Birds argue who of them will fly higher. One who seemed to have less chances wins (he hides himself in feathers of a strong bird using it as a vehicle)
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)
Human being or imprint of human being is seen in the moon
Person who carries a bundle of brushwood or firewood is seen in the moon.
Person who holds some object in his or her hands is seen in the moon (rare: in the sun)
Magic mill is ordered to grind salt but not ordered to stop. It sinks into ocean and continues to work making the water salty
When it becomes warm, a person or animal (bird) decides that the winter is over (most often an old woman goes to graze her animals) but dies of cold or the animals that had been deiven to the pasture die
Person or animal, bird teases, offends March or other month and are punished
In the late winter or early spring a bird (usually a thrush) flies out before time and dies of cold or her nestlings die of cold
Aurora borealis is spirits (of the dead) who run holding burning torches, play or fight with each other
Man takes or attempts to take a wife who is connected with the underwater world (fish, crab, snake, water animal and the like)
There are (or were) women who live apart from men in their own village or villages
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
To make some object (usually a canoe), person cuts a tree, goes away, returns, finds the tree intact. Usually another person who was restoring the tree by magic fells it down himself and makes a canoe for the hero
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
Man receives from Death (Fortune, some spirit) knowledge will the patient recover or die. He becomes a doctor and receives rich rewards. Usually he gets the ability to see Death near the bed of a patient and considering a particular place where Death stands, gets to know perspectives of recovering
A man lures Death (Devil) to climb a tree or sit on a bench to which they are stuck and can free themselves not before the man gives them such a permission
Container with valuables or with dangerous creatures is opened (before time). Its content goes out of control or disappear
A dog is the lord, guard or guide of/to the land of the dead; or dogs live on the way to the land of the dead
Antagonist perishes falling into the water or trying to cross a water body
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
Person transforms people who come to him or her into inanimate objects, usually stones
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)
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
A man gives his last money for simple advices. Each of them saves his life or helps to achieve success or he does not follow the advices and gets into trouble
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
Person or animal must eat (drink) enormous quantity of food (beverage) or eat or drink poisonous beverage or food
A task-giver asks the hero to get for him a particular woman
A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage
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
Babies disappear but are ultimately returned to their mother or father grown up and in good health
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
To return or to get his or her son, wife, husband, domestic animal or (rare) object, person must recognize her, him or it among several identical persons, animals or objects
Person has to feed powerful creature (usually a giant bird) giving it regularly pieces of meat. When meat supply is exhausted, he cuts off a piece of his own flesh
A girl marries a handsome man whom she had first seen in guise of a dog
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).
Two or three sisters are sent in succession to powerful person. The first or the first and the second sister behave in a wrong way, perish or do not succeed. The last one behaves correctly, gets a reward
A girl who conceals her beauty and/or is poor and oppressed by her stepmother puts on a splendid attire and comes incognito to a feast where a man of high status falls in love with her. He marries her after identifying her by an object given to her or lost by her or (rare) seeing how she changes her clothes
A demon agrees to help a person (usually to fulfill some difficult work that a girl must do herself) if a person tells him his name. At the last moment the person gets know the name by chance, the demon disappears and the person is rewarded
A mouse (rat, mole, etc.) and a small bird quarrel because they cannot divide supplies for the winter. (Usually this episode initiates the story about the war between animals and birds)
Person gets into dwelling of master of animals or monstrous shepherd. The host can kill him. The hero escapes sticking to hair of one of the animals who are going out
Several companions have extraordinary abilities (one who runs fast, one who eats great quantities, one who produces or can withstand severe frost, etc.); a hero comes across and takes for companions several men, each of them being involved into a special and unusual activity
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
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
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
The (step)mother kills or orders to kill her small (step)son, eats him or feeds his flesh to her husband. The son revives, usually in the form of a bird who tells about the crime.
For minor offence or because of false accusation a young girl or woman is maimed and expelled from home (rare: killed or she kills herself). The maimed person magically obtains her body integrity (the dead revives)
To cure a sick person or to make him (rare: her) young again it is necessary to bring a remedy from a distant country. The medicine is brought and the sick person is cured (becomes young)
After a series of adventures and victories, the hero gets into trouble. His twin brother or the best friend follows his traces, gets across the same persons but overcomes the last enemy and revives (liberates) the hero
Person eats magic bird, fish, small animal, or fruit and becomes prosperous and powerful
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
Cow (ox, bull) helps an orphan child or a young woman who got into trouble
A woman is abandoned by her magic husband. She finds him and becomes his wife again
A woman should marry a man who would be able to make her laugh; a man promises a reward to the person who make laugh his wife or mother
Master of the house allows person to feel himself (herself) free bit not to look into particular place. The person breaks prohibition
A man is going to marry his daughter (rare: his stepdaughter; sometimes certain conditions are put on his future marriage and only his daughter complies with them). The girl gets to escape
A man gets to the powerful woman who lives in the world unreachable without the supernatural helpers, and then returns back. An imposter claims hero's deeds for himself. The powerful woman comes and finds the real hero, punishes (rejects) the imposter
A girl has many (more than three) brothers, they turn into birds or animals (rare: into plants; killed by magic), ultimately become human again
A weak and timid man or boy overcomes accidentally powerful enemies and gets high esteem
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
Life of a person or creature is preserved outside of his (her, its) body. Person or creature dies after the corresponding object is destroyed
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
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
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
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
The antagonist tries to drink a river or sea and bursts
Cunning fox, jackal or coyote saves particular person or many people, helps them
A demon helps a man or a woman or lets him or her free. As a reward, the person is forced to promise to give the demon his child
Animal, fish or person wounded by hero runs or swims away, usually with the man's projectile in his or her body. Local doctors are not able to cure the wound (usually because they do not see the projectile). The hero or his companion comes to the place where the wounded one lives and cures him or her (usually extracting his projectile from the wound)
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
A group of young people comes to a demon. The youngest brother of sister or a person whom others take for a sick, unpleasant, invalid one and who often accompanies the others against their wish saves them all
(Animal) person provokes another to put a part of his body into a split log (between two planks, etc.) and removes the wedge
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is fox, jackal or coyote
An animal person pretends to be invited to be godfather or he gives names to different places along which he travels in a sledge, boat, etc. The names look strange but become understandable when other people or animals get to know that their companion has devoured all the supplies
An animal person pretends (several times) that he has to make a visit (that he has been invited to be godfather at a baptism or invited to a funeral or wedding) but instead eats secretly food supplies
To demonstrate that the thief who had eaten food supplies is somebody else or to declare somebody else as a victim to be eaten up, animal person smears his sleeping companion with remains of the food or body excretions (exchanges the excretions)
Person, animal, fish or (rare) a fruit is eaten up and then revived, usually after all bones (all seeds) being put together
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
A weaker person asks the stronger one to take present to his or her kin and hides himself or herself in a bag. The stronger one brings the bag to the weaker one's relatives thinking that there are but some objects inside. Usually a girl deceives the ogre into carrying her sisters and then herself in a sack (chest) back to their home
Person lies that his name is so and so. Others understand it not as a name but as a common word and behave accordingly
After doing damage or inflicting injury, person lies that his name is Nobody, Myself or the like. Usually others believe that the injured one was the trouble-maker himself
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
Person is suggested to twist (or he really twists) a rope or make other object of sand, ash, smoke, etc.
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.)
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
Two animals (an animal and a person, an ogre and a person, etc.) agree to divide a crop in such a way that one would take what is above the ground and another what is beneath ground. One of them (several times makes a wrong choice (takes turnip tops and wheat roots)
To lure his potential victim down from a tree, a predator pretends not to be dangerous (usually announces that it has been decreed that all animals are united in piece). The victim is dubious and usually asks the predator to announce the same news to the dogs. The predator runs away
Birds, animals or fish compete as about who is the fastest or can fly higher than others. A weak one imperceptible sticks to the body of the fastest or strongest and wins
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.)
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
To climb a rock, person must insert into it bones and use them as a ladder
A girl poses as a man, her sex is magically transformed and the man is happily married
The hero and his bride get to escape from the pursuer. The youth goes to visit his home, leaving his bride behind for a time and forgets her. When the youth is going to marry another girl, the forgotten fiancée reawakens his memory by performing magic actions. Or the girl herself forgets her magic husband as soon as she gets to her parents’ home
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
A lad or a girl (often after having a prophetic dream) claims that he (she) will achieve extraordinary social position (usually that his or her parents, brothers, sisters will demonstrate signs of high respect to him or her). The lad (girl) is expelled out of the family but the prophecy is fulfilled
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)
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
One who eats certain fruit (leave, etc.) gets horns (long nose, etc.) or turns into an animal. After eating another fruit (leave) person recovers his or her normal body
Two men have a similar defect (a hump, a lump). One spends a night in a place where spirits free him from his defect. Another comes to the same place but spirits double his defect giving him what they had taken off from the first man
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
Fire is stolen from its original owner or brought back to the people from somebody who had stolen it before
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)
Person gets to a country where rats or mice are a plague and receives a fortune selling a cat
A girl answers her father (rare: brother) that she loves him like she loves salt (or that salt is the most valuable, etc.). He becomes angry (usually drives her away) but later satisfies himself that she was right
When the winter ends and the spring begins certain month (usually March) borrows (rare buys, steals) several days from a neighbor month
By trick or by force, a rival or adversary kidnaps hero's wife or bride. The man gets her back
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
A pretty, faithful wife is courted by one or several men, one of them usually a clergyman. With her husband’s consent, she invites the suitor(s) to a private rendezvous. Before the first man’s wishes are gratified, the next one arrives and then the husband himself. The suitor or suitors are caught in an uncomfortable position and then killed, punished in some other manner, ridiculed, made to pay ransom, to work, etc.
In order to delay a wedding with an undesirable suitor (her own brother or father, a monster), a girl asks him to give her a dress (often three dresses in succession) of unusual material (like gold, of fly wings, etc.). He does it but the girl runs away
Getting a task or by his own initiative, a trickster several times comes to a person (usually an ogre) and steals in succession objects in his possession or members of his family
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
Person eats a meal of eggs and leaves without paying. Some years later when he returns to pay his debt, the innkeeper claims the value of all chickens that would have hatched from the eggs in the meantime. On the day of the trial another person pretends to have cooked seeds for planting and the judge agrees that chicken could not be hatched from the boiled eggs
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
A blacksmith is (seems to be) able make people young, cure maimed people and animals
A master builder gets to know that the king is going to kill or maim him. He asks to send a messenger to his home to bring an ostensibly forgotten tool or something else. His daughter-in-law understands the real meaning of the message, takes the messenger as a prisoner and saves her father-in-law
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
Father tells his son to sell a sheep (goat) and to bring back both the sheep and the money. Usually a girl teaches the boy to sell the wool
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
Fool follows instructions that were reasonable in every previous episode but become absurd in every next one
A man (usually of high social position) learns by a prediction that a (newborn) girl will be his future wife or a girl from rich family gets to know that her future husband is a poor man. The man (the girl, something else) attempts to kill the predestined marriage partner but only wounds her or him. After the wedding it becomes clear that the prediction is fulfilled
Because telling the truth a stupid son (wife, husband)) can bring misfortune upon the family, his mother (wife; her husband) mystifies him (her) making him or her describe events that are definitely impossible. People take him (her) for a fool and let alone.
A poor girl agrees to marry a prince only if he learns some craft. He does it, marries the girl and then gets into hands of some criminals. He promises them to produce valuable object that they can sell for good money. His wife or (rare) his father recognize his work (or read signs of the object). He is released, the criminals killed
When it is necessary to get an object from a place that is difficult to reach, a girl asks to cut her into pieces (or only to cut off her fingers and toes) and then to put pieces together again. She revives
A woman (rare: a man) asks if she (he) is the most beautiful among female (men) folk and always receives a positive answer. It continues till she or he receives the negative one
An enemy asks house utensils or personal objects where their master hid himself or herself or what direction he or she ran away. One of the objects, not treated by the master in a proper way, betrays him or her
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
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.
Person receives a rope, reins or the like with three knots. If untied, person can move more or less rapidly. Usually untying the first two knots he makes his ship or his horse move more rapidly but, besides warning, he (being near to his destination) unties the third knot too and because of it he looses his ship or his horse, does not reach his destination, etc.
Tiny boy as small as a thumb, a pea and the like taunts people, predator animals, ogres
Tiny boy is first swallowed by chance by a big herbivorous animal and then carried away by a wolf began to eat the animal's offal
A man and his wife make a wager: Whoever speaks first must do certain trivial work or get a bigger portion of some simple food. They or one of them continue to keep silence even being exposed to violence or taken by others as the dead
A man pretends that he had thrown or is going to throw a heavy object to the sky (to the clouds). His adversary asks him not to do it.
Life of a man depends on an object that can be burned. He dies as soon as the object is burned
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
Person will be ruined if he or she would not find an answer for a riddle of a demon. The answer is found accidentally when the person or somebody else hears how the demon talks by himself or with another demon. See motif C29
Children or youths (usually a group of brothers) exchange clothes (headgears, ornaments, blankets, sleeping places) with their enemy’s children. The enemy kills his or her own children by mistake. Usually brothers get to the ogre or ogress and the youngest advices to exchange places (clothes, etc.) with ogre’s daughters). Outside of Europe the actors can be animals
A man (rare: woman) gets into power of a demonic person related to the lower world (usually a siren, fish, sea monster, rarely wizard). The antagonists raises the prisoner above water (or earth) a restricted number of times (usually being provoked or bribed to do so) and thanks to this the prisoner escapes (usually flies away turning into the bird)
Several animals (often a lion, an eagle, an ant) argue because of an animal carcass or a living place. A man settles their argument, they give him capacity to acquire their form (their qualities)
Two persons or animals argue about who of them will be the first to see the rising sun. One who seemed to have less chances wins
Fool kills a person, throws the body into a pond or a well. His relation throws there a dead goat. Searching for the corpse in the pond, the fool asks if the killed person had horns, etc. People see that he is really crazy and do not suspect him of a crime
To have children, a woman eats a fish, apple or something else. A mare, a bitch or other domestic animals eat part of this food (often skin, broth, etc.). The woman gives birth to a boy (twins) a mare to colts, a bitch to puppies
One of the brothers steals a treasure for which all of them have equal rights or he is a bastard. Brothers come to a powerful person and want him to say who of them is the thief or the bastard. Usually the person tells a story and discovers the guilty one considering his reaction
Listeners of a story must answer whom they liked more: a husband who let his wife go to another man, a robber who did not harm her, or the other man who immediately sent her back to her husband
Person must quickly clean a stable or cattle-shed from dung accumulated there for a long time
When a girl or a boy is asked where are her or his father, mother, brother or other relations or what they are doing she or he answers in such a way that only a smart person is able to understand what it is about (father went to make an enemy from a friend, mother went to make one out of two, etc.); or the girl explains corresponding answers of other person
Body part of a murdered person or a plant that grew on the place of the crime tells people about the crime
Magic bridegroom who comes as bird or other guise and then changes into a man meets regularly with a young woman. Her jealous sisters (stepmother, brother, etc.) wound him (usually putting knives of broken glass around the window). He disappears, the girl goes to find him.
Closing formula of the folktale: the teller met characters of the tale and had clothes made of paper, glass, butter, etc.
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the wolf suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
Helpful animal instructs the hero how to steal an object he needs to get but not to take anything else (bird, but not cage, horse but not bridle, etc.) The hero breaks prohibition, is caught but released on condition that he brings another wonderful object. Situation is repeated and the last task is to bring a girl. Ultimately the hero gets both the girl and all the objects
The young man takes the job of grazing animals and is warned not to cross the border of the ogre’s land. The hero ignores the warning and overcomes the ogre
The mice decide to tie a bell on the cat, so they can hear when the cat comes. Usually they cannot find anyone to tie it on her
When foxes (wolves) meet and dogs begin to chase them, one of the foxes says that their next meeting will be at the bazaar where pelts are sold
The man who is able to build (to get) a ship which can fly (travel on land) marries the princess (inherits property)
A bird (that usually emerges from the remains of a murdered person or being incarnation of his or her soul) punishes the murderer or tells people about the crime
Two men travel or argue about whether truth or falsehood (justice or injustice, etc.) is more powerful. The evil one abandons the good one robbing or blinding (maiming) him but the good one gets back his sight and becomes rich. The evil one usually perishes
People (elder brothers, elder siblings, elder sister) disappear (one by one). A lonely woman has a baby or finds a baby or she becomes pregnant magically and gives birth to a boy or twins. The boy grows up, exterminates the antagonists, usually revives and releases those who had disappeared
When person touches her or his eye with the magic substance, she or he sees supernatural beings unseen for the people. Usually the beings understand it and make this eye blind
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
Person gets into the belly of water being or into the belly of giant creature which appearance and living place remain vague. He kills the monster from the inside and/or returns to earth by himself (i.e. not extracted by other people)
A monster or a big animal dies when fire is kindled in its belly
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
Person or creature is transformed. Separate parts of its (his, her) body give origin to different objects or creatures (only etiological narratives are considered)
A woman is summoned to help supernatural beings as a midwife (to baptize a baby, to be a babysitter) and returns to the human world after rendering her assistance
A man loses a magic object that he got before but gets it back thanks to another object (a cudgel, a box with soldiers, etc.) that is exchanged for the first one or obtained by the man’s brother. The episode can be repeated several times
A youth who does not know what fear is tries various frightful experiences without becoming afraid
Constellation are interpreted as agricultural tools or people occupied with agricultural works (mostly ploughing and haymaking)
Each of calender units (usually the months) that make the year is a separate object or person
Failed attempts to wake magic husband
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
A man is not wise enough to answer questions put by a king (prince, etc.). His servant or friend takes his place and guise and gives clever answers. Usually one of the questions is like “What I think now?” and the answer, “You think that you speak with the abbot (minister, etc.) but I am a shepherd (a miller, etc.)
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)
King offers his daughter in marriage to whoever can herd (catch, tame, train) a particular number of rabbits (roosters, sheep, goats, geese, partridges) without losing any. A poor boy receives a magic whistle or other device with which he can summon the rabbits. In order to avoid the marriage, members (deputies) of the royal family (in disguise) try to but pne of his rabbits. The young man demands a degrading humiliating act and after the demands are fulfilled, the rabbit comes back to him.
The pursuer uses tools to destroy obstacles created by heroes. Before he continues the chase, he is wasting time hiding these tools or carrying them back to his home because birds and animals can steal them
Person has to build a house of the birds’ feathers or to make roof of feathers
A man saves (spares) a wounded bird. When the bird becomes strong again, it carries the man to a distant land (to the sky)
A glass mountain (tower, bridge) is mentioned as a an unusual (difficult to be reache) place
To get rid of a (female) demon or to make a (lady)bird fly away, they are told that their house and/or children are on fire
To get rid of a (female) demon, she is told that her house and/or children are on fire
Devil is ready to make a man rich if he would not wash (and comb) himself for a long time. The man is willing, both fulfill their promise
A supernatural person or creature asks a man (woman) to pass a message for an unknown adressée. The man does it or retells all the story to his family member. The story provokes such a reaction of another supernatural being (who usually lives in the man’s house) that is totally unexpected for the man
Hero’s enemy (often a demonic woman) hides inside a sea wave or is associated with it
When supernatural husband abandons his human wife, his shirt becomes stained with blood and only his wife when she comes to him is able to make the shirt clean
A girl or young woman sets off to find or return her fience or her husband or she escapes from a fanger and ultimately marries happily
A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife
Rivers (lakes) of blood (also of puss, bones, sweat or water used for washing of corpses) are mentioned in narratives (in different context)
Person changes (forges, boils, cuts into pieces and joins them back) old (sick, dead) people into the young (healthy, alive) ones or pretends to do so. Another one unsuccessfully tries to imitate him
To trap a desired woman, person lures her to a ship (boat, flying machine, etc.) and carries away
The pursuer cannot break with his hands obstacles created by heroes and must return home after the needed tools
Person takes from the ear of an animal (usually a horse or a cow) food, clothes and other valuables
A man who has visited hell (met the God) tells the robber about tortures prepared for him in the future. The robber accepts this news with resignation, does penance and ultimately is saved. Usually a hermit who decides that God is unjust in this case is punished
A man receives a box or bag as a gift and is told that he should open it not before he comes to his place. The curious man opens it before time and everything that must make him rich (cattle, houses, etc.) falls out. A demon puts everything back but under certain condition. Usually the man does not understand that he promised to the demon his child
Person must quickly get many feathers, enough to fill a feather-bed or a pillow
A small singing bird (robim, wren) steals fire for people
Person is marooned on an islet or on another side of a sea or wide river
To punish an antagonist, he or she is burned alive. (Episodes in which the burning of the dangerous being is not a punishment but an effective way to get rid of him or her are not considered)
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
Being forced to promise his daughter (son) to a demon (monster, predator animal), a noble man (king) tries but in vain to replace his child with another girl or boy
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)
Person pretends to die. His or her wife or husband abandons him or her on a burial place. He or she marries his or her paramour
An animal (a demonic being) asks the hero or heroine to take objects necessary for him (her) from its ear or to enter its ear to make himself or herself handsome, to sleep. etc.
Person sees how others act using magic or according to their animal nature. He or she imitates their actions and gets into trouble. Actions are not heroic deeds, competitions or tests and refer to everyday activity, mostly to providing and cooking food
The young man forgets his magic bride and meets another woman. At the last moment a bird tells the story about his real bride and he recalls everything. Usually two birds, a male and a female, have a dialogue in which the female can tell the male that he will be as cruel with her as this youth who has forgotten his bride.
An (ostensibly) sick (ugly, weak, poorly clad) person remains at home when others go to the feast. The person comes by himself or herself looking like a handsome man or beautiful girl. The man (woman) does not recognize him (her) and feels against her (him) sexual interestю (All texts with motif k57, Chinderella, are also included into f62)
Prince brings a shoe to marry a girl whose foot it fits. To meet such a standard, some girls cut off their toes or heel
Person associates the arrival of an event that he considers impossible with the time when trees of the forest will get in motion like people
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
A man gets to see dwarfs (ghosts, witches) who dance and sing. They mention some days of the week in their song. The man joins the singing and mentions other days of the week which the dwarfs like. He receives a reward. (Usually another man tries to receive the same reward but mentions days of the week which the dwarfs do not like and is punished
Some person makes a wish not taking in mind that his words can have other meaning or accidentally replacing one word with another. As a result, something quite undesirable takes place
Person gets to know that the heroine has broken his or her prohibition to enter a certain room because the corresponding evidence is preserved on her body or on an object given to her (e.g. the blood on the key)
A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world
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
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
Man marries a seal, dolphin or porpous who takes guise of a woman and lives with her in the human world
Being seized by a person, a male person turns into different materials, elements or animals
A man must recognize blindly the woman that he is eager to marry. He does it knowing that one of her fingers is absent or injured
A stick is a tool to initiate processes which results have no rational explanation
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
Dwarfs live not deep under the earth but in hills and rocks, usually come from there to the earth
There are objects which remaining on the same place are moving permanently or periodically (meet and part. rise and fall down, shut and open, rotate)
Person succeeds in getting through the opening which is going to bang shut but the stern of his boat, the tail of an animal or a bird, the body of his horse, or his own heel is flatterned, torn off, etc.
The door of a house is opening and closing by itself crashing persons who attempt to come in or out
At the end of the tale helpful animal (horse, lion, etc.) turns himself or herself into a prince (princess)
The enchanted person (a palace where he or she is) changes his (her, its) appearance gradually as far as the spells dissolve: becomes more human, turns white from black, beautiful from ugly, etc.
A youth has a date with a woman who belongs to supernatural world but he falls asleep and she is unable to wake him
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
A magician orders a boy to fetch a magic object (often a lamp). The boy finds the object (but refuses to give it to the magician). A helpful genie appears and fulfills the boy’s wishes
To maroon hero on a mountain, his companions destroy the rope or chain by which he climbed there or which he let down from there
Setting off for a search of a woman or magic objects, a man comes across several (usually three) supernatural (often demonic) persons who help him. All the persons are similar but usually every next one is older (younger) than another
From the mouth of a monstrous creature or person who is the enemy of the hero fire is coming out; its breath is fire
A man meets a dangerous giant (or serpent) who proves to be friendly to him. When another giant fights with the first one, the man helps his friend
To get know the precise number of certain units, to select certain object among many others, to get know a name of particular person or a reason of particular phenomenon, person tries to surprise (or unintentionally surprises) the possessor of the knowledge who becomes to speak aloud and so provides the hero with necessary information
Hero's dogs or horse or (rare) he himself fight with his adversary in the underworld (under the water). Those who are waiting for the outcome of the combat understand who overcomes whom by the color of water or foam that rises to the surface, or the color animal who comes first to the surface
After eating a fruit (usually an apple, in Northern traditions also an egg), the sterile woman gives birth to a son or twins
Treasure, or the like, is thrown back to tempt pursuer to delay
The only vulnerable spot is near the surface of person’s or creature’s body and not in his inner organs
Vulnerable place on the body of a person or creature is on his or her foot (toe, heel, sole, ankle)
Being asked where his soul (death) is located, person initially gives a false answer. The inquirer usually becomes to show concern to corresponding object or locus (decorates it, etc.)
A man exchanges his sheep (goats) for dogs. The deal looks like unprofitable but the dogs help him to reach success
Person extracts his or her tooth to use it as a weapon or a tool (often an axe)
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)
The first and rejected or taken later wife acts using magic. Other wives try to imitate her but perish are maimed or disgraced
A wayfarer asks his companion in an allegorical for to tell a story. The companion takes his words in the direct sense and acts stupidly or thinks that his companion is a fool
Girl bewails the loss of her future child before she has any; thinking about an event that could have been tragic; is jealous of her sisters before any of them have fiancée; thinks out the name of her child that does not exist instead of coming to meet her fiancée.
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
The supernatural person does not like the behavior of the unkind girl and punishes her making her ugly (disfigured)
People (elder brothers, elder siblings, elder sister) disappear (one by one). A lonely woman has a baby or finds a baby or she becomes pregnant magically and gives birth to a boy. The boy grows up, exterminates the antagonists, usually revives and releases those who had disappeared
Some beings are half-men and half-dogs (usually anthropomorphic with heads of dogs)
Person gets to know that a cat whom he knows and who lives in the human world is also related to the world of spirits