Transylvanian Saksons



Tradition title rus: 
Трансильванские саксы
Areal ID: 
3.5.3.3
Tradition analysis result motif count all: 
206.00
Tradition analysis result motif count cosmo: 
48.00
Motifs: 

Motif

k24


Name_eng: 
Stolen clothes of supernatural woman
Description: 

Women 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) take off their clothes (feather skins and the like) or part of it. Because a man hides the clothes (of one of them), their owner(s) have (has) to marry him or help him




Motif

k24c


Name_eng: 
An old man helps to obtain the bird-wife
Description: 

A youth comes to an old man (rare: old woman) who instructs him how to obtain magic wife hiding her feather-clothing. For the first time, the youth usually gives her her clothes back, the girl disappears and he lives with the old man till the next opportunity




Motif

k25


Name_eng: 
Magic wife
Description: 

A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world




Motif

k32h


Name_eng: 
Punishment: buried alive
Description: 

To punish an antagonist, he or she is buried alive




Motif

k36


Name_eng: 
Bewitched into animal
Description: 

Person is temporary transformed into animal (usually into a dog or coyote or into donkey, ox, etc.). When he acquires his human guise again, the antagonist suffers similar transformation. In some texts only the hero or only the antagonist is transformed




Motif

k38e


Name_eng: 
Of copper, of silver, of gold
Description: 

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.)




Motif

k48


Name_eng: 
Singing bird of the hero
Description: 

An antagonist wants that a wonderful bird of the hero sing but it remains mute or cries differently. The bird begins to sing when the hero triumphs over his adversaries




Motif

k72


Name_eng: 
Three maidens
Description: 

Powerful person listens in conversation of three (rare: two or four) women. Each of them tells what she would do if the person marries her. One promises to bear his son (children) who would have wonderful qualities, two others promise to practice some kind of work or (more rare) marry people of lower status




Motif

k73


Name_eng: 
Children of the youngest wife
Description: 

A young woman promises to bear a wonderful children (wonderful son). In her husband's absence other people (co-wives, mother-in-law, etc.) try to kill the mother and/or the child, usually slandering the young woman




Motif

k73a


Name_eng: 
Baby child substituted with object or animal
Description: 

Hostile women substitute baby of the newly made mother with an animal or an object (inform the baby’s father that his wife has given birth to an animal or an object)




Motif

k73a4


Name_eng: 
Baby child substituted with a pup
Description: 

Hostile women substitute baby of the newly made mother with a pup (inform the baby’s father that his wife has given birth to a pup)




Motif

k73a5


Name_eng: 
Baby child substituted with a kitten
Description: 

Hostile women substitute baby of the newly made mother with a kitten (inform the baby’s father that his wife has given birth to a kitten)




Motif

k73a6


Name_eng: 
Children turn into trees
Description: 

Enemies of the woman kill (throw away) her wonderful children. Trees (flowers) grow from their remains. Eventually the children acquire their human form again.




Motif

k80


Name_eng: 
Repetitive reincarnation
Description: 

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




Motif

k94


Name_eng: 
Bird of luck (eaten up head)
Description: 

Person eats magic bird, fish, small animal, or fruit and becomes prosperous and powerful




Motif

k118


Name_eng: 
The prohibited room
Description: 

Master of the house allows person to feel himself (herself) free bit not to look into particular place. The person breaks prohibition




Motif

k131


Name_eng: 
Men fight over magic objects
Description: 

A man on a journey meets tree or two persons who are quarreling over the division of magic objects (a flying carpet, seven mile boots, etc.). The man promises to render a judgment, but he asks first to try our the objects or suggests the owners to run a race and uses opportunity to escape with the objects




Motif

l19b


Name_eng: 
Beings with odd number of heads
Description: 

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




Motif

l19b1


Name_eng: 
The seven-headed monster
Description: 

Описывается или изображается чудовище (обычно змей) о семи головах. При перечисления существ по мере возрастания у них числа голов ряд заканчивается на семи




Motif

l19b3


Name_eng: 
The twelve-headed monster
Description: 

A monster with twelve heads is mentioned either alone or at the end of the row of creatures with ever bigger number of heads




Motif

l93a


Name_eng: 
Helpful fox
Description: 

Cunning fox, jackal or coyote saves particular person or many people, helps them




Motif

m171


Name_eng: 
The profitable exchange: from a pea to a horse
Description: 

Person or animal stays for a night and the next morning declares that his possessions (which value is none or negligible) are lost. Or other persons whom the trickster meets really use or spoil objects that the trickster gives them. Every time he receives in compensation objects or animals with ever bigger value, the last acquisition usually being a costly animal or a girl. (All texts with motifs M171A and M171C contain also the motif M171)




Motif

i50


Name_eng: 
Ungulate animal with more than four legs
Description: 

An ungulate animal (a horse, an elk, a moose) with six or more legs is described or represented in art




Motif

i138


Name_eng: 
The glass mountain
Description: 

A glass mountain (tower, bridge) is mentioned as a an unusual (difficult to be reache) place




Motif

k27 (motif is not in the correlation table)


Name_eng: 
Competitions and difficult tasks
Description: 

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




Motif

k27f


Name_eng: 
The task: to get a woman
Description: 

A task-giver asks the hero to get for him a particular woman




Motif

k27g


Name_eng: 
Ordeal: to bathe in a boiling liquid
Description: 

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




Motif

k27n1


Name_eng: 
Task-giver is a king or a chief
Description: 

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




Motif

k27nn


Name_eng: 
Envious minister
Description: 

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




Motif

k27x7


Name_eng: 
Master of animals calls them together to question them
Description: 

Person in search of the remote and inaccessible place comes to the master (mistress) of animals (birds, fish) or demons who summon all of them and asks about the way to this place. Only (the last) one knows the way




Motif

k38f4


Name_eng: 
Fire-breathing monster
Description: 

From the mouth of a monstrous creature or person who is the enemy of the hero fire is coming out; its breath is fire




Motif

k38f5


Name_eng: 
Fire-breathing horse
Description: 

From the mouth of a horse fire is coming ot the horse itself is of fire




Motif

k85d


Name_eng: 
A horse with a skin resistant to bites
Description: 

Hero’s horse asks his master to cover him with skins (smear with pitch and sprinkle with sand, etc.) that makes him invulnerable to other horse’ bites




Motif

k100a


Name_eng: 
Tobias
Description: 

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




Motif

k100b


Name_eng: 
A grateful dead
Description: 

A young man helps to bury a man (pays the debts of the dead man, honors a saint). When the young man sets off for a journey, the grateful dead (the saint) in guise of a stranger becomes his protector




Motif

n33


Name_eng: 
Pressing adversary into the ground
Description: 

The hero presses his adversary into the ground or both of them press each other (ankle-, waist-, breast-deep and the like)




Motif

k38e1


Name_eng: 
Forest of metal trees
Description: 

Person travels across a forest with trees of two or more kinds of metal (copper, silver, etc.)




Motif

k75


Name_eng: 
The youngest daughter is willing (The loathsome bridegroom)
Description: 

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




Motif

k119


Name_eng: 
Animal helper marries a poor boy to a princess
Description: 

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




Motif

k119b


Name_eng: 
Wild animals presented to the king
Description: 

Helpful trickster (usually the fox or the cat) deceives wild animals and brings them to the king saying that they are presented to him by a rich person




Motif

k119d


Name_eng: 
Puss in boots
Description: 

A cat marries a poor boy to a princess (poor girl to a prince)




Motif

k56b


Name_eng: 
The worthy man is rewarded, the unworthy punished
Description: 

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




Motif

l96


Name_eng: 
Sold in animal’s guise and comes back
Description: 

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




Motif

l104


Name_eng: 
Fugitive and pursuer change guises
Description: 

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




Motif

m84


Name_eng: 
Revived from bones
Description: 

Person, animal, fish or (rare) a fruit is eaten up and then revived, usually after all bones (all seeds) being put together




Motif

m84a


Name_eng: 
Goat resuscitated
Description: 

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)




Motif

j32d


Name_eng: 
Princess in a tower (The glass mountain)
Description: 

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




Motif

k1f


Name_eng: 
Conflict because of a woman
Description: 

A man maroons another because of jealousy or because he plans to take hold of his wife




Motif

k2


Name_eng: 
The destroyed ladder
Description: 

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)




Motif

k2a


Name_eng: 
Hero marooned in the underworld
Description: 

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




Motif

k38


Name_eng: 
Hero helps the nestlings
Description: 

For helping its children, their powerful mother or father who is a giant bird or (rare) other flying being helps the hero




Motif

k38b


Name_eng: 
The nestlings and the aggressive snake
Description: 

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)




Motif

k103


Name_eng: 
Helpful cow
Description: 

Cow (ox, bull) helps an orphan child or a young woman who got into trouble




Motif

l17a1


Name_eng: 
One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes
Description: 

Persons or creatures with ever bigger number of eyes guard a man or a woman. The latter makes eyes asleep one by one but forgets about the last one




Motif

k74


Name_eng: 
Hero, his companions and a dwarf
Description: 

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




Motif

k74a


Name_eng: 
Only the hero gets to overcome the demon whose track he then follows
Description: 

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




Motif

f51


Name_eng: 
The clandestine lover
Description: 

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)




Motif

i13c


Name_eng: 
Snake’s crown
Description: 

Reptiles possess treasure which a person gets or tries to get. Usually it is a crown, jewel or small horns on the snake's head




Motif

i113


Name_eng: 
Pig with the golden bristle
Description: 

A pig made of gold or having golden bristles is a treasure




Motif

n22


Name_eng: 
If they are not dead, they are still alive
Description: 

Closing formula of the folktale: the teller says that the characters are still alive if they are not already dead




Motif

k32h1


Name_eng: 
Punishment: rolled down a hill in a barrel
Description: 

A person who has committed a serious crime is put in a (nailed) barrel which is rolled down a slope or is tied to the tail of a horse




Motif

k38f1


Name_eng: 
The cut off tongues
Description: 

Killing a monster or an animal, the hero cuts of and hides a piece of its body, usually a tongue. (In most of the cases, the imposter claims the deed to himself and when he cannot demonstrate the cut off piece, the hero unmasks him)




Motif

k85


Name_eng: 
Horses-brothers
Description: 

An antagonist possesses a horse which can overtake any other. Hero obtains the brother (sister) of this horse who is the only one to win the race with the antagonist's horse




Motif

k120a5


Name_eng: 
Luring a woman to a ship
Description: 

To trap a desired woman, person lures her to a ship (boat, flying machine, etc.) and carries away




Motif

k128


Name_eng: 
Grazing animals to be preserved by a herdsman
Description: 

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)




Motif

k157


Name_eng: 
Robbers killed one by one
Description: 

Person tricks his enemies to leave their enclosure one by one and cuts off their head as soon as the next one appears before him. In rare cases the multi-headed enemy thrusts his heads on by one and the hero cuts them off




Motif

k157a


Name_eng: 
Vanished husband recognized by keeping inn
Description: 

For finding the lost husband (wife, benefactor), person regularly assemble together the chance people to hear what they are saying (usually sets up an inn, bakery, bathhouse and the like where guests are stimulated to talk). One of the people proves to be the lost one or his or her story helps to find the lost one




Motif

k176


Name_eng: 
A man in search of the woman
Description: 

A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife




Motif

k38f


Name_eng: 
The dragon-slayer
Description: 

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




Motif

k102


Name_eng: 
Woman associated with the hero conspires in favor of his enemy
Description: 

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




Motif

k102a3


Name_eng: 
The tooth of death
Description: 

Somebody (usually his sister or mother) puts a poisonous tooth (bone, nail, etc.) into the bed of the hero. The young man dies but is revived




Motif

l65b


Name_eng: 
Dogs save their master
Description: 

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




Motif

l65b1


Name_eng: 
To exchange sheep for dogs
Description: 

A man exchanges his sheep (goats) for dogs. The deal looks like unprofitable but the dogs help him to reach success




Motif

h16b


Name_eng: 
The basin of milk
Description: 

A river (wave, lake, basin) of milk that exists on earth (and not among the stars) is mentioned in narratives (in different context)




Motif

i88


Name_eng: 
Animal with many tails
Description: 

There is a zoomorphic being with many tails




Motif

k107d1


Name_eng: 
Magic wife’s failed attempts to wake a youth
Description: 

A youth has a date with a woman who belongs to supernatural world but he falls asleep and she is unable to wake him




Motif

l100


Name_eng: 
Transformation flight
Description: 

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




Motif

m199


Name_eng: 
Squeezing the (supposed) stone
Description: 

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




Motif

m199b


Name_eng: 
Not a stone but a bird is thrown
Description: 

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.




Motif

m199i


Name_eng: 
Screaming or whistling context
Description: 

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




Motif

m199k


Name_eng: 
A man makes believe that he is going to bring an entire well
Description: 

An ogre sends a man to bring water giving him an enormous skin. The man is unable to carry such an amount of water but does not reveal his weakness using a ruse (he is digging around the well and explains that he wants to carry all the water at once; or says that he brought the skin with the water but drank it already up, etc.)




Motif

m39a6d


Name_eng: 
A coded message
Description: 

A person sends to his or her kinsmen or spouse through other persons a text or an object. Only the receiver understands the real meaning of words or of the object, saves the sender and/or destroys his enemies




Motif

j62


Name_eng: 
People turned into stones
Description: 

Person transforms people who come to him or her into inanimate objects, usually stones




Motif

k27u


Name_eng: 
Hide-and-seek
Description: 

Hero and his adversary play hide-and-seek. The hero finds his adversary but the adversary cannot find him




Motif

k56


Name_eng: 
The kind and the unkind girls
Description: 

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).




Motif

k56a4


Name_eng: 
Dog the messenger
Description: 

When the kind girl returns home, a dog barks saying that everything is well with her and when the unkind girl returns (or her dead body is brought home), the dog barks that everything is bad




Motif

k56a6


Name_eng: 
Food asks to be eaten
Description: 

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




Motif

k64a


Name_eng: 
Blinded cyclopes
Description: 

Person blinds sleeping ogre or ogress and escapes from him or her




Motif

k64b


Name_eng: 
Object sticks to person
Description: 

Hero's adversary provokes him to touch an object that proves to be sticky. The hero sticks to it, sometimes has to cut off his finger




Motif

k96


Name_eng: 
Fifty sons
Description: 

Many brothers marry or have to marry in such a way that all their wives are (were) sisters




Motif

k103b


Name_eng: 
Cow the spinner
Description: 

A cow (goat) magically spins or weaves: eats the yarn and extracts the thread, suggests to wind the yarn over its horns, etc.




Motif

l15d


Name_eng: 
The external soul
Description: 

Life of a person or creature is preserved outside of his (her, its) body. Person or creature dies after the corresponding object is destroyed




Motif

l15h


Name_eng: 
The external soul: three or more objects one inside the other
Description: 

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)




Motif

l42g


Name_eng: 
Hansel and Gretel
Description: 

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




Motif

l65b2


Name_eng: 
Dogs with the meaningful names
Description: 

Hero’s dogs have names that tell about their strength and deftness




Motif

l72


Name_eng: 
The obstacle flight
Description: 

Running away from a dangerous being, person throws small objects behind him or her which turn into mighty obstacles on the way of the pursuer




Motif

l72j


Name_eng: 
Obstacle flight: the thrown awl (needle) turns into many awls (needles)
Description: 

Running away from a dangerous being, person throws an awl or a needle which turn into many awls (needles)




Motif

l73a


Name_eng: 
Darkness behind, light ahead
Description: 

Fugitives create darkness behind them to trouble the pursuer (and light in front of them)




Motif

a19c


Name_eng: 
The sun horse
Description: 

The Sun is associated with a horseman or rides in a cart driven by horses (equids)




Motif

a19c1


Name_eng: 
The sun cart
Description: 

The sun or the moon moves in a cart or sledge




Motif

e11


Name_eng: 
The burned skin
Description: 

Magic person reveals his true nature and/or remains with the real people after the object responsible for preserving the non-human appearance (usually an animal skin) is destroyed (usually burned)




Motif

h7


Name_eng: 
The personified Death
Description: 

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




Motif

i72


Name_eng: 
Stars are people
Description: 

Stars are people, ghosts, anthropomorphic beings (interpretations of unique star objects like Venus or Polaris as persons not considered)




Motif

k27f1


Name_eng: 
To build a bridge
Description: 

Person builds a bridge (usually of gold etc.) during a very short time




Motif

k27n


Name_eng: 
Difficult tasks of the in-laws
Description: 

A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage




Motif

k27x6


Name_eng: 
The Sun, the Moon and the Wind direct the hero
Description: 

Travelling in search of the marriage partner, the hero (heroine) comes in succession to several supernatural persons related to luminaries and atmospheric phenomena (the Sun, the Moon, Stars, Wind). The last of them gives him or her necessary information




Motif

k32


Name_eng: 
The false wife
Description: 

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.




Motif

k33


Name_eng: 
Drowned woman remains alive
Description: 

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




Motif

k76


Name_eng: 
A strange son
Description: 

A boy born into a family or found by his adoptive parents has a strange guise (ball of meat, nut, bag, half of a man, an animal). He possesses magic power, becomes a handsome man and usually marries a girl of high social status. The magic spouse of a princess originally has a non-human or monstrous appearance




Motif

k76e


Name_eng: 
Son (daughter) the pig
Description: 

An (adoptive) son or daughter is a pig. He marries a princess, turns into handsome man (she marries a handsome man)




Motif

k80a


Name_eng: 
A bird or an object tell about a murder
Description: 

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




Motif

k80a2


Name_eng: 
Pipe tells about a murder
Description: 

Body part of a murdered person or a plant that grew on the place of the crime tells people about the crime




Motif

k80a5


Name_eng: 
A wild boar and the fratricide
Description: 

Brothers who are rivals as bridegrooms or successors must kill a wild boar. The youngest does it. The elder brother kills him and takes the boar. The crime is uncovered




Motif

k107


Name_eng: 
Lost husband found
Description: 

A woman is abandoned by her magic husband. She finds him and becomes his wife again




Motif

k107d


Name_eng: 
The girl cannot wake her fiancé
Description: 

Failed attempts to wake magic husband




Motif

k120a3


Name_eng: 
Jewelry in a nut
Description: 

Person gets a nut with valuables inside (precious clothes, jewelry, animal helpers, etc.) or he or she himself or herself puts valuable into a nut to use them later




Motif

l37b


Name_eng: 
Secrets accidentally overheard
Description: 

Person accidentally overhears secrets of animals or demons and thus gets to know the causes of his and other people's misfortunes




Motif

m57a


Name_eng: 
Beads discharged from the body
Description: 

Instead of common body discharges a man or a woman urinates, spits, etc. beads, flowers, gold and other valuables; valuables are produced by the very presence of particular person




Motif

m57a1


Name_eng: 
Flowers blossom where she puts her feet
Description: 

Where the beautiful woman steps, treasure appears, flowers blossom, etc.




Motif

k132a


Name_eng: 
Husband's cock and wife's hen
Description: 

Husband (rare: wife) sends his cock to earn money and the cock brings it. Wife (husband) sends her hen (cat, her half of a cock, etc.) and it brings filth. Or the cock brings to the wife not money but something bad or does not bring anything




Motif

m114b


Name_eng: 
Not clothed and not naked
Description: 

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




Motif

m114b1


Name_eng: 
What is the fattest, sweetest, swiftest?
Description: 

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)




Motif

m157


Name_eng: 
The impossible giving birth
Description: 

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




Motif

m157a2


Name_eng: 
Bull or cart gives birth
Description: 

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)




Motif

m157a4


Name_eng: 
To fish on a hill
Description: 

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




Motif

m157b


Name_eng: 
To take the one thing she holds dearest
Description: 

Husband casts his wife out but allows her to take the one thing she holds dearest. She takes her sleeping or drunk husband with her and thus moves him to forgive her




Motif

k14c


Name_eng: 
Man mistakes his son for his wife’s lover
Description: 

Coming home after a long absence, a man understands that there is another man in his house but keeps patience and discovers that it is his own son or a close kin of his wife




Motif

l100e


Name_eng: 
The lover, the husband and the guest
Description: 

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




Motif

l100f1


Name_eng: 
Lover runs away from the husband
Description: 

A farmhand (a young son of the peasant) arranges a situation a series of tricks to the love affair between the wife of his master and another man. The wife is going to bring food outdoor to her lover but gets to her husband. Seeing the master coming with an axe (stones, etc.), the lover believes, that he is going to attack him and runs away




Motif

m39a4a


Name_eng: 
Fool’s customer is an animal or an object
Description: 

A fool gives meat, a domestic animal, cloth etc. to an animal (plant, inanimate object) and thinks that the latter will pay him later or asks an animal to do some work. Claiming money or products of the work, he finds treasure




Motif

m91b1


Name_eng: 
The sold skin
Description: 

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)




Motif

m38d


Name_eng: 
Animated objects perish one after another
Description: 

Two or several animated objects or small animals and live or travel together and perish one after another when they make the most simple acts




Motif

m38d2


Name_eng: 
The bean, the straw and the coal
Description: 

Several (usually three) small animated objects travel but fail to cross a river (usually perish attempting to cross it)




Motif

m39a1


Name_eng: 
Misunderstood instructions: a step behind
Description: 

Fool follows instructions that were reasonable in every previous episode but become absurd in every next one




Motif

m127a


Name_eng: 
The quail makes the fox laugh
Description: 

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




Motif

m91


Name_eng: 
The killed corpse
Description: 

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




Motif

m91c1


Name_eng: 
Herd from the river bottom
Description: 

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




Motif

m91c2


Name_eng: 
Put into the bag
Description: 

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




Motif

m176


Name_eng: 
A test: to jump across an obstacle
Description: 

(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




Motif

m109b


Name_eng: 
Sick animal carries the healthy one
Description: 

A healthy animal tricks an injured one (a wolf, a bear) into carrying him on his back by pretending to be injured himself




Motif

k77b


Name_eng: 
The animals in night quarters (Bremen town musicians)
Description: 

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




Motif

l108


Name_eng: 
The wolf and the kids
Description: 

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




Motif

l108a


Name_eng: 
Goat kills the antagonist
Description: 

A predator animal (ogre, ogress) swallows people or animals. The goat (rare: the sheep) punishes him or her and usually saves the victims (most often opens the ogre’s belly open and the swallowed ones come out alive)




Motif

l108b


Name_eng: 
The thin voice
Description: 

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.)




Motif

l108b1


Name_eng: 
A smith makes the voice thin
Description: 

Person asks the smith to make his voice thin




Motif

l108c


Name_eng: 
The white hand
Description: 

To make himself unrecognizable by the victim, a predator or ogre demonstrates clothes, limb, etc. that look like clothes or limb of his victim's mother, etc.




Motif

m109


Name_eng: 
The tail-fisher
Description: 

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




Motif

m29b


Name_eng: 
Trickster-fox, jackal or coyote
Description: 

In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is fox, jackal or coyote




Motif

m29b1


Name_eng: 
The wolf is a failure
Description: 

Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the wolf suffers a reverse, is injured or dies




Motif

m29b2


Name_eng: 
The bear is a failure/enemy
Description: 

Because of its stupidity or unsocial behavior, the bear suffers a reverse, is injured or dies




Motif

m101a


Name_eng: 
Animals learn to fear men
Description: 

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




Motif

m101b


Name_eng: 
Three men: the former, the future, the present one
Description: 

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




Motif

m109b


Name_eng: 
Sick animal carries the healthy one
Description: 

A healthy animal tricks an injured one (a wolf, a bear) into carrying him on his back by pretending to be injured himself




Motif

m134c


Name_eng: 
The wolf overeats in the cellar
Description: 

The wolf or other wild animal gets into the cellar (storehouse, vineyard, etc.) and eats so much that cannot leave




Motif

m140


Name_eng: 
The theft of fish
Description: 

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.)




Motif

m143


Name_eng: 
Fox in a well
Description: 

Getting into a well or pit and being unable to climb out animal person tricks another to descend and thanks to this gets out while the second person remains below




Motif

m149


Name_eng: 
Tell them that I am a stump
Description: 

Strong antagonist is going to kill the hero (a person or a weak animal). Another person or animal pretends not to know about the situation and tells that the antagonist is in search to be killed. The hero is saved. Usually the latter asks the man not to give him out and answer that it is a stump, a log and the like near him. This opens possibility to treat the antagonist as a corresponding object (to cut it with an axe, to tie up, etc.)




Motif

m149b


Name_eng: 
Dogs inside
Description: 

A man tells that there are dangerous animals inside him (or in a box he has) that can come out. A predator who was going to eat the man up (or to bite him) believes him and runs away




Motif

m156


Name_eng: 
The ungrateful one returned to captivity
Description: 

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)




Motif

m191


Name_eng: 
Cat and wild animals
Description: 

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




Motif

m109a1


Name_eng: 
Sham brains
Description: 

Animal person covers his head with a milky substance or dough and convinces another that he has been so badly injured that his brains are coming out




Motif

m131


Name_eng: 
Biting tree-root
Description: 

A stronger (animal)-person gets to seize a leg or tail of a weaker one. To get free the weaker one pretends that his pursuer got hold of a tree root, and the pursuer lets his enemy free




Motif

m29b3


Name_eng: 
The fox (jackal, coyote) is a failure
Description: 

Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the fox, jackal or coyote suffers a reverse, is injured or dies




Motif

m120


Name_eng: 
Cannibal baby-sitter
Description: 

Animal person promises to take care of another animal's children but do not fulfill obligations and usually eats the young ones




Motif

m135


Name_eng: 
Wolf and two rams
Description: 

Two ungulate animals (rams, bull, etc.) run from the opposite directions and butt the wolf killing or injuring him




Motif

m135b


Name_eng: 
Wolf regrets for being so stupid
Description: 

Wolf (rare: jackal, fox) comes to different domestic animals (rare: only to one animal) to eat them but agrees to fulfill their demands. As a result he remains hungry and usually beaten and accuses himself that his ways were so stupid (“Am I a mollah to read?”)




Motif

m153


Name_eng: 
Letter on the hoof
Description: 

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




Motif

m153a


Name_eng: 
The washed pig
Description: 

The predator wants to eat a person or animal; the victim asks for a favor to let him first wash himself and escapes




Motif

m185


Name_eng: 
On the tail of the fast one (animals)
Description: 

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




Motif

m187


Name_eng: 
Snail is a participant of the race
Description: 

A snail (other mollusk, trepang, etc.) participates in the race and wins




Motif

a21


Name_eng: 
Luminaries are objects fixed in the sky
Description: 

The sun and/or the moon are inanimate objects thrown up to the sky or fixed in the sky




Motif

i104


Name_eng: 
Stars are fragments
Description: 

Stars are fragments of a bigger luminary (usually the Moon); or stars, the sun and the moon are formed from one and the same primeval person or creature




Motif

i66


Name_eng: 
Ashes on Milky Way
Description: 

Milky Way is ashes or smoldering coals




Motif

i80b


Name_eng: 
The forgotten wind
Description: 

God charges a man with the task of magaging the weather. The man sends rain and heat in a due propotion but is unable to consider all relevant factors (usually forgets the wind). As a result, the man gets no harvest at all all the breads has a bad taste




Motif

i87d


Name_eng: 
Men in the time of giants
Description: 

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




Motif

l4


Name_eng: 
The unmasked murderer (The Blue Beard)
Description: 

Person kills girls (rare: his nephews or younger brothers of his wife) in succession (usually the male person kills his wives). The last of potential victims escapes, usually after finding remains of those who had been killed or imprisoned earlier




Motif

j26


Name_eng: 
Babies come out of the water
Description: 

Baby heroes, embryos or objects from which they emerge are found in a river or lake or come to people out of the water




Motif

f35a


Name_eng: 
Feeding with the kin’s meat
Description: 

Person does not know that he or she eats or cooks the meat of the member of his or her household (blood relation, more rare a spouse or servant) or serves it to his or her friends, or uses her or his bones for everyday needs, or slowly kills him ort her




Motif

m135a


Name_eng: 
The wolf's reverses
Description: 

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)




Motif

k85e


Name_eng: 
The sea horses
Description: 

Magic horses live under the water




Motif

i61a


Name_eng: 
Milky Way is a belt
Description: 

Milky Way is the belt of the sky




Motif

l124


Name_eng: 
Treacherous gift of a demon
Description: 

Person pulls out a sinew (spinal cord, intestine, ribbon of skin) from the body of a demon or receives from the demon a belt as a gift. He applies it not to his own or other person’s body but to a tree. The tree is cut to pieces or burnt




Motif

l124a


Name_eng: 
The cutting girdle
Description: 

Being applied to a tree or a person, a girdle (sinew, intestine, etc.) cuts it or him through or burns




Motif

m136d


Name_eng: 
The air castles
Description: 

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




Motif

m39a9


Name_eng: 
Soup with parsley and onions
Description: 

One person asks another to cook a soup with parsley and onions. The latter understands (pretends to understand) that he must cook a child or a dog whose names sound similarly




Motif

a32


Name_eng: 
Figure on lunar disc
Description: 

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)




Motif

a32i


Name_eng: 
A shepherd in the moon
Description: 

A shepherd or herdsman (alone or with a girl, with his herd, dogs) is seen in the moon




Motif

b102a


Name_eng: 
Clouds are cows
Description: 

Clouds are associated with cattle (and rain is the milk of the cloud coes)




Motif

i39


Name_eng: 
Rainbow road or bridge
Description: 

Rainbow is a road, a bridge or a ladder




Motif

m114b3


Name_eng: 
Cloth from a handful of yarn and loom from three sticks
Description: 

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.)




Motif

k33a7


Name_eng: 
The widower, his daughter or son and their teacher
Description: 

After the death of her or his mother, a girl or a boy suggests her or his father to marry another woman who is her or his teacher, neighbor etc. and who usually persuaded the girl (boy) to give such an advice. As soon as she is married, the step-mother becomes to persecute her step-daughter (stem-son)




Motif

e9i1


Name_eng: 
Swan-wife
Description: 

A man marries supernatural woman who is a swan




Motif

m57a2


Name_eng: 
Male person is the producer of valuables
Description: 

Instead of common body discharges a a man urinates, spits, etc. beads, flowers, gold and other valuables; valuables are produced by the very presence of particular male person. See motif m57a




Motif

m57a3


Name_eng: 
Female person is the producer of valuables
Description: 

Instead of common body discharges a a woman urinates, spits, etc. beads, flowers, gold and other valuables; valuables are produced by the very presence of particular female person. See motif m57a




Motif

l65b5


Name_eng: 
Hero’s dogs at the princess’ marriage party
Description: 

Despite obstacles, dogs of the hero or other animals who are his helpers come to the princess at the very moment when she is forced to marry a deceiver




Motif

m39g2


Name_eng: 
Shoveling nuts with a pitchfork
Description: 

Numskulls try to shovel nuts with a pitchfork. F stranger shows them how to do this work more easily with a shovel (a basket)




Motif

l23


Name_eng: 
Proteus
Description: 

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




Motif

l23d


Name_eng: 
Metamorphosis of the caught female person
Description: 

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)




Motif

a1


Name_eng: 
The old sun
Description: 

Another sun, usually less benevolent and/or powerful, existed before the present one




Motif

m39a4g


Name_eng: 
Fool’s customers are dogs
Description: 

Fool sells property to the dogs and believes that they will pay him. Trying to get his money, he finds treasure




Motif

k73a8


Name_eng: 
The wonderful children: brother and sister
Description: 

Woman gives birth to wonderful boy and girl. Being substituted with animals or objects and thrown away, they survive and triumph over their enemies




Motif

k80a6


Name_eng: 
Speaking pipe made from a recently grown plant
Description: 

A pipe or other musical instrument is made from a plant that has grown on a place where certain person was killed (fell, touched ground). When the instrument plays, people hear a particular message




Motif

l15h1


Name_eng: 
Person’s soul is in the egg
Description: 

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




Motif

k73a9


Name_eng: 
The speaking bed
Description: 

Lying on the nuptial bed, the false wife who took place of the real one hears the voice of the latter or her children and in the morning orders to destroy the bed




Motif

m39a4i


Name_eng: 
Fontanelle of a baby
Description: 

Fool sees fontanelle on a baby’s head, takes it for abscess and squeezes off. The baby becomes silent, the fool thinks that he fell asleep




Motif

m39a2


Name_eng: 
Fool puts a needle into the hay
Description: 

Fool puts a small sharp object (needle, pin, nail) in a place when it is impossible later to find it (a cart-load of hay, a bag of flour. etc.)





Similar traditions based on Cosmology and Etiology motifs:
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition: Russians: Central part of Russian ethnic territory as in A.D. 1500: Tver, Yaroslavl, Moscow, Kostroma, Vladimir, Ivanovo, Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan, Tula, Kaluga, eastern part of Smolensk provinces (most of Smolensk province is Belorussian ethnic territory)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition:
Hungarians
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition:
Dutch, Flemish
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition:
Cherkassians, Adyghe, Kabardin
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition:
Ukrainians: Eastern dialects
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition:
Slovenians
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition:
Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition:
Lithuanians
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition:
Latvians
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition:
Germans: Northwest (Low- and Central German dialects): Schleswig-Holstein, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony, incl. East Frisia and Oldenburg), Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Thüringen, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen

Similar traditions based on Adventures and Tricks motifs:
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition:
Ukrainians: Eastern dialects
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition:
Hungarians
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition:
Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition:
Persians
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition:
Latvians
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition:
Germans: Northwest (Low- and Central German dialects): Schleswig-Holstein, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony, incl. East Frisia and Oldenburg), Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Thüringen, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition:
Finns
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition:
Bulgarians
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition:
Germans – Southwest: Alsace (Elsass), Baden-Württemberg, Swabia, Switzerland
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition:
Rusyns, Hutsuls