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Aarne–Thompson–Uther index
About this index and how to read it
The ATU index classifies international folktales by type. Each row gives the type number, its title and summary, followed by the references it inherits: Arne Thompson is the earlier Aarne–Thompson type number, and Thompson lists the motif references from Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature associated with that type.
Cross-references inside a summary open the relevant tale-type or motif record. Thompson motif references in the final column are linked directly to the corresponding entry in the Stith Thompson Motif Index when that reference exists in the database. Any column heading can be clicked to sort by it, and clicking again reverses the order. Following a type number opens that type on its own page.
| ATU ▲ | Title | Summary | Arne Thompson | Thompson |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | Is Wood Split? | A lazy man asks if wood is split before he accepts it as a gift [W111.5.12]. Sometimes, if rice is cooked. | 1951 | W111.5.10. |
| 1961 | The big wedding | Giant with sixty daughters. | ||
| 1965 | Lying tales | No examples in the Database yet | 1965 | X1791. |
| 2009 | Origin of Chess | Inventor asks one wheat-grain for the first square, two for the second, four for the third, eight for the fourth, etc. The king cannot pay. [Z21.1]. | ||
| 2010 | Ehod mi yodea (One, who knows?) | Le dodici parole della verità. Las doce palabras retorneadas. The numbers from one to twelve are brought into relation with various objects, often of religious significance. [Z22]. | 2010 | Z22. |
| 2012 | The Forgetful Man Counts the Days of the Week | On Monday they go to mill, etc. - He thus discovers that it is Sunday. [Z24]. | , 2012 | Z24., Z24.1., Z24.1.1. |
| 2014 | Chains Involving Contradictions of Extremes | Cf. Type 2335. | , 2014, 2014A | Z51., Z51.1. |
| 2015 | The goat that would not go home | One animal after another tries in vain to persuade the goat to go home. Finally a wolf (bee) bites him and drives him home. [Z39.1]. Variants: a hog, wolf, cat or the like [Z39.1]. Often mixed with Type 2030. Cf. Type 212. | 2015 | Z39.1. |
| 2017 | The Crow on the Tarred Bridge | His beak and his tail alternately stick. [Z39.3]. (Endless). Cf. Type 2300. | ||
| 2019 | Fair Katrinelje and Pif-Paf-Poltrie | Each member of a family is assigned a characteristic function; various wooers appear and are rejected until the one which is apparently the most unpromising is chosen. [Z31.1]. | 2019 | Z31.1. |
| 2021 | 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. [Z32.1]. | , 2021, 2021B | Z32.1., Z32.1.1., Z43.2. |
| 2022 | An Animal Mourns the Death of a Spouse | Each act of mourning described by a neologism: the table untables itself. [Z32.2.1]. | , 2022 | Z32.2., Z32.2.1. |
| 2023 | Little Ant Finds a Penny, Buys New Clothes with it, and Sits in her Doorway | Various animals pass by and propose marriage. She asks what they do at night. Each replies with its characteristic sound, but none pleases her but the little quiet mouse, whom she marries. She leaves him to tend the stew, and he falls in and drowns.… | 2023 | Z32.3. |
| 2025 | The Fleeing Pancake | A woman makes a pancake which flees. Various animals try in vain to stop it. Finally the fox eats it up. [Z33.1]. | 2025 | Z33.1. |
| 2027 | The fat cat | While the mistress is away the cat eats the porridge, the bowl, and the ladle. When the mistress return she says »How fat you are!» The cat: »I ate the porridge, the bowl, and the ladle and I will eat you.» The cat meets other animals and eats… | ||
| 2028 | The Troll (Wolf) who was Cut Open | A troll eats the watcher's five horses and finally the watcher himself. The master goes to investigate. The troll: »I ate the five horses, I ate the watcher, and I will eat you.» Does so. Likewise with wife, servant, daughter, son, and dog. The cat… | , 2027, 2028 | Z33.2., Z33.3., Z33.4. |
| 2030 | 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,… | ||
| 2031 | Stronger and Strongest | The frost-bitten foot. Mouse perforates wall, wall resists wind, wind dissolves cloud, cloud covers sun, sun thaws frost, frost breaks foot. [Z42]. | ||
| 2032 | The Cock and the Mouse and The Sexton's Nose | A mouse throws a nut down from a tree and hits a cock on the head. He also steals the cock's whiskers. The cock goes to get an old woman to cure him. The final formula is: Fountain give up water for forest, forest give up wood for baker, baker give… | ||
| 2033 | The Sky Is Falling | No examples in the Database yet | ||
| 2034 | The Mouse Regains its Tail | The cat bites off the mouse's tail and will return it in exchange for milk. The mouse goes to the cow for milk, the farmer for hay, the butcher for meat, the baker for bread. Other persons mentioned are the locksmith and the miner. [Z41.4]. | ||
| 2035 | This Is the House That Jack Built | Final formula: This is the farmer that sowed the corn that fed the cock that crowed in the morn, that waked the priest all shaven and shorn, that married the man all tattered and torn, that kissed the maiden all forlorn, that milked the cow with a… | ||
| 2036 | Drop of Honey Causes Chain of Accidents | Hunter drops honey in a grocery; weasel eats honey; cat chases weasel; dog chases cat; grocer kills dog: all the cause of a bloody feud between villages. [N381]. | ||
| 2037 | "I Killed my Grandmother because she Refused to Cook a Hare." | I killed a priest because he said my crime was bad. A friar absolved me to avoid being killed.» [Z49.1]. | ||
| 2038 | Cumulative Pursuit | Boys get help. One of them injures the helper. Pursued. Ridden by kind hen. One injures the hen. Hen pursues, etc. [Z49.2]. | ||
| 2039 | The Horseshoe Nail | For want of a nail the shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the horse was lost, for the want of a horse the rider was lost ... and all for the want of a horseshoe nail. | ||
| 2040 | The Climax of Horrors | The magpie is dead. Overate on horseflesh. - Horse dead? - Overworked at fire - Horse burned down? etc. [Z46]. | ||
| 2041 | The Bird Indifferent to Pain | A man catches a mango-bird eating mangoes and strikes it against the roots of a mango-tree. The bird cannot be made to say it suffers from the blow. In turn, he puts it in water, strikes it on the ground, a stile, a door-frame, singes its feathers,… | ||
| 2043 | What Have You Got There? | No examples in the Database yet | ||
| 2044 | Pulling up the turnip | Final formula: The mouse holds onto the cat, the cat holds onto Mary, Mary holds onto Annie, Annie holds onto grandmother, grandmother holds onto grandfather, grandfather holds onto the turnip - they all pull and pull it out. [Z49.9]. | ||
| 2075 | Tales in which animals talk | Their talk is in imitation of their real sound. E.g. bull, cow, calf talk about going to the next pasture, etc. Bull with bass voice, calf with very small and cow with medium. | ||
| 2200 | Catch-tales | The manner of telling forces the hearer to ask a particular question, to which the teller returns a ridiculous answer. [X13]. | ||
| 2201 | Death to Listener | At the end of the story, the story-teller uses a fearful voice and points at one of his audience: »You'll be the hundredth one to die». | ||
| 2204 | The Dog's Cigar | Man is smoking a cigar (pipe) in train; it falls out of the train; a dog jumps out after it; the dog arrives at the station later ... »What do you think he had in his mouth?» »The cigar (pipe)?» »No, his tongue!» | ||
| 2205 | Come here, Lean! | Girl finds 3 coins and buys 3 pigs: (1) the lean, (2) the fat, (3) the tail. »Come here, Lean.» »I can't, I am too lean.» »Come here Fat.» »I can't, because I am too fat» - »And the other, what was it named?» »The tail.» - »Lift the… | ||
| 2250 | Unfinished tales | Just as interest is aroused the narrator quits. »If the bowl had been stronger my tale had been longer». [Z12]. | ||
| 2251 | The Rabbit's Tail | The old king left a big mountain for his three sons. They dug in the mountain and found a big iron box and a little rabbit in it. If that rabbit's tail was longer my story would be longer too. | ||
| 2271 | Mock Stories for Children | When children, by persistently demanding a story, become a nuisance to their elders, the latter get rid of them by telling brief »mock stories», e.g. the dog's name was »Enough». | ||
| 2300 | 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. [Z11]. Cf. Types 2013, 2017. | ||
| 2320 | Rounds | Stories which begin over and over again and repeat. [Z17]. Cf. Type 2013. |
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