| Motif | Name | Description |
| a12 | Eclipses: monster’s attack | Some creature or creatures regularly (sunrise and sunset, summer and winter, lunar phases) or irregularly (solar and lunar eclipses, eschatological events) attack the luminaries or shade their light |
| 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) |
| a19c | The sun horse | The Sun is associated with a horseman or rides in a cart driven by horses (equids) |
| a19c1 | The sun cart | The sun or the moon moves in a cart or sledge |
| 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 |
| 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) |
| a32f | Water-carrier in the Moon | Person who went to fetch water and/or holds in hands a container for liquid is seen in the moon |
| a4 | Female sun | The Sun is female, the Moon is male or (more rare) also female |
| 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 |
| b2a | The female earth | The earth is a female person (alone or together with a male person); she is female being or associated with a woman |
| b33g | Three horsemen (the Sun, the Moon, the Night) | Horsemen or horses symbolize luminaries or parts of the day cycle |
| b42q | Ursa major is a carriage | Ursa major is identified with a carriage, a cart |
| b43 | Purusha | Parts of the body of the primeval person or creature are transformed into different elements of the landscape and parts of the universe |
| b7a | The spit out water | Somebody is the only possessor of water or certain beverage. Another person drinks it, escapes and spits out making it available for the people |
| b83 | Bag too heavy to be lifted up | Person tries to pick up a small object or creature but it proves to be of enormous weight (and size) |
| b92 | Flint person turns into flints | Person whose body is extraordinary hard and invulnerable or (rare) a small object is broken to pieces that turn into flints or other hard stones (the origin of flints) |
| c14 | Monsters destroy people | During or before the world catastrophe (deluge, darkness) wild beasts and monsters attack and destroy people |
| c2 | Deluge and conflagration combined | Inhabitans of the Middle World are (partly) destroyed (or will be destoyed) once by fire or draught, another time by a flood or the world is destroyed with a flood of fire or boiling water |
| c32 | Ship made of nails | Demons will make a ship of the cut off nails. |
| c32c (motif is not in the correlation table) | Beware of cut off nails | The cut off nails (and hair) have special significance for the fate of the soul in the beyond or for the future of the entire world |
| c36 | The final battle | Gods fight with their powerful adversaries at the decisive battle that changes fate of the world |
| d1b | Male spirit of fire | The fire is personified as an elder man (alone or with his wife, mistress of fire) |
| e32 | People born from trees | First people are born by trees or come out of a tree, flower, reed |
| e9i1 | Swan-wife | A man marries supernatural woman who is a swan |
| f16 | Men and women: exchange of anatomical characteristics | Initially men possessed women's biological traits and vice versa (beard, menses, breasts, bearing children) |
| f2 | Pregnant limb | Child is born from a tumor or swelling on person's body (on thigh, knee, finger, etc.) or is temporarily placed there or child grows from blood that flew out from a cut |
| f35a | Feeding with the kin’s meat | 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 |
| f60 | Trickster cures maiden | A girl gets sick. A man comes to cure her but only copulates with her or makes an attempt to do so |
| f65a | Death feigned to meet paramour | 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 |
| f70 | Potiphar's wife: false accusation of sexual abuse | Woman makes vain overtures to young man and/or falsely accuses him of sexual abuse. Her husband believes that the young man is guilty, kills or tries to kill him |
| f70a | Disordered clothes as evidence against innocent man | To accuse a man or boy of (sexual) abbuse, a woman tears her clothes, smears or scratches her body pretending to be attacked |
| g23 | Alive being turns into many objects | Person or creature is transformed. Separate parts of its (his, her) body give origin to different objects or creatures (only etiological narratives are considered) |
| g6 | Primeval tree | One of the trees is the principal, original one (emerged before all the other; ancestor of wild or cultivated plants; ocean or rivers inside it; world axis; higher than all the others; overshadows sky) |
| h12 | The alive person comes to the land of the dead after somebody’s death | The alive person comes to the land of the dead to bring back somebody who has recently died (besides stories about shamans who journey to the other world to bring back the soul of a sick person) or, having no particular aim, goes there in company of somebody who had recently died or following his or her tracks |
| h16b | The basin of milk | A river (wave, lake, basin) of milk that exists on earth (and not among the stars) is mentioned in narratives (in different context) |
| h54 | The eyelids of Viy | Eyelids (eyelashes, eyebrows) of personage hang long down over his eyes. To make the eyes widely opened, the eyelids (eyelashes, eyebrows) should be propped up with poles, folks, sticks, etc. (rare: cut off) |
| 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 |
| i103 | The dog star | Sirius is associated with a dog or a wolf |
| i113 | Pig with the golden bristle | A pig made of gold or having golden bristles is a treasure |
| i12 | The world axis | A tree or post pierces and unites different layers of the universe |
| i131 | The thread of life | Life of every man is related to certain thread. When the thread is cut, the man dies |
| 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 |
| i20c | Dwarfs live in the underworld | Dwarfs live in the underworld that somewhat reminds the world of humans. If the dwarfs and the humans meet, it is deep under the earther |
| 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) |
| i22g | Clapping rocks | There are mountains or rocks which permanently collide and separate again from each other or a crack (jaws) in a vertical cliff which is opening and closing |
| i3 | Weapon of Thunder | The lightning (and thunder) is (produced with) an object (axe, sword, mirror, belt, stones, skin, etc.) in hands of anthropomorphic being |
| i35b | The bronze sky | Sky is made of metal. The technique of its creation reminds the work of a smith |
| i35c | God the craftsman | One of mythological characters using his skills in crafts creates for the first time tools and valuable cultural and natural objects; is a patron of craftsmen (usually of blacksmiths) |
| i39 | Rainbow road or bridge | Rainbow is a road, a bridge or a ladder |
| i44 | Chthonic serpent | Giant serpent lies on the perimeter of the earth or supports the earth |
| i48 | Confined to the underworld | Certain person loses his or her freedom, is confined to a far away place (often, to the underworld) and acquires cosmic dimensions: supports the earth or the sky and/or his or her movements produce earthquakes or (rare) storms |
| i4d | Theft of the Thunder-Instrument | Thunder’s instrument is stolen from him. He or his helper comes unrecognized to the thief, gets his instrument and kills the enemies |
| i50 | Ungulate animal with more than four legs | An ungulate animal (a horse, an elk, a moose) with six or more legs is described or represented in art |
| i65 | Milky Way of the dead | Milky Way is the path over which souls travel to the beyond or a path of the funeral procession |
| i73 | Stars are sparks | Stars (rare: suns and moons) are sparks or burning coals |
| i78 | The square earth | The earth is square, the sky is usually round |
| i87 | Skull as a cave | Personages use a shelter which proves to be an object related to the world of the giants (a skull, a shoulder-blade, a mitten) |
| i87ab | Only child was able to pick it up | Strong men or a lot of people people cannot move the corpse of a killed person or creature but a child or a woman does it easily |
| i8e | Four men at the cardinal points | Four (or eight) anthropomorphic male persons support the earth or the sky or are placed at the four cardinal points |
| i8e1 | Four supports of the world | The sky or the earth rests upon four or five (cardinal points and the center) supports of any kind (poles, mountains, giants) |
| i91 | Water body at the base of a tree | There is a source or body of water at the base of a tree which connects layers of the universe and/or has gigantic dimensions and considered to be the main tree of the world |
| j1 | The vengeful heroes | Persons avenge the death of their father, mother or other relatives who are one (rare two) generations older than they |
| j4 | Revenge for the death of the male relatives | Heroes avenge the murder or captivity of the male relatives: (grand)father, uncles, or the elder relatives in general, the loss of the males being the most traumatic |
| j46 | Enemy drowns | Antagonist perishes falling into the water or trying to cross a water body |
| j4b | Revenge inside the family | Children (son, sons, son and daughter) of the murdered woman or man revenge on persons who have marital or close kin relations with the victom |
| j51 | One piece is missing | Person or animal is eaten up or destroyed otherwise. His bones are put together and he or it is revived. Because one bone was broken, swallowed or lost (or a drop of blood, a small piece of flesh lost), the person or animal cannot be revived or being revived misses some part of his or its body |
| k102a2 | Conflict between mother and son | Mother tries to kill her son (children) because he interferes with her love affair
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| k117 | Woman who never laughs (a bride) | A woman should marry a man who would be able to make her laugh; a man promises a reward to the person who would make laugh his daughter, mother or son |
| k139 | Pheasant gets burnt | Roasting meat or baking bread for his master, a servant sees a girl (rare: small boy) and is so impressed with her (or his) beauty, that the meat or bread get burnt |
| k144 | The predestined death because of an animal | A certain animal or (rare) man is predicted to become a cause of death of a certain person. When this animal (man) is already dead himself or itself or is faraway, its (his) remains or image becomes the cause of the person’s death |
| k15 | Embraced nobody bsides this beggar | A woman swears that she never embraced anybody besides (her husband and) the beggar who is among the people. The people do not know that her lover assumed the beggar’s image |
| k176 | A man in search of the woman | A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife |
| k184 | When the forest will get in motion | 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| k27o3 | Competition between two teams | Two groups of participants compete in fulfilling difficult tasks or are engaged into the game in which one team plays against another (at least two episodes with different participants from both sides). The participants are either anthropomorphic who possess different extraordinary qualities or they are different animals (natural phenomena, elements, etc.). {Texts in which the main participants are anthropomorphic and competitions are win by animals who accompany the hero are not included} |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| k38f3 | The ambush from a pit | In order to kill a dragon, a hero digs a pit and hides in it. When the dragon crawls close to or over the pit, the hero deals the death blow with his sword |
| k41 | Thunder against a serpent | Thunder or giant bird fights against a reptile, big water animal or other big and strong creature who lives in water or under the earth |
| k50 | False wife beheads enemy | A man disguised as a woman comes to his enemy and kills him at night (usually cuts off and carries away his head) |
| k60a | How strong are these bonds? | Person lets be firmly tied up when another one say that it's only a joke (e.g. a test to see can the first one break bonds) |
| k64b | Object sticks to person | Hero's adversary provokes him to touch an object that proves to be sticky. The hero sticks to it, sometimes has to cut off his finger |
| k66c | The bear takes human spouse | The bear (lion) takes a woman for sexual partner or the she-bear takes a man. They have children who look like humans or bear cubs. More rare the woman gives birth to her son in the bear den because being abducted by the bear she was pregnant |
| k66d | The bear’s (adopted) son | The (adopted) human child of a bear has superhuman strength |
| 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) |
| l103 | Obstacle flight (Atalanta type) | Treasure, or the like, is thrown back to tempt pursuer to delay |
| l13 | The reared up monster | A small creature is reared up by people. When it is grown up, it becomes harmful and dangerous |
| l14 | Reared up serpent | A small creature (often a worm or a reptile) is brought home and reared up or it becomes to live by itself in an artificial body of water. When big, it goes out of human control or becomes something huge and/or dangerous. Cf. motif L13A (The reared up monster attacks people) |
| l15a | Vulnerable place on the body | The only vulnerable spot is near the surface of person’s or creature’s body and not in his inner organs |
| l15b | To kill with a reed | Person can be killed only with a particular plant that normally is not used as a weapon |
| l19a | Beings with even number of heads | Beings (any besides birds) with even but not more than ten number of heads are described in tales or represented in art. Beings that with even number of heads named in a row with other multi-headed beings and the highest number is even or bigger than ten are not considered |
| 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 |
| l81 | Demon’s fire | Person sets off in search of fire and finds it in the house of a demon. The demon makes harm to the person |
| l90 | Mouth from the earth to the sky | Monster's upper lip (fang, horn, etc.) touches the sky, lower touches the ground |
| 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 |
| m198 | Wise brothers (the king is bastard) | When three brothers (rare: a person) are Invited to khan (judge, king, etc.) and served delicious food, they claim that the food and drink have a taste (smell) of a corpse, dog, goat etc. and/or their host is of a low descent or a bastard. Investigation confirms that their deduction was correct |
| m205 | Birds set a city on fire | Warriors lay siege to a city or palace. They catch or receive as a tribute the birds that live there, oil them or tie combustibles (tinder, wood chips, nutshells filled with pitch, etc.) to their bodies and sets them on fire. When released, the birds fly back to the city or palace. The fire starts there and the warriors achieve their objective |
| m28 | Icarus (failed attempt to fly on artificial wings) | Acquiring possibility to fly, person ultimately falls to the ground or remains in a faraway place being unable to fly any more |
| m30 | Trickster falls down | Person or creature who has no wings or is unable to fly on a long distance attempts to ascend to the sky or to fly far away but falls down or, deprived of his wings, remains in a place from which he is unable to return |
| m57b | Sweat of the Sun and tears of the Moon | Beads or metals are discharged by bodies of deities |
| 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) |
| m90a6 | Apples of immortality | Certain apples make their owner eternally young |
| n12 | Cloak of beards | A powerful person makes or orders to make for him a cloak or a mantle from human beards and/or moustaches |
| n28a | The roots of rocks | Roots (belt) of rocks (stones, mountains) are mentioned in myths, riddles, proverbs, charms and songs as something that does not exist |
| n35 | Milk river with kissel banks | In a remote country rivers of milk have banks of kissel. It is a sign of abundance |