| 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 |
| a12c | Eclipses: reptiles and fish | During an eclipse or at the sunset the Sun or the Moon are attacked by a reptile (a snake, a lizard, a dragon, a crocodile) or a fish |
| a16 | Dangers along the Sun’s way | Every night the Sun passes by creatures or objects which try to destroy them |
| a18 | The Sun boat | During the day and/or the night (in the underworld, beyond the horizon etc.) the Sun and/or the Moon regularly travel in a boat. |
| a3 | Male sun and female moon | The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male |
| a33 | The sun ram | The Sun has appearance of a big terrestrial mammal (bull, ram, antilope, pig, rhinocero, etc.) or rides such an animal |
| a5 | The Sun and the Moon are males | The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (much more rare) asexual |
| b2d | Marriage of the sky and the earth | The male Sky (the Sun, the Thunder, the creator of the sky) marries the female Earth (or its female creator) or the female Sky marries the male Earth |
| b2e | The male earth | The earth or the world as a whole is a male person (alone or together with a female person) |
| b3a | Primeval waters | Water is the original element, the dry earth appears later |
| b42n | Orion is one person | Constellation of Orion or the Belt of Orion is identified with only one male person, usually with a warrior or hunter |
| b46c | Big Dipper is seven persons or animals | Every main star of the Big Dipper is interpreted as a particular person or animal |
| 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) |
| 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 |
| f100 | Test of chastity (a queen and a servant girl) | A magic medicine demonstrates that the only chaste woman is a servant girl, orphan, etc. King chooses the chaste one |
| f45a | Conception from wind | A woman or a female animal is impregnated deliberately exposing her genitals to the wind |
| f70 | Potiphar's wife: false accusation of sexual abuse | Woman makes vain overtures to young man and/or falsely accuses him of sexual abuse. Her husband believes that the young man is guilty, kills or tries to kill him |
| f70a | Disordered clothes as evidence against innocent man | To accuse a man or boy of (sexual) abbuse, a woman tears her clothes, smears or scratches her body pretending to be attacked |
| f70b | Revenge of a rejected woman | A woman revenges on a man who rejected her love but necessary not pretends to be an object of sexual harassment from his part |
| h12b | Ghosts feed on excrements | Inhabitants of the land of the dead eat excrements |
| h16a | Rivers of blood | Rivers (lakes) of blood (also of puss, bones, sweat or water used for washing of corpses) are mentioned in narratives (in different context) |
| 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 |
| h55 | Sinners in other world | Person who visits the other world gets to see different people punished or rewarded according to their behavior when they were alive on earth |
| i13b | A horned snake | Snake of natural size has horns on its head |
| i20 | The undeground dwarfs | Race of dwarfs lives under the ground (deep under the earth or in hills and rocks) or at the horizon where the earth and the sky meet |
| i20c2 | Dwarfs live at the horizon | The denizens of the country at the horizon (where the sky and the earth meet) are dwarfs |
| i35a | Old woman’s thunder | Thunder is produced by an old woman who lives in the sky |
| i35b | The bronze sky | Sky is made of metal. The technique of its creation reminds the work of a smith |
| i35c | God the craftsman | One of mythological characters using his skills in crafts creates for the first time tools and valuable cultural and natural objects; is a patron of craftsmen (usually of blacksmiths) |
| i44 | Chthonic serpent | Giant serpent lies on the perimeter of the earth or supports the earth |
| i51b | The earth is an animal | The earth or the sky are identified with a big quadruped mammal or are made of parts of its body |
| i59 | Milky Way is spilled straw | Milky Way is a trace of people who spilled on their way something related to agriculture (straw, chaff, hay, more rare flour, peas) |
| i62 | Milky Way is a river | Milky Way is a sky river, water body, chain of beings that swim |
| i72 | Stars are people | Stars are people, ghosts, anthropomorphic beings (interpretations of unique star objects like Venus or Polaris as persons not considered) |
| i72a | Stars are children of the Sun and the Moon | Stars are children of the Moon and/or the Sun |
| 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) |
| 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 |
| j1 | The vengeful heroes | Persons avenge the death of their father, mother or other relatives who are one (rare two) generations older than they |
| 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 |
| j4 | Revenge for the death of the male relatives | Heroes avenge the murder or captivity of the male relatives: (grand)father, uncles, or the elder relatives in general, the loss of the males being the most traumatic |
| j42 | Waters split apart | When person comes to the water body, waters are split apart so the person reaches the other bank walking on the dry ground |
| j4b | Revenge inside the family | Children (son, sons, son and daughter) of the murdered woman or man revenge on persons who have marital or close kin relations with the victom |
| j51 | One piece is missing | Person or animal is eaten up or destroyed otherwise. His bones are put together and he or it is revived. Because one bone was broken, swallowed or lost (or a drop of blood, a small piece of flesh lost), the person or animal cannot be revived or being revived misses some part of his or its body |
| j66 | The gnawed through bow-strings | Hero or his helpers cut or gnaw through bow- and other strings of the enemies, make holes in their canoes in order to forestall pursuit |
| k136a | Girl’s hair picked up from a river | A man finds the woman’s hair that was carried by water and decides to marry its owner |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| k56f2 | One woman, two men and five eggs | To divide a certain (often five) number of eggs between people of different sex, a clever woman takes into consideration that every man has already two eggs |
| k59 | Box for Osiris | One man puts another into a box, closes the lid (or ties him to a board, to canoe, etc.) and puts the box adrift. It floats to another land, man is released there, returns home, revenges on his enemy |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| l106a | Stomach cut open | An antagonist makes a demand to the hero which is correct in form but really is unjustified. The hero fulfills the claims or is punished. Now antagonist takes an object or animal possessed by the hero, is unable to give it back and is punished |
| 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 |
| l15e | Hero’s life in his sword | Hero's life is in certain object, usually in his weapon. When antagonist steals the object, the hero dies but revives after his friends or brothers find the object and bring it back |
| 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 |
| l46 | Head downward | Person ascends, descends, walks head downward or sees the world upside down |
| m130c | The mouse and the lion (the help of the weak) | When a lion (tiger, bear, elephant, man) gets into a trap, a mouse (rat) makes him free (usually bites through the ropes) |
| m75b1 | Marco the Rich | A respected man gets to know that a poor boy must inherit all his property or become a king and tries to prevent it, but the fate cannot be changed |