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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 ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1553 | An Ox for Five Pennies | A woman who has been left the ox on condition that she give the proceeds to the poor offers it for five pennies, but it must be bought along with a cock at twelve florins. She gives the five pennies to the poor and keeps the twelve florins. [K182]. | ||
| 1560 | Make-believe eating; make-believe work | At the table the peasant says, »We will only act as if we were eating.» At work the servant: »We will only act as if we were working.» [J1511.1]. | ||
| 1568 | The master and the servant at the table | No examples in the Database yet | ||
| 1573 | Inspecting the daughter | No examples in the Database yet | ||
| 1587 | Man Allowed to pick out Tree to be Hanged on | Cannot find one. [K558]. | ||
| 1615 | The Heller Thrown into Other's Money | A rascal sees robbers dividing their booty. He puts a red string through his only coin (a heller) and slips it into the others' money. He claims the money as his, and says he has marked it with a heller having a red string through it. The robbers… | ||
| 1624 | Thief's Excuse: the Big Wind | A vegetable thief is caught in a garden. Owner: How did you get into the garden? A wind blew me in. How were the vegetables uprooted? If the wind is strong enough to blow me in, it can uproot them. How did they get into your bag? That is what I was… | ||
| 1631 | Horse which will not Go over Trees | A salesman tells the buyer that he is selling the horse because it eats too much and will not climb trees. On the way home the horse bites everyone and refuses to cross a bridge. Seller is literally correct. [K134.1]. | ||
| 1651 | Whittington's cat | In a land where cats are unknown, he sells it for fortune. Cf. Types 1281, 1650. I. He Gets the Cat. (a) The hero is left a cat as his only inheritance [N411.1.1] (see Type 1650); or (b) he earns or finds four coins which he tests by throwing them… | ||
| 1652 | The Wolves in the Stable | The youth plays music, entices them out, and gets them to dancing. Receives much money from the man who has let them out. [K443.5]. Cf. Type 1650. | ||
| 1653 | The Robbers under the Tree | Object falls on robbers from a tree. They flee and leave money. | ||
| 1655 | The profitable exchange | The eaten grain and the cock as damages. Cf. Type 170. I. Profitable Exchanges. (a) The hero has only a grain of corn; this is eaten by a cock and he gets the cock as damages [K251.11]. (b) Likewise when the hog eats the cock, and (c) the ox eats the… | ||
| 1660 | The Poor Man in Court | He has a stone in his purse to throw at the judge if he is sentenced. The judge thinks that he has money to use as a bribe and acquits him. [K1705]. | ||
| 1661 | The Triple Tax | A poet is given by the king the right to demand a coin from the first hunchback he meets, from the first man of a certain name, and the first man of a certain city. He sees a hunchback and demands the coin. A quarrel arises in which it appears that… | ||
| 1663 | Deviding Five Eggs Equally between Two Men and One Woman | Three to the woman and one to each of the men. Men already have two (testicles). [J1249.1]. | ||
| 1688 | The Servant to Improve on the Master's Statements | The wooer makes boasts to the girl and the servant always doubles the master's boast. Finally the master says, »I have poor eyesight.» - The servant, »You don't see at all.» (Or the master coughs and apologizes; the servant says that he coughs… | ||
| 1691 | Don´t Eat too Greadly | The fool starves himself at table since a cat steps on his foot and he thinks his companion is giving him hint to stop eating. He later hunts food in house and gets into trouble. [J2541]. Cf. Type 1775. | ||
| 1694 | The Company to Sing like the Leader | When his foot is caught in a wheel, his companions keep repeating his call for help as a song. [J2417.1]. Cf. Type 1832M*. | ||
| 1695 | The Fool Spoils the Work of the Shoemaker, the Tailor and the Smith | Makes shoes for animals as well for men since he expects a cold winter. [J1873.1, W111.5.9]. | ||
| 1701 | Echo answers | Only end of question comes back. Misunderstanding. [K1887.1]. | ||
| 1702 | Anecdotes about Stutterers | One stutterer thinks the other is imitating him. | ||
| 1707 | The Noseless Man | A man who has lost his nose persuades others that they, too, can see God if they will cut their noses off. They do so, whereupon he scoffs at them. [J758.1.1]. Cf. Types 64, 1203. | ||
| 1718 | God can't take a joke | No examples in the Database yet | ||
| 1725 | The foolish parson in the trunk | The clever rascal gets ready to throw the trunk into the water; see Type 1535, incidents III b, c, 1358. | ||
| 1730 | The entrapped suitors | No examples in the Database yet | ||
| 1731 | The Youth and the Pretty Shoes | By playing upon their desire for the pretty shoes he has stolen [T455.3.2], he betrays the wife, the daughter, and the servant girl of the parson [K1357] and finally the parson himself, who is standing by his side. Healing of the scab; holding the… | ||
| 1735 | '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 [K366.1.1]. A quarrelarises over the cows and it is agreed that the man who can say »good morning» to the… | ||
| 1736 | The stingy parson | The boys do no mowing the whole day. »May the grass grow up again! May the gold in the purse turn to wasps!» A parson is known for being unusually stingy. He sends his boys to the meadow to mow, and they do nothing. On the way home one of them… | ||
| 1737 | Trading Places with the Trickster in a Sack | The youth claims to be the Angel Gabriel [K842]. (Dupe not always a parson; sometimes told of animals.) Cf. Types 1525A, 1535 (IV). | ||
| 1738 | The Dream: All Parsons in Hell | The smith, who is sick, sends for the parson, whoAT first refuses to come on account of bad weather. When he arrives the smith says that he has dreamed that he went to heaven, where St. Peter would not admit him before he saw a priest. There were no… | ||
| 1739 | The parson and the calf | A sick parson is made to believe that he will bear a calf. In having his urine examined by a doctor, a cow's is substituted by mistake. (Or he dreams that he has borne a calf.) When a calf comes into the house he thinks that he has borne it.… | ||
| 1740 | Candles on the Crayfish | The rascal puts burning candles on the backs of the crayfish. The parson and sexton think them the souls of the dead. He robs them meanwhile. [K335.0.5.1]. | ||
| 1741 | Trickster Wives and Maids | 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 [K2137]. The priest runs after him crying, »Give me at least one of them.» | ||
| 1745 | Three words at the grave | The priest made sick of his bargain. A poor man in return for a steer gets permission from the priest to speak three words at the burial of his enemy, the rich man. Priest: »From the earth are you come.» Man: »Now the steer is dead.» Priest: »In… | ||
| 1750 | The Parson's Stupid Wife | A mercenary lover makes the parson's wife believe that chickens can be taught to talk [J1882.1]. At her request, he undertakes to hatch out hen's eggs and receives large amounts of corn to feed them. When the chickens hatch, he declares that they… | ||
| 1775 | The hungry parson | On the hunting trip. Overnight at the peasant's house. In the night the parson hunts the porridge to satisfy his hunger. (The sexton has given him the end of a rope to guide him) [X431]. Cf. Type 1691. | ||
| 1776 | The sexton falls into the brewing-vat | The parson has illicit relations with the maid. The sexton falls from his hiding place into the brewing-vat. The parson and maid think it is the devil and flee [K1271.1.4]. The sexton gets the beer [K335]. Cf. Type 1360. | ||
| 1781 | Sexton's Own Wife Brings her Offering | The priest grants to the sexton the offerings brought by all women whom the priest has loved. The priest always calls out »Take» when these women offer. The sexton's own wife comes. The priest calls out »Take!» (Cf. Q384.) [K1541]. | ||
| 1786 | The Parson in the Church on the Ox | Wants to show how Christ rode to Jerusalem. Rides into the church on an ox. The sexton sticks the ox with a needle. [X414]. | ||
| 1790 | The Parson and Sexton Steal a Cow | Dispute over the booty. Summoned to court. In return for the cow and money, the sexton agrees to get them free. Tells the whole story. Then says, »Just then I waked up» [J1155]. They are freed. Cf. Type 1364. | ||
| 1791 | 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… | ||
| 1792 | 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.… | ||
| 1800 | Stealing Only a Small Amount | Man promises in confession to steal only a small amount. Steals rope with mare on end of it. [K188]. Cf. Type 1630A*. | ||
| 1804 | The eel filled with sand | A penitent confesses that a plan to sin has entered his mind. Priest tells him that the thought is as good as the deed. Assesses four florins as penance. Penitent says that he had only had it in his mind to give the florins; he must take the thought… | ||
| 1805 | Confessions of a Pious Woman | Allegorically tells her sin; repeatedly confesses the sin she committed in her youth, as its remembrance gives her delight (and the like). Cf. Type 1851. | ||
| 1806 | Will Lunch with Christ | Priest tells condemned man after confession that he will dine with Christ that evening. The mule that carries him to the scaffold goes very fast and the criminal says, »At this rate I shall lunch with Christ.» [J1261.3]. | ||
| 1807 | The Equivocal Confession | A man makes an equivocal confession to the priest he has robbed, e.g., says that he has saved a man from a bear, (meaning that he stole the priest's furs); asks his confessor for guidance. The priest, misunderstanding the confession, even praises the… | ||
| 1810 | Jokes about catechism | No examples in the Database yet | ||
| 1812 | Wager: to Dance with Nun | Man tells nun she must undress. Nun outraged refuses. Then you must dance a few steps with me. Nun prefers this and does. Man wins wager. (Nun's song while dancing a part of tale). | ||
| 1820 | Bride and Groom at Wedding Ceremony | They make unusual or absurd answers. Cf. Type 1684B*. |
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