μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Paradoxical tasks.

Tests. · Tests of prowess: tasks. · Nature of tasks. · Paradoxical tasks. · Paradoxical tasks. · view the constellation · filed as H1050

Cited in the index
  • general *Type 875
  • general *BP II 362
  • general *Gruffydd Math vab Mathonwy (U. of Wales Press, 1928) 307ff.
Within the index
22 finer motifs beneath it
Task: coming neither on nor off the road. (Comes in the rut or the ditch at side of the road.) Task: standing neither inside nor outside of gate. (Forefeet of horse inside, hind feet outside.) Task: coming neither on horse nor on foot (riding nor walking) Task: coming neither naked nor clad Task: coming neither barefoot nor shod. (Comes with one shoe on, one off; or in soleless shoes.) Task: coming neither with nor without a present (game). (Lets bird fly as the reaches it toward king.) Task: coming neither by day nor by night. (Comes at twilight.) Task: standing between summer and winter. (Stands between wagon and sleigh.) Task: coming neither with nor without a companion. (Comes with an animal.) Task: coming neither washed nor unwashed. (Comes partly washed.) Task: coming neither hungry nor satiated. (Eats a thin soup, a leaf, a single grain, or the like.) Task: coming laughing and crying at once. (Rubs eyes with a twig to simulate crying.) Task: bringing best friend, worst enemy, best servant, greatest pleasure-giver. (Brings dog, wife, ass, little son respectively.) Task: sweep the floor and do not sweep it Task: light fire but do not light it Task: making bed but do not make it Task: eat bread but bring it back whole. (Center of loaf eaten.) Task: give sheep good care but do not let it fatten. (Sheep fed but kept near wolf where it is afraid and does not fatten.) Task: filling glasses with water that has neither fallen from heaven nor sprung from the earth. (Uses horse's sweat.) Task: furnish beef which is neither male nor female. Countertask: send for it when it is neither night nor day Task: bringing something ever-increasing (ambition); something ever-decreasing (life); something which neither increases nor decreases (one's fated lot); and something which both increases and decreases (universe) Task: building house neither on ground nor in sky
Travels with (Thompson’s cf.)
Paradoxical quests. (Cf. H1050.)
Carried in tale types

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