μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif
In our texts — keyword-matched, unreviewed
Scholars’ trail — 1reference

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 Hdwb. d. Märchens II 51a.
Within the index

Filed under Other formulistic motifs.

2 finer motifs beneath it
Red as blood, white as snow. Often from blood on snow as a suggestion, a wish is made for a child (wife) with skin like snow and cheeks like blood, etc. (Sometimes black as a raven.)Series: white cock, red cock, black cock. These crow at dawn and scatter ghosts. (Cf. E452.)
Filed beside it
Never. Various ways of expressing this idea. When black sheep turn white, when a dry branch sprouts, etcProverbial simileFormulas signifying fruitlessness, e.g. like putting a withe about sand, like mocking a beggarThree explanations. When explanation of phenomenon is asked, three explanations are offered of which the last is always the true one. (Cf. Z71.1.)Formulistic numbersFormulas based on the yearA day and a nightFormula: as many children as holes in a sieveFormulistic exaggerationsTestament willing rewards and punishments. Conventional ending of a story

wander