μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Endless tales. Hundreds of sheep to be carried over stream one at a time, etc. The wording of the tale so arranged as to continue indefinitely.

Miscellaneous groups of motifs. · Formulas. · Formulistic framework for tales. · view the constellation · filed as Z11

Filed across the traditions
  • Irish myth *Cross
  • Spanish Exempla Keller
  • Italian Novella *Rotunda
  • India *Thompson-Balys.
  • general *Type 2300
  • general *BP II 209
  • general Taylor Hdwb. d. Märchens II 190a
Within the index

Filed under Formulistic framework for tales.

2 finer motifs beneath it
Endless tale: corn carried away grain at a time Endless tale: hundreds of birds in snare fly away one at a time
Filed beside it
Beginning formulas End formulas Transition formulas Unfinished tales. Just as the interest is aroused the narrator quits. "If the bowl had been stronger my tale had been longer." Catch tales. The manner of the telling forces the hearer to ask a particular question, to which the teller returns a ridiculous answer "Runs." Conventional passages of set form within a tale, usually recited in a different voice from the rest Tale avoiding all pronouns Tales ending with a question Rounds. Stories which begin over and over again and repeat Formulistic conversations Formulistic frameworks – miscellaneous
Travels with (Thompson’s cf.)
The crow on the tarred bridge. His beak and tail alternately stick. (Endless.) (Cf. Z11.)
Carried in tale types

ask the rhapsode about this motif · search the shelf for “indefinitely” · wander