| Motif | Name | Description |
| a1 | The old sun | Another sun, usually less benevolent and/or powerful, existed before the present one |
| 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 |
| a12a | Eclipses: a predator animal | 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) |
| a23c | Who will fly higher? | 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) |
| 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) |
| a32d | Man in the Moon | Human being or imprint of human being is seen in the moon |
| a32dd | Firewood-carrier in the moon | Person who carries a bundle of brushwood or firewood is seen in the moon. |
| a32e | Person with an object in hands | Person who holds some object in his or her hands is seen in the moon (rare: in the sun) |
| a39a | Twelve months | Each of calender units (usually the months) that make the year is a separate object or person |
| a45 | The insulted Moon | Person who teases or insults the Moon is punished |
| b1 | Two male creators | 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 |
| b10 | Drunk out water | Person drinks a lake or all the water in the world or all the water is originally inside person's belly. When a hole is made in it, the water pours out |
| b104a | Meat springs as toad on the face of an ungrateful son | A couple (son) intends to eat a roasted chicken (meat). When the man’s old father passes by unexpectedly, they hide the chicken in order not to share it with him. When the old man continues on his way and they replace the chicken on the table, it has turned into a toad (snake) and humps onto the son’s face where it stays until his death |
| b16a | Sea from the urine | The sea is produced from urine or blood |
| b16c | Salt-grinding mill | Magic mill is ordered to grind salt but not ordered to stop. It sinks into ocean and continues to work making the water salty |
| b33c | The borrowed days | When the winter ends and the spring begins certain month (usually March) borrows (rare buys, steals) several days from a neighbor month |
| b33d | The old woman of winter | Old woman is incarnation of winter, is associated with snow, or there are several cold days between winter and spring (or fall) associated with a certain old woman |
| b42q | Ursa major is a carriage | Ursa major is identified with a carriage, a cart |
| b87 | Alcor | Alcor (a weak star near the second star of the handle of the Big Dipper) is selected as a particular sky object |
| b87c | Alcor is a rider | Alcor (a weak star near Mizar, the second star of the Big Dipper’s handle) is a rider, a driver |
| e31a | Creators and rescuers of a girl | Several men take part in rescuing, creation or reanimation of a girl (rare: a bird) or several women take part in the reanimation of a dead man or they differetly express their grief. It is asked whose role was crucial (who behavior more noble) and/or who should be the spouse of the reanimated person. Or three men make something valuable and it is asked whose role in the corresponding enterprise was more important |
| 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 |
| e9i1 | Swan-wife | A man marries supernatural woman who is a swan |
| e9l | Mouse-wife | Man marries mouse-woman |
| f62 | Incognito at the feast | 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) |
| f70e1 | A daughter instead of a son | An old man needs a son to accomplish a man’s work or service. (Only the youngest) daughter sets to do it (successfully passing her father’s test and) guised as a man |
| f70e2 | Father tests his daughters or sons | Father sends his daughters or sons to carry out a difficult task. At the very beginning their courage is tested. Only the youngest son or the youngest daughter passes the test successfully. Usually father takes guise of a robber or a predator animal and charges but only the youngest son or the youngest daughter is not scared. |
| h24 | Container opened too early | Container with valuables or with dangerous creatures is opened (before time). Its content goes out of control or disappear |
| h54b | The glance of death | Person’s glance brings death (and destruction) |
| h55 | Sinners in other world | Person who visits the other world gets to see different people punished or rewarded according to their behavior when they were alive on earth |
| h55b | The robber who repents his misdeeds | 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 |
| h6c | The immortal raven | Raven is associated with death or contrasted with people as an immortal with mortals (is sent to the medicine of immortality; drinks itself water of immortality; gives instructions concerning funeral rites; etc.) |
| h6c1 | Valuables in exchange for the nestling | To obtain a desired object, person catches a child or spouse of an animal person (bird, snake, crab) and promises to release it as soon as its parent (spouse)) brings the object |
| h7 | The personified Death | 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 |
| h7a | The Death and a doctor | 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 |
| h7a | The Death and a doctor | 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 |
| h7b | The Death is stuck to a tree or a bench | 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 |
| h7g | The life candle | Person gets to see a lot of burning candles or lamps. As soon as one of them goes out, somebody dies |
| h7g1 | Death is more fair and rich than God | Person (who is usually in search of the godgather for the newborn child) rejects God (saints) and devil but accepts Death who is more fair (or rich) |
| i13a | The horned serpent | Giant water-chthonic or sky serpent or dragon has horns or antlers on its head |
| i141 | The magic stick | A stick is a tool to initiate processes which results have no rational explanation |
| 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 |
| i20c1 | Dwarfes live in hills and rocks | Dwarfs live not deep under the earth but in hills and rocks, usually come from there to the earth |
| i22 | Objects in permanent movement | 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) |
| i22g1 | Clashing stones | Clashing stones are among strange creatures and objects, which the hero sees In the other world. They do not block his way, however |
| i25a | Bones to cows | Person sees that food put for certain animals is inedible for them and corrects situation (usually gives to herbivorous animals food that was given before to predators and vice versa) |
| 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 |
| i41b | Rainbow drinks water | Rainbow drinks (soaks up) water |
| i41b1 | Rainbow swallows fish | Rainbow drinks and together with water swallows fish, people, etc. Sometimes this fish falls on earth from the sky |
| i59a | Thief in the sky | Astral objects or lunar spots are associated with a story of a stealing and the value of the stolen objects is low (straw, firewoods, cabbage, etc.) |
| i59b2 | Milky Way is the way of St, Jacob | Milky Way is the way of St. Jacob (the way to Santiago de Compostela, etc.) |
| i62 | Milky Way is a river | Milky Way is a sky river, water body, chain of beings that swim |
| i72 | Stars are people | Stars are people, ghosts, anthropomorphic beings (interpretations of unique star objects like Venus or Polaris as persons not considered) |
| i72a | Stars are children of the Sun and the Moon | Stars are children of the Moon and/or the Sun |
| i74 | Stars are stones | Stars are shining stones, spangles, beads |
| i90 | To follow the rolling ball of threads | To reach his or her destination, person follows a ball of threads (rare: some ball, apple) which is rolling in front of him or her |
| i92 | Rainbow transforms sex | Person who gets to walk under, over or through the rainbow changes his or her sex |
| j26 | Babies come out of the water | Baby heroes, embryos or objects from which they emerge are found in a river or lake or come to people out of the water |
| j41d | Strong man throws his iron cudgel and lets it fall on his head | To test his iron cudgel, sword or the like, strong man throws them into the air and catches (lets them fall on his head, etc.) |
| j51 | One piece is missing | Person or animal is eaten up or destroyed otherwise. His bones are put together and he or it is revived. Because one bone was broken, swallowed or lost (or a drop of blood, a small piece of flesh lost), the person or animal cannot be revived or being revived misses some part of his or its body |
| j51a | Ladder made of bones | To climb a rock, person must insert into it bones and use them as a ladder |
| j51a1 | Helpful girl is dismembered and revived | 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 |
| j62 | People turned into stones | Person transforms people who come to him or her into inanimate objects, usually stones |
| j62b | Transformed into animals disenchanted | Person transforms people who come to him or her into animals. Thanks to the hero, victims are disenchanted |
| j62b1 | The mistress of an island transforms men into animals | The sorceress who lives an island transforms men into animals |
| j62c | Sister asks her brother to obtain impossible | To get rid of a young man, his female antagonist uses a stratagem. She tells his sister (rare: tells directly him) about some wonderful objects and the girl is overcome with the desire to have them. An attempt to obtain these objects entails a risk for one’s life. The youth sets off to obtain the objects |
| j69 | The mock and the real beheading | Person is killed (with the cold weapon, with water of death) and then revived. Another person asks to be exposed to the same procedure but is not revived |
| 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 |
| k100a | Tobias | A young man lets free a fish or an animal that was caught or he or his father renders a help to somebody. When the young man sets off for a journey, the grateful creature or person in guise of a stranger or animal becomes his companion and protector |
| k100b | A grateful dead | 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 |
| k100d | Helpful animal becomes a prince | At the end of the tale helpful animal (horse, lion, etc.) turns himself or herself into a prince (princess) |
| k100f1 | The wild man | A man (usually a king) catches a strange (anthropomorphic) creature. His son frees the prisoner, is afraid of his father’s anger and leaves home or is driven away. The released prisoner helps him |
| k100g | The son must be sacrificed | To revive or to cure his friend (rare: himself) or to fulfill a vow person is ready to sacrifice his small (young) son (children). The son revives or the supernatural powers are satisfied with the very willingness of the person to commit sacrifice |
| k101b | Three nights of suffering | A girl or a youth are disenchanted because the hero bravely spends three nights in a certain place being tortured or terrified by demons. The girl (youth) herself is helpful and not dangerous for the hero |
| k101b | Three nights of suffering | A girl or a youth are disenchanted because the hero bravely spends three nights in a certain place being tortured or terrified by demons. The girl (youth) herself is helpful and not dangerous for the hero |
| k102 | Woman associated with the hero conspires in favor of his enemy | 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 |
| k102a2 | Conflict between mother and son | Mother tries to kill her son (children) because he interferes with her love affair
|
| k102c | Changing his appearance, the hero returns magic object that was stolen from him | The adversary receives magic object that protects the hero and kills him. The hero is revived, changes his appearance and provokes the adversary to put the object on the ground. He takes it back and kills the adversary |
| k106 | Thrown to cows | To get rid of a baby child or of the magic cock, they throw him into enclosure for animals, but cows or other animals do not trample the child or cock down |
| k107 | Lost husband found | A woman is abandoned by her magic husband. She finds him and becomes his wife again |
| k107 | Lost husband found | A woman is abandoned by her magic husband. She finds him and becomes his wife again |
| k107a | Iron shoes to be worn out | Wandering to the purpose of her or his travel person has to worn out her or his iron shoes or staff |
| k107a1 | Head of the household is asked to bring presents | When the head of the household goes for a journey his daughter, those who remain at home ask to bring them presents. The elder ones want something practical (usually clothes or decorations) while the younger one asks for something unusual (a flower, a bird, etc.). Thanks to this object, the younger one attains great success though after overcoming great difficulties |
| k107a3 | The beauty and the beast | When a man sets off for the journey, his daughter asks him to bring her a certain flower (leave, etc.). The man picks it up in a garden of the enchanted prince who has monstrous appearance. The monster claims from the man his daughter and thanks to her acquires his real guise |
| k107d | The girl cannot wake her fiancé | Failed attempts to wake magic husband |
| k107d1 | Magic wife’s failed attempts to wake a youth | A youth has a date with a woman who belongs to supernatural world but he falls asleep and she is unable to wake him |
| k107e1 | Blood on the shirt | 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 |
| k108 | A revived wife betrays her husband | Wife dies, husband revives her, she abandons him for another man and is punished |
| k113 | The animal bride | Several young men (usually three brothers) decide to choose wives (usually shooting arrows or throwing objects on the off-chance). The wife of the youngest initially is ugly or non-human (a frog, a snake) but proves to be beautiful enchantress. She and her husband triumph. Or girls choose their husbands and the youngest one gets a youth who has guise of a snake |
| k117c | Magic fiddle makes people dance | As soon as a person plays his flute (fiddle, horn, etc.), people and animals become to dance and cannot stop without the person’s permission |
| k118a | A portrait of an unknown beauty | After seeing a portrait of an unknown beauty, a man is eager to meet her |
| k119d | Puss in boots | A cat marries a poor boy to a princess (poor girl to a prince) |
| k119e | A success story of a miller | A poor boy whom his animal helper has made rich passing him off as a rich man at the king’s court, is a miller or son of a miller |
| k120 | The averted incest (daughter and father) | 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 |
| k120a1 | Three dresses | 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 |
| k120a5 | Luring a woman to a ship | To trap a desired woman, person lures her to a ship (boat, flying machine, etc.) and carries away |
| k123 | Old woman’s curse | A youth or (rare) girl offends an elder woman. Her words make him or her to be overcome by desire to undertake something dangerous (usually to get a particular marriage partner) |
| k123a | A broken vessel | A youth breaks or overthrows a vessel of a woman or girl. This episode is a trigger for the narrative |
| k128 | Grazing animals to be preserved by a herdsman | 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) |
| k128a | Best apples for the princess | Each of three brothers carry to the princess some fruits (rare: fish, etc.).
She will marry a man whose fruits are better (more numerous) or can cure her. On their way two brothers treat roughly a person who possesses supernatural power and are punished while the youngest brother is polite and rewarded. He (after additional tests) marries the princess
|
| k128b | The rabbit-herd | 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. |
| k129 | The disenchanted beauty | Because of the female antagonist, a girl faints and is taken for dead but her body is not decomposed. A valuable marriage partner breaks the charms, she revives |
| k12b | Husband of magic wife breaks her taboo | Getting to the world that is beyond the world of the human beings, a man marries there a woman. She gives him permission to visit his home but he must avoid particular words or deeds. He breaks the taboo triggering an (irretrievable) trouble |
| k131 | Men fight over magic objects | A man on a journey meets tree or two persons who are quarreling over the division of magic objects (a flying carpet, seven mile boots, etc.). The man promises to render a judgment, but he asks first to try our the objects or suggests the owners to run a race and uses opportunity to escape with the objects |
| k131a | Hero settles argument of animals | 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) |
| k131b | Magic objects are exchanged and returned | 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 |
| k131d | Seven-league boots | The boots (shoes, sandals) which allow the person wearing them to move with extraordinary speed are mentioned |
| k132 | Invincible chicken | Person of a small size (often a chicken) overcomes powerful adversary despite all attempts to destroy him thanks to objects and animals met on the way and preserved in his bag or inside his body |
| k14 | Precious advices | 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 |
| k147 | Hero's horse brings his remains and he is revived | Enemy cuts hero’s body into pieces and ties them to his horse or the horse itself picks them up and brings to his master’s friends. They revive him. |
| k14c | Man mistakes his son for his wife’s lover | Coming home after a long absence, a man understands that there is another man in his house but keeps patience and discovers that it is his own son or a close kin of his wife |
| k14e | The pretended inheritance | Sons of a man neglect their father (daughters-in-law neglect their father-in-law). He pretends to be hiding something (counts money conspicuously, etc.). The sons believe that their father has considerable inheritance and become to look after him carefully. When the father finally dies they find nothing valuable in his chest |
| k157a | Vanished husband recognized by keeping inn | For finding the lost husband (wife, benefactor), person regularly assemble together the chance people to hear what they are saying (usually sets up an inn, bakery, bathhouse and the like where guests are stimulated to talk). One of the people proves to be the lost one or his or her story helps to find the lost one |
| k16 | To get access to a girl in guise of a bird or an animal | Disguised as a bird, small animal or insect, a man penetrates into the place of a girl (into her father’s house) |
| k165 | The youth who wanted to learn what fear is | A youth who does not know what fear is tries various frightful experiences without becoming afraid |
| k165 | The youth who wanted to learn what fear is | A youth who does not know what fear is tries various frightful experiences without becoming afraid |
| k176 | A man in search of the woman | A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife |
| k177 | The travelling heroine | 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 |
| k18 | Infant picks out his unknown father | 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) |
| k18d | A lazy boy and a fish | A lazy (stupid) boy releases a fish (frog, serpent, supernatural being) which gives him a power of making all his wishes come true; he marries a princess |
| k2 | The destroyed ladder | 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) |
| k24 | Stolen clothes of supernatural woman | Women (rare: men) 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; rare: a girl of higher social status than the hero) take off their clothes (feather skins and the like) or part of it. Because a person hides the clothes (of one of them), their owner(s) have (has) to marry him or help him (rare: her) |
| k25 | Magic wife | A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world |
| k25a4 | Escape from the mermaid | 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) |
| k25a4a | Saved from the underwater imprisonment (the cut through chain) | Young woman finds herself in power of water dweller and if permitted to visit her home, a chain is tied to her leg. She can be released if the chain is cut through |
| 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 |
| k27e | Eating or drinking contest | Person or animal must eat (drink) enormous quantity of food (beverage) or eat or drink poisonous beverage or food |
| k27f | The task: to get a woman | A task-giver asks the hero to get for him a particular woman |
| k27f1 | To build a bridge | Person builds a bridge (usually of gold etc.) during a very short time |
| k27g1 | Cleaning of the stable | Person must quickly clean a stable or cattle-shed from dung accumulated there for a long time |
| k27g3 | When one tree is felled, all the other fall after it | When person fells a tree (slightly touching it with an axe), all trees of the forest fall after it |
| k27g5 | The wooden axe | Person tries or must try to cut or to dig with the wooden (plumb, felt) tool instead of the iron one |
| k27hh | To sort grain | A task: to sort a large amount or small particles of different kind (usually seeds of different plants) mixed in container or to count such particles or to pick up the spilled grains |
| k27n | Difficult tasks of the in-laws | A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage |
| 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 |
| k27nn | Envious minister | Not the powerful person himself but his official or adviser tries to get rid of the hero and suggests that the person should give the hero difficult tasks |
| k27r2 | The dancing apples | A task: to bring objects (usually fruits) that act like people, i.e. dance, sing and the like |
| k27s | Contest: a race | Contest: a race |
| k27ss | To win a race with an (old) woman | A strong man has to race with a woman (often with an old woman). He cannot surpass her or does it with much difficulty |
| k27u | Hide-and-seek | Hero and his adversary play hide-and-seek. The hero finds his adversary but the adversary cannot find him |
| k27x5 | Helpful persons of different age | 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 |
| k27x7 | Master of animals calls them together to question them | Person in search of the remote and inaccessible place comes to the master (mistress) of animals (birds, fish) or demons who summon all of them and asks about the way to this place. Only (the last) one knows the way |
| k27x9 | To bring an object from the sea bottom | The hero must bring a small object (often a finger ring) from the bottom of a deep waterbody (often the sea) |
| k27z1 | Bird, horse and princess | 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 |
| k27z8 | Insolvable riddles | The riddle refers to extraordinary or accidental events that happened to the person setting the riddle, and thus is unsolvable to outsiders |
| k28 | Father or uncle is rival and enemy | Maternal uncle or father (or grandfather if he replaces father who is not mentioned) of the young man is his rival or enemy and tries to kill him |
| k29a | Surviving in a fire | Hero demonstrates his supernatural abilities remaining alive in a burning hot chamber, stove, bonfire, among burning vegetation |
| k2a | Hero marooned in the underworld | 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 |
| k2b | The Mountain-man and the Oak-man | The pastimes or only names of the hero’s companions are unusual and different but their specific qualities that they must possess considering their names are irrelevant for the plot. Cf. motif K66, “Extraordinary companions” |
| 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. |
| k32g | Punishment: torn apart by horses | To punish an antagonist, he or she is tied to a horse (camel, bull) and dragged or he or she is torn apart (usually by horses) |
| k32h3 | Punishment: burned alive | 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) |
| k32j | Sister replaced by an ugly girl, brother accused of deception | A ruler gets to know from a young man that this man’s sister is extraordinary beautiful. On the way to the ruler beautiful girl is replaced by the ugly one. Usually the ruler thinks that the young man is a deceiver and throws him in prison |
| 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 |
| k33a | Younger brother transformed into animal | Siblings (most often younger brother and elder sister) leave their home. One of them (most often the brother, most rare several brothers) turn into animal (usually an ungulate) or (rare) a bird but (in the most cases) ultimately acquires his or her human form again |
| k33a2 | A witch distorts what was told | Young man carries his sister to her fiancé. The girl does not hear well what her brother tells her. The witch distorts his saying (she must jump into the water; must be blinded, etc.). After getting rid of the heroine, the witch replaces her with her own daughter |
| k33d | Peau d'asne | A man discovers that a beautiful girl hides herself under a guise of an ugly and dirty servant, under a skin of an animal or in an object that is brought into his house |
| k33g | Fruits of two kinds | 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 |
| k33h | The cat, the dog and the magic object | A man obtains an object that fulfills his wishes. The object is stolen but brought back by the animals (which had been saved by the man before) |
| k33h1 | To exchange the old ring for the new one | The hero’s wife (mother, servant) does not know about the magic qualities of an object in their house and exchanges it for something that looks likes more expensive but actually has low value |
| k35 | False husband | An imposter pretends to be the hero to take his position and/or to marry or to violate his woman |
| k35a | Hero brands his rivals | In exchange for temporal advantages, person agrees to be maimed or branded |
| k35a1 | Not to pick up a feather of fire-bird | On his way a man picks up a precious feather (often despite the warning of his magic horse). When a powerful person gets to know about the feather he tells the man to fulfill difficult tasks |
| k35a3 | The master becomes the servant | To obtain privileges of his master, his servant creates situation that results in exchange of their social positions |
| k35a4 | Thrown into the sea | To get rid of the hero and to get his social and family position, the imposter pushes him into the sea or maroons him on a faraway island. The hero survives and comes back
{The circum-Pacific versions which are geographically remote from the Western European ones are excluded. See motif K1E}
|
| k35a5 | Token to be shown to the protector | Powerful person leaves a token (letter) for a small boy to demonstrate it when he becomes adult and comes to him |
| k35a6 | The shining feather | Person finds an objects (usually a feather) with which he illuminates his room |
| k36 | Bewitched into animal | 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 |
| k37 | Recognition-test | 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 |
| k37a | To recognize a man | Person must recognize her (or his) son or husband among several identical persons or animals |
| k37b | To recognize a woman by her missing finger | 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 |
| k38b3 | Hero takes care of nestlings | Mighty bird or other flying creature helps a man because he took care of its youngs feeding them, warming, decorating, etc. |
| k38b3a | Hero feeds the nestlings | Mighty bird helps a man because he had given food to its nestlings |
| k38c | Bird brings the hero to his destination | After the hero helps a powerful bird (usually does good to her nestlings), the grateful bird brings him to the place where he is eager to get or tells to do it one of her nestlings. (It is not the vertical movement between layers of the world. According to the Sumerian variant, the bird endows the hero with capability to move with extraordinary speed and directs him to his destination) |
| k38e | Of copper, of silver, of gold | 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.) |
| k38f | The dragon-slayer | 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 |
| k38f1 | The cut off tongues | Killing a monster or an animal, the hero cuts of and hides a piece of its body, usually a tongue. (In most of the cases, the imposter claims the deed to himself and when he cannot demonstrate the cut off piece, the hero unmasks him) |
| k38f4 | Fire-breathing monster | From the mouth of a monstrous creature or person who is the enemy of the hero fire is coming out; its breath is fire |
| k48 | Singing bird of the hero | An antagonist wants that a wonderful bird of the hero sing but it remains mute or cries differently. The bird begins to sing when the hero triumphs over his adversaries |
| k56 | The kind and the unkind girls | 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). |
| k56a | The unworthy girl fails, the worthy one succeeds | 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 |
| k56b | The worthy man is rewarded, the unworthy punished | 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 |
| k56e | Two humpbacks | 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 |
| k56e | Two humpbacks | 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 |
| k56e1 | Singers mention days of the week | 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 |
| k57 | Cinderella | 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 |
| k60b | Invitation to coffin | Person is lured into a trap being invited to lie in a box or a hole to measure it. Being unable to liberate himself from the box etc., the person remains in power of his enemies |
| k62a | Quarrel of mouse and bird | 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) |
| k62a1 | A man cures the wounded eagle | A man saves (spares) a wounded bird. When the bird becomes strong again, it carries the man to a distant land (to the sky) |
| k66 | Extraordinary companions | 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 |
| k66 | Extraordinary companions | 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 |
| k66a | The land and water ship | The man who is able to build (to get) a ship which can fly (travel on land) marries the princess (inherits property) |
| k67b | Bargain not to become angry | Person of a low social position (a man) makes an agreement with a person of high social position (an ogre) that the master must never become angry with the servant. The servant abuses the master until the latter erupts in anger and has to be severely punished or to pay a great fee |
| k67c | Skin ribbon ripped off from the back | Person agrees that under certain conditions another may rip off some skin from his back or cut off his ears, nose, etc. |
| k67e | The woman as cuckoo in the tree | The bargain between two persons is to end when a bird whose call is related to particular time of a temporal cycle will be heard. In order to hasten the contract’s end, another person imitates the bird. The first one recognizes the trick |
| k72 | Three maidens | Powerful person listens in conversation of three (rare: two or four) women. Each of them tells what she would do if the person marries her. One promises to bear his son (children) who would have wonderful qualities, two others promise to practice some kind of work or (more rare) marry people of lower status |
| 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) |
| k73a7 | The wonderful children: sister and her two brothers | Woman gives birth to three (and not two or more) wonderful children. They survive and triumph over their enemies |
| k73b1 | Mother and child in a barrel | A woman with her new-born child (or a woman pregnant with a boy) or a young girl and a young boy is put into a barrel (box, skin bag, boat) and thrown into the sea (river) |
| k73b4 | To fill a bag with truth | Person must fill a bag (bowl) with truth (falsehood, tales). He fulfills the demand telling a denunciating story |
| k74 | Hero, his companions and a dwarf | The hero and his companion or companions live together. Every morning one stays at home while another or others go to hunt, etc. A demonic person comes, eats up all the food and beats the cook. Or the man who remained at home comes to the demon himself in search of fire and is maltreated by him. The hero kills or neutralizes the demon |
| k74a | Only the hero gets to overcome the demon whose track he then follows | Every time a demon commits an outrage upon one of the men who remains at home. When it is the hero’s turn, he overcomes the demon and follows his track to his world |
| 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 |
| k75a3 | The groom | The unrecognized hero works as a groom for the powerful person |
| 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 |
| k76e | Son (daughter) the pig | An (adoptive) son or daughter is a pig. He marries a princess, turns into handsome man (she marries a handsome man) |
| k77b | The animals in night quarters (Bremen town musicians) | 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 |
| 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 |
| k80a | A bird or an object tell about a murder | 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 |
| k80d | The stuck in pin | Person is bewitched (transformed into a bird, faints) when a pin or other sharp object is stuck into her (rare his) body |
| k83 | The sons on a quest for a wonderful remedy for their father | 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) |
| k84 | Sisters married to animals | Young man gives his sisters to the first bridegrooms who claim them. These are demons or animals who usually later help him |
| k85d | A horse with a skin resistant to bites | Hero’s horse asks his master to cover him with skins (smear with pitch and sprinkle with sand, etc.) that makes him invulnerable to other horse’ bites |
| k88 | The two travellers (Truth and Falsehood) | 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 |
| k92b | Love like salt | 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 |
| k93 | Twin brothers and a woman | 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 |
| k93a | Sword of chastity | Sleeping in one bed with a woman, man puts a sharp or thorny object between them as a sign of chastity (sometimes the woman herself puts the sword) |
| k93b1 | Conception from eaten fish | After eating a fish, the sterile woman gives birth to a son or twins |
| k93b3 | Boys, colts and puppies are born the same day | 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 |
| k93b6 | The sword that grows in the garden | A woman becomes pregnant eating a fish. The fish bones (entrails, tail, etc.) are buried in a garden, and at this place grows something related to her son: either a weapon (a sword) or an object which appearance depends on her son’s wellbeing (a plant or a spring) |
| 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.) |
| k99a | The father will humble himself before the son | 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 |
| l100 | Transformation flight | A youth and a girl who run away from pursuer transform themselves into a pair of persons, creatures or objects (pond and duck, church and priest, etc.) in order to escape detection by the pursuer |
| l100b | Forgotten fiancée | 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 |
| l100b1 | Dialogue between the male and the female pigeons | 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. |
| l100c | Duped visitors of a chaste woman | When a man comes to a beautiful woman she tricks him by asking to finish some trivial task, keeping him by her magic in an awkward or ridiculous position until daylight. Episode is repeated next nights with other or (rare) the same suitor. Usually the first suitor being ashamed tells the other that everything was nice, so all of them are humiliated the same way |
| l100d | The entrapped suitors | 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. |
| l104 | Fugitive and pursuer change guises | 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 |
| l108 | The wolf and the kids | 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 |
| l108a | Goat kills the antagonist | A predator animal (ogre, ogress) swallows people or animals. The goat (rare: the sheep) punishes him or her and usually saves the victims (most often opens the ogre’s belly open and the swallowed ones come out alive) |
| l108c | The white hand | To make himself unrecognizable by the victim, a predator or ogre demonstrates clothes, limb, etc. that look like clothes or limb of his victim's mother, etc. |
| l114b | To bring ogre's property | 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 |
| l114b1 | A task: to bring the ogre | Person has to bring a certain ogre and does it luring the ogre into a cage, a box, etc. |
| l114c | To exchange clothes with ogre's daughters | 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 |
| 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 |
| l122 | Riding a cock | A (demonic) person is riding a cock |
| l131 | Your house is on fire! (all versions) | 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 |
| l131b | Your house is on fire! (appeal to a bird or ladybird) | To make a (lady)bird fly away, she is told that her house and/or children are on fire |
| 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 |
| l15h | The external soul: three or more objects one inside the other | 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) |
| l15h1 | Person’s soul is in the egg | 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 |
| 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 |
| l19b1 | The seven-headed monster | Описывается или изображается чудовище (обычно змей) о семи головах. При перечисления существ по мере возрастания у них числа голов ряд заканчивается на семи |
| l37b | Secrets accidentally overheard | Person accidentally overhears secrets of animals or demons and thus gets to know the causes of his and other people's misfortunes |
| l37b1 | Toad under a stone | To cure a sick person or to save a household from misfortunes a toad or frog hidden in the house should be killed or removed |
| l4 | The unmasked murderer (Blue Beard) | 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 |
| l43 | Dangerous persons eat filth | Persons who are dangerous for the hero (demons, robbers, merchants) take for something pleasant and edible those objects, creatures or matters (excrements, snakes, insects, etc.) that are disgusting (not edible) |
| l4b | The stain of blood is impossible to wipe off | 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) |
| l65b | Dogs save their master | 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 |
| l65b1 | To exchange sheep for dogs | A man exchanges his sheep (goats) for dogs. The deal looks like unprofitable but the dogs help him to reach success |
| l65b2 | Dogs with the meaningful names | Hero’s dogs have names that tell about their strength and deftness |
| l65b3 | The escape on the tree | Persons climbs a tree and thanks to this escapes from a demon (who usually tries to fell the tree) |
| 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 |
| l72a | Comb becomes a thicket | Running away from a dangerous being, person throws a comb (a brush) that turns into mighty obstacle (usually a thicket) on the way of the pursuer. (In South America the motif is probably of European origin) |
| l73a | Darkness behind, light ahead | Fugitives create darkness behind them to trouble the pursuer (and light in front of them) |
| l85 | One-sided people | 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 |
| l85c | Half-chicken | Person with half of a body is a chicken (sometimes only by name) |
| l93a | Helpful fox | Cunning fox, jackal or coyote saves particular person or many people, helps them |
| l93a | Helpful fox | Cunning fox, jackal or coyote saves particular person or many people, helps them |
| l94 | Child promised to demon | 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 |
| l94b | Give me what you do not know at home! | Person promises to give (sacrifice) to a supernatural the being that will be the first to come to him when he will return home (or something that he has never seen in his house, or an object that he will first see behind the door; etc.). The person thinks that it will be something insignificant but it is his own child |
| l96 | Sold in animal’s guise and comes back | Person can transform himself or herself into an animal or an object. Being sold in this guise, he or she achieves his or her aims and becomes a human again |
| 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 |
| m101b | Three men: the former, the future, the present one | A big predator is eager to see a man. He comes across a boy but gets to know that he will be a man later, then an old person who is not a man anymore. The encounter with the real man (hunter, soldier) has for the animal the unpleasant consequences |
| m106 | Meaningful name | Person lies that his name is so and so. Others understand it not as a name but as a common word and behave accordingly |
| m106a | “Myself” and “Nobody” in demon’s house | 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 |
| m106e | For the long winter | A man has accumulated a store of provisions (saved some money, etc.) and tells his wife that it is for the long winter (Christmas, emergencies, etc.). A trickster (beggar) comes to the woman and tells her that his name is Long Winter, etc. She gives him the provisions |
| m106f | A guest from the paradise | A stranger tells a woman that he comes from the other world and had seen there her dead relative. The woman gives him money and goods for the latter. Usually when her husband goes after the trickster to retrieve the money, the trickster steals his horse |
| m106g | The cow is taken to the roof to graze | A cow (donkey, ox, etc.) is taken to the roof to graze grass that was grown there. Or the wife is raised with a rope on her neck |
| m109 | The tail-fisher | 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 |
| m109d | Caught by tail by the sea creature | Animal puts its tail or tongue into the water which is caught and firmly hold by some sea creature. The tide begins and the animal drowns |
| m114b | Not clothed and not naked | When a person is suggested to make something and simultaneously not to make it or to make it differently than it could be made at all (to come clothed and naked, with and without a gift, etc.), he or she finds the solution |
| m114d | The boiled eggs: eaten last year | 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 |
| m13 | The short-sighted wish is granted | 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 |
| m134 | A tower of wolves | Animals, demons or people stand one on another making a tower. The lowest one jumps off (bends, jerks), all the rest fall to the ground |
| m134a | Three piglets | Predator animal/ogre (blows and) destroys a fragile house but cannot destroy a strong one. Usually two or three weak personages build three houses only one of which is strong enough. |
| m134c | The wolf overeats in the cellar | The wolf or other wild animal gets into the cellar (storehouse, vineyard, etc.) and eats so much that cannot leave |
| m135a | The wolf's reverses | Wolf (more rare other predator animal) comes to different (more than two species) domestic animals (animals and people) to eat them but agrees to fulfill their requests and remains without his meal and usually becomes beaten (killed) |
| m136a | Sunlight carried in a bag | Fools carry sunlight (darkness, smoke) in bags, sieves, etc. and carry it into the room or out of it |
| m136c | The man takes seriously the prediction of death | Considering indirect signs or somebody’s word, a numskull thinks that he is dead and lies motionless |
| m140 | The theft of fish | 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.) |
| 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 |
| m157a4 | To fish on a hill | Person demonstrates the absurdity of the claims of another person saying that he (or somebody else) was fishing on a hill, putting out a fire spilling straw, looking how the fish fly etc. or he is imitating such an activity. Either the place chosen for the activity or the means are irrational |
| m157a6 | You imagine that you speak with the abbot | 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.) |
| m163b | Father’s heritage brings fortune | When a man is dying, he leaves his son (each of his sons) something that does not have any significant value. The son comes to a country where the corresponding object or animal is unknown and sells it for great money |
| m169 | Medicine for the sick lion | In the presence of powerful person one of his subjects is plotting against the other. The other answers that the problem can be resolved if the first one would be maimed (usually a part of his body used as a medicine). The schemer is killed or injured |
| 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) |
| m171a | The profitable exchange: getting a girl | Person or animal gets to exchange less valuable goods for ever more valuable. The last or the next to last one is a girl |
| m178 | The lying goat | A man sends others one after the other to pasture the goat. Back home, the goat always complains it did not get anything to eat. The man angrily sends away or kills his shepherds (who usually are his family members). When he himself pastures the goat he realizes that it lies. He is going to kill the goat, usually skins it, but it escapes |
| 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 |
| m185a | On the tail of the winner (all versions) | 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 |
| m198b | The pretended astrologer | A person who has not a bit of a skill to expose thieves and find the lost objects does it successfully thanks to a series of lucky coincidences |
| m199k | A man makes believe that he is going to bring an entire well | An ogre sends a man to bring water giving him an enormous skin. The man is unable to carry such an amount of water but does not reveal his weakness using a ruse (he is digging around the well and explains that he wants to carry all the water at once; or says that he brought the skin with the water but drank it already up, etc.) |
| m207 | The mouse in the jug | A poor married couple (a poor man) bemoans life’s harshness and blame Adam and Eve who through their disobedience and curiosity brought sin into the world. A powerful person hears their complaint and put them into the place where they can live in luxury. He stipulates only that they must not break certain taboo (usually to open a covered vessel). They break taboo and are returned to their old way of life |
| m29b | Trickster-fox, jackal or coyote | In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is fox, jackal or coyote |
| m29b1 | The wolf is a failure | Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the wolf suffers a reverse, is injured or dies |
| m29b2 | The bear is a failure/enemy | Because of its stupidity or unsocial behavior, the bear suffers a reverse, is injured or dies |
| m38 | Stupid imitation (all versions) | 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 |
| m38b | Stupid wives imitate magic one (the daughter of the Sun) | The first and rejected or taken later wife acts using magic. Other wives try to imitate her but perish are maimed or disgraced |
| m38b2 | Three daughters-in-law at the king's banquet | In the feasting hall, the heroine who has magic capacities throws food around (puts it under her bodice, etc.) but arouses admiration among the guests. Other women try to imitate her but only make the room and themselves look unsightly |
| m38c | Superb blacksmith | A blacksmith is (seems to be) able make people young, cure maimed people and animals |
| m38c1 | Old people forged into young ones: unhappy imitation | 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 |
| m38c2 | Cuts the horse’ leg off to iron it | To iron a horse or a donkey, Jesus (a saint) cuts its leg off, irons it and puts the leg back, the horse is not injured. Another person imitates him with no success |
| m39a4a | Fool’s customer is an animal or an object | A fool gives meat, a domestic animal, cloth etc. to an animal (plant, inanimate object) and thinks that the latter will pay him later or asks an animal to do some work. Claiming money or products of the work, he finds treasure |
| m39a4f | Fool’s customer is a statue | Fool sells property to the statue and believes that it will pay him. Trying to get his money, he finds treasure |
| m39a8 | A fool carries a door on his back | A fool or a buffoon takes the door of the house and carries it on his back |
| m39a8a | Fool drops an object from a tree | A person (often a fool or buffoon) drops a (heavy) object from a tree. Those who are under the tree (usually robbers or demons) are frightened and run away abandoning their goods and valuables |
| m39g | Girl bewails the loss of her child before she has any (Clever Elsie) | 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. |
| m39g1 | Jumping into the breeches | A fool does not know how to pull on his breeches (boots) and jumps down into them from a high place |
| m40 | The distorted instructions | Person is sent to receive something of relatively low value. He asks to give him quite different object (to provide a service) and asks one who had sent him to confirm the demand. Usually a person or animal comes to a wife or a son of a powerful one and tells her or him that her (his) husband or father tells to give him food, to make love to him, to marry him, etc. |
| 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 |
| m57a3 | Female person is the producer of valuables | Instead of common body discharges a a woman urinates, spits, etc. beads, flowers, gold and other valuables; valuables are produced by the very presence of particular female person. See motif m57a |
| 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 |
| m57d | Beat, cudgel! | Person gets one by one magic objects that bring food or treasure. Other people replace them with common objects or take them away by force. The person takes his property back (usually beating the thieves with magic cudgel or whip) |
| m57d3 | Wind grants a wish | Wind person grants a wish to a man |
| m74d | Who ate the lamb’s heart? | While travelling on earth, God (a saint) asks his companion to prepare a slaughtered animal (chicken). The companion secretly eats liver (heart, etc.) and explains that the animal did not have such an organ. He confesses his wrong deed when God (a saint) promises him a treasure |
| m75b1 | Marco the Rich | A respected man gets to know that a poor boy must inherit all his property or become a king and tries to prevent it, but the fate cannot be changed |
| m75b4 | The Trojan Horse: gaining of the woman | To gain a woman, a man hides inside a hollow figure or a carcass of a big animal (horse, bull, etc.). Person who guards the woman brings it to her. The man comes outside and becomes the woman’s lover. Or a woman hides inside the figure of the horse that is brought into the room of a man |
| m78 | A tiny boy (Thumbling) | Tiny boy as small as a thumb, a pea and the like taunts people, predator animals, ogres |
| m81e | Not to graze animals on the ogre's land | 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 |
| m84 | Revived from bones | Person, animal, fish or (rare) a fruit is eaten up and then revived, usually after all bones (all seeds) being put together |
| m84a | Goat resuscitated | 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) |
| m84d | Conversation of trees | A man listens in conversation of trees one of which is mortally ill |
| 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 |
| m91a | Simulated killing (a bag with blood) | Person pierces a bladder with blood or red juice, simulates murder or suicide |
| m91b1 | The sold skin | A man goes to sell a skin of domestic animal and on his way, by trick or thanks to chance, gets a big sum of money. Usually coming back he explains that this was the price of the skin but when other people kill their animals they cannot sell skins for such a sum. (In India the hero sometimes pretends to sold cow meat to brahmins for whom it is forbidden) |
| m91c1 | Herd from the river bottom | Person gets other person’s possessions by trick (or pretends to get it; usually another person is drowned instead of him) and then demonstrates his possessions (usually a herd) and explains that he had received everything at the river bottom. His enemies believe him |
| m91c2 | Put into the bag | Person is put into a bag (a cage, tied up, etc.) to be drowned, burned, etc. He pretends to be in this situation by his own will or because he refuses to marry a princess, to become a chief and the like. Another person is willing to take his place and is killed |
| m91c4 | Pot that does not need fire to cook | Man takes a pot from the fire but it is still boiling or he cooks the food beforehand and tells that his pot cooks it in no time (or that his stick touching ground creates the food). Another man buys the pot (the stick) |
| n11 | As snow and blood | Person is eager to get a child (spouse) who would be likened to blood and snow (milk) |
| n14 | Storyteller on the wedding | Closing formula of the folktale: the teller represents himself as being present at the wedding and/or feast, which were organized by characters of the tale |
| n38 | Which key is better | Person asks which key is better: the old one that was lost and found or the new one. By this the marriage partner is meant |