky | The sun and/or the moon are inanimate objects thrown up to the sky or fixed in the sky |
| a2a | The sun is a source of distructive heat | The world was or will be (almost) burned when several suns had (will) appear(ed) simultaneously; or the only sun was too hot (or bright) |
| a2b | Extra suns and moons annihilated | Other suns or moons besides present ones had been in the sky and were later annihilated |
| a2b1 | The last sun | Two or more suns shine in the sky. When the extra suns had been annihilated, there was a risk of the last one being destroyed too |
| 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) |
| a37 | The Sun is attacked with weapons | Person intentionally and with special equipment (usually shooting arrows) attacks the Sun (or several suns if they were many) |
| a37a | Shooter hides underground | Small animal (marmot, rabbit, mole, toad, frog) or person who turns into this animal tried to hit the Sun with arrows and since then has been hiding from the Sun in underground holes or in the water |
| a4 | Female sun | The Sun is female, the Moon is male or (more rare) also female |
| a46 | The Sun and Moon emerge from the eyes of a being | The Sun and Moon (Rig-Veda: the Sun only) appear from eyes of an anthropomorphic being |
| a46a | The Sun and Moon are eyes of a deity | The Sun and Moon (Rig-Veda: the Sun only) are associated with eyes of an anthropomorphic being (the motif of their emergence, creation from his eyes is not obligatory) |
| a4a | The Sun dazzles eyes | Modest Sun-woman dazzles (usually pricks with needles, i.e. the sun rays) eyes of those who look at her |
| b12 | Rivers and snakes | The river bed follows the way of a snake, fish, dragon or crab; pieces of the snake’s body turn into rivers; a river is a snake |
| b43 | Purusha | Parts of the body of the primeval person or creature are transformed into different elements of the landscape and parts of the universe |
| b6 | A man and a woman move around a post and meet each other | The first or the only survived man and woman move in different directions around a post, a hill, etc. When they come together they marry each other |
| b77 | Primeval sky close to earth | Originally the sky was close to the earth, then it has risen up |
| b77a | Giant pushed the sky up | One or several (animal)-persons push sky up to its present height |
| 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) |
| b7b | Waters from broken pot | Sea, river, waters of flood flow out of a small receptacle |
| c1 | The collapse of the sky | Catastropic displacement of layers of the univers in the past or in the future is mentioned. Among variants (sometimes combined):
the sky fell on the earth; the earth (the underworld) and the sky interchanged their positions; the earth turned upside down; the layers of the universe collapsed in one after another; they will change their place during the future cataclysm
|
| c2 | Deluge and conflagration combined | Inhabitans of the Middle World are (partly) destroyed (or will be destoyed) once by fire or draught, another time by a flood or the world is destroyed with a flood of fire or boiling water |
| c39 | The repaired sky | When part of the sky was broken, the hole was filled up with stones or pieces of ice |
| c39a | Heaven repaired with ice | A crack in the sky or a fissure in the earth was repared with ice. Because of this the northern (northwester, northeatsren) wind is cold |
| c41 | Why the sky is blue | In the beginning the sky has no particular colour. When certain person covers it with a blue cloth or makes something else, the sky acquires its present colour |
| c7 | The flood: breaking the dam | In the beginning of times or after the flood a dam of earth, person or creature does not let water to recede. The dam is broken or opened, waters withdraw |
| c8 | The couple of close relations originates the mankind | In the beginning of time or after the natural disaster brother and sister, mother and son, or father and daughters are the only human beings. They marry and the present day people are their descendents |
| c8a | Grinding stones match | Being alone and having no other marriage partners, brother and sister agree to marry each other if a highly improbable event or a series of events will take place. Among the events that take place (alternatively or one after the other) are 1) the siblings let two grinding stones roll from two mountains, the brother's stone falls on the sister's one; 2) brother and sister throw two swords from two mountains, both swords get into one sheath; 3) they throw some objects up, the objects get together; 4) they kindle two fires, columns of smoke get together; 5) they put to grow two stems of bamboo, tops of the stems get together |
| c8a2 | The stone lion | The lion (often the stone lion) helps to suvive the flood |
| c8aa | Brother and sister beget the people | In the beginning of time or after the natural disaster brother and sister are the only human beings. They marry and the present day people are their descendents |
| c8b | Siblings change their looks and marry | In the beginning of time or after the world catastrophe brother and sister or mother and son are the only humans. They reject marriage or only the man does not want to marry his sister or mother. After their looks are changed (or only the sister or mother changes her face) they take each other for strangers, marry and beget the new race |
| c9 | Warning about the coming flood | God, animal, some person warns one of the people about the catastrophy (usuallly the flood) that will become soon and in which most of the people must perish |
| d1b | Male spirit of fire | The fire is personified as an elder man (alone or with his wife, mistress of fire) |
| d4a | Theft of fire | Fire is stolen from its original owner or brought back to the people from somebody who had stolen it before |
| d4l | Fire from the sky | First fire is sent to earth from the sky or the ancestors ascend to the sky and bring from there fire or warmth |
| e17 | Origin of design | Humans acquire (the idea of) ornamentation of the vessels, baskets, body, etc. or the idea of the system of signs after somebody gets to see the pattern on the body of zoomorphic and/or supernatural creature |
| e1a1 | Becoming sodden under the rain (origin of cripples) | Deity or ancestor makes people from mud. Some figures become sodden under the rain and this is the reason why some people have physical defects |
| e38a | Woman gives birth to many embryos | Woman gives birth to a gourd, a bag (with eggs), a piece of meat. The flesh is cut into pieces which turn into people or many people come out of the gourd or bag |
| e9h | Dove-wife | A man marries dove-woman |
| f1 | First woman is a transformed man | Woman, female supernatural or animal females are created by changing the sex of a man (or male animals) |
| f39 | The time of women | The women dominated over the men in the past or in a far away land, were the active part in marriage relations, practiced activities which now are reserved of the men only. Or the women could obtained supremacy but failed to do it for some reason |
| f51 | The clandestine lover | Person who conceals his or her identity comes to his or her lover (at night). Next time, the lover puts a mark on the stranger's face, body or clothes doing this intentionally (to recognize him or her) or by chance (that leads to the identification) |
| f51b | Following the thread | To get know the nature or locality of a person, another fastens a thread to his body and follows it |
| f76 | Animals teach to make love | People learn to copulate after they see birds, fish or animals doing it |
| 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) |
| g9 | Restored forest | People fell trees to make a garden. In the morning, the forest is intact again |
| h4 | The shed skin | Those who change their skin become young again |
| 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 |
| h5 | People and snakes | Reptiles or invertebrates possess the medicine of immortality; are contrasted with men as immortal with mortals and/or are responsible for originating of death; or a snake's bite inflicts the first death |
| h7e | Humans knew the time of their death | In the year before they were to die, people neglected their responsibilities (they repair fences with temporary materials). Therefore, God decided that they should not know in advance when they will die |
| i11 | Cosmic turtle or toad | A turtle, toad, or frog supports the earth (sky) or is its embodiment |
| i111 | The earth is a reptile | The earth is the body of a crocodile or a dragon |
| i60 | Milky Way is a seam in the sky | Milky Way is a sky seam, a concealed fissure or crack between two half of the sky vault |
| i82a | Venus is male | Morning and/or Evening Star is a male personage |
| 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) |
| j18a | Mother is eaten up, children escape | An ogress devours a woman, gets into her house. Her daughters (daughter and son, one daughter) run away, climb a tree or a rope that hangs from the sky. Ogress pursues them and perishes |
| j25b | Dead mother fetches food for her baby | Mother dies and is buries. Her spirit comes out of the grave to fetch food for her baby. The baby is found and remains alive |
| j47 | Pursuer falls from height | Person ascends to the sky (rare: descends from the sky; ascends the cliff) by a rope, a ladder, etc. Another person tries to follow him or her but the rope (the ladder) is broken or severed |
| k107 | Lost husband found | A woman is abandoned by her magic husband. She finds him and becomes his wife again |
| k107a | Iron shoes to be worn out | Wandering to the purpose of her or his travel person has to worn out her or his iron shoes or staff |
| k107c | Knives on the windowsill (the prince as bird) | Magic bridegroom who comes as bird or other guise and then changes into a man meets regularly with a young woman. Her jealous sisters (stepmother, brother, etc.) wound him (usually putting knives of broken glass around the window). He disappears, the girl goes to find him. |
| k153 | Grateful animals, ungrateful man | Человек оказывает услугу нескольким (потенциально опасным) животным и другому человеку. Благодарные животные помогают ему, а человек предает и вредит |
| k177 | The travelling heroine | A girl or young woman sets off to find or return her fience or her husband or she escapes from a fanger and ultimately marries happily |
| 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) |
| 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) |
| k27z5 | An agreement to marry the would be born children | Two men agree to marry their future children if a girl and a boy will be born. The girl’s parents evade the given obligation. The boy grows up and finds his bride |
| k29b | Posthole murder | Hero is asked to climb into a hole or pit. When he does it, they fill it with soil or throw down a post, a stone, etc. The hero demonstrates his magic capacities coming back uninjured |
| 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 |
| k2a1 | Simple man gets to see how the princess has been abducted | A simple man becomes a chance witness of the abduction of the princess by the demonic being or finds an evidence of the abduction. The girl’s father sends him to bring her back |
| 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. |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| k38d1 | A girl sacrificed to a dragon | To appease a water monster (water spirits, gods) or to put an end to the drought or flood, a girl is sacrificed or descends into the water by her own will |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| k56b2 | Jaws closed up | Supernatural creature (object) gives treasure to a modest man. The greedy one is eager to take more than he is allowed to take is caught and cannot release himself (for the long time). Usually the creature grasps his stretched out hand |
| k56b3 | Stench instead of fragrance | Intestine gases of a man become fragrant. His rival attempts to achieve the same effect but the result is the opposite |
| 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 |
| k76b | Snake son and snake husband | An (adoptive) son is a snake who turns into handsome man. The snake is the magic spouse of princess, lost and returned |
| k80 | Repetitive reincarnation | Person (usually a young woman) turns into different objects or creatures which another person destroys one by one. However, the person is reincarnated again and again and ultimately acquires her or his original form |
| k92a | The princess responsible for her own fortune | A girl driven away from home or married to a poor man become prosperous |
| 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.) |
| 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 |
| l125 | Demonic wife recognized | A man marries a beauty but catches her in a situation when her not human nature is revealed. After this their marriage breaks down |
| l27a | One is eaten up, another escapes | Two or three children get to the house of a demon or the latter comes to their house. They do not know that the person is a cannibal or are not sure about it. The demon eats up one of the children. Another child (children) escapes, the demon pursues him or them and perishes. Usually the demon is a female, and if he is male, his victims do not arouse in him sexual interest |
| l54 | Lake coming to boil | To overcome a disaster, hot stones or ashes are thrown into the water |
| l93b | Helpful rabbit | Cunning rabbit or hare saves person, helps him or her |
| m118 | Source of values is destroyed imprudently | Person or animal gets access to values that are inside an animal, a tree, a rock or other enclosure. Later he himself or more often somebody else tries to do the same but destroys source of values, blocks access to it or makes it too dangerous |
| 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) |
| m167 | A tiger taken for a bull | During the night a strong predator (a tiger, a lion, etc.) and a thief not knowing about each other get into stable to steal a domestic animal. The thief takes the predator for domestic animal or for a person and acts accordingly |
| m167a | A tiger who is afraid of Twilight | A strong predator (usually a tiger) overhears a person saying that he fears something worse than a tiger The word is unknown to the tiger (twilight, etc). Thinking it must be a terrible thing he hides and then runs away |
| m202 | Thorn removed from lion’s paw | Person removes a thorn from the paw (bone from the throat) of a strong and dangerous animal or a demon, the animal (demon) is grateful |
| m29b1 | The wolf is a failure | Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the wolf suffers a reverse, is injured or dies |
| m29g | Trickster-hare or rabbit | In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is hare or rabbit |
| m29g1 | Hare or rabbit as the main trickster | In most of the episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is hare or rabbit. Not considered are traditions in which 1) trickster hare/rabbit is rare while other trickster (usually fox/jackal/coyote) typical; 2) Mesoamerican traditions in which episodes with trickster rabbit are not many and could be borrowed in post-Columbian time being of African origin |
| m29o1 | The monkey is a failure | Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the monkey suffers a reverse, is injured or dies |
| m29w2 | The tiger is a failure | Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the tiger suffers a reverse, is injured or dies |
| m39a1 | Misunderstood instructions: a step behind | Fool follows instructions that were reasonable in every previous episode but become absurd in every next one |