| 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 |
| a12b | Eclipses: a frog or toad | During an eclipse or at the sunset the Sun or the Moon are attacked by a frog or toad |
| a2 | Several suns | In a certain time in the past three or more suns were on the sky simultaneously |
| 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) |
| 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) |
| a32a | The Moon rabbit | Rabbit or hare are 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 |
| 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 |
| b6a | One egg was thrown away | Female ancestor gives birth to several eggs. One or two of them do not hatch for a long time, thought to be rotten are thrown into the river. However just from them emerge (or had to emerge) high status characters |
| 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) |
| b93 | Meeting in the sky once a year | Once a year or once in several years sky dwellers or messegers of the deity who are seen among the stars meet each other |
| b93 | Meeting in the sky once a year | Once a year or once in several years sky dwellers or messegers of the deity who are seen among the stars meet each other |
| 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 |
| 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) |
| 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) |
| c6h | An insect brings the earth | An insect brings the earth (from under the water, from a lower world or from a far-away place) |
| 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 |
| e32 | People born from trees | First people are born by trees or come out of a tree, flower, reed |
| 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 |
| e38b | People from gourd | After the world cataclysm or in the beginning of times a gourd survives or appears, new people come out of it |
| e5a | Mankind ascends from the underworld | The first people (or only the first men or the first women) are not created but come to earth from the underworld (from a cave) or from a small enclosure under the earth or on its surface (tree trunk, rock, gourd, etc.). Many people of both sexes and of different ages or people and different species of animals come out together |
| e5b | First couple from the underworld | First man (a group of brothers) or first human couple come out from the underworld (a cave) or from a small enclosure on its surface (tussock, reed, tree, rock, gourd) |
| e5c | People from the sky | The first people or first anthropomorphic divine beings descend to earth from the sky. |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| f45 | The Amazons | There are (or were) women who live apart from men in their own village or villages |
| 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) |
| g8 | Restored tree | A deep notch in the tree (or in the sky support) is magically restored as soon as persons or creatures who cut or gnaw it stop working |
| g9 | Restored forest | People fell trees to make a garden. In the morning, the forest is intact again |
| h36 | The muddled message | Person is sent by god to bring instructions or certain objects but distorts, forgets or replaces them. This has fatal consequences for humans or for a certain species of animals. (Lithuanian case can be a mistification) |
| h36g | Muddled message: how many meals a day | God sends his messenger to tell people that they should eat only rarely (once in three days or the like). The messenger tells them that they should eat often (three times a day) |
| i119 | The dead shake the earth | The earthquakes are produced by the dead who are in the underworld or during the earthquakes the inhabitants of the lower world try to come out; try to understand are there still living beings on earth |
| i119a | The earthquake: is anybody alive? | Supernatural beings shake the earth because they think that no earth dwellers remained or wanting to check it, or demonstrating that they themselves are on the place |
| 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 |
| i3 | Weapon of Thunder | The lightning (and thunder) is (produced with) an object (axe, sword, mirror, belt, stones, skin, etc.) in hands of anthropomorphic being |
| i41 | Rainbow serpent | Rainbow is a reptile (usually a snake) or (more rare) a fish, or it is related to snake, to its tongue, breath, or to scorpion's tail |
| i42 | Rainbow is a pair of creatures | Rainbow is two creatures or persons, usually a male and a female |
| i51a | Bull the earth-holder | Big mammal supports the earth |
| i56 | Ghosts do not see people from earth | The alive person who is travelling between the worlds is visible for inhabitants of one world and invisible for inhabitants of another |
| i78 | The square earth | The earth is square, the sky is usually round |
| i88 | Animal with many tails | There is a zoomorphic being with many tails |
| 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) |
| i8g | Atlas | One giant supports the earth or the sky |
| j21 | Birth from eggs | Gods, first people or founders of the royal lineages are born from eggs |
| 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 |
| j32f | The stolen apples | Being on guard, the hero gets to know who steals regularly fruits (usually apples) from the garden |
| k100 | A faithful servant | A man gets to know about dangers that threaten another man (and often about turning into stone of anybody who would warn about these dangers). He helps the man to escape the dangers though his behavior seems strange or hostile |
| k103a1 | Tree moves after its mistress | A tree that has grown up rapidly lets only her mistress to pluck its fruits and follows her when she is moving to live in another place |
| k127 | Brothers transformed into animals | A girl has many (more than three) brothers, they turn into birds or animals (rare: into plants; killed by magic), ultimately become human again |
| k127a | Temporarily mute heroine | A girl or young woman is bewitched to be mute or must keep silence for a period of time. Just when she has to be put to death, the period of her muteness is over and she is saved |
| k135 | Seven with one stroke | A weak and timid man or boy overcomes accidentally powerful enemies and gets high esteem |
| k173 | Placidas | A powerful and rich man loses everything that he has, is separated with his wife and children and they with each other. Later he obtains everything back, his family is united again |
| k176 | A man in search of the woman | A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife |
| k25 | Magic wife | A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world |
| k25e | Magic wife is an ancestor | All humans, members of a particular ethnic or social group or a ruling dynasty are believed to descend from a mortal man and a woman of supernatural origin |
| 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 |
| k27zy | Hero between two ogresses | A youth (a girl) lives in the house of an ogress. To get rid of him (her) the ogress asks him (her) to bring some object from other ogres (often from her mother) who must kill him or her. The hero or heroine escapes and kills all the ogres |
| k27zz | The witch and the blinded queens | A man does not know that his (new) wife (rare: mother) is an ogress/witch/evil woman. Thanks to her intrigues (former) wives (wife) are blinded and/or confined in an underground hole. A son of one of them overcomes the ogress and returns sight to his mother and aunts |
| k27zz1 | Only the youngest queen's child survives | Several imprisoned (driven out) co-wives give birth but only the son of the youngest woman survives. The boy saves the women |
| k27zz2 | All queens are blind, one is half-blind | Several young women who are co-wives or sisters loose both eyes but the youngest only one eye |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| k32a | Travelling man leaves his wife or daughter for a short time | A man travels with his wife or daughter. Another woman or a demonic person replaces her when the man goes away for a short time or (rare) falls asleep |
| 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 |
| k33a3 | The heroine is transformed into a turtle | The heroine’s rival transforms her into a turtle. The turtle makes attempts to contact her children or husband |
| k33c | Girl from a fruit | Young man gets a girl who is inside of a fruit or (rare) a flower or an egg |
| k33c1 | Transformed into lotus | Person is thrown into the water and becomes a flower (usually lotus) |
| 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 |
| k47a | A woman and a dog | After having sexual contact with a dog, a woman gives birth to his children. The puppies turn into humans and usually become ancestors of particular groups of people |
| k73 | Children of the youngest wife | 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 |
| k73a | Baby child substituted with object or animal | 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) |
| k73a4 | Baby child substituted with a pup | 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) |
| 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 |
| k76 | A strange son | 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 |
| k76a | Frog as a marriage partner | Frog or toad marries a girl or a handsome youth marries a frog or road |
| 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 |
| k80c | The cranes of Ibycus | Person becomes a victim of a murder. Just before dying he or she calls on some birds (celestial bodies, animals, plants, etc.) to bear witness for the crime. Getting to see these birds (this plant, the Sun, the Moon, etc.) the murderer reveals himself without thinking. Or the birds, being the only witnesses, bring the investigators to the murderers. |
| k80c4 | Mute witnesses of the crime | In a deserted place, a man kills another. After some time he is exposed thanks to circumstances and facts that do not seem important and do not report on the crime directly (the victim’s last words; objects or live beings that were or appeared on the place of the murder). (All texts that contain motifs K80c, K80c1, K80c3, K80c4, also contain a more general motif K80c4) |
| k92 | King Lear | A man puts his children questions that seem easy to answer (how they love him, who is the elder in the family, etc.). The elder children flatter, the youngest daughter (rare: son) is reserved and her father drives her away or deprives of inheritance. Later her noble nature becomes evident to him |
| k92a | The princess responsible for her own fortune | A girl driven away from home or married to a poor man become prosperous |
| k94 | Bird of luck (eaten up head) | Person eats magic bird, fish, small animal, or fruit and becomes prosperous and powerful |
| 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.) |
| l116a | Doe with golden horns | Hunting a doe (a deer), hero gets to the place of a magician or demon; the doe is a bewitched person or demon |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| l20 | Eater of the raw meat | Two persons hunt or fish. One of them is or becomes a cannibal. He or she reveals his or her nature eating the quarry raw |
| l40 | Reflection and shadow | Person discovers (rare:still fails to discover) another getting to see his or her shadow or reflection in water |
| l44 | Show me your head! | A man hides in a shelter. An ogre wants him to demonstrate certain parts of his body. The man demonstrates or parts of the body of an animal or some objects. The ogre believes that his adversary is a powerful creature |
| l5f | Helpful skull | A bodiless head, face, or skull is a woman's husband, suitor or son. He is not dangerous but a good provider, saves people from hunger, etc. |
| l72 | The obstacle flight | 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| m110 | The forgotten liver | An animal is tricked to be carried across the water by those who are going to eat or to use as a medicine a part of its body. The animal tells that forgot to take just that part which is needed, is carried back to take it, escapes |
| m143 | Fox in a well | 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 |
| m144 | The wasp nest as king’s drum | One animal person gets to convince another that dangerous or disgusting objects are attractive and delicious (a wasp nest is a drum, a snake is a girdle, a heap of dung is a delicacy, etc.) |
| m144a | Burning thatch on the back of a tiger | A trickster person or animal asks a big and dangerous animal (tiger or elephant) to carry some thatch and puts it on fire. After this the same trickster or other animal gives the victim advice to run not to river but up the slope |
| m144b | Tiger was scorched, thence his stripes | Tiger was scotched and because of this his skin became striped |
| 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 |
| m171 | The profitable exchange: from a pea to a horse | 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) |
| m183 | A race: one against many | Many animals of one species that all look identical together fulfill the task that would be impossible for any of them if he were alone; the competitors believe that the task was fulfilled by only one animal. Usually a slow and a fast animals agree to race. The slow one puts other animals of his species at the finish or along the distance, each one answering the fast one that he is ahead of him. The fast one accepts his loss |
| 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 |
| m57a | Beads discharged from the body | 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 |
| m57a2 | Male person is the producer of valuables | 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 |
| 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 |
| m78 | A tiny boy (Thumbling) | Tiny boy as small as a thumb, a pea and the like taunts people, predator animals, ogres |
| m83 | Who is older? | Somebody claims that he has been born before present world came into being. His opponent claims the same, and they argue who of them is the older |
| m90a5 | The golden apples | Golden fruits (in rare cases only leaves) of a certain tree are mentioned in tail. Usually these are golden apples |
| 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 |