Numskull sticks his head in the branches of a tree

Motif

Numskull sticks his head in the branches of a tree.

The wise and the foolish. · Fools (and other unwise persons). · Absurd short-sightedness. · Foolish disregard of personal danger. · view the constellation · filed as J2131.5.3

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Scholars’ trail — 2references

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 1241
general Christensen DF XLVII 192ff. no. 19.

Within the index

Filed under Numskull gets his head caught. (Cf. J2136.6.)

Filed beside it

Trickster puts on buffalo skull: gets head caught Numskull licks out pot: gets it caught on his head Numskull sticks his head into the hole of a millstone. It rolls into the lake Wolf trying to catch tongue of camel puts head in camel's mouth: killed Jackal's head caught in pot of blue dye. Animals make him king, but detect him from his cry and turn him out Fox trying to drown jug. Sticks his head into it and gets drowned himself

Carried in tale types

The Tree Is to Be Pulled Down · ATU 12411 recorded variant

wander