Animal Tales
Wild Animals
AT0001 The Theft of Fish
The fox plays dead; a man throws him on his wagon of fish. The wolf imitates and is caught.
AT0002 The Tail‑Fisher
The bear (wolf) is persuaded to fish with his tail through a hole in the ice. His tail freezes fast. When he is attacked and tries to escape, he loses his tail.
AT0015 The Theft of Butter (Honey) by Playing Godfather
The fox (the hen) pretends that he has been invited to be godfather and steals the butter stored by him and the bear (the cock) for the winter. He smears butter on the mouth (tail) of the sleeping bear.
AT0020C The Animals Flee in Fear of the End of the World
or of a war. A leaf has fallen into the sea or a nut has fallen on the cock's head. The big ones eat the small ones.
AT0031 The Fox Climbs from the Pit on the Wolf's Back
AT0032 The Wolf Descends into the Well in one Bucket and Rescues the Fox in the Other
AT0033 The Fox Plays Dead and is Thrown out of the Pit and Escapes
AT0034 The Wolf Dives into the Water for Reflected Cheese
AT0041 The Wolf Overeats in the Cellar
The fox persuades the wolf to enter a cellar (smokehouse or kitchen) and steal food. The wolf eats so much that he cannot escape through the hole he has entered by. He is killed.
AT0047A The Fox (Bear, etc) Hangs by his Teeth to the Horse's Tail, Hare's Lip
The bear is persuaded to bite the seemingly dead horse's tail. Is dragged off by the horse. The hare asks the destination and laughs till his lip split.
AT0050 The Sick Lion
The fox pretends to seek a remedy for the lion; advises him to skin the wolf.
AT0056A The Fox Threatens to Push Down the Tree
The crow gives good advice to the magpies. The fox avenges himself, plays dead, and catches the crow.
AT0057 Raven with Cheese in his Mouth
The fox flatters the raven into singing. He drops his cheese and the fox gets it.
AT0061 The Fox Persuades the Cock to Crow with Closed Eyes
Captures him. Often followed by: the cock persuades the fox to ask a blessing before eating him.
AT0062 Peace among the Animals
The fox tries to beguile the cock by reporting a new law establishing peace among the animals. Dogs appear and the fox flees saying that the dogs have not yet heard of the new law.
AT0063 The Fox Rids himself of Fleas
He lets himself sink somewhat in water with a bundle of hay. The fleas gather on the haybundle. Finally the fox dives under the water.
AT0067** Fox Caught by Butcher
Throws butcher's smock on the fire and escapes.
AT0070 More Cowardly than the Hare
The hare finds one (sheep, fish, frog, etc.) who is afraid of him and laughs till his lip splits.
AT0072* The Hare Instructs his Sons
“You have as large eyes as I have.”
AT0075 The Help of the Weak
The mouse gnaws the net and liberates the captured bear (fox, lion).
AT0076 The Wolf and the Crane
The crane pulls a bone from the wolf's windpipe. When he asks for payment the wolf says, “That you were allowed to take your beak from my throat is payment enough.”
AT0081 Too Cold for Hare to Build House in Winter
not necessary in summer: must go without house.
Wild Animals and Domestic Animals
AT0101 The Old Dog as Rescuer of the Child (Sheep)
A farmer plans to kill a faithful old dog. The wolf makes a plan to save the dog. The latter is to rescue the farmer's child from the wolf. The plan succeeds. The wolf in return wants to steal the farmer's sheep. The dog objects and loses the wolf's friendship.
AT0105 The Cat's Only Trick
She saves herself on a tree. The fox who knows a hundred tricks is captured.
AT0110 Belling the Cat
The mice buy a bell for the cat but no one dares tie it on her.
AT0113A King of the Cats is Dead
Cat leaves house when report is made of death of one of his companions. His master has been told to say *Robert is dead+ As soon as this is said, the cat leaves.
AT0118 The Lion Frightened by the Horse
The horse strikes sparks with his hooves.
AT0122 The Wolf Loses his Prey. Escape by false plea.
AT0123 The Wolf and the Kids
The wolf comes in the absence of the mother and eats up the kids. The old goat cuts the wolf open and rescues them.
AT0124 Blowing the House In
The goose builds a house of feathers; the hog one of stone. The wolf blows the goose's house in and eats her. Cannot blow down the hog's house. Finally he is allowed to enter. He is tricked into the chimney (or churn) where he is burned up.
AT0130 The Animals in Night Quarters
(Bremen City Musicians). They drive away an intruder.
Wild Animals and Humans
AT0151 The Man Teaches Bears to Play the Fiddle
He tricks them by catching their claws in a cleft tree. Similarly betrays many other animals.
AT0154 “Bear‑food”
The fox helps the man; his reward. He converses with his members.
AT0155 The Ungrateful Serpent Returned to Captivity
A man rescues a serpent (or a bear), who in return seeks to kill the rescuer. Fox, as judge, advises the man to put the serpent back into captivity.
AT0156 Thorn Removed from Lion's Paw (Androcles and the Lion)
In gratitude the lion later rewards the man.
Domestic Animals
AT0210 Cock, Hen, Duck, Pin, and Needle on a Journey
The animals and objects hide themselves in various parts of a house. They punish with their characteristic powers the owner of the house and finally kill him.
AT0217 The Cat and the Candle
A man has a cat trained to hold up lighted candles on its head. The king has a mouse let loose. The cat drops the candle and chases the mouse.
Birds
AT0221 The Election of Bird‑king
Wren wins by cleverness.
AT0222 War of Birds and Quadrupeds
Birds win by cleverness. The fox's lifted tail is to be the signal. The gnats stick him under the tail. He drops it and the quadrupeds flee.
AT0236 The Thrush Teaches the Doves (etc.) to Build Small Nests
The dove keeps saying “I know” and persists in building her small nest. (Imitation of bird's sounds.)
Other Animals and Objects
AT0275 The Race of the Fox and the Crayfish
The latter hangs on to the fox's tail and wins.
AT0275A* Race between Hedgehog and Hare
Tales of Magic
Supernatural Adversaries
AT0300 The Dragon‑Slayer
Rescue of the princess.
AT0301 The Three Stolen Princesses
AT0302 The Ogre's (Devil's) Heart in the Egg
The youth who can turn himself into a lion, ant, etc. Sometimes the ogre's heart in the egg appears alone.
AT0303 The Twins or Blood‑Brothers
Two boys, horses, and dogs are born (from the eating of a magic fish, or in other magic fashion). One frees princesses from a dragon. A witch turns him into stone. The second brother sleeps with his brother's wife and rescues him from enchantment.
AT0304 The Hunter
The magic gun; the rescued princess; the impostor.
AT0306 The Danced‑out Shoes
The princess's nightly visits to the supernatural being. A youth who follows her and wins her hand.
AT0310 The Maiden in the Tower
Rapunzel. The hair ladder for the witch. The prince is blinded.
AT0311 Rescue by the Sister
who deceives the ogre into carrying the girls in a sack (chest) back to their home.
AT0312 The Giant‑killer and his Dog (Bluebeard)
The brother rescues his sisters. The youngest sister threatened with death for disobedience asks respite for prayer. Her brother with the aid of animals kills the ogre and rescues his sisters.
AT0313 The Girl as Helper
in the Hero's Flight.
AT0313A The Girl as Helper
of the hero on his flight. The youth has been promised to the devil.
AT0314 The Youth Transformed to a Horse
(Goldener). The horse as helper on the flight. Usually: the goldenhaired youth at a king's court.
AT0315 The Faithless Sister
The children promised to the water‑spirit. The maiden wife of the water‑spirit (devil). At his advice she feigns sickness and sends her brother for a remedy (or the like). Imprisoned animals break loose and save the boy.
AT0316 The Nix of the Mill‑pond
The youth promised to the nix is pulled into the water by her.
AT0325 The Magician and his Pupil
The father put to a test recognizes his son. The son as horse, ring, etc. rescues himself from the power of his master.
AT0326 The Youth Who Wanted to Learn What Fear Is
Various episodes: in the church tower, under the gallows, etc.
AT0327 The Children and the Ogre
AT0327A Hansel and Gretel
The parents abandon their children in the wood. The gingerbread house. The boy fattened; the witch thrown into the oven.
AT0328 The Boy Steals the Giant's Treasure
Jack and the Beanstalk. The horse, the light, etc. Finally the giant is killed.
AT0329 Hiding from the Devil
A man hides himself three times (in the belly of the fish, etc.).
AT0330A The Smith and the Devil (Death)
The Savior and Peter; the three wishes. Sticking to the bench, to the apple tree, etc. The smith is admitted neither into heaven nor hell.
AT0332 Godfather Death
The man as doctor. Death at the feet of the sick man (the bed or the sick man turned around).
AT0333 The Glutton (Red Riding Hood)
The wolf or other monster devours human beings until all of them are rescued alive from his belly.
AT0363 The Vampire
The bridegroom eats corpses in three churches. He appears to his bride in the form of her father, her mother, etc. and when she tells about his habit he devours her.
AT0365 The Dead Bridegroom Carries off his Bride (Lenore)
He carries her behind on his horse. Says, “The moon shines bright, the dead ride fast,” etc. She is pulled into the grave.
Supernatural or Enchanted Wife, Husband or Other Relative
AT0400 The Man on a Quest for his Lost Wife
Magic objects or animals as helpers (as introduction frequently the Swan Maiden).
AT0401 The Princess Transformed into Deer
The prince a‑hunting. Disenchants princess by spending three nights in a deserted castle.
AT0402 The Mouse (Cat, Frog, etc.) as Bride
The youngest of three brothers succeeds best in the quests set by his father. He brings the best cloth, the most beautiful bride, etc. The mouse (cat) who has helped him changes herself into a beautiful maiden.
AT0403 The Black and the White Bride
AT0405 Jorinde and Joringel
A witch turns the girl into a bird. The youth with the help of a magic object changes her back into her former shape.
AT0410 Sleeping Beauty
The king's daughter falls into a magic sleep. A prince breaks through the hedge surrounding the castle and disenchants the maiden.
AT0425 The Search for the Lost Husband
AT0425C Beauty and the Beast
Father stays overnight in mysterious palace and takes a rose. Must promise daughter to animal (or she goes voluntarily). Tabu: overstaying at home. She finds the husband almost dead. Disenchants him by embrace. (No search, no tasks.)
AT0430 The Ass
The prince transformed to an ass. Plays a lyre and is entertained at king's court. Becomes husband of a princess who disenchants him.
AT0431 The House in the Wood
Three maidens one after the other sent into the wood. Kind and unkind. Animals disenchanted.
AT0432 The Prince as Bird
Visits to the princess. The wicked stepmother. The wound on the window ledge.
AT0433 The Prince as Serpent
AT0440 The Frog King or Iron Henry
A maiden promises herself to a frog in a spring. The frog comes to the door, the table, the bed. Turns into a prince.
AT0450 Little Brother and Little Sister
The boy is turned into a roe by the cruel stepmother. Lives with his sister in the forest. The king marries the sister. Her stepmother usurps her place as wife. Disclosure, punishment, and reunion. [NB The standard type is hardly found at all in Irish oral tradition. Included here, however, is the by-form: man swallowed by a whale.]
AT0451 The Maiden Who Seeks her Brothers
The twelve brothers are changed into ravens.
Supernatural Tasks
AT0461 Three Hairs from the Devil's Beard
Prophecy, Uriah’s letter, and resultant marriage.
AT0467 The Quest for the Wonderful Flower (Jewel)
AT0470 Friends in Life and Death
The deceased friend followed into the other world.
AT0471 The Bridge to the Other World
The youngest of three brothers crosses into the other world and sees extraordinary things which are later explained. [NB As well as the standard type, versions of the following by-forms are included here: (a) A monk spends three hundred years listening to the song of a heavenly bird, thinking that the time has been only a few hours; (b) A man, who refuses to attend Mass because he has quarreled with the priest, is shown his error (water flowing through the carcase of a dog is pure and sweet).]
AT0480 The Spinning‑Women by the Spring. The Kind and the Unkind Girls.
The real daughter and the stepdaughter by the spring, or the rolling cake.
Supernatural Helpers
AT0500 The Name of the Helper
(Titeliture, Rumpelstilzchen, Tom‑Tit‑Tot). The maiden learns the name of her supernatural helper.
AT0501 The Three Old Women Helpers
Invited to the wedding.
AT0501* “The Fairy Hill is on Fire!”
A spinning woman, who is terrified by her old women fairy helpers, shouts that the fairy hill nearby is on fire. The old women leave immediately, shouting: “My child will be burned!”
AT0502 The Wild Man
The prince sets the prisoner free. The latter becomes his servant and helper. The youth wins the princess. (For the whole tale cf. Type 314.)
See also: 0314
AT0503 The Gifts of the Little People
Dwarfs take hump from hunchback and place it on another man.
AT0505 Dead Man as Helper
Through the assistance of the dead man the hero wins the princess and the castle.
AT0506 The Rescued Princess
AT0510 Cinderella and Cap o' Rushes
AT0511 One‑Eye, Two‑Eyes, Three‑Eyes
Two‑Eyes (or a stepdaughter) is abused by her mother.
AT0513 The Extraordinary Companions
Cf. Types 301B, 571.
See also: 0571
AT0513A Six Go through the Whole World
The helpers perform various deeds for the hero at the king's court.
AT0516 Faithful John
The picture of the princess. She is carried off on a ship. The conversation of the ravens. The true servant transformed to stone. Brought back to life.
AT0517 The Boy who Learned Many Things
Vaticinium. The learning of the speech of birds; cf. Types 670, 671.
AT0530 The Princess on the Glass Mountain
AT0531 Ferdinand the True and Ferdinand the False
On the advice of a jealous courtier the king assigns the hero difficult tasks, which he performs with the help of grateful animals. Bringing the beautiful bride for the king.
AT0533 The Speaking Horsehead
On the journey to her wedding the princess is forced by her waiting‑maid to change clothes and places with her. The princess's horse is killed, but through the speaking horsehead which hangs on the wall, the betrayal is revealed. The princess is sometimes blinded and her eyes later bought from the person who has blinded her. She is recognized not only from the speaking horsehead but also by her golden and silver hair, and by a song sung in a stove.
AT0545 The Cat as Helper
Visit to the castle. Disenchantment.
AT0550 Search for the Golden Bird
Quest for the wonderful bird. With the help of an animal (wolf, fox) the youngest brother succeeds. On his return he saves his brothers, who betray him.
AT0551 The Sons on a Quest for a Wonderful Remedy for their Father
The youngest succeeds with the help of an eagle (dwarf) and various magic objects. The brothers gain possession of the remedy. The princess searches for the father of her child.
AT0554 The Grateful Animals
A youth earns the thanks of several animals (ants, fish, etc.) and with their help wins the princess by performing three tasks imposed upon him (brings a ring from the bottom of the sea, etc.).
AT0555 The Fisher and his Wife
The fish fulfills all the wishes of the Wife of a poor fisher.
AT0559 Dungbeetle
The princess made to laugh. Making an absurd parade.
Magic Objects
AT0560 The Magic Ring
The grateful animals (cat and dog) recover it for him.
AT0561 Aladdin
The object recovered by means of another magic object.
AT0562 The Spirit in the Blue Light
(= Andersen's “Fire‑Steel”). Three nights in succession the spirit brings the princess to the hero. In his flight the hero leaves the blue light behind. A comrade brings it to him in prison and it saves him from punishment. The spirit comes in response to a light made by a fire steel or firestone found in an underground room. When the hero is to be executed he asks permission to light his pipe and thus calls the spirit to his rescue.
AT0563 The Table, the Ass, and the Stick
The stick compels the treacherous host of the inn to give back the table and the ass.
AT0564 The Magic Providing Purse and “Out, Boy, out of the Sack!”
The rich neighbor steals the magic objects. By means of the sack the hero compels the return of the purse.
AT0565 The Magic Mill
Grinds an enormous amount of meal or salt when the man who has stolen it cannot stop it.
AT0566 The Three Magic Objects and the Wonderful Fruits (Fortunatus)
The return of the objects is brought about with an apple, the eating of which causes horns to grow.
AT0567 The Magic Bird‑Heart
AT0569 The Knapsack, the Hat, and the Horn
The youngest of three brothers finds a magic object, exchanges it for another, and by means of the second, secures the first one again. Objects produce food, soldiers, etc. Makes war against the king.
AT0570 The Rabbit‑herd
With the help of his magic pipe he calls the rabbits together. He wins the hand of the princess.
AT0571 “All Stick Together”
All remain hanging to the magic object: bundle of hay, cow, servant boy, preacher, etc.
AT0580 Beloved of Women
With the youngest of three brothers all women are in love. At the father's death when the elder brothers wish for riches, etc. the youngest, wishes for and receives the power to make women love him. He secures from the hostess of the inn three magic objects with which he makes a good living (clothes, food, and drink). The king's widow falls in love with him and marries him.
AT0590 The Prince and the Arm Bands
The youth whose evil stepmother seeks his life finds two armbands: strong. Adventures. Two lions become his helpers. The stepmother has his eyes put out. He is cured and the stepmother punished.
AT0592 The Dance Among Thorns
Magic fiddle, cards, and gun. The judge is compelled to dance.
AT0593 Fiddevav
All who poke in the ashes (the daughter, the woman, the preacher, etc.) must keep saying “Fiddevav”, until they are released from the magic. An old woman gives the hero a magic stone and advises him to, go to the peasant's house at night, to say nothing, but ”Thanks” and to lay the stone in the ashes. The stone prevents fire from being made and all who try to make it stick to the poker. The hero gets the peasant's daughter in return for release.
AT0611 The Gifts of the Dwarfs
The son of a merchant is betrothed to the daughter of another merchant. [NB In addition to the standard type, versions are included here of a by-form, which tells how the hero loses all he has by disasters at sea (or by gambling); his girl or wife recovers all for him. Cf. Type 880*.]
AT0613 The Two Travelers (Truth and Falsehood)
One puts out the other's eyes. The blind man overhears secrets under a tree (gallows) and recovers his sight. The wicked companion has his eyes put out or is killed.
Supernatural Power or Knowledge
AT0650** The Strong Youth
AT0653 The Four Skillful Brothers
The father has them trained. Display of their accomplishments. The bird's nest on the tree. The stolen princess recovered.
AT0654 The Three Brothers
The father has them trained. Trial of their handiwork. The fighting master swings his sword so fast that it does not become wet in a heavy rain; the barber shaves a running hare; the blacksmith shoes a horse while it is galloping.
AT0660 The Three Doctors
The hog's heart, die thief's hand, the cat's eye. The three doctors make a trial of their skill. One removes one of his eyes, one his heart, and the other a hand. They are to replace them without injury the next morning. During the night they are eaten and others substituted, and one of the doctors
AT0665 The Man Who Flew like a Bird and Swam like a Fish
In a war gets the sword of the king, who gives him his daughter as wife.
AT0670 The Animal Languages
A man learns animal languages. His wife wants to discover his secret. The advice of the cock.
AT0675 The Lazy Boy
“By the word of the salmon”. The princess pregnant. The hero and the princess thrown into the sea in a cask. On the island.
AT0676 Open Sesame
A poor man observes robbers who enter into a mountain. Uses, like them, the words “Open up” and gets gold from the mountain. His rich brother tries to do the same thing but is killed. The rich brother lends his money scales to the poor brother; a piece of money remains in the scales and thus betrays the secret. When he is in the mountain he forgets the formula for opening it.
Other Tales of the Supernatural
AT0700 Tom Thumb
Plowing. The king buys the boy. In thieves' company. In the belly of the cow and of the wolf.
AT0706 The Maiden Without Hands
Becomes wife of the king. Is driven forth. Gets her hands back and is received again by her husband.
AT0707 The Three Golden Sons
The queen bears marvelous children. They are stolen away. The queen is banished. The quest for the speaking bird, the singing tree, and the water of life.
AT0709 Snow‑White
The wicked stepmother seeks to kill the maiden. At the dwarfs' (robbers') house, where the prince finds the maiden and marries her.
AT0710 Our Lady's Child
A girl comes into possession of her foster mother through an unwitting promise to her father. The girl falsely denies having looked into a forbidden room, and becomes dumb. She becomes the wife of the king. The Virgin Mary (a witch, the wicked stepmother) steals away the children. Finally the queen acknowledges her guilt.
AT0712 Crescentia
The slandered and banished wife is reinstated through her miraculous healing powers.
AT0720 My Mother Slew Me; My Father Ate Me. The Juniper Tree.
The boy's bones transformed into a bird. The bird lets the millstone fall on the mother. Becomes boy again.
AT0725 The Dream
The boy refuses to tell his dream to his father, and even to the king. Various adventures. Conquers enemies, wins the princess. Thus the dream is fulfilled. The boy dreams that his parents shall serve him and that the king shall pour water on his hands. Among his adventures are the solving of riddles and the accomplishment of tasks suggested by a hostile prince.
AT0726 The Oldest on the Farm
A wayfarer asks for a night's lodging at a farm. He meets a very old man outside, but he is shown to his father who has to decide, and so on up to the seventh generation. Sometimes mixed up with fairy tradition: the old troll finishes by trying the man's strength.
AT0735 The Rich Man's and the Poor Man's Fortune
The fortune of the rich brother gives the poor brother the advice to seek his luck under a bush. The poor man goes there and Fortune tells him to become a merchant. He becomes rich.
Religious Tales
AT0750A The Wishes
Christ and Peter grant a poor peasant who has received them hospitably three good wishes; the rich one, however, they grant three evil wishes.
AT0750B Hospitality Rewarded
After a pious beggar has been refused hospitality in a house where a wedding is taking place, he is hospitably received in a poor man's house. The peasant's only cow is killed for him. It comes to life again (or new cows appear).
AT0753 Christ and the Smith
Christ takes off the horse's foot in order to shoe him and rejuvenates an old woman by putting her in the fire. The smith tries disastrously to do the same.
AT0756 The Three Green Twigs
The hard penance and the green twigs on the dry branch.
AT0756A The Self‑righteous Hermit
A hermit who says of a man being taken to the gallows that he has been punished justly must do penance by wandering as a beggar until three twigs grow on a dry branch. He converts a band of robbers with the story of his misfortunes. The green twigs appear.
AT0756B The Devil's Contract
AT0756C* Receipt from Hell
Receipt for rent payment is demanded and a poor man must go to hell for it. Brings it back. [NB The standard version tells how a tenant went to Hell to procure a receipt for the rent from his dead landlord. A very common Irish by-form of this tale describes how a priest brought a dead landlord, or someone similar, back from Hell to prove that he was suffering there.]
AT0758 The Various Children of Eve
Eve has so many children that she is ashamed when God pays her a visit. She hides some of them and they fail to receive the blessing that God gives those in sight. Thus arises the differences in classes and peoples.
AT0759 God's justice Vindicated
(The Angel and the Hermit.) An angel takes a hermit with him and does many seemingly unjust things (repays hospitality by stealing a cup; inhospitality by giving a cup; hospitality by throwing his host's servant from a bridge and by killing the host's son). The angel shows the hermit why each of these was just. [NB In Irish tradition the theme is considerably varied. The main forms are: A. Loss of son leaves parents in anguish; they are shown what would have been his fate (Type 934C). B. Someone is worried on seeing a man hanged for a murder that he had not committed; it is shown, however, that he had committed another murder. C. Seemingly unfair distribution of alms is shown to be correct; or, reward for hospitality shown. D. A ship is wrecked because one sinner was on board.]
AT0759B Holy Man Has his own Mass
When upbraided for not coming to mass, he hangs his coat on a sunbeam. [NB A sunbeam supports the coat of a holy man when he goes to church. It fails to do so later, because he has sinned in some way. An exemplum story.]
AT0780 The Singing Bone
The brother kills his brother (sister) and buries him in the earth. From the bones a shepherd makes a flute which brings the secret to light.
AT0782 Midas and the Ass's Ears
His secret discovered by his barber. Or he whispers the secret to a reed which repeats it. [IRISH TYPE: An Irish king had horse’s ears and allowed his hair to grow long to cover them. He put those who cut his hair occasionally to death, to preserve his secret. He spared one such boy on condition that he did not reveal what he had seen. The boy, who became ill from worry, was advised to tell the secret to a tree. He did so and regained his health. Later, a fiddle, which was made from the wood of the tree, played only one tune: “Lowry Lynch (Labhraidh Ó Loingsigh) has horse’s ears!” St. Brigid is said to have finally relieved the king of his blemish in return for land for her monastery. NB See Type 775.]
AT0785 Who Ate the Lamb's Heart?
Peter and his companions on their travels. The companion eats the heart of the lamb. Denies it. The healing of the princess. When the money is divided, the third part is assigned to the one who has eaten the lamb's heart. The companion declares the lamb had no heart. When Peter divides the money received for healing the princess the companion confesses in order to get his part. [NB In Ireland includes versions of a story, which seeks to explain how the clergy became avaricious.]
AT0810 The Snares of the Evil One
The priest permits the man who is promised to the devil to spend the night in the church, and draws a ring around him. The devil cannot tempt him outside the ring.
AT0812 The Devil's Riddle
The man is saved by solving the riddle propounded by the devil. The solution discovered in the forest.
AT0820 The Devil as Substitute for Day Labourer at Mowing
[NB In Irish tradition, the contest is usually between a workman and the hag for whom he works.]
AT0844 The Luck‑bringing Shirt
The king becomes lucky when he puts on the shirt of a lucky man. The only man who says he is lucky has no shirt.
Novelle (Romantic Tales)
AT0851 The Princess who Cannot Solve the Riddle
The prince saved by his true servant in a robber's den. The poisoned raven. The riddle from the hero's own experiences. He wins the princess's hand.
AT0852 The Hero Forces the Princess to Say, “That is a Lie.”
AT0853 The Hero Catches the Princess with her Own Words
Takes along a dead crow and other objects which he
AT0854 The Golden Ram
“Money is all powerful.” The hero boasts that if he had one thing he could marry the princess. The king gives him much gold. He has a golden ram made, is carried in it into the chamber of the princess and wins her.
AT0873 The King Discovers his Unknown Son
A king in disguise leaves a token with a girl to give to their son if one is born. The boy is twitted with being a bastard and goes on a quest for his unknown father. The king incognito discovers the boy's liaison with a noble girl and orders his execution. Before the execution the token is discovered and the son acknowledged. The king marries the boy's mother. [A by-form of this tale in Ireland tells how the champion, Cúchulainn, slew in single combat his son, Conlao, whom he did not recognize. See Cross: Motif-Index, N731.2.] Marries the mother.
AT0875 The Clever Peasant Girl
Through the proof of her cleverness she becomes the king's wife. He becomes angry and banishes her. She takes him home with her as her dearest possession. [Besides standard versions of the type, individual motifs, which belong to the cycle or are similar to them, are found in Ireland in stories about the famous mythical builder, Gobán Saor. See Ó Súilleabháin: A Handbook of Irish Folklore, 496, 575.]
AT0882 The Wager on the Wife's Chastity
A ship captain marries a poor girl. Makes a wager with a merchant on the chastity of his wife. Through treachery, the merchant secures a token of unfaithfulness (ring). The captain leaves home. The wife follows him in men's clothing. They reach home again and everything is explained.
AT0889 The Faithful Servant
A lord makes a wager with his neighbor on the faithfulness of his servant. The servant is sent to the neighbor's house, where he is made drunk, etc. The neighbor loses the wager.
AT0890 A Pound of Flesh
The wife as judge saves her husband.
AT0900 King Thrushbeard
A princess disdains all her suitors. Names one of them Thrushbeard. Her father marries her to a beggar. Her pride is broken. The beggar reveals himself as King Thrushbeard.
AT0901 Taming of the Shrew
The youngest of three sisters is a shrew. For their disobedience the husband shoots his clog and his horse. Brings his wife to submission. Wager: whose wife is the most obedient.
AT0910 Precepts Bought or Given Prove Correct
AT0910A Wise Through Experience
The precepts. Do not visit your friends often; do not marry a girl from a distance, do not lend your horse, etc. Experience teaches the wisdom of these precepts. [An early version of this tale-type is in Merugud Uilix maicc Leirtis (ed. Kuno Meyer), 21, from Stowe Ms. 1997 and Book of Ballymote. Cf. also Keating Stories (ed. Bergin), 21.]
AT0910B The Servant's Good Counsels
Do not leave the highway, etc. The traveler leaves it and falls into the hands of robbers. When you are angry repeat the Lord's Prayer. He is about to kill the man sleeping with his wife: it is his son. Iron is more precious than gold, etc.
AT0920 The Son of the King (Solomon) and of the Smith
The children are exchanged. In the children's play Solomon acts as king. Shows his cleverness. [The Irish king, Cormac mac Airt, is featured in Irish versions.]
AT0921 The King and the Peasant's Son
The youth's clever answers to the king's questions (1½ men and the horse's head, etc.). [Cf. type 1661. As well as the standard versions of this tale, the following Irish by-forms have been included under this number: (a) An Gárlach Coileánach (ill-treated boy who gives clever answers to his stingy step-mother); (b) Dean Swift’s boy who gives clever replies to his master’s questions; (c) the rogues who get scalded by hot porridge but, by clever remarks, hide their discomfiture from one another («Praiseach ó aréir é»); (d) the poor workman who tells the king how, out of his meagre wages, he supports his family, pays his debts, and invests for the future (cf. Type 921 A).
AT0922 The Shepherd Substituting for the Priest Answers the King's Questions
(The King and the Abbot).
AT0927 Out‑riddling the Judge
The accused is set free when the judge cannot solve the riddles propounded to him. The riddles: (a) what has seven tongues in one head? (bird's nest with seven young found in a horse's head); (b) formerly I was a daughter, now I am a mother; (c) or other riddles of peculiar family relationship. [As well as the standard type, there is also told in Ireland a tale of how an Irishman, condemned to be hanged, is given his choice of tree as gallows; when he chooses a gooseberry bush and is told that it is too small, he says he will wait until it grows (cf. Type 1587).]
AT0930 The Prophecy
The poor and the rich man.
AT0931 Oedipus
As foretold by the prophecy, the hero kills his father and marries his mother.
AT0934 The Prince and the Storm
It is prophesied that the prince will perish in a storm. The king confines him in an iron hut underground. One day in the absence of the king a storm destroys the hut.
AT0934B The Youth to Die on his Wedding Day
A prince hears a prophecy that on his wedding day, he is to fall victim to a frightful wolf. He tries through various magic means to avoid the enemy. He succeeds in killing the wolf but one of the wolf's claws pierces his breast. By means of life‑giving water he is resuscitated.
AT0938 Placidas (Eustacius)
He is converted by a vision. All his goods are destroyed, his wife seized by a ship captain, his young sons carried off by a lion and a bear. He finally recovers them all.
AT0950 Rhampsinitus
The theft in the treasury (bank). The head of one of the thieves cut off. The other thief (brother) sought in vain. The lamentation of the relatives betrays the thief, etc.
AT0952 The King and the Soldier
A soldier prepares to testify before the king against his superior officer. Accompanies the king, whom he does not know, to the robbers' house. Then soldier kills the robbers (or renders them harmless). The robbers are usually rendered helpless by means of a magic spell. The king rewards his companion.
AT0953 The Old Robber Relates Three Adventures
to free his sons. Each adventure is more frightful than the last.
AT0954 The Forty Thieves
The robbers come with seven casks into the house. In one cask is oil, in the others men are hidden. The girl kills the robbers.
AT0955 The Robber Bridegroom
The maiden in the den of robbers. While hidden under the bed she sees another maiden murdered. The severed finger serves her as a token. The girl usually strews her path into the forest with ashes or peas. When the bridegroom appears, she uses the severed finger of the murdered girl to expose him.
AT0956 Robbers' Heads Cut off One by One as they Enter House
AT0956B The Clever Maiden Alone at Home Kills the Robbers
A great crowd of robbers come into the house at night. She kills the robbers one by one as they enter. In revenge one of the robbers appears as suitor for the girl [Q411.1]. The robbers catch the girl in a wood. She flees.
AT0970 The Twining Branches
Two branches grow from the grave of unfortunate lovers and meet above the roof of the church.
AT0976 Which Was the Noblest Act?
The bridegroom, the robber, and the lover. A bridegroom permits his bride to fulfill a promise to visit her lover on her wedding night. On the way she meets robbers. When he hears her story one of the robbers conducts her to her lover. On hearing her story the lover takes her back to her husband. Query: which was the noblest act?
AT0981 Wisdom of Hidden Old Man Saves Kingdom
In famine all old mien are ordered killed. One man hides his father. When all goes wrong in the hands of the young rulers, the old man comes forth, performs assigned tasks, and aids with his wisdom.
AT0990 The Seemingly Dead Revives
The woman gets a ring stuck in her throat. A man enters the grave to steal a ring from the finger of the dead. The woman wakes up and goes home.
AT0990* A Merchant's Son Finds the Princess Wounded in a Coffin
He helps her in her revenge and marries her. [We have placed under this number what seems to be a by-form of the Type: a girl is being carried off in a coffin by the fairies; a man rescues her and finds that she is unable to speak; he later learns how to restore her speech, and she is reunited with her people; she marries her rescuer.]
Tales of the Stupid Ogre (Giant)
AT1000 Bargain Not to Become Angry
AT1002 Dissipation of the Ogre's Property,
through sale, trifling exchange, or giving away.
AT1003 Plowing
The man is told to come home when the dog does. He beats the dog so, that it runs home. Then he destroys the horse and harness and goes home.
AT1004 Hogs in the Mud; Sheep in the Air
The cows driven away, the hogs' tails in the mud, the bellwether on the tree.
AT1005 Building a Bridge or Road
with the carcasses of slain cattle. Ordered to build for the ogre's wedding a bridge, not of wood, stone, iron, or earth, he uses cattle.
AT1006 Casting Eyes
Ordered to cast eyes on this or that, he kills animals and‑throws their eyes at the object.
AT1007 Other Means of Killing or Maiming Live Stock
AT1008 Lighting the Road,
or painting the house red. The house set on fire.
AT1029 The Woman as Cuckoo in the Tree
The anger‑bargain is to cease when the cuckoo crows. The ogre's wife climbs into the tree and imitates the cuckoo. She is shot down.
AT1030 The Crop Division
Man and ogre or fox and bear. Of root crops the ogre chooses the tops; of other crops the roots.
AT1045 Pulling the Lake Together
The hero threatens to) do so with a rope. The ogre is intimidated.
AT1049 The Heavy Axe
The boastful trickster told to cut wood with an axe or get water in a bucket demands one large enough to bring in the whole well (cut the whole forest). The ogre is frightened.
AT1052 Deceptive Contest in Carrying a Tree‑‑
Riding. The boastful trickster (fox) has the ogre (bear) carry the branches of the tree while he carries the trunk. He rides on the trunk.
AT1060 Squeezing the (Supposed) Stone
Cheese, egg, etc. Contest in squeezing water out of a stone. The ogre squeezes a stone; the boastful trickster a cheese or egg. (Sometimes with animal actors.)
AT1062 Throwing the Stone
Bird. In a contest in throwing, the ogre throws a stone, the hero a bird.
AT1074 Race Won by Deception: Relative Helpers
The trickster gets others like him to take places in the line of the race. The dupe sees them and thinks the trickster is outrunning him.(Often told of animals).
AT1088 Eating Contest
The hero slips his food (or drink) into a bag and makes the ogre believe he is the greater eater. (In many versions the hero cuts open the bag; the ogre imitates and kills himself.
AT1090 Mowing Contest
The man takes the center of the field. The ogre is given a dull sickle and mows around the outside of the field. Tires himself out.
AT1115 Attempted Murder with Hatchet
Butter cask (or the like) in the hero's bed so that the ogre coming to murder him stabs the object.
AT1119 The Ogre Kills his Own Children
Places changed in bed (night‑caps)
AT1121 Ogre's Wife Burned in his Own Oven
AT1130 Counting out Pay
Hole in the hat, and hat over a pit.
AT1137 The Ogre Blinded (Polyphemus)
Escape under the ram's belly. [Cf. Type 953.]
See also: 0953
AT1149 Children Desire Ogre's Flesh
(and the like). The man makes the ogre believe that his children eat ogre's flesh. The ogre is frightened away. [Finn mac Cumhail lies in a cradle to escape from a Scottish giant, and frightens him by biting his finger.]
AT1170 The Evil Woman in the Glass Case as Last Commodity
The man is to belong to the ogre as soon as he has sold his goods. If he has any goods that no one will buy, he is to be free. The man puts an evil old woman in a glass case. When the devil sees her he recognizes her: “Whoever knows her will refuse to buy her.” The man goes free.
AT1174 Making a Rope of Sand
AT1176 Catching a Man's Broken Wind
or making a knot of it.
AT1180 Catching Water in a Sieve
The ogre and the girl.
AT1187 Meleager
Permission to live as long as candle lasts.
Jokes and Anecdotes
Numskull Stories
AT1210 The Cow is Taken to the Roof to Graze
AT1245 Sunlight Carried in a Bag into the Windowless House
When this plan does not su–eed they gradually pull down the house in order to get light.
AT1246 The Axes Thrown Away
The first lets his axe fall. The others throw theirs into the same place.
AT1250 Bringing Water from the Well
A log is laid across the top of the well. One man holds to the log with his hands, the next climbs down and holds to his feet, and so on; the uppermost man becomes tired and lets go to spit on his hands.
AT1281A Getting Rid of the Man‑eating Calf
A fool, liking the shoes on the feet of a man hanged on a gallows, cuts off the swollen feet in order to carry off the shoes. In the room in which he sleeps that night is a newborn calf. The next morning the man takes the shoes but leaves the feet. Peasants agree that the calf has eaten the man all but the feet. They burn the house to destroy the calf. [A piper cuts off the legs of a man who has been hanged, in order to take his boots. Later, the legs are found in the byre where the piper has spent the night, and the owners of the byre think that their cow has eaten the piper.]
AT1285 Pulling on the Shirt
The shirt is sewed together at the neck. The man's head is cut off so that the shirt can be put on him.
AT1286 Jumping into the Breeches
The woman tries to pull on her husband's breeches for him on both legs at once.
AT1287 Numskulls unable to Count their own Number
AT1319 Pumpkin Sold as an Ass's Egg
Thrown into a bush. The numskull thinks the rabbit which runs out is a colt.
AT1322 Words in a Foreign Language Thought to be Insults
AT1326 Moving the Church
The stolen coat. To see whether the church is moving someone lays down his coat in front of it. It is stolen. They think the church has passed over it.
Stories about Married Couples
AT1350 The Loving Wife
The man feigns death. The wife is immediately ready to take as husband the man who brings her the news. [Cf. Types 920, 931. Included here are versions of the story about the husband who made his wife sit on a cold stone, naked, to kill her.]
AT1351 The Silence Wager. [Who will Speak First?]
[Three hermits retire to a lonely glen. After seven years, one of them hears a cow lowing and passes a remark. After seven years more, the second hermit replies to the first remark. Seven years later, the third speaks, saying there is too much talk in the glen, and leaves.]
AT1353 The Old Woman as Trouble Maker
Beats the devil. She advises a loving wife to cut hairs from her husband's beard as a means of increasing his love. She tells the man that his wife is untrue and will try to cut his throat. He kills his wife.
AT1359 The Husband Outwits Adulteress and Paramour
AT1360B Flight of the Woman and her Lover from the Stable
The man who has seen them comes into the woman's house. Meal at which the situation is related in the form of a tale. The woman gives him money to cease.
AT1360C Old Hildebrand
The concealed husband tells what he sees. The husband has left home. Suspecting his wife, he has himself carried back in a basket and finds his wife entertaining the priest. They make rhymes about the husband's absence and their own good times. From his hiding place he answers in rhymes.
AT1361 The Flood
A priest persuades the man to sleep in a hanging tub to escape the coming flood. Meantime he dallies with the man's wife. Another lover comes to the window. The priest presents his rump to be kissed. The other lover the second time burns the priest with a hot iron. The priest yells: “Water!” 'The husband thinks the flood has come, cuts the tub ropes, and falls.
AT1363 Tale of the Cradle
Two youths pass the night with a family where all sleep in a common room, with a cradle at the foot of one of the beds. The moving of the cradle in the night confuses those walking about so that the strangers sleep with the wife and the daughter. [See Type 1544.]
See also: 1544
AT1365 The Obstinate Wife
[See Types 1365 A-B. A very common by-form of this tale-type in Ireland concerns an argument between a man and his wife as to whether there were one or two geese in a field (one of them is, in fact, a gander).]
See also: 1365B
AT1365B Cutting with the Knife or the Scissors
At the end of the argument the man throws his wife into the water. With her finger she makes the motion of shearing with the scissors.
AT1384 The Husband Hunts Three Persons as Stupid as his Wife
AT1386 Meat as Food for Cabbage
The wife places pieces of meat on a growing cabbage.
AT1387 The Woman Goes to get Beer
While she chases the dog the beer runs into the cellar; she scatters meal over it.
AT1406 The Merry Wives Wager
which can best fool her husband. One makes her husband think that he is dead. Another makes her husband believe that she spins, weaves, and sews clothes so fine that they cannot be seen; a third makes hers believe that he is a dog and so he barks at people who pass.
AT1407 The Miser
Gives his wife too little to eat. On the advice of the servant boy, he spies on her from inside the chimney, under the bolster, etc. Gets burned in the chimney, beaten in the bed. [Cf. Types 1458, 1373 A. In Ireland the story tells how a miser married a woman who, he was told, did not eat any food. He dies when he finds out that she does.]
See also: 1458
AT1408 The Man who Does his Wife's Work
Does everything wrong. Lets cow graze on the roof; cf. Type 1210. Ties the rope's end to his foot. Lets the beer run out.
See also: 1210
AT1415 Lucky Hans
Foolish bargains. He trades his horse for a cow, the cow for a hog, the latter for a goose, until finally he has nothing left. Wins the wager when his wife does not get angry.
AT1416 The Mouse in the Silver Jug
The New Eve. A poor woman laments at Eve's curiosity and says women are no longer so. The king lets them enjoy themselves in castle, but they must not open a certain silver jug. The woman cannot let it alone. There is a mouse in the jug. The king sends them home. [In Irish tradition the theme is used in a story which seeks to explain the origin of mice, rats, pigs and cats. A holy person places pieces of his own flesh under a vessel, with orders that nobody is to touch the vessel. Some other person, e.g., a servant girl, disobeys the order and animals run out from under the vessel; a hat is thrown at them and it changes into a cat.]
AT1430 The Man and his Wife Build Air Castles
They make great plans for success but disagree over the conclusion. They quarrel over details and lose everything.
Stories about a Woman (Girl)
AT1450 Clever Elsie
The girl is to get beer from the cellar. Falls into a study as to what her first child's name shall be. Likewise the girl's father and mother. The suitor departs. [Irish versions usually tell of how a foolish girl bemoans the fate of a child she may have (as if it had already happened).]
AT1455 The Hard‑hearted Fiancée
The father‑in‑law disguised as a beggar. [See Type 859 C. Three main patterns: (a) a girl, disguised as a beggar, visits the homes of her three suitors; (b) a rich father sends a messenger to find out about his daughter’s unknown suitor; (c) a wife is constantly lamenting that she ever left the home of her parents; her husband investigates and finds that her present home is much better.]
AT1456 The Blind Fiancée
The search for the needle. The girl mistakes the dish for a cat. The blindness is thus discovered.
AT1458 The Girl who Ate so Little
The girl eats lightly and the mother declares this is always so. Next day the suitor sees her baking and discovers that she can eat. [See Types 1373 A, 1407.]
See also: 1407
AT1511 The Faithless Queen
Stories about a Man (Boy)
AT1527 The Robbers are Betrayed
The master and servant exchange places for a day. The servant in tar and feathers. Has his former master take him to the robbers' house. They flee in terror and leave their treasure behind.
AT1529 Thief Claims to have been Transformed into a Horse
While the owner sleeps, the peasant steals his horse. He hitches himself to the owner's wagon and says that he is a horse transformed to a man.
AT1535 The Rich and the Poor Peasant
(Unibos.) The rich peasant kills the poor one's horse. The clairvoyant horse‑skin and the adulterous priest. The rich peasant kills his horse and his wife. Diving for sheep.
AT1536 Disposing of the Corpse
AT1536A The Woman in the Chest
The servant boy has determined to steal. A woman lies down in a chest to spy on him. The boy kills her. He makes the preacher (rich man) believe that she has died, and at the latter's request he undertakes to bury her. Puts the corpse m the corn loft, in the stall, in the trunk of the traveling merchant, on a horse. All believe that she has returned from the dead.
AT1536B The Three Hunchback Brothers Drowned
The three hunchback brothers are killed. A drunken man is employed by the woman who has accidentally slain them to throw one into the river. He does so. Then she puts another one out and finally the third. The man thinks they keep coming to life. Finally he sees the hunchback husband and drowns him.
AT1539 Cleverness and Gullibility
The youth sells pseudo‑magic objects and animals. The wolf is sold as a goat. The rabbit as letter carrier; the hat that “pays everything”; the wand that revives the dead. The teaching of languages or the self‑cooking pot. The gold‑dropping horse. The youth has himself buried alive and stabs his enemy from out of the ground with a knife. [Under this type has been included the tale of a person who sells the same animal to three different buyers in succession.]
AT1540 The Student from Paradise (Paris)
The woman sends money or clothes to paradise for her deceased husband. The horse is stolen.
AT1541 For the Long Winter
The numskull has been told to keep the sausage “for the long winter”. When the trickster hears this, he claims to be Long Winter and receives the sausage.
AT1542 The Clever Boy
Peik with his fooling‑sticks.
AT1544 The Man who Got a Night's Lodging
The rascal feigns deafness and eats the best food. He accepts the hospitality before it is offered. He takes the man's horse out of the stable and puts his own in. He is to pay for his lodging with a goat skin; he takes one of the man's own goats. At table they put poor food before him but he continues to get the best. At night he manages to sleep with the wife or daughter. When the woman puts out food for her husband in the night he gets it himself. He makes the women believe that the man knows all about them and they confess. The man becomes angry and is going to kill the rascal's horse; he kills his own instead. [Cf. Type 1363. Irish versions of this type contain either of the following themes: (a) a beggar, when asked what his name is, replies: «John, Sit Down»; the miserly owner of the house repeats this in surprise, so the beggar sits down and eats his fill; (b) a suitor and his adviser spend a night in the house of a girl whose father is miserly; by trickery, they obtain good fo
See also: 1363
AT1545 The Boy with Many Names
By use of many fanciful names he cheats and seduces.
AT1546* (Obscene.)
AT1551 The Wager that Sheep are Hogs
A trickster wagers with a sheep driver that the sheep he is driving are hogs. The next man to overtake them will act as umpire. The trickster's confederate now arrives and declares that they are hogs.
AT1561 The Lazy Boy Eats Breakfast, Dinner, and Supper One after the Other
without working. Then he lies down to sleep.
AT1562 “Think Thrice before you Speak.”
The youth obeys literally the precept even when he sees the master's coat on fire.
AT1585 The Lawyer's Mad Client
(Patelin says “Baa”!) The man sells the same oxen to several people. On the advice of the judge (lawyer) he feigns insanity when brought to court. When his fee is demanded he still feigns insanity.
AT1589 The Lawyer's Dog Steals Meat
The lawyer tells the butcher that the dog's owner (himself) is liable for damages. He asks double the amount of the damages as fee.
AT1600 The Fool as Murderer
The brothers put a he‑goat in place of the body and thus save their brother. [Cf. Type 1381 E.]
AT1612 The Contest in Swimming
The swimmer takes a knapsack of provisions on his back. His rival is afraid and gives up.
AT1613 “Playing‑Cards Are my Calendar and Prayerbook.”
A soldier reproved for playing cards during church service answers thus and shows so cleverly the symbolic meanings of each of the cards that he receives a reward.
AT1626 Dream Bread
The most wonderful dream. Three pilgrims agree that the one who has the most wonderful dream shall eat the last loaf One eats it. He declares he dreamed the others were dead and would not need it.
AT1640 The Brave Tailor
Seven with one stroke. While fleeing defeats the enemy (the sign‑post on his arm). Kills wild‑boar. Also incidents belonging to the stupid ogre and the clever man.
AT1641 Doctor Know‑All
The stolen horse. The stolen money (“That is one of them”). The covered dish (“Ah, poor crab that I am”). Often joined with the story of the sawed pulpit.
AT1643 The Broken Image
The fool sells his cow to a crucifix. He knocks it to pieces because it will not pay him. He finds a treasure inside. [«God’s help is nearer than the door.»]
AT1645 The Treasure at Home
A man dreams that if he goes to a distant city he will find treasure on a certain bridge. Finding no treasure, he tells his dream to a man who says that he too has dreamed of treasure at certain place. He describes the place, which is the first man's home. When the latter returns home he finds the treasure.
AT1646 The Lucky Blow
(a) A man in anger or by accident knocks off the king's crown or turban. A poison snake is found in the crown and the king thinks the man has saved him. (b) A man is angered by the king, pushes the king or drags him out of the palace into the courtyard to beat him. The roof of the palace collapses onto the spot where. The king was standing and the king thinks the man has saved him.
AT1650 The Three Lucky Brothers
Their inheritances: a cock, a scythe, a cat. The fortunate sales.
AT1651 Whittington's Cat
In a land where cats are unknown, he sells it for a fortune.
AT1653 The Robbers under the Tree
Object falls on robbers from a tree. They flee and leave money.
AT1655 The Profitable Exchange
The eaten grain and the cock as damages.
AT1678 The Boy who had Never Seen a Woman
When he sees a girl and asks his father what it is, the father tells him it is Satan. Asked what he most likes, he says “The Satans.”
AT1685 The Foolish Bridegroom
Dog “Parsley” in the soup Clearing out the room (throws out the stove). To “throw good eyes” at the bride (throws ox‑eyes and sheep‑eyes on the plate)
AT1696 “What Should I have Said (Done)?”
The mother teaches the boy (the man his wife) what he should say (do) in this or that circumstance. He uses the words in the most impossible cases and is always punished. [We had included here versions of Type 915 A, before that number had been assigned to the tale of «the highest penny at the fair».]
AT1697 “We Three; For Money.”
Three travelers in a foreign land know only three expressions in the foreign language. By the use of these they get themselves a–used of murder.
AT1698 Deaf Persons and their Foolish Answers [Including other misunderstandings which occur when people converse.]
AT1725 The Foolish Parson in the Trunk
The clever rascal gets ready to throw the trunk into the water; see Type 1535, incidents
See also: 1535
AT1730 The Entrapped Suitors
(Lai l'épervier). The parson, the sexton, and the churchwarden visit the beautiful woman. The three undressed men are hidden when the husband comes home. The woman invites guests. The three chased off [Cf. Type 1536 B.]
See also: 1536B
AT1731 The Youth and the Pretty Shoes
By playing upon their desire for the pretty shoes he has stolen he betrays the wife, the daughter, and the servant girl of the parson and finally the parson himself, who is standing by his side. Healing of the scab; holding the bung of the wine‑cask. (Obscene.) [How three rogues trick a tavern-keeper. See Boggs, FFC, XC, 1848.]
AT1735 “Who Gives his Own Goods shall Receive it Back Tenfold.”
The parson preaches from this text, and a peasant tests it by giving the parson a cow, which brings all the parson's cows back home with her. A quarrel arises over the cows and it is agreed that the man who can say “good morning” to the other first shall keep the cows. The peasant is the first on the spot and becomes witness to a scene between the parson and his housekeeper. When the parson notices what has happened he lets the peasant keep the cows.
AT1741 The Priest's Guest and the Eaten Chickens
The servant who has eaten the chickens tells the guest to flee because the priest is going to cut off his ears, and he tells the priest the guest has stolen two chickens. The priest runs after him crying, “Give me at least one of them.”
AT1785 The Parson Put to Flight During his Sermon
AT1791 The Sexton Carries the Parson
Thieves steal a sheep or turnips. The lame parson has himself carried by the sexton. The sexton hears the thieves in the cemetery cracking nuts and thinks it is the devil cracking bones. With the gouty parson on his back he comes upon the thieves who, thinking it is their companion with a sheep, call out, “Is he fat?” The sexton: “Fat or lean, here fie is.”
AT1792 The Stingy Parson and the Slaughtered Pig
The stingy parson does not want to give anyone a part of his pig, which he has just slaughtered. The sexton advises him to hang the pig up in the garden overnight so as to make everyone think it has been stolen. The sexton steals it himself.
AT1792A The Priest's Pig
A man going on a journey changes clothes on the way with another man. Latter is found drowned, and is buried as the first train. The first man's wife is to be re‑married by the priest and is to give the priest a pig as payment. The priest sends his servant at night for the pig, but is attacked in the pigsty by the First husband, who has returned home and been refused admittance by his wife who thinks him a ghost. Next day all run from him on the way to church, until the priest finally finds out the truth. [Cf. Type 974. A man, who is thought to have been drowned, returns home to find that his wife has re-married. He finds the priest’s servant taking a pig, in lieu of money, as marriage-fee.]
AT1810A* How Many Gods Are There?
AT1825 The Peasant as Parson
AT1827 You Shall See me a Little While Longer
The parson takes a drink of liquor during the sermon.
AT1833 Application of the Sermon
[See Types 767 and 915 A. As well as stories of the standard humorous type, there occurs in Ireland a religious tale, which belongs to this category. It tells how a simple boy followed the «straight road» home from church, after hearing the priest advise his flock to follow the straight road in life; later the boy held conversations with holy pictures in the priest’s house.
AT1833A “What Says David?” The boy: “Pay your old debt.”
Variants: (a) “What evil did Adam do?” – “He (shoemaker) made my shoes too little.” (b) “What kind of man was Moses?” – “He was a day laborer.”
AT1833B The parson: ”Where did the Father Stay?”
“He stayed to hold the oxen.”
AT1833D The Names of the Persons of the Holy Trinity
The priest's example: the three cows. “The Holy Ghost has just had a calf”.
AT1837 The Parson to Let a Dove Fly in the Church
It dies in his pocket (or has other accident).
AT1839 The Card‑playing Parson
AT1841 Grace before Meat
The parson asks the boy: “What does your father say when you begin to cat?” “You young devil, etc.”
Tall Tales
AT1889H Submarine Otherworld
Marine counterpart to land. [(A) The sailor-merchant sets out in a ship to find out (a) where the end of the sea is; (b) where the tide goes when it ebbs, and from where it comes when it flows. He sees various wonders on the voyage. The tale usually ends as type 1179*. (B) Versions of tales about either water-beings, mermaids and such, who are said to live under the sea, or else to mythical animals (water-cows, water-horses, talking seals) which inhabit the water-world; also under-water cities and towns.]
AT1890 The Lucky Shot
Discharge of gun kills the heath‑cock, which falls on the sprouts on the tree, which kills the bear, etc.
AT1891 The Great Rabbit‑Catch
The rabbits freeze their feet fast to the ice at night.
AT1894 The Man Shoots a Ramrod Full of Ducks
AT1911A Horse's New Backbone
The man makes a new backbone for his horse out of a stick when the old one breaks in two. Or a flayed horse is covered with sheepskin and produces excellent wool. [An Irish by-form tells how a horse, which is thought to have died, is skinned, but revives later. It is covered with a sheepskin on which a fine fleece of wool grows afterwards!]
AT1920 Contest in Lying
AT1930 Schlaraffenland
(Land of Cokaygne.) Land in which impossible things happen: doves fleece a wolf, roast fowls fly, etc. [Under this Type, we have included references to versions of an Irish lying-song (Amhrán na mBréag), which tells of impossible happenings. See Jour. Eng. Folk Dance Socy., 12/1942, 113-121.]
AT1940 The Extraordinary Names
The place where animals and things have extraordinary names.
AT1950 The Three Lazy Ones
Who is the laziest. Each recounts a proof of his laziness.
AT1960 The Great Animal or Great Object
AT1960D The Great Vegetable
(cabbage, potato, etc.) [See Type 852.]
See also: 0852
AT1960G The Great Tree
(plants growing to heaven, etc.).
Formula Tales
Cumulative Tales
AT2021 The Cock and the Hen
The hen chokes to death on a grain. Various animals join the funeral procession. The funeral carriage breaks down or the procession drowns. [Cf. Type 2033.]
See also: 2033
AT2025 The Fleeing Pancake
A woman makes a Pancake which flees. Various animals try in vain to stop it. Finally the fox eats it up.
AT2030 The Old Woman and her Pig
Her pig will not jump over the stile so that she can go home. She appeals in vain for help until the cow gives her milk. The final formula is: cow give milk for the cat, cat kill rat, rat gnaw rope, rope hang butcher, butcher kill ox, ox drink water, water quench fire, fire burn stick, stick beat dog, dog bite pig, pig jump over stile. [We have also included here the story of how one person stole berries from another; the quest for a stick to beat the culprit, and so on. An Tuaimín Sméar.]
AT2033 A Nut Hits the Cock's Head
and he thinks the world has come to an end. He sends the hen to tell the duck. The duck tells the goose, the goose the hare, the hare the fox, the fox the wolf Final formula: “Fox who told you?” – “Hare”. – “Hare who told you?” – “Goose”, etc.
Catch Tales
AT2200 Catch‑tales
The manner of telling forces the hearer to ask a particular question, to which the teller returns a ridiculous answer. [See Type 2204.]
Other Formula Tales
AT2300 Endless Tales
Hundreds of sheep to be carried over stream one at a time, endless quacking of geese, etc. The wording of the tale so arranged as to continue indefinitely.
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