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Stith Thompson Motif Index
About this index and how to read it
Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature classifies recurring narrative elements in folktales, myths, legends, ballads and related traditional narratives. Each entry below gives Thompson's motif reference and the description recorded in the index.
The index is large, so this browser displays 250 entries per page. You can search by motif reference or by words in the description, restrict the results to one of Thompson's main letter categories, and click motif references mentioned inside descriptions to follow cross-references. Individual motif pages also show any ATU tale types whose concordance explicitly cites that Thompson reference.
All
A
Mythological Motifs
B
Animal Motifs
C
Motifs of Tabu
D
Magic
E
The Dead
F
Marvels
G
Ogres
H
Tests
J
The Wise and the Foolish
K
Deceptions
L
Reversals of Fortune
M
Ordaining the Future
N
Chance and Fate
P
Society
Q
Rewards and Punishments
R
Captives and Fugitives
S
Unnatural Cruelty
T
Sex
U
The Nature of Life
V
Religion
W
Traits of Character
X
Humor
Z
Miscellaneous Groups of Motifs
| Thompson reference ▲ | Description |
|---|---|
| F1041.16.6.6 | Water boils when angry warrior is immersed in it. Irish myth: *Cross. |
| F1041.16.6.7 | Fury enables wounded soldiers to continue fighting. Die at end of battle. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1041.16.6.8 | Angry warrior's breath makes adversary's armour so hot that he must surrender. Icelandic: Boberg. |
| F1041.16.6.9 | Bowstring (arrow, oar) breaks at angry warrior's grasp. Icelandic: Boberg. |
| F1041.16.7 | King about to kill foster-son due to his evil explanation of dream; both jump into sea and are drowned. Icelandic: Boberg. |
| F1041.16.8 | Face and body turn black from anger. Africa (Swahili): Baler FL XXXVIII 279f. |
| F1041.16.9 | Chief beheads sentinel who does not recognize him. Icelandic: Boberg. |
| F1041.16.10 | Man throws cereal and spoon on the floor because he is supposed to eat together with his brother. Icelandic: Boberg. |
| F1041.16.11 | Earl throws jar of water after undesired messenger. Icelandic: Boberg. |
| F1041.17 | Extraordinary result of fear. (Cf. F950.5, F1041.1.11). |
| F1041.17.1 | Barrenness as result of fright. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1041.18 | Putrescence flows from head when man presses forehead. Irish myth: *Cross. |
| F1041.19 | Dumbness from disgust. Irish myth: *Cross. |
| F1041.20 | Person vomits iron. Irish myth: *Cross. |
| F1041.21 | Reactions to excessive grief. (Cf. F1041.1.1.) |
| F1041.21.1 | Illness from excessive grief. Icelandic: *Boberg. |
| F1041.21.1.1 | Tears of blood from excessive grief. Irish myth: *Cross; Icelandic: *Boberg. |
| F1041.21.2 | Man swells from excessive grief. Icelandic: Egils saga in ASB 3 (1894) ch. LXXVIII 14ff., Völsunga saga ch. 31 (29), Boberg. |
| F1041.21.3 | Refusal to eat from excessive grief. Icelandic: *Boberg; India: *Thompson-Balys. |
| F1041.21.3.1 | Refusal to speak because of grief. India: *Thompson-Balys. |
| F1041.21.4 | Man cries at hearing of friend's death. Þiðriks saga II 358. |
| F1041.21.5 | Man senseless from grief at hearing of father's death; one doesn't feel that he cuts himself with his knife, the other presses dice so that he bleeds. Icelandic: Boberg. |
| F1041.21.6 | Tearing hair and clothes from excessive grief. India: *Thompson-Balys. |
| F1041.21.6.1 | Wounding self because of excessive grief. India: Thompson-Balys. |
| F1041.21.6.2 | Bird in great grief tears out feathers. India: Thompson-Balys. |
| F1041.21.7 | Swooning from grief. Icelandic: *Boberg; India: Thompson-Balys. |
| F1041.22 | Deaf and dumb people speak. *Loomis White Magic 53. |
| F1041.23 | Shame causes smoke to rise from saint's head and sweat to stream from his brow. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1041.24 | Slap turns man's face completely around. India: Thompson-Balys. |
| F1044 | Man suddenly acquires long gray beard on scaffold at execution. Pauli (ed. Bolte) No. 656. |
| F1045 | Night spent in tree. Hero goes into tree to spend the night. *Type 327A, 613; Icelandic: *Boberg; German: Grimm No. 163; India: Thompson-Balys. |
| F1047 | Anchor floats on water. Breton: Sébillot Incidents s.v. "ancre." |
| F1047.1 | Non-buoyant flasks float. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1051 | Prodigious weeping. Usually by saint. Toldo II 96; India: Thompson-Balys; Buddhist myth: Malalasekera I 633; Chinese: Eberhard FFC CXX 87, 260f.; Africa (Upoto): Einstein 127. |
| F1051.1 | Barrel filled miraculously with penitent's tears. Ward II 664; Herbert III *341, 475; Italian Novella: Rotunda. |
| F1051.2 | Miraculously loud noise of mourning for hero. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1054 | Bones temporarily removed from body by tree climbers to avoid breaking them. Africa (Congo): Weeks Jungle 126ff. |
| F1055 | Books in church read without man's tongue. English: Child III 244. |
| F1057 | Hero (giant) wades across sea. Irish myth: *Cross; Welsh: MacCulloch Celtic 101. |
| F1061 | Flame as miraculous index. Icelandic: Boberg. |
| F1061.1 | Flame indicates presence of beautiful woman. (Cf. F1041.8.1. and cross references.) Malay, Indonesian: Dixon 222 n. 26. |
| F1061.2 | Color of flame indicates what is burning. Blue for furniture, white for money, red for person. Indonesian: Dixon 226. |
| F1061.3 | Burning pit will close only if armed rider will plunge into it. Italian Novella: Rotunda. |
| F1061.4 | Flame indicates place where innocent person was murdered. Icelandic: Boberg. |
| F1063 | Departing house. Hero in departing takes his house with him. N. A. Indian: Kroeber JAFL XXI 224. |
| F1065 | Man fishes up two blind women from a well. Malone PMLA XLIII 405, 416. |
| F1066 | Arrow shot to heaven returns bloody. Hdwb. d. Märch. I 102a; Spanish Exempla: Keller. |
| F1066.1 | Knife plunged into earth comes out bloody. Spanish Exempla: Keller. |
| F1068 | Realistic dream. Irish: O'Suilleabhain 107, Beal XXI 334; Icelandic: Boberg; Jewish: *Neuman. |
| F1068.1 | Tokens from a dream. Man brings objects received during dream. Krappe Balor 122ff.; Icelandic: *Boberg. |
| F1068.2 | Wound received in dream. Still there when person wakes. *Kittredge Witchcraft 222f., 534 nn. 90—97; Alphabet No. 299; Icelandic: Boberg; England: Baughman. |
| F1068.2.1 | Man is maltreated in dream so that he feels it next day. Icelandic: *Boberg. |
| F1068.2.2 | Fight in dream with real result. Icelandic: Boberg. |
| F1071 | Prodigious jump. To fourth story (or the like). Type 530; Cosquin Contes indiens 333ff.; Irish myth: *Cross; Icelandic: *Boberg; India: *Thompson-Balys; Philippine (Tinguian): Cole 103; Marquesas: Handy 114; Tuamotu: Stimson MS (z-G. 13/499). |
| F1071.1 | Crossing a river with help of a fig tree whose branches touch the opposite bank. India: Thompson-Balys. |
| F1071.2 | Jumping over a ditch which is really an ocean. India: Thompson-Balys. |
| F1071.2.1 | Man clears river of enormous width in one leap. Buddhist myth: Malalasekera I 102. |
| F1072 | Two children of different sex, not related, have such close resemblance that even parents cannot tell them apart. Italian Novella: Rotunda. |
| F1073 | Marathon marriage. Woman who has been widowed twenty-two times marries a man who has been a widower twenty times. Italian Novella: *Rotunda. |
| F1075 | Blood of brother and sister (and smoke from their funeral pyres) refuses to mingle. India: Thompson-Balys. |
| F1076 | Tightening belt to counteract hunger: when loosened person falls dead. India: Thompson-Balys. |
| F1078 | Detonation from spark struck for fire hurls ships out to sea. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1081 | Tub of water dropped neither breaks nor spills. Irish myth: *Cross. |
| F1082 | Person changes color. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1082.1 | Person has red and black countenance after being burned. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1083 | Object rises into the air. Irish myth: Cross; Jewish: Neuman. |
| F1083.0.1 | Object floats in air. Loomis White Magic 47f. |
| F1083.0.1.1 | Altar floats in air. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1083.0.1.2 | Ark suspended in air. Jewish: Neuman. |
| F1083.0.1.3 | Jerusalem suspended in air. Jewish: Neuman. |
| F1083.1 | Stone cross rises into air. Irish myth: *Cross. |
| F1083.2 | Man and his camels rise into air. Jewish: Neuman. |
| F1084 | Furious battle. Irish myth: *Cross; Jewish: Neuman. |
| F1084.0.1 | Inlay melts from sword with heat of striking. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1084.0.2 | Weapons confined by flying nets of hair in furious battle. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1084.0.3 | Continuous fighting. No rest or food. Irish myth: *Cross. |
| F1084.0.4 | Marks of furious battle left in rock. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1084.1 | Deep streams of blood flow during battle. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1084.2 | Warriors use teeth after they exhaust weapons. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1084.3 | Soldiers fight so closely river is forced from bed. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1085 | Eye bursts forth from overstrain of voice. Irish myth: *Cross. |
| F1086 | Saint preaches for three days and three nights. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1087 | Hero's marvelous sword falls and cuts off hand of enemy. (Cf. F833, N331.) Irish myth: *Cross. |
| F1088 | Extraordinary escapes. Irish myth: *Cross. |
| F1088.1 | Hero (heroine) spared for his (her) beauty. Irish myth: *Cross. |
| F1088.2 | Hero unharmed by serpent which coils around his waist. Irish myth: *Cross. |
| F1088.3 | Extraordinary escape from drowning. Icelandic: Snorra Edda Gylf. XLI, Boberg; Danish: Schmidt DF XXXIX 44ff.; Maori: Clark 29. |
| F1088.3.1 | Clerics and property cast safely on shore when enemies attempt their drowning. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1088.3.2 | Fisherman dragged through sea by seal escapes. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1088.4 | Animal escapes by slipping out of skin. Irish myth: *Cross. |
| F1091 | Food does not spoil saint's clothing. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1092 | Vessel of poisoned ale inverted; only poison flows out. Irish myth: *Cross. |
| F1093 | Stake miraculously bent during night. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1094 | Milk has taste of wine and honey. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1095 | Arm grows longer from giving alms. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1096 | Person lives on after being cut through by sword. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1096.1 | Person lives on after having heart cut free. Heart moves about within his chest. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1096.2 | Person lives on with intestines exposed. Irish myth: Cross; Icelandic: Boberg. |
| F1096.3 | Severed head bites earth. Icelandic: Boberg. |
| F1097 | Armies miraculously separated (kept from coming to battle, etc.). Irish myth: *Cross. |
| F1097.1 | Angel forbids armies to approach each other. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1098 | Object miraculously mended. Irish myth: *Cross. |
| F1098.0.1 | Object miraculously broken. Irish myth: *Cross; Icelandic: Boberg. |
| F1099 | Additional marvels. |
| F1099.1 | Entire household dies on same night. Irish myth: *Cross. |
| F1099.2 | Roads miraculously appear on Hallowe'en. (Cf. F900.1.) Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1099.2.1 | Roads miraculously appear on day of hero's birth. Irish myth: *Cross. |
| F1099.3 | Words heard though only thought and not uttered. Jewish: Neuman. |
| F1099.4 | Corn takes root in man's hair. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1099.4.1 | Blades of corn grow through hair of saint as reward for guarding cornkiln. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1099.5 | Burning bodies vomit. Irish myth: Cross. |
| F1099.6 | Extraordinary plowing. India: Thompson-Balys. |
| F1099.6.1 | Extraordinary plowing by teeth. India: Thompson-Balys. |
| F1099.7 | Pious die on their birthday. Jewish: *Neuman. |
| F1099.8 | Man meets his future descendants and is instructed by them. Jewish: Neuman. |
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