μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Dragon-tongue proof. Dragon slayer cuts out the tongues and uses them later to prove his identity as slayer.

Tests. · Identity tests: Recognition. · Identification by tokens. · Identification by matching parts of divided token. · view the constellation · filed as H105.1

ask the rhapsode about this motif →

“According to another legend, Thetis bore seven sons, of whom Achilles was the seventh; she destroyed the first six by throwing them into the fire or into a kettle of boiling water to see whether they were mortal or to make them immortal by consuming the merely mortal portion cf their frame; and the seventh son, Achilles, would have perished in like manner, if his father Peleus had not snatched him from the fire at the moment when as…”

— The Library (Bibliotheca), BOOK III, ch. XIII · served from our shelf uncorrected OCR — being verified against the scan

On our shelf — the index’s citations, resolved to served chapters
Scholars’ trail — 14references

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.

  • Irish mythCross
  • French CanadianBarbeau JAFL XXIX 7, 18f.
  • Italian NovellaRotunda
  • GreekFrazer Apollodorus II 63 n. 4 → on our shelf: The Library (Bibliotheca), BOOK III, ch. XIII
  • India*Thompson-Balys
  • N. Am. IndianThompson CColl II 323ff.
  • JamaicaBeckwith MAFLS XVII 278 No. 90.
  • general *Types 300, 303
  • general *Hartland Perseus III 203ff.
  • general **Ranke FFC CXIV 251ff.
  • general *BP I 534ff., 548
  • general Fb "tunge" III 893b
  • general Hdwb. d. Märchens I 242a nn. 24–47
  • general Schoepperle I 204 n. 3
Within the index

Filed under Parts of slain animals as token of slaying.

1 finer motif beneath it
False dragon-head proof. Impostor cuts off dragon heads (after tongues have been removed) and attempts to use them as proof of slaying the dragon
Filed beside it
Tongue as proof that man has been murderedArm of monster kept as token of innocence of dog. Scottish: Campbell-McKayHead of monster as token (proof) of slayingEars, fingers and noses of demons cut off as proof of killing themIdentification between lovers by matching claw and leg of dragonSex organs of enemy as proof of slaying
Travels with
Rescue tokens. Proof that hero has succeeded in rescue. (Cf. H105, H105.1, H105.2.)
Keeps company with — shares receipted episodes
Transformation: man to wild beast (mammal)Transformation: man to tigerTransformation: man to cuttlefishTransformation: man to serpent (snake). (Cf. B642.1.)Repeated transformation. Transformation into one form after anotherMagic meatMagic swordMagic strength-giving food. (Cf. D1030.)Immortality by burningProtean transformation of water-spiritTest of sex of man masking as girl: arms placed among baskets and war-trumpet sounded. Man snatches armsMan disguised as woman admitted to women's quarters: seduction
Carried in tale types

wander