μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Never. Various ways of expressing this idea. When black sheep turn white, when a dry branch sprouts, etc.

Miscellaneous groups of motifs. · Formulas. · Other formulistic motifs. · view the constellation · filed as Z61

Filed across the traditions
  • Jewish Neuman
  • India Thompson-Balys
  • West Indies Flowers 588.
  • general *Fb "aldrig" IV 9a
  • general *Wehrhan 36
  • general Hdwb. d. Märchens II 163a
  • general *Gittee Zs. f. Vksk. III 442ff.
  • general Weise Zs. f. hochdeutsche Mundarten III 47ff.
  • general Stoett Nederlandsche Spreekwoorden, Spreekwijzen, Vitdrukkingen en Gezegden 4th ed. (Zutphen, 1923) I 401ff. No. 1036
  • general Berthold Nassauische Blätter V 199ff.
  • general Treichel Der Urquell II 214
  • general Heller Die Bedeutung des arabischen Antar-romans für die vergleichende Literaturkunde (Form und Geist XXI, Leipzig, 1931) 174ff.
  • general Taylor English Riddles 54 No. 143
  • general Müller-Fraureuth Die deutschen Lügendichtungen bis auf Münchhausen (Halle a. S., 1881) 19. Irish myth: *Cross
Within the index

Filed under Other formulistic motifs.

4 finer motifs beneath it
Never. "Till Ogham and pillar be blent together, till heaven and earth, till sun and moon be blent together." Forever. "A day and a night." Butterby Church – no church at all. If person says he has gone to Butterby Church, he has not gone to church "He struck him such a blow that he remembered the milk he drank on the sixth day after he was born."
Filed beside it
Proverbial simile Formulas signifying fruitlessness, e.g. like putting a withe about sand, like mocking a beggar Three explanations. When explanation of phenomenon is asked, three explanations are offered of which the last is always the true one. (Cf. Z71.1.) Color formulas Formulistic numbers Formulas based on the year A day and a night Formula: as many children as holes in a sieve Formulistic exaggerations Testament willing rewards and punishments. Conventional ending of a story
Travels with (Thompson’s cf.)
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.)

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