| Motif | Name | Description |
| a13a1 | Raven obtains the Sun | Raven (crow) gets the hidden or stolen Sun (daylight) |
| a21 | Luminaries are objects fixed in the sky | The sun and/or the moon are inanimate objects thrown up to the sky or fixed in the sky |
| a24 | The first sunrise | In the beginning it is dark. When the Sun first appears on the sky, primeval beings or part of them perish or turn into animals, spirits, stones |
| a38c | The Sun’s cloak | A boy or a girl has a cloak. The Sun spoils it or gives instead a better one |
| a5 | The Sun and the Moon are males | The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (much more rare) asexual |
| 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 |
| b18 | Light in container | Day light (also warmth, the sun, the moon) is kept as a particular object in a container, under a cover, etc. |
| b26 | Man joins wild animals | Person who follows the wild animals turns into one of them or into their master |
| b3a | Primeval waters | Water is the original element, the dry earth appears later |
| b3b | Earth grows big | Original earth was small and later increased in size or the fertile soil grew from a small amount of original substance |
| b40 | Rabbit as deer’s proxy | Hare or rabbit is a false deer or it was deer in the past or a close kin of the deer or had horns or antlers or missed opportunity to get them, its ears are the false horns |
| b40a | Missed opportunity to have horns | Animal who has no horns now had them before or missed opportunity to get them |
| b42o | Broken back constellation | Certain constellation is a male person whose back is broken or wounded |
| b42s | Hit with a projectile | Ursa major or Polaris are identified with a middle size animal (ermine, fisher, woodchuck) or with a basically anthropomorphic person (with some animal characteristics) hit with a dart or an arrow |
| b48 | Predators become herbivorous | Weak or herbivorous animals were dangerous predators but have been transformed |
| b5b | The universal mother | Woman (alone or with her companion) gives birth to or creates not only people but also different creatures and objects |
| b64d | Bones are arrows | Certain bones in the body of living creatures (usually birds and fish) are arrows that were shot into them |
| b71 | Aurora borealis | Aurora borealis is spirits (of the dead) who run holding burning torches, play or fight with each other |
| 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 |
| b82 | The white raven | Raven or other carrion-eating bird of dark color and a similar size was originally white |
| b87 | Alcor | Alcor (a weak star near the second star of the handle of the Big Dipper) is selected as a particular sky object |
| c19 | Acquisition of the sun | The Sun (the day light) that was absent, stolen or hidden appears (again) |
| c25c | The Big Dipper and the end of the world | Change in configuration of the stars of certain constellation (usually Big Dipper) or its disappearance from the sky will be a signal of approaching world cataclysm |
| c6 | Valuables brought from the lower world | Persons or animals dive or otherwise decend to the lower world to get a desired object and to bring it to earth (besides episodes in the fairytales, cf. motif k27x9) |
| c6d | The aquisition of the earth from the lower world | The dry land (the earth) grows from a small amount of solid substance (sand, clay, dirt and the like) brought from the lower world (usually from the bottom of the ocean) |
| d4a | Theft of fire | Fire is stolen from its original owner or brought back to the people from somebody who had stolen it before |
| d4c | Acquisition of summer | Warm season is obtained from its original owners |
| d9 | Fire and vulture | Raven or other big dark-feathered bird scavenger is the owner, personification, spouse, obtainer or stealer of fire, daylight, or the Sun |
| e10 | Pets turn into children | A lonely woman or married couple surprises childred who live nearby in guise of animals (plants, objects). After this the children preserve their human guise |
| e11 | The burned skin | Magic person reveals his true nature and/or remains with the real people after the object responsible for preserving the non-human appearance (usually an animal skin) is destroyed (usually burned) |
| e8 | People of wood | The first people or (the first) woman (wife of a primeval ancestor) are made of wood |
| e9m | Bear-wife | Man marries a polar bear or grizzly who becomes a woman or a woman who becomes a bear |
| f30a | Worm-baby | Woman is nursing a worm (caterpillar, reptile, fish) as her baby. People kill the monster |
| f35 | Feeding with the paramour’s meat | Person feeds another with the meat of his or her sexual partner who cooks or eats it without knowing whose meat it is |
| f40c | Patriarch kills the boys | A powerful man kills every baby boy born by his wives or by his sister |
| f49 | The abnormal birth | Cesarean operation upon a woman at childbirth as a custom |
| f9 | A dangerous woman | For different reasons, sexual contact with a woman is deadly dangerous for a man |
| f9e | Mice in vagina | There are small mammals with sharp teeth in woman's genitals. |
| f9e1 | Dangerous animal in vagina | Woman is dangerous because biting or stinging animal or animals is (are) inside her genitals (and not only the head of such an animal) |
| g1 | A kidnapped child | Valuables (earth, soil, sun, crops, fire, sacred knowledge, hunting luck) are got or returned when son or daughter is stolen from his or her parent |
| h10 | Stone sinks, stick floats | People are mortal because stone thrown into the water sank. They have missed a chance to be like wood or other organic matter that floated |
| h19 | Raven tries to starve people | Raven hides or scares game animals preventing hunters to kill them. People outwit him |
| h28 | Plagues from the body of a person or creature | Killed and destroyed (often burned) person or creature (usually ogre, fierce animal, powerful shaman) turns into a multitude of biting insects or into other small molesting creatures |
| h32a | Superfertility lost: a maltreated wife | Supernatural woman comes to live with humans. Thanks to that, food becomes easily available. She is maltreated, goes away, temporal superfertility is lost forever |
| h36ff | Death and the raven | Raven is responsible for introduction of permanent death |
| 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 |
| i1 | The thunderbirds | Creatures that produce rain and/or thunderstorms are birds or anthropomorphic beings with wings; or (rare) some or all birds are connected with thunder, lightning or rain though Thunder is not a bird |
| i106 | Ursa major is a person | Ursa major is only one anthropomorphic being, not several persons |
| i15 | No-mouth people | Anthropomorphic beings have no mouths |
| i17 | Body anomalies of inhabitants of a distant land | Beings without mouth, anus, genitals, whose women do not know how to give birth live in the underworld, in the sky, or in a far-away land |
| i2 | Lightning from eyes | Lightning emerges from eyes or mouth of the being who is thought to produce thunderstorms |
| 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) |
| i22a | Rising and falling sky | The sky is constantly moving up and down in respect to earth |
| i46d | Rainbow snare | Rainbow is a snare, a noose |
| i6 | Weather birds | A man meets a giant bird that brings with it clouds, rain, hail, thunderstorm, etc. |
| i68 | Opening of the sky | On a certain moment, a crack, a window or the like opens in the sky vault (rains flows though it, the upper world is seen, communication with inhabitants of the upper world becomes possible) |
| i6a | Male and female birds: different kinds of precipitation | The male and the female birds bring with them different kinds of precipitations (e.g. the male comes with a hail, the female with a rain). Or (Buryats of Mongolia) one and the same bird brings different kinds of precipitations depending on is it angry or not. |
| i72 | Stars are people | Stars are people, ghosts, anthropomorphic beings (interpretations of unique star objects like Venus or Polaris as persons not considered) |
| i8f | One support of the world | Only one pole or mountain supports the earth or the sky |
| i8g | Atlas | One giant supports the earth or the sky |
| j13 | Two sisters | Two sisters (if more, only two play a significant role in the plot) travel and meet an unpleasant suitor or get to an ogre |
| j23 | A late son kills monsters | People (elder brothers, elder siblings, elder sister) disappear (one by one). A lonely woman has a baby or finds a baby or she becomes pregnant magically and gives birth to a boy or twins. The boy grows up, exterminates the antagonists, usually revives and releases those who had disappeared |
| j23c | Youngest brother kills monsters | People (elder brothers, elder siblings, elder sister) disappear (one by one). A lonely woman has a baby or finds a baby or she becomes pregnant magically and gives birth to a boy. The boy grows up, exterminates the antagonists, usually revives and releases those who had disappeared |
| j37 | The antagonist is carried away by bird | A man turns into powerful bird or creates it. The bird carries away his enemy |
| 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 |
| j54 | The last female survives | Animals of particular species that were enemies of the heroes are exterminated besides the only pregnant female (rare a female and a male). Thanks to this, these animals still exist |
| j58 | The arrow ladder | Persons shoot arrows (darts) which hit each other’s end forming a chain (rope, ladder). Persons climb by this chain to the sky or (rare) across an obstacle |
| j59 | Following arrow to get to the sky | To climb to the sky, person must first to shoot an arrow that reaches the sky and sticks to it |
| k10 | Fight with the monstrous bird | Monstrous bird (giant bat) predates on humans. Heroes fight with it |
| k10f | Nestlings turn into eagles | Hero transforms nestlings or monster bird into common eagles or owls |
| k111 | Animal suitors rejected, a man from the sky accepted | Mother of a girl rejects in succession birds (and animals) who come to ask her daughter in marriage, but accepts a man from the sky (the Sun) as her son-in-law |
| 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) |
| k17 | The ornitomorphic suitor | An ornitomorphic hero impregnates a girl magically or imperceptibly for her |
| k176 | A man in search of the woman | A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife |
| k19b | Star-husband | A woman maries a star-man |
| k19e | Wolverine under a tree | When a woman or two sisters descend from sky back to earth, they get to the top of a tree. Some animals who walk by cannot help them or do not want to help. Wolverine gets women down because he plans to marry them but they escape from him |
| k1d | Woman’s brothers maroon her husband | Brothers of a man's wife hate him and maroon on an islet |
| k1e | Marooned on an islet | Person is marooned on an islet or on another side of a sea or wide river |
| k20 | Wish for star-husband or wife realized | A human person admires a star or (rare) the Moon in the sky, expresses desire to marry it or (rare) to get a star-object. Star descends to him or to her or takes him or her to the sky |
| k25 | Magic wife | A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world |
| k25a6 | Magic wife does not forgive the unfaithfulness of the man | A wife from the non-human world agrees to live with the mortal man but abandons him when he becomes unfaithful to her (when he visits his mortal wife) |
| k27n | Difficult tasks of the in-laws | A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage |
| k27n3a | Task-giver is the Sun, Moon, Thunder, or Wind | Person who gives difficult tasks to the hero is associated with the Sun, Moon, Thunder, or Wind (Cloud, Rain) |
| k27n3c | Task-giver is a zoomorphic being | Person who gives difficult tasks to the hero is associated with an animal, a bird or a fish |
| K27n3c2 | The antagonist is father-in-law in guise of a bear | The task-giver is the bear who is the hero’s father-in-law |
| k27p | Antagonist mourns loss of his helpers | The antagonist sends the hero to the place where he is attacked by dangerous creatures. The hero kills them and brings to the antagonist. The creatures are the antagonist's relatives, pets, or helpers, therefore he or she mourns their death or revives them |
| k27p1 | Antagonistic father-in-law acquires guise of an animal | When father-in-law (rare: mother-in-law) asks the hero to killl or to tame a dangerous animal or not to kill certain animal during a hunt, he (she) turns into this animal himself or transforms into it his daughter(s) or wife (husband) |
| k27p2 | Antagonistic father-in-law acquires guise of a bear | When father-in-law (rare: mother-in-law) asks the hero to kill a bear, he (she) turns into the bear himsel or tranfforms into the bear his daughter or wife (husband) |
| k27y | To get material for making bow and arrows | Hero is sent or sets off by his own will to get two or more different materials needed for making bow and arrows (wood or reed for shafts, feathers, tendons for string, flint for points, paint to paint the shafts, gum to stick points to the shafts) |
| k27y1 | Arrow points made of coal | Person believes or pretends that the arrow points should be of coal, bark, grass and the like. |
| k27yy1 | To get feathers of a dangerous bird | Hero brings a feather (feathers) of a dangerous bird |
| 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 |
| k31 | Wooden seal | Person makes a sea mammal or fish of wood, it carries another person or persons into the open sea or kills him or them |
| 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. |
| k32b1 | Mother substitutes her daughter | Mother-in-law of a man takes the appearance of her daughter to replace her |
| k32c | True wife turns into owl | When the imposter takes place of the real wife, the latter turns into owl |
| k43a | Compassionate person saves fire | People abandon a boy, a girl, brother and sister, a group of children, or a young family without fire and food. A compassionate person conceals hot coals for the outlaws in the abandoned camp |
| k43b | Bird brings some meat | People abandon a boy, a girl, brother and sister, a group of children, or a young family without fire and food. The outlaws demonstrate supernatural powers or protectors providing food and lodging. While the abandoned persons have plenty of food other people starve. A person (often a bird like crow, magpie, sea-gull, etc.) visits the abandoned ones and brings from them some food home. This way people get to know that the abandoned ones prosper |
| k47a | A woman and a dog | After having sexual contact with a dog, a woman gives birth to his children. The puppies turn into humans and usually become ancestors of particular groups of people |
| k59 | Box for Osiris | One man puts another into a box, closes the lid (or ties him to a board, to canoe, etc.) and puts the box adrift. It floats to another land, man is released there, returns home, revenges on his enemy |
| 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 |
| k67 | Burned moccasins | Two men spend a night in a forest, take their moccasins or clothes off usually to dry them near the fire. One plans to burn the moccasins or the clothes of another at night. The latter imperceptible interchange their things and the first man burns his own property |
| k86 | Weeping child stolen | Because a small child is ignored or punished by its parents (usually it cries late in the evening), bush spirit or animal carries it away |
| k87 | Marriage with an animal creates problems | A woman becomes the wife of an animal (rare: other non-human being). Her husband cares for her but ultimately the animal, the woman, her children or her relations are killed, she turns into an animal herself, animals and humans become enemies, etc. |
| k87b | Woman steps into bears’ dung | Gathering berries a woman steps into bear's dung and curses bears. A bear abducts her and marries her. Her human husband, her brothers, or supernatural person kill the bears |
| l105 | Invisible missile | Animal, fish or person wounded by hero runs or swims away, usually with the man's projectile in his or her body. Local doctors are not able to cure the wound (usually because they do not see the projectile). The hero or his companion comes to the place where the wounded one lives and cures him or her (usually extracting his projectile from the wound) |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| l17b | Two faces | Person or creature has another face (another mouth) on the back of his (her, its) head |
| l1a | Woman turns into the bear | A young woman turns into the bear (in Asia, into the tiger) and attacks her husband or close relatives |
| l1b1 | Demonic woman and her brothers | A woman gets into conflict with her brothers and turns into dangerous demon |
| l1f | Sister avenges her lover | A young woman turns into monster and kills her brothers avenging the death of her husband or lover |
| l22 | The sound sleep | After breaking some taboo, coming across a strange object or person, people fall asleep. They do not feel when at night spirits come and injure or kill them |
| l22a | People become blind | After breaking some taboo, coming across a strange object or person, people fall asleep and awake blind |
| l34 | The burning hair | Person kills or injures his enemy putting fire on his or her straw costume, mask, headgear, hair or object on his or her back |
| 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 |
| l42 | Hero carried to ogre’s home | An ogre or ogress catches a person and brings him to his or her home where he or she plans to cook and eat him. The hero escapes |
| l48 | Demons devour their comrades | A man kills (usually in a tree, on a rock, at the edge of a well, of a precipice) and/or throws down one of his enemies. The other enemies do not recognize their comrade and think that their prey is falling down |
| l53 | Stones into the maw | A monstrous being is killed or neutralized by (burning hot) stones (pieces of metal, heavy fruits, etc.) thrown into its maw or anus or the being retreats when they menace to throw a stone into its maw |
| l57 | Person gets his body part back | Person loses his organ or body part, it is carried away. He finds its new owner, gets his property back |
| 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) |
| l66 | Tunnel under the monster | A small animal digs an underground hole to the place where the monstrous stag, elk, antelope, or buffalo lies. Hero climbs along the tunnel and kills the monster |
| l67 | Monster’s hair gnawed off | After digging a tunnel under a lying monstrous animal, a small animal (usually a mouse) bites off the monster's hair at a certain place. Hero kills the monster thrusting his spear or arrow through the hairless place into the monster's heart |
| 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) |
| l72b | Whetstone becomes a mountain | Running away from a dangerous being, person throws objects that turn into mighty obstacles on the way of the pursuer. One of the thrown objects is a whetstone which turns into a mountain |
| l79 | Two co-wives, human and monstrous | A girl marries a powerful benevolent man. His first wife is a monster. The man kills her or is glad that she is killed by his human wife |
| l9 | Sharp body members | Body members of a person has the form of cutting or piercing weapon |
| l92 | Feigned suggestion to help the ogre | Person escapes to a tree or high rock. An ogre tries to cut it down. Some person or animal suggests the ogre to have a rest, promises to work instead of him but spoils his work or (in Subarctic) kills him when the ogre gives him his axe. (Africa versions have Eurasian origins) |
| l98 | Cannibal owl | Dangerous cannibal or bush spirit who abducts children, attacks people, etc. is associated with an owl |
| m11c | Person gets lard from his body | A male person cuts or roasts his own body to extract meat, lard or blood, cooks it and serves to his guest without injuring himself. Such a food is not considered to be unclean |
| m16 | Ugly or sick one becomes healthy and handsome | A kinfolk (often his mother) or wife (bride) of a sick (ugly, old) man or boy do not care for him. He becomes healthy (and handsome), punishes and/or abandons those who were evil with him |
| m16a | Diving bird’s medicine | A supernatural helper (usually a loon) makes a blind man to regain his eyesight diving with him into water |
| m20 | Trickster’s jaw injured | Person commits something that is socially unacceptable. They catch him and injure (cut off) his bill or jaw. Usually he gets his ripped off jaw (bill) back |
| m29a | Trickster-raven | In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is raven |
| m29a1 | Raven (crow) is the main trickster | In three or more different episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is raven (crow) |
| m29b2 | The bear is a failure/enemy | Because of its stupidity or unsocial behavior, the bear suffers a reverse, is injured or dies |
| m29f | Wolverine is a failure | Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the wolverine 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 |
| m38a | The bungling host | Being on a visit to other people or (more often) animals, an (animal)-person sees them act using magic or according to their animal nature. Back at home, he imitates their actions and gets in trouble. Actions are not heroic deeds, competitions or tests and mostly refer to providing and cooking food |
| m46 | The false baby | Planning to get or to return valuables, person turns into baby or in a small objects that has power to impregnate a woman. The picked up or the born baby steals the valuables and acquires his real guise (including cases according to which the girl herself is the desired valuable)
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| m46b | A stratagem: baby born by woman | Person turns into tiny object or creature. Touching or swallowing it, the woman conceives and gives birth to a baby-boy. The boy steals valuables or make love to the woman |
| m46c | Swallowed conifer-needle | Person turns into conifer-needle, a tiny particle, a small insect. Swallowing it by chance, the woman becomes pregnant and gives birth to a boy |
| m46d | Child cries for a toy | A small child cries and becomes satisfied only when he gets a particular object to play with. This object is of high value and is hidden in the house. As soon as the object is given to him, the child or a person related to him carry it away |
| m46e | The Sun as a toy | They (promise to) give a child the Sun (and or the Moon) to play with |
| m53d | Would believe enemies | Person creates figures that look like enemies or pretends that enemies come. People run away, person gets all valuables for himself |
| m57b | Sweat of the Sun and tears of the Moon | Beads or metals are discharged by bodies of deities |
| m60a | A hunter comes to one whom he wounded | An animal or a supernatural creature is wounded but escapes. Local doctors are helpless. The hero or his companion, masked as a doctor, comes to the wounded one and either cures or kills him. |
| m75 | Valuables taken off the vultures | Person attracts and catches the carrion-eaters (usually some birds) and thanks to this obtains valuables retrieves valuables (fire, woman, animals, etc.) |
| m77 | A soiled bed | While person is asleep, another smears with excrements or something that reminds excrements his or her bed or clothes. The ashamed person runs away or agrees to make what the trickster wants in exchange of his silence |
| m8 | Breaking the obstacle | Non-human persons work hard to destroy a strong and durable obstacle that blocks access to some place or object |
| m83 | Who is older? | Somebody claims that he has been born before present world came into being. His opponent claims the same, and they argue who of them is the older |
| 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 |
| m84b | Bones thrown into the water | Butchered and eaten animal, bird or fish revives after its bones are thrown into the water |
| m84b1 | A journey to the land of the fish | A man visits the place from there the salmons come to the human world |
| m8a | Birds peck a rock to release prisoners | Birds and sometimes also animals work hard to break from the outside or from the inside a rock, a tree truck, bonds, etc. to release some beings or themselves from confinement in a small enclosure or trap |
| m94 | Sliding downhill | One person or animal suggests another to slide downhill to kill or harm him or her |
| m94a | Sliding downhill: victims of antagonist | A demonic person provokes his victims to slide downhill and kills them |