How many seconds in eternity? A bird carries a grain of sand from a mountain each century; when the whole mountain is gone, the first second of eternity has passed. (Cf. D791.1.2, H1583, X950.2, Z61.)

Motif

How many seconds in eternity? A bird carries a grain of sand from a mountain each century; when the whole mountain is gone, the first second of eternity has passed. (Cf. D791.1.2, H1583, X950.2, Z61.)

Tests. · Tests of cleverness. · Riddles. · Riddles of numbers. · view the constellation · filed as H701.1

In our texts — keyword-matched, unreviewed

GermanicGrimm's Household Tales: With the Author's Notes, Tale 152152.— THE SHEPHERD BOY.

Scholars’ trail — 3references

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.

general *Type 922
general BP III 232
general *Anderson FFC XLII 232.

Within the index

Filed under Riddle: how many seconds in eternity?

Travels with

Disenchantment when superhuman task is finished. Enchanted person appears every seven years in human form and puts one stitch in a smock. When it is finished, she will be delivered Tests of time Never. Various ways of expressing this idea. When black sheep turn white, when a dry branch sprouts, etc

Carried in tale types

The Shepherd Substituting for the Clergyman Answers the King's Questions · ATU 9224 recorded variants

wander