μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Task: splitting a hair with a blunt knife.

Tests. · Tests of prowess: tasks. · Nature of tasks. · Impossible or absurd tasks. · Tasks contrary to laws of nature. · view the constellation · filed as H1023.14

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“Pohyola’s fair and winsome daughter, Glory of the land and water, Sat upon the bow of heaven, On its highest arch resplendent, In a gown of richest fabric, In a gold and silver air-gown, Weaving webs of golden texture, Interlacing threads of silver; Weaving with a golden shuttle, With a weaving-comb of silver; Merrily flies the golden shuttle, From the maiden’s nimble fingers, Briskly swings the lathe in weaving, Swiftly flies the comb…”

The Kalevala, Rune VIII · served from our shelf

On our shelf — the index’s citations, resolved to served chapters
  • FinnishThe Kalevala, Rune VIIIThompson cites: Kalevala rune 8
Scholars’ trail — 2references

The index’s own references — the collections where scholars sighted this story-shape, tradition by tradition. Titles on our shelf are live links; the rest is the frontier, not yet shelved.

Within the index

Filed under Tasks contrary to the nature of objects.

Filed beside it
Task: hatching boiled eggsTask: carrying water in a sieveTask: bringing berries (fruit, roses) in winterTask: straightening a curly hairTask: pumping out a leaky shipTask: washing black wool (cloth, cattle) whiteTask: sewing together a broken mill-stoneTask: fixing the two pieces of a broken sword togetherTask: mending a broken jugTask: skinning a stoneTask: putting a large squash whole into a narrow-necked jarTask: catching a noiseTask: catching a man's broken windTask: turning fruit into goldTask: making sun and moon shine in the northTask: sowing rye and bringing crop next morning. (Cf. H1023.1.2.)
Keeps company with — shares receipted episodes
Magic songMagic song heals wound. (Cf. D1275.)Magic power at cross-roadsFlow of blood magically stopped. (Cf. D1504.)Task: making an invisible knot with an eggTask: making boat from splinters of a spindle and shuttle

wander