Reductio ad absurdum of task. When an impossible task is given, the hero responds with a countertask so absurd as to show the manifest absurdity of the original task. (Cf. H1023.3.1, H1024.1.1.1.)

Motif

Reductio ad absurdum of task. When an impossible task is given, the hero responds with a countertask so absurd as to show the manifest absurdity of the original task. (Cf. H1023.3.1, H1024.1.1.1.)

Tests. · Tests of prowess: tasks. · Assignment and performance of tasks. · Performance of tasks. · Task evaded by subterfuge. · view the constellation · filed as H952

ask the rhapsode about this motif →

Scholars’ trail — 7references

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.

India*Thompson-Balys
IndonesiaDe Vries's list No. 237
ChineseGraham.
general *Type 821B
general BP II 368 n. 1
general Child I 10f., 13
general De Vries FFC LXXIII 265, 269 n. 2

Within the index

Filed under Task evaded by subterfuge.

Filed beside it

Countertasks. When a task is assigned, the hero agrees to perform it as soon as the assigner performs a certain other task. (Cf. H691.2.1, H1021.1.1, H1021.3, H1021.6.1, H1021.6.2, H1022.2.1, H1022.3, H1022.9, H1023.1.1, H1023.1.2, H1023.2.2.1, H1023.9.1, H1023.10.1, H1142.3, H1146.)

Travels with

Task: hatching boiled eggs; countertask: sowing cooked seeds and harvesting the crop. (Cf. H951, H952.)Task: hatching eggs immediately; countertask: sowing seeds and bringing in crop next morning. (Cf. H951, H952.)Task: bringing berries in winter. Reductio ad absurdum: father is sick from snake-bite (impossible in winter). (Cf. H952.)Task: making a bull bear a calf. Reductio ad absurdum: have a man prepare for childbirth. (Cf. H952.)

wander