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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 ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1824 | Parody sermon | No examples in the Database yet | ||
| 1826 | The Parson has no Need to Preach | Those who know may teach those who don't know. [X452]. (Or no need give sermon about saint since he has performed no miracles since last year [X425.1]). Cf. Type l833F. | ||
| 1827 | You shall see me a little while longer | The parson takes a drink of liquor during the sermon. [X445.1]. Cf. Type 1698M. | ||
| 1829 | Living Person Acts as Image of Saint | No examples in the Database yet | ||
| 1830 | In trial sermon the parson promises the laymen the kind of weather they want | They cannot agree. »Then you may have it as it was before.» [J1041.1]. | ||
| 1831 | The Parson and Sexton at Mass | The Sexton has been sent to steal the lamb. At mass the priest and sexton discuss the theft in antiphony: »Did you get the lamb-a-a-a-a?» »I didn't get it; I got a hell of a beating a-a-a-a.» [X441]. (In Catholic stories the antiphonies are made… | ||
| 1832 | Boy answers the priest | A boy rides with a rich man. Goes into church and leaves his coat lying in the sled. Hears the parson preach about the rich man who went to hell. The boy calls out, »Then he took my coat along» [X435.5]. | ||
| 1833 | Other anecdotes of sermons | The parson: - »He stayed to hold the oxen.» [X435.2]. | ||
| 1834 | The clergyman with the fine voice | When officiating he sees an old woman weeping and believes her to be touched by his singing. Feeling flattered, he asks her why she weeps, but she answers that she had been reminded of her old goat that had been taken by the wolf [X436]. (Variant:… | ||
| 1835 | Not to turn round | No examples in the Database yet | ||
| 1837 | The Parson to Let a Dove Fly in the Church | It dies in his pocket (or has other accident). [X418]. | ||
| 1838 | The hog in church | The hog has been locked by mistake in the church all week. When the congregation comes the hog runs between the parson's legs and carries him out. [X415]. | ||
| 1840 | At the blessing of the grave the parson's ox breaks loose | The priest steals a ham but promises to pray for the man he has stolen it from. Priest: O God curse the man who lost the ham and bless him who stole it. | ||
| 1841 | Grace before meat | The parson asks the boy: »what does your father say when you begin to eat?» »You young devil, etc.» [X435.2]. | ||
| 1842 | The Testament of the Dog | The owner of a dog has him given Christian burial. The bishop thereupon pretends that the dog has left the church a large legacy. [J1607]. | ||
| 1843 | Parson visits the dying | No examples in the Database yet | ||
| 1844 | The Parson Visits the Sick | |||
| 1845 | The student as healer | No examples in the Database yet | ||
| 1851 | Jokes about Devout Women | No examples in the Database yet | ||
| 1855 | Jokes about Jews | She bears a girl. [J2336]. | ||
| 1876 | The Geese on the Line | The hawk flies away with them on it. The geese have been bound together as protection from the hawk. [X1267.1]. | ||
| 1886 | Man Drinks from own Skull | The skull falls into the water and a duck makes a nest in it. | ||
| 1892 | The Trained Horse Rolls in the Field | Oats grow in his flanks. The man ties a club to the horse's tail and thus kills many moor-hens. [X1241.2.2]. | ||
| 1913 | The Side-hill Beast | Animal with two short legs on one side for convenience in living on hillsides. It can walk around the hill in only one direction. [X1381]. | ||
| 1917 | The Stretching and Shrinking Harness | A man driving a team with a wagon in the rain finds on arrival at the top of the hill that the tugs of rawhide have stretched and that the loaded wagon is still at the bottom. He unhitches the horses and throws the harness across a stump. Later when… | ||
| 1925 | Wishing contests | No examples in the Database yet | ||
| 1931 | The woman who asked for news from home | Gets many impossible answers, which she believes. »The cock has become sexton.» - »That is why he sang so well in the morning» [J2349.4]. Cf. Type 1920A. | ||
| 1935 | Topsy-Turvy Land | Land where all is opposite from the usual. [X1505]. | ||
| 1948 | Too much talk | Three men vowed to silence go to a glen away from the world. At the end of seven years one speaks: I heard a cow lowing. Others are angry but silent. At the end of seven years more, second one says: 'Twas not a cow but a bull! The third is very angry… | ||
| 1961 | The big wedding | Giant with sixty daughters. | ||
| 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]. | ||
| 2017 | The Crow on the Tarred Bridge | His beak and his tail alternately stick. [Z39.3]. (Endless). Cf. Type 2300. | ||
| 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… | ||
| 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». |
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