μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Bride helps suitor perform his tasks.

Tests. · Marriage tests. · Suitor tests. · Suitor tests. · view the constellation · filed as H335.0.1

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“"I have a great fish-pond," said the King. " Thou must go to it to-morrow morning and clear it of all mud until it is as bright as a mirror, and fill it with every kind of fish." The next morning the King gave him a glass shovel and said, " The fish-pond must be done by six o'clock." So he went away, and when he came to the fish-pond he stuck his shovel in the mud and it broke in two, then he stuck his hoe in the mud, and broke it also.”

Grimm's Household Tales: With the Author's Notes, Tale 113 · served from our shelf  receiptuncorrected OCR — being verified against the scan

Attested across traditions
Scholars’ trail — 8references

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 myth*Cross
  • Icelandic*Boberg
  • GermanGrimm Nos. 92, 113, 121, 196
  • ItalianBasile Pentamerone II No. 7, Rotunda
  • IndiaThompson-Balys
  • ChineseGraham
  • JapaneseIkeda.
  • general *Type 313
Within the index

Filed under Tasks assigned suitors. Bride as prize for accomplishment. (For nature of tasks see H1000ff.)

2 finer motifs beneath it
Otherworld mistress instructs hero how to perform tasks (imposed by her mother)Bride's parents (supernatural) help suitor win in suitor contests
Filed beside it
Girl assigns tasks to her suitorsDevil as suitor assigned tasksSuitor tasks announced by inscription on statueGoddess assigns task to her mortal suitorSuitor task: avenging bride's father's death before marriageSuitor task: cutting open magic gourdSuitor task: killing ferocious animalSuitor task: to defeat enemiesSuitor task: to bring back food as a marriage presentSuitor task: making weather calm. (Cf. D2141.0.8.1.)
Travels with
Riddles solved with aid of propounder's wife. (Cf. G530.2, H335.0.1, H974.)
Keeps company with — shares receipted episodes
Tabu: kissing. Usually causes disenchantment or magic forgetfulness. (Cf. D735, D2003.)Magic forgetfulness for breaking tabuTransformation to black manTransformation: man to rosebushGradual disenchantment. (Cf. D617.)Disenchantment by use of crystal ballMagic object found in gardenMagic charm summons dwarfs. (Cf. D1273.)Provisions magically furnished. (Cf. D1470.)Devil disappears when cock crows. (Cf. G303.16.19.4.)Task performed by dwarfs. (Cf. F451.5.1.)Task: stacking wood from felled forest in one day
Carried in tale types

wander