106 motifs match “answers” — showing the first 100; narrow the words for the rest  ·  back to the chapters

• Origin of stones: punishment for discourtesy. Jesus asks a man what he is sowing. He answers, "Stones." Jesus turns the crop to stones. This is how stones originate. A973
• Mirror answers questions. (Cf. D1163, D1323.1.) D1311.2
• Moon (stars) answers questions. D1311.6.1
• Magic cloud answers questions. (Cf. D901.) D1311.6.2
• Sun answers questions. (Cf. D1291.1.) D1311.6.3
• Coconut shell answers questions. Sinks for yes, floats for no. (Cf. D985.1.) D1311.9
• Blinded trickster directed by trees. He asks them their names and by their answers he can tell where he is. (Cf. D950.) D1313.4
• Magic object answers for fugitive. Left behind to impersonate fugitive and delay pursuit. D1611
• Magic rosebush answers for fugitives. (Cf. D965.3.) D1611.1
• Magic hair answers for fugitive. (Cf. D991.) D1611.2
• Magic cow-dung answers for fugitive. (Cf. D1026.2.) D1611.3
• Magic awl answers for fugitive. (Cf. D1187.) D1611.10
• Magic doll answers for fugitive. (Cf. D1268.) D1611.11
• Magic stick of wood answers for fugitive. (Cf. D1254.) D1611.12
• Magic log answers for fugitive. (Cf. D956.) D1611.12.1
• Magic louse answers for fugitive. D1611.13
• Magic apple answers for fugitives. (Cf. D981.1.) D1611.14
• Magic echo answers for fugitive. D1611.15
• Magic bone answers for fugitive. (Cf. D1007.) D1611.17
• Magic buckle answers for fugitive. (Cf. D1070.) D1611.18
• Voice of son answers his mother from the grave only when called by his pet name. E324.1
• Ghost writes on wall the answers to problems of person in trouble. E557.1
• Farmer is so bothered by brownie that he decides he must move to get rid of the annoyance. He piles all furniture on wagon and starts for new home, meets acquaintance who remarks: "I see you're flitting." Brownie sticks his head out of the churn on top of the load, answers: "Yes, we're flitting." Farmer goes back to former home. F482.3.1.1
• Wise man answers all questions. F645.1
• Girl married to devil escapes with answers to his riddles. G303.12.5.5
• Peasant boy masking as prince betrays self by his answers. H38.2.2
• Wise man answers questions of many with single speech. H501.2
• Test of cleverness: uttering three wise words. Youths called on to do so display by their answers extraordinary powers of deduction. H505
• Literary contest won by deception: he who will be first silenced is the loser. When the false teacher answers in nonsense syllables, the true scholar is speechless and so loses contest. H507.6
• "What am I thinking?" "That I am the priest." So answers youth masking as priest. H524.1
• Devil held off from person by answering his riddles. St. Andrew the Bishop, and the Devil. The Devil, in form of beautiful maiden visits a holy bishop. St. Andrew appears as a pilgrim, answers the questions through which the devil seeks to keep him at a distance and discomfits the devil. (Cf. B302.22.3.) H543.1
• Answers found in other world to riddles propounded on way. H544
• King and abbot. King propounds three riddles to abbot to answer on pain of death. Herdsman disguises as abbot and answers questions. H561.2
• Solomon and Marcolf. Witty questions and answers between youth and servant. H561.3
• King and clever youth. King asks questions; youth returns riddling answers. H561.4
• King and peasant vie in riddling questions and answers. H561.6
• King and peasant: the plucked fowl. The king gives riddling questions to a peasant, who always interprets them right. The king says that he will send the peasant a fowl which he shall pluck. The king gives the same questions to his courtiers, who cannot interpret them. They pay the peasant good money for the answers. Peasant tells king that he has plucked the fowl. H561.6.1
• Riddling answers betray theft or adultery H582
• Riddling answers betray adultery. H582.2
• Clever youth (maiden) answers king's inquiry in riddles. (Cf. H561.4.) H583
• Other riddling answers. H584
• Suitors receive enigmatic answers. Girls answer in single words, which, when arranged in certain order, show that they accept. H593
• Riddle: four hang, four walk, two show the road, one wags behind. (Cow's teats, feet, eyes, tail.) (Other answers: cat, dog, horse, hog, etc.) H743
• Three stupid things for men to do (various answers). H871.1
• Quest to morning star for answers to questions. H1282
• Quest to moon for answers to questions. H1283
• Quest to Mother of Time for answers to questions. H1285
• Answers found in other world to questions propounded on the way. (Cf. H1278, H1282, H1283, H1284.) H1292
• Question (propounded on quest): Why do the live stock die? (Various answers.) H1292.3
• Question (on quest): How can the girl thus far avoided by suitors marry? (Various answers.) H1292.5
• Question (on quest): Where is the lost key? (Various answers.) H1292.6
• Question (on quest): Where is the lost princess? (Various answers.) H1292.7
• Question (on quest): When will a certain water-animal be freed from an annoyance? (Various answers). H1292.9
• "Only one, but a lion". Lioness thus answers fox (hog) who twits her that she has only one cub. J281.1
• Doctor loses a horse for the sake of the truth. Overlord asks two doctors whether he is entitled to all the possessions of his retainers. One doctor unrighteously answers yes and receives a horse. The other who tells the truth receives nothing. J551.3
• Lady answers queen so straightforwardly she gets light punishment. J751.1.1
• Mutual and undeserved compliments: donkey to camel, "What a beauty you are"; latter answers, "What a sweet voice you have." J867
• Men not chosen for their ignorance; else he should have reached heaven. Upbraided for not knowing answer to question, man answers that he was chosen for his position because of what he knew, not of what he did not know. J911.1
• Horn will tell the tale. Thus answers goat to herdsman who begs her not to tell master that he has broken off her horn. J1082.1
• Courtier having observed king's amour shields him and gains pardon. Answers in clever proverbs when called on to say what he has seen. J1211.3
• Poet (Dante) puts ruler out of countenance. Ruler had instructed jesters to tease him. The poet cleverly answers his questioners pretending to have the impression that the questions are addressed to the ruler. J1224.2
• Baffling malice with ready answers. J1251
• Quibbling answers. E.g., Where are you going? – Forward. Where are you going to cut the tree? – At the foot. J1252
• Monk's cordon cannot stand the strain. Franciscan claims that his cordon will save him from Hell. Benedictine answers that he once had a dream in which he saw St. Francis throw his cordon to save members of his order in Purgatory and so many clung to it that it snapped. (Cf. Q291.1.) J1261.8
• "Better a live confessor than a dead martyr." So answers a preacher when asked whether he preferred to stay at home and confess his flock or go to war against the infidels. J1261.9
• Price of consecration. Bishop is paid 100 ova (eggs) instead of 100 oves (sheep) for consecrating man as priest. To bishop's protests the man answers, "You should have refused to consecrate me. If I had been worthy I should not have had to promise oves or ova." J1263.2.1
• Multiplying his talents. Priest is entrusted with reforming five dissolute nuns. Gets all five with child. The priest is rebuked for not using his "talents" when tempted. He answers: "God gave me five talents and I have added five more!" (Pun on word talent.) J1264.7
• The same company of fools. An abbot calls the monks together and asks, "Whom from all you fools can I appoint as steward?" A monk answers, "That should not be difficult since an abbot was found from the same company of fools." J1265.3
• Trickster chooses his gift. To be rewarded by ruler with a coin, an ass, a sheep, or a vineyard. Answers that he will take the coin, mount the ass, drive the sheep into the vineyard, and there pray for the ruler. J1282
• Emperor: "What people have the biggest bellies?" Jester answers: "The landlords." J1289.17
• Holy man asked by king for the heart of religion answers: "You are sitting on your throne and I'm sitting on the ground, so how can I tell." J1289.18
• Was going to give it to him any way. Thus a hunter answers a thief who steals his hare. J1395
• Trickster's interrupted feast revenged. He is asked a question by his master each time he tries to eat a date, so that he always has to spit out the date. He revenges himself that night when the master tries to carry on an intrigue with his wife's maid. He comes with his answers at embarrassing moments. J1564.1
• The forehanded servant. A parson boasts that when he asks his maid if certain work is done she always answers that it has been done long ago. A guest wagers that she can be trapped if she is asked whether she has thrown the parson's suit of clothes into the tub of water. She overhears the wager and has the suit in the water before he asks the question. J1614
• Prearranged answers in Latin not always successful. (Essentially same as X111.9.) J1741.3
• Stupid scholar memorizes set answers to oral examination in Latin. The questions are not given in the order he expects; comic results. J1741.3.1
• The old maid answers the owl's hoot, saying "Anybody, Lord!" or giving the name of the young man she wants. (Cf. X750.3.) J1811.1.1
• Wife carried up tree to sky in bag in husband's teeth. She asks question and he drops her when he answers. J2133.5.1
• Servant carrying master across stream answers question with gesture that throws master off. J2133.5.1.1
• The woman who asked for news from home. Gets many impossible answers, which she believes. E.g., "The cock has become sexton." – "Yes, that is why he sang so well in the morning." J2349.4
• Children ask parents too difficult questions. Get no answers. J2370.1
• The philosophical watchman. A master sets his servant to keep watch over his horse at night. He soon asks the servant if he is asleep. "No, I was thinking of who created so many stars in the sky." The second time the servant answers, "No, I was thinking of who dug the sea. Where did he put the soil?" The third time: "I was wondering who would carry the saddle now that the horse is stolen." J2377
• "Honey is sweet." A wayward son, asked by his mother to give her a sweet word, thus answers. J2497
• The sleeper answers for the dead man. A man falls asleep by a gallows. A company of wags come and invite the dead man on the gallows to accompany them. The sleeper awakes with a start and says, "I'll come at once." The wags flee in terror. J2618
• Confederate answers for corpse. Man poses as returned heir to dead man; pretends to address corpse for identification. K451.5
• Cat fails to be beguiled into releasing mouse. The mouse tells the cat a tale. The cat answers at last, "Even so, I eat you up." K561.1.1
• The cave call. ("Hello, house!") An animal suspecting the presence of an enemy in his cave (house), calls and receives no answer. He then says, "Don't you know, O cave, that we have agreed that I must call you when I come from abroad and that you in turn must answer me?" The hiding animal answers and the other flees. K607.1
• Woman humiliates would-be lover. Knowing that he has deceived another by paying her with gilded coin she answers: "You will have to pay in better coin than is your wont!" K1228
• Flattering foreman tricked by his master. He always answers his master's remarks, "I have thought of the same thing too." He falls into the trap when his master says, "I am going to sow salt." K1637
• Monkey pretends that his house always answers him. K1722
• Scholar disguised as a rustic along road answers questions of school inspector in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. K1816.0.4
• Echo answers. K1887.1
• Husband answers behind the statue when wife wants to know how to fool him. He says to feed him well. K1971.1
• Oracular images occupied by spirits or priests who give the answers. K1972
• Wife plots to kill her husband, but her paramour answers that he could never touch murderess. K2213.3.2.2
• What the princes most desire: king asks each of three sons separately. Answers: to study, to make pilgrimages, to build a great kingdom. Last chosen. P17.13
• The relative pleasures of love. Do men or women have the greater pleasure in sexual intercourse? Man who has been transformed to woman answers that women have the greater pleasure. The goddess blinds him as punishment. T2
• Angel answers mortal's prayer. V243
• King rewards knight with large sum of money. Chancellor: "If you saw such a sum it would seem large to you." King answers that it looks small and doubles it. W11.12.1
• Man continually interrupted from eating answers in rhymed monosyllables. X12.1