The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (much more rare) asexual
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
After passing half of the its way across the sky (in the day time) or in the underworld (in the night time), the Sun stops to have a rest
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)
Female person is incarnation of wind, mother of winds, etc.
Every one of the seven main stars of the Ursa mayor is a an adult man
Every main star of the Big Dipper is interpreted as a particular person or animal
When the earth was created it proved to be bigger than the sky and had to be squeezed. This way mountains or swamps have appeared
Because children do not give water to their mother, she turns into a bird, usually a cuckoo, and flies away
Owl was or wanted to be king of birds or it behaved itself in a wrong way during the elections of the king. Now it avoids other birds and/or other birds chase it
Against person's will, butchered, dried or cooked meat, tanned hides, etc. turn back into animals or fish and escape.
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
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
The lightning (and thunder) is (produced with) an object (axe, sword, mirror, belt, stones, skin, etc.) in hands of anthropomorphic being
Milky Way is a trace of people who spilled on their way something related to agriculture (straw, chaff, hay, more rare flour, peas)
Personages use a shelter which proves to be an object related to the world of the giants (a skull, a shoulder-blade, a mitten)
A man seeks a strong adversary to wrestle with and comes across person who is incomparably stronger than he
A young hero obtains and uses weapons or other powerful objects which belonged to his murdered father
Some valuables (foals, hay, apples, etc.) are regularly stolen. Nobody (the elder brothers) is able to catch the thief and only the hero (the younger brother) finds who it is
Before passing away a man asks his sons to guard his grave for a certain time or to bring something to his grave. The youngest son goes and obtains valuables
Person or animal is eaten up or destroyed otherwise. His bones are put together and he or it is revived. Because one bone was broken, swallowed or lost (or a drop of blood, a small piece of flesh lost), the person or animal cannot be revived or being revived misses some part of his or its body
Person transforms people who come to him or her into inanimate objects, usually stones
Enemies attack household. The master's wife agrees to live with the enemies' leader, her former husband lies alive but tied up. Somebody (usually his daughter) refuses to release him, but other person (usually his son) does it. The man kills the enemies and usually cruelly kills his wife (and daughter)
A man maroons another because of jealousy or because he plans to take hold of his wife
Hero climbs up (e.g. to a tree) or down (e.g. into a deep cave) by ladder, rope, from branch to branch, etc. The rope etc. breaks or is intentionally destroyed and the hero cannot return to the ground. (All cases of motif K2A, besides the Koreans, also contain motif K2)
Hero is sent to the lower world though a well, precipice, etc. After he obtains valuables (young women), his envious companions cut the rope to get rid of him but he succeeds in returning back
By trick or by force, a rival or adversary kidnaps hero's wife or bride. The man gets her back
Disguised as a bird, small animal or insect, a man penetrates into the place of a girl (into her father’s house)
An ornitomorphic hero impregnates a girl magically or imperceptibly for her
Women who possess supernatural power and usually come from a non-human world (from sky, from under the water, they are winged beings, bird- or animal-persons) take off their clothes (feather skins and the like) or part of it. Because a man hides the clothes (of one of them), their owner(s) have (has) to marry him or help him
Person is ordered to bathe in a (boiling) milk or other hot liquid or to jump into fire. He remains unharmed but his adversary usually dies
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
A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage
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
Person is able to steal an egg (a nestling, to put it back) from under the bird (to change the bird’s feather; to steal an embryo from animal’s womb, etc.)
When water in a spring is replaced with alcohol, honey, etc. or bottles of alcohol seem to be left without supervison, a creature of person becomes drunk and is caught
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.
A girl finds a body of a sleeping youth who will wake up at a certain time and marry the girl who would sit nearby. Usually at the last moment the girl goes away for a time and the impostor takes her place.
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
Getting to the underworld, hero should take a white ram (horse) which would carry him back to earth. By chance, he takes the black one which carries him even deeper to the lower level of the underworld. Or the hero grabs not the right but the left horn of the animal and because of this gets to the wrong place
A monster blocks sources of water (or sends floods) and usually gives some (promises not to send floods) in exchange for human victims or valuables. Hero kills the monster
Person gets into dwelling of master of animals or monstrous shepherd. The host can kill him. The hero escapes sticking to hair of one of the animals who are going out
Person blinds sleeping ogre or ogress and escapes from him or her
Several companions have extraordinary abilities (one who runs fast, one who eats great quantities, one who produces or can withstand severe frost, etc.); a hero comes across and takes for companions several men, each of them being involved into a special and unusual activity
A man meets a dangerous giant (or serpent) who proves to be friendly to him. When another giant fights with the first one, the man helps his friend
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)
An ogre (an ogress) swallows people, is killed but the people are not found in his or her belly or are found dead. Only when the ogre's finger is cut off, the hero finds a remedy to revive the people or the swallowed up (the swallowed hero himself) come out alive from the finger of the ogre
For minor offence or because of false accusation a young girl or woman is maimed and expelled from home (rare: killed or she kills herself). The maimed person magically obtains her body integrity (the dead revives)
To cure a sick person or to make him (rare: her) young again it is necessary to bring a remedy from a distant country. The medicine is brought and the sick person is cured (becomes young)
Many brothers marry or have to marry in such a way that all their wives are (were) sisters
Every morning girl' or (rare) boy’s clothes are in disorder, the boy looks very tied. People spy on her (or on him) and discover that she or he spends nights in the non-human world
Master of the house allows person to feel himself (herself) free bit not to look into particular place. The person breaks prohibition
To make a poor man rich (usually to marry him to a rich girl or to marry a poor girl to a prince), an animal makes other people believe that the groom is rich already. The man becomes prosperous indeed
An animal saves a man or helps him but the ungrateful man humiliates the animal, kills or tries to kill it
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
An animal killed by a hunter revives. The animal itself or somebody else tells the hunter that there was a greater wonder (sorrow) with such and such a person. The story follows
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)
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
To accuse a guest of theft, a host plants a treasure into his guest’s bag
Supernatural women make harm to people. Hero overcomes them and usually marries them
A hunter spends night in a desolate place. A demon comes to his fire. When the demon falls asleep or goes away for a while, the hunter puts his clothes over a log and hides nearby. When the demon attacks the log taking it for the man, the hunter wounds or kills the demon
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
Person sets off in search of fire and finds it in the house of a demon. The demon makes harm to the person
Cunning fox, jackal or coyote saves particular person or many people, helps them
A demon helps a man or a woman or lets him or her free. As a reward, the person is forced to promise to give the demon his child
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
Person pursued by an enemy asks somebody whom he meets to help him. The helper hides him
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is fox, jackal or coyote
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
A man hides in a skin or carcass of a big animal. A bird carries it to its nest without knowing that the man is inside
Person, animal, fish or (rare) a fruit is eaten up and then revived, usually after all bones (all seeds) being put together
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)
Two animals agree to care for their children together. The stronger one devours the children of the weaker one and pretends to be angry when the latter asks whose were the lost children
When a weak animal or a person gets to see a predator animal or an ogre, he says in a loud voice (or asks to say his wife or children) something that frightens the predator (ogre): why the predator (ogre) brought to him is lean (small; only one instead of several), or it is good that more food gets to his house, etc. The predator (ogre) runs away
The wolf (lion, etc.) is going to eat a horse (mule, etc.). The horse asks him to look at his hoof (for different reasons) or eat him from his hindquarters forward; then he kicks him
A man obtains knowledge of animal languages but if he reveals the secret, he must die. Once he hears animals talking and laughs. His wife thinks that he laughs at her or at her mother. The man is ready to open his secret and either does it and dies or hears how animals (usually a cock) blame him for being so foolish. So he keeps his secret.
An animal person pretends to have no other interests than to fulfill religious rules and prescriptions (to confess his sins, to make a pilgrimage, to become vegetarian, etc.) and kills those who have believed him
Hero comes across a (animal-)person from an enemy group and takes his or her appearance, usually dressing himself in a skin of his victim; after this he penetrates the enemy camp
A task-giver asks the hero to get for him a particular woman
Thunder is produced by dragging behind a dry animal skin or (rare) a person (rare) or by shaking clothes
Person claims to be equal to the sky god, imitating him or mocking upon him
When a boy and a girl are still small children, a bird gets to know about their predetermined marriage. All its attempts to prevent the marriage fail
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
Person is suggested to fulfill tasks that are mortally dangerous or cannot be fulfilled without supernatural helpers or capacities. The person fulfills the tasks and remains alive. A contest between persons has form of a competition or game in which the loser is deprived of his status or life
A weak and timid man or boy overcomes accidentally powerful enemies and gets high esteem
Person accidentally overhears secrets of animals or demons and thus gets to know the causes of his and other people's misfortunes
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.
Personage of gigantic dimensions in respect to normal humans and animals proves to be tiny dwarf in respect to another personage
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
A man who has a low social position is a nuisance for persons of high position. He gets to know that they plan to drown him or his preperty (rare: to strangle him) and tricks them to drown instead one of them or their own property
Being a victim of the injustice and after much suffering, a young woman speaks with a certain inanimate objects (often it is “the stone of pity”) telling it her sad story or her husband does it. The woman is rescued and the justice reinstated
Hero’s companions cut off his legs and abandon him (usually they put a sword in front of his tent and when the hero runs out in a hurry, he is wounded by the blade)
A master builder gets to know that the king is going to kill or maim him. He asks to send a messenger to his home to bring an ostensibly forgotten tool or something else. His daughter-in-law understands the real meaning of the message, takes the messenger as a prisoner and saves her father-in-law
The fire is personified as an elder man (alone or with his wife, mistress of fire)
Sky is made of metal. The technique of its creation reminds the work of a smith
A girl (rare: a youth) with transparent neck is described, food or drinks swallowed by her or him are seen. Such a neck is an evidence of the beauty
A woman (rare: a man) with transparent body is described. This transparence is an evidence of the beauty
One of the fingers says that he is hungry and/or suggests to steal something. Other fingers express their opinion on this behalf.
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
The last cold month wishes he were longer or would come earlier. In such a case he would freeze everybody to death
A huckster sells powder that he guarantees will kill fleas (rats, etc.). When someone asks how to use it, he relies that one has to catch the flea, hold its mouth (eyes) open and put powder in it. When the customer says that it would be easier simply to crush, the seller agrees with him
The servant is asked to prepare a goose (chicken, etc.), eats one leg and maintains that the goose had only one leg enforcing his point by showing geese who stand on one leg. The master shoots away the geese so that they use both legs. Usually the servant replies that if he had frightened the roasted goose, it would have showed its second leg as well
The youth does not know that a beautiful girl hides inside an object that is brought to him
A fool loses his head (usually bitten off by a bear). His wife or companions cannot say had he his head before but remember that he certainly had a hat (beard)
A man buries something half-liquid and soft (animal bowels, eggs, etc.). He stamps (shoots an arrow) at this place and claims that got to extract brains (bowels, etc.) from the earth
Magic horse eats (hot) coals, nails, etc. or they try to feed the horse with such a staff
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.)
A master (ogre, devil, wife) tries to get away from his farmhand (her husband). The farmhand hides in the master’s bag (chest) so that the master unwittingly takes him along
While the men of the household are not at home, a demonic person comes to drink blood of a girl or young woman. Initially the men do not understand why the girl becomes thin
An animal or a person eats up the first book (writing, important document). (In some of European traditions the eating up of the book is not directly described but follows from the context)
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
A cleric or administrator visits a woman after the dark. When her husband knocks at the door, the woman, according to the scenario elaborated by her and her husband, tells the guest to lie in the cradle. She answers the husband that it is their baby son. The husband becomes or shams to become transform the adult into the baby (shaves his beard off, knocks out his teeth, grasps an axe to cut his feet off). The disgraced guest runs away
Constellation are interpreted as agricultural tools or people occupied with agricultural works (mostly ploughing and haymaking)
In the past a particular groups of people possessed scripture and knowledge that were later lost or the people missed opportunity to obtain them
In a deserted place, a man kills another. After some time he is exposed thanks to circumstances and facts that do not seem important and do not report on the crime directly (the victim’s last words; objects or live beings that were or appeared on the place of the murder). (All texts that contain motifs K80c, K80c1, K80c3, K80c4, also contain a more general motif K80c4)
Each of calender units (usually the months) that make the year is a separate object or person
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
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
The hero presses his adversary into the ground or both of them press each other (ankle-, waist-, breast-deep and the like)
Golden fruits (in rare cases only leaves) of a certain tree are mentioned in tail. Usually these are golden apples
A strong man who ventured to confront God is for a long time (for eternity) chained to a mountain or to a post
A youth has a date with a woman who belongs to supernatural world but he falls asleep and she is unable to wake him
The demon swallows and vomits maimed and disfigured persons that makes them healthy and handsome
A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife
Two (rare: three) men or women regularly throw or give somthing to each other despite a significant distance between them. It is a sign of their strength, big size and dexterity
After seeing a portrait of an unknown beauty, a man is eager to meet her
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
From the mouth of a monstrous creature or person who is the enemy of the hero fire is coming out; its breath is fire
A tree which has gems or adornments instead of fruits is described; particular parts of the tree are made of different metals or precious stones
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
Death promises to take a man after he has finished a prayer. The man begins to pray but does not finish his prayer and the Death cannot take him
A man (a boy) drives his cow (or any other domestic animal of a big size) to market. A trickster who would like to buy the animal cheaply tries to convince him that it is a sheep (or any other smaller and cheaper animal). Trickster’s accomplices confirm his opinion and the man sells his cow for the price of a sheep
A man pays in advance and invites his enemies to eat with him. When he turns his hat (throws it on the floor, etc.), they believe that it is the hat that makes the innkeeper say that the bill has been settled
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)
Person builds a bridge (usually of gold etc.) during a very short time
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
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
The formula that describes the confusion of feelings: when a person looks in one direction, he or she cries, when in another – begins to laugh or smile; or one eye of a person laughs and another laughs; or person laughs looking at one object and weeps looking at another; or one of two persons who share the same fate laughs and another smiles, etc.
Person finds a feather that has a quality to make alive beings healthy and handsome
A man saves a devil (snake, dangerous animal) who suffers from proximity of certain object or person. The grateful devil promises to enter a princess and abandon her as soon as the man comes to cure her. The man will get a reward but he should not try such a trick again. The man scares the devil forever telling him that the object or person of which the devil is afraid will be near soon
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
Body members of a person has the form of cutting or piercing weapon
Person named as the Beardless (Kusa, Kesa, Kose, Kysa, Kusu, etc.) acts in narratives
Because of the reason that for some time remains unclear a ship stops in the middle of the sea (rare: a horse stops on the road)
A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world
Different from (common) people inhabitants of a distant land fight from time to time with non-human enemies who periodically attack them
An insect feeds on human blood (flesh). Dangerous person asks it where it had sucked blood or whose blood (flesh) is the most delicious. Usually the insect lies or cannot answer (its tongue is cut off) and thanks to this dangerous person attacks certain plants or animals and not people
The snake is an enemy of the swallow (usually because swallow does not let snake to destroy people; the snake sends mosquito or other bloodsucking insect to get know whose blood is the most delicious; the insect flies back to report that human blood is the sweetest; swallow bites its tongue off and the snake gets to pull off feathers from the swallow's tail)
When a hole is opened in the arch (rare: in the ground) from which a torrent of water flows, a snake (eel, frog) stops it up with its own body
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
To describe the extreme cold in early spring, it is said that it brakes cattle’s horns (