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)
Other suns or moons besides present ones had been in the sky and were later annihilated
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
The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male
The Sun is female, the Moon is male or (more rare) also female
The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (much more rare) asexual
Visible sun and/or moon are the Sun's and/or the Moon's eyes. If these eyes were not injured, light and heat would be more intense
The Sun or the Moon is one-eyed (usually another eye was knocked or sucked out but sometimes this defect is not explained
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
During an eclipse or at other circumstances the Sun or the Moon are attacked by a predator animal (a bear, a feline, a canine, a racoon)
During an eclipse or at the sunset the Sun or the Moon are attacked by a frog or toad
To make the Sun rise above the horizon, to send him to the right distance from the earth, to make him move across the sky, etc. a person has to be sacrificed
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)
Dark spots on the lunar disc are dirt, blood, paint, traces of beating, burning, scratching, etc. on the Moon person's body or face (Kiliwa: spots on the Sun) and do not form any particular figure
Person intentionally and with special equipment (usually shooting arrows) attacks the Sun (or several suns if they were many)
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
The Sun and Moon (Rig-Veda: the Sun only) appear from eyes of an anthropomorphic being
Two male anthropomorphic creators compete in producing things. One of them is or becomes master of the underworld and/or spirits while another is associated with humans
The earth is a female person (alone or together with a male person); she is female being or associated with a woman
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
The earth or the world as a whole is a male person (alone or together with a female person)
Water is the original element, the dry earth appears later
Original earth was small and later increased in size or the fertile soil grew from a small amount of original substance
In the beginning there are only air and water. 1) Person descends from the sky, creates the dry land or a hard support created for her or him grows into the earth. 2) The earth is sent or dropped from the sky, put on the surface of the water. 3) The earth is brought from somewhere (not from the underworld) and put on the water
Sea, river, waters of flood flow out of a small receptacle
Because the dog was spreading some information, altercated with its masters, was talking in a wrong time, etc. it lost the ability to speak
The dog or other domestic animal speaks aloud about those details of its masters' life that they would prefer to conceal. He is punished by depriving his ability to speak
Constellation of Orion or the Belt of Orion is identified with only one male person, usually with a warrior or hunter
Parts of the body of the primeval person or creature are transformed into different elements of the landscape and parts of the universe
When the earth was created it proved to be bigger than the sky and had to be squeezed. This way mountains or swamps have appeared
Chips of wood, branches or pieces of bark thrown or fallen into the water turn into fish and/or aquatic animals
Bones of fresh-water fish are result of a fighting or military expedition. The bones are arrows that have pierced the fish bodies (gill openings are pierced by arrows) or the small bones are fragments of originally big ones
Originally the sky was close to the earth, then it has risen up
One or several (animal)-persons push sky up to its present height
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)
To reach the sky (the Sun, Moon, particular star), people build a ladder or tower that consists of separate modules (bricks, logs, sticks, etc.). This construction collapses
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
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)
An insect brings the earth (from under the water, from a lower world or from a far-away place)
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
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
Person who incarnates or owns the sun hides himself or herself or is hidden. To return or to get heath and light, his or her interest is attracted or diverted by way of singing, dancing, playing music, provocative behavior, offering of unusual gifts, sex or alcohol
The Sun (the day light) that was absent, stolen or hidden appears (again)
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
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
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)
Entering water, certain person makes fish die. From parts of his body or from his grave grows plant used to prepare fish poison (timbo)
First people or people made by Creator's rival were imperfect, not completely anthropomorphic (often: had webbed fingers)
Child is born from a tumor or swelling on person's body (on thigh, knee, finger, etc.) or is temporarily placed there or child grows from blood that flew out from a cut
Initially men possessed women's biological traits and vice versa (beard, menses, breasts, bearing children)
Penis is so long that he can turn it round his waist or send into a woman who is at a long distance from him. (Only texts considered to describe real events and beings and not anecdotes are included)
A woman or a girl takes a snake, an eel (i.e. Pacific snake-eel), a lizard, or a worm for husband or paramour. People kill or badly injure him, the woman and/or her progeny or the woman herself is transformed into snake. Cf. motif k76b: the snake-husband becomes and remains a handsome man
Certain woman or a group of women take for paramour a big water animal (caiman, otter, sea-lion, whale, anaconda; rare: water bird, crab), water spirit or monster. Husbands, brothers or (adoptive) children kill or maim paramour and/or (sometimes) the woman
Certain woman or a group of women takes for a paramour a big land animal. Husbands, brothers or (adoptive) children kill or maim paramour and (sometimes) the woman
A man gets into the village of women. Usually he has to satisfy every woman against his will or every woman claims him for herself
There are (or were) women who live apart from men in their own village or villages
After a rather long marriage, wife discovers some minor traits in her husband guise that help her understand that he is not a proper marriage partner but her close kin (brother, son or father) or a transformed animal; or a man getting to notice a scar on his wife’s head understands that she is his sister
People learn to copulate after they see birds, fish or animals doing it
Person marries several non-human wives in succession, every time (besides the last one) is disappointed
Person summons with a certain signal a non-human being (usually his or her sexual partner or his or her protégé). Another person spies, uses the same signal or pronounces the same words and kills the being who comes to him (or uses this being sexually himself)
After eating certain fruit, berry, tuber, etc. people become sexually aware
One of the trees is the principal, original one (emerged before all the other; ancestor of wild or cultivated plants; ocean or rivers inside it; world axis; higher than all the others; overshadows sky)
Person or creature is transformed. Separate parts of its (his, her) body give origin to different objects or creatures (only etiological narratives are considered)
Person or creature is transformed. Separate parts of its (his, her) body give origin to different plants, mostly edible or cultivated
Demonic person turns into or consists of different household objects or tools (and into elements of a landscape)
People become mortal because they imitated real funerals burying an animal
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
Game animals were concentrated in one single place. Certain person lets them disperse in the world
After getting domestic animals from supernaturals a person immediately loses the animals or most of them (usually because of a broken taboo like to look, to speak in a loud voice, etc.; the animals disappear in water, remain in the sky, scatter in various directions, etc.)
Container with valuables or with dangerous creatures is opened (before time). Its content goes out of control or disappear
Killed and destroyed (often burned) person or creature (usually ogre, fierce animal, powerful shaman) turns into a multitude of biting insects or into other small molesting creatures
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)
Person distorts instructions that he must pass to others, intentionally lies, forgets or replaces certain objects that must be given to others. Because of this human beings become mortal (do not revive after death)
Magic object, device that makes hunting or fishing easy gets into possession of a person who is unable to operate it or abuses it. The device kills or injures the failure himself, other people and/or disappears
After eating certain fruit, berry, tuber, etc. people become mortal (cf. motif F97: people become sexually aware)
The sky or the earth rests upon four or five (cardinal points and the center) supports of any kind (poles, mountains, giants)
Only one pole or mountain supports the earth or the sky
Two anthropomorphic beings, a male and a female, are in the underworld and support the earth
First human beings have no mouth, anus or genitals, their women do not know how to give birth
Game animals live inside a mountain, in a cave or in the underworld where they often look like humans and have a master
Thunder and lightning (two thunders, two lightings) are close relatives, spouses or in-laws
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
Rainbow is the ornamented part of the clothes, its decoration, a belt
Certain person loses his or her freedom, is confined to a far away place (often, to the underworld) and acquires cosmic dimensions: supports the earth or the sky and/or his or her movements produce earthquakes or (rare) storms
Earthquake is a person. Whenever he or she runs or walks, the earth trembles
Stars are people, ghosts, anthropomorphic beings (interpretations of unique star objects like Venus or Polaris as persons not considered)
The Pleiades are a group of girls or women (with children)
The Pleiades are any people (of any ages and sex, combined data of i99-i100a)
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
Orion and the Pleiades are opposed as a man or men and a woman or women. Orion is usually male
The Milky Way is the border-line between seasons of the year or parts of the universe (the wet and the dry seasons, the sky and the earth, etc.)
Two sisters (if more, only two play a significant role in the plot) travel and meet an unpleasant suitor or get to an ogre
Person or his helper draws his enemies on the unstable bridge and destroys it. The enemies fall into water, into a precipice
Person stretches his or her leg or neck as a bridge across water body. The fugitives or those who walk ahead cross the bridge; the persecutor or those who are behind usually fall because the person takes his bridge off
Antagonist perishes falling into the water or trying to cross a water body
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
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)
Person climbs up a tree or rock or descends to a cave to get eggs or nestlings from the bird's nest. Another person remains on the ground. They get into conflict and/or the first person is unable to get back to the ground
Feathers of (giant) bird turn into different present day birds (in their plumage) or into the men
By trick or by force, a rival or adversary kidnaps hero's wife or bride. The man gets her back
Disguised as a bird, small animal or insect, a man penetrates into the place of a girl (into her father’s house)
An ornitomorphic hero impregnates a girl magically or imperceptibly for her
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
A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage
Hero demonstrates his supernatural abilities remaining alive in a burning hot chamber, stove, bonfire, among burning vegetation
Person kills others inviting them to sit on a swing and launching them into water, on rocks, etc.
Thunder or giant bird fights against a reptile, big water animal or other big and strong creature who lives in water or under the earth
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
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
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
A man gets to a country which inhabitants hunts of fish people whom they consider wild and equivalent to the real game or fish
Spirits or unpleasant animals (reptiles, worms, etc.) are (often: concealed from the eyes of God or deformed) children or miscarriages of the same human couple or the same primeval ancestor who produced first human beings
Wife of a man or wives of a group of brothers envy his (their) sister and tries (try) to destroy her
Rolling head is a dangerous mobster (pursues celestial bodies, people etc.)
Life of a person or creature is preserved outside of his (her, its) body. Person or creature dies after the corresponding object is destroyed
Person or creature has another pair of eyes (or one eye) on the back of his head or (rare) on his back
Two girls or young women meet a demon. One or both are not aware of danger. One is eaten up, another escapes
An ogre or ogress catches a person and brings him to his or her home where he or she plans to cook and eat him. The hero escapes
A man kills (usually in a tree, on a rock, at the edge of a well, of a precipice) and/or throws down one of his enemies. The other enemies do not recognize their comrade and think that their prey is falling down
A monstrous being is killed or neutralized by (burning hot) stones (pieces of metal, heavy fruits, etc.) thrown into its maw or anus or the being retreats when they menace to throw a stone into its maw
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
Person sets off in search of fire and finds it in the house of a demon. The demon makes harm to the person
One-sided people have one leg and/or also one arm, one half of a head, etc. The second leg is not cut or burned off, preserved as a stump but is absent completely
Person pursued by an enemy asks somebody whom he meets to help him. The helper hides him
A man falls asleep or pretends to be sleeping or dead. Animals take him for dead: mourn, carry to bury, are going to eat up, etc. The man kills a lot of animals or obtain valuables otherwise
Person asks another how her or his children got their pretty colors. Another answers that she or he put them into the fire. roasted, etc. The first person believes, kills his or her children
Person conceals his or her close relatives (children, mother, brothers) and tells another that he or she has killed them. Another believes and agrees to kill his or her own children, mother, etc.
Person conceals his mother or (rare) wife or mother-in-law, tells another that he has killed or sold her, another really kills or sells his mother (wife, mother-in-law)
Person conceals her children and tells another one that she has killed them. Another person really kills her own
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)
A demon who sticks to other creatures and refuses to get down sticks first to a person and then to an animal or first to an animal and then to a bird
People do not come back to life after somebody buries the dead in the grave or stamps down the earth on the grave
The earth or the sky are identified with a big quadruped mammal or are made of parts of its body
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
Fire is personified as an (elder) woman, alone or with her husband, master of fire
An imposter pretends to be the hero to take his position and/or to marry or to violate his woman
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)
Person or animal gets to exchange less valuable goods for ever more valuable. The last or the next to last one is a girl
Man takes or attempts to take a wife who is connected with the underwater world (fish, crab, snake, water animal and the like)
A man marries a woman who is the incarnation of fire. She is offended or does not fit the man, their marriage is ruined
A woman or a female animal is impregnated deliberately exposing her genitals to the wind
A creditor comes from time to time to the Sun or the Moon to claim back his money producing eclipses
A man is going to marry his sister (often puts certain condition on his future marriage, only his sister complies with them). The girl gets to escape
An animal or a person eats up the first book (writing, important document). (In some of European traditions the eating up of the book is not directly described but follows from the context)
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the tiger suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
It becomes known that if the Sun or the Sky marry, great calamity is inevitable. The marriage plans are given up
Cultivated plants emerge from drops of blood or spill from cuts on the body of a person or animal
A man gets into the nest of a giant bird on a high rock or tree. He descends to the earth killing the bird and fixing its feathers or wings to his body or (more often) using the bird’s nestling (riding on its back, holding its feet, fixing its feathers or wings)
In the past a particular groups of people possessed scripture and knowledge that were later lost or the people missed opportunity to obtain them
A bat proves to be smarter and wiser than other beings
Mortal man tries to get back his magic wife but ultimately turns into a cock (explanation of the appearance of the cock or the reason why he cries)
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the monkey suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
The frog (toad) prevents situation in which more than one Sun there were in the sky
The cock lures out the Sun from its hiding place or people beliefe that the Sun will not rise if the cock would not cry
A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife
Monstrous bird (giant bat) predates on humans. Heroes fight with it
A boy is born whose father or (rare) mother is unknown. He himself points at his parent who as a rule occupies the lowest social position. Usually many men (women) come together and everyone hopes that the boy points at him (her)
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)
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
Another sun, usually less benevolent and/or powerful, existed before the present one
Initially, the Moon was as bright and hot as the Sun
Being responsible for breaking food tabou by humans, snake lost its limbs as a punishment
A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world
Pierces of flesh or feathers of monstrous/unusual bird turn into common birds (or into their plumage)
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)
A young woman turns into the bear (in Asia, into the tiger) and attacks her husband or close relatives
The Sun and the Moon are or were enemies, either permanently or in particular situations
A girl (a woman, a group of women) intentionally takes a penis-being, a snake, an eel, a lizard, a worm, a big water animal or water monster or a big terrestrial mammal for paramour. People kill or maim the paramour, the woman and/or her progeny or she is transformed herself into an animal. She is blamed for her behavior
In the beginning of time or after the world cataclysm, a man marries his daughter(s) and the present day people are their descendents
Animals of particular species that were enemies of the heroes are exterminated besides the only pregnant female (rare a female and a male). Thanks to this, these animals still exist
Person feeds others a food that is extracted from his, hers or somebody else’ body or is polluted by body extractions not informing about the source of the food
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