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

• Ground, previously all wet, dries up when first woman cuts her little finger and blood drips on ground. A856.2
• Bad women because of head exchanged with devil. Devil (serpent) and woman fight. St. Peter cuts off their heads and exchanges them. A1371.1
• All the kinds of seed in a bamboo that culture hero cuts down. A1425.1
• Birds weep when man cuts off his hand. B299.5.3
• Cutting white thorn tree fatal to man who cuts it. (Cf. C920.) C518.2
• Cat's paw cut off: woman's hand missing. A man spends a night in a haunted mill, where he cuts off a cat's paw. In the morning the miller's wife has lost her hand. (Cf. D142, D621.1.1.) D702.1.1
• Maid cuts off pap to heal man's serpent wound. (Cf. D1009.3.) D1515.4.1
• Magic object splits or cuts things. D1564
• Saint's bachall splits rock, cuts stone, and cleaves ground. (Cf. D1277.) D1564.3
• Magic object cuts down trees. D1564.4
• Magic spear-head cuts down trees. (Cf. D1084.1.) D1564.4.1
• Magic hair cuts down iron tree. (Cf. D991.) D1564.4.2
• Magic sword cuts stone and fells trees. (Cf. D1081.) D1564.6
• Magic weapon (sword, axe) cuts hair (on water, in wind). D1564.7
• Magic axe cuts thousands of trees at a single blow. D1601.14.1
• Magic adze cuts down tree. D1601.14.2
• Magic axe cuts off enemy's head. (Cf. D1080, D1402.) D1601.14.3
• Water-man cuts osier to make wicker basket. F420.3.2.7
• "Cutty" cuts cords by which miners pull tubs full of coal. F456.3.1
• Man cuts off own head and throws it against enemy. F511.0.4.1
• Penis cuts down trees. F547.3.6
• Man carries a beam eighteen feet in length and cuts path through jungle at same time. F631.6.2
• Hero shoots arrow and cuts thread. F661.12
• Skillful axe-man. Cuts down trees with single stroke, and the like. F666
• Expert swordsman cuts clothes bag in two. (Cf. F611.3.3.1) F667.3
• Perilous falling gate. Cuts horse in two as rider goes through it. F776.2
• Forest where unseen sword cuts off heads of those trying to escape. F812.5
• Sword cuts everything. F833.5
• Sword cuts cloth etc. as well as steel and stone. F833.5.1
• Bleeding bone. Man cuts into dry bone that bleeds. F991.2
• Man senseless from grief at hearing of father's death; one doesn't feel that he cuts himself with his knife, the other presses dice so that he bleeds. F1041.21.5
• Hero's marvelous sword falls and cuts off hand of enemy. (Cf. F833, N331.) F1087
• Husband becomes cannibal from eating wife's breast. She cuts off her breasts and cooks them to feed her family. The husband thus acquires a longing for human flesh. G36.1
• Cannibal cuts captive's finger to test fatness. G82.1
• Witch cuts steaks from hero's body. G269.9
• Devil appears to person who cuts both ends off loaf of bread. G303.6.2.13
• Cycnus. Cuts off heads of strangers in order to build temple of heads. G315
• Dragon-tongue proof. Dragon slayer cuts out the tongues and uses them later to prove his identity as slayer. H105.1
• False dragon-head proof. Impostor cuts off dragon heads (after tongues have been removed) and attempts to use them as proof of slaying the dragon. H105.1.1
• Bride test: thrifty cutting of cheese. Three girls tested. First eats rind and all, second cuts away good cheese, third cuts away just enough. H381.2
• King: What is your father doing? Youth: He is in the vineyard and is doing good and bad. (He prunes vines and sometimes cuts good and sometimes lets bad ones stay.) H583.2
• King: What is your father doing? Youth: Cuts wood which was burnt last year. (To pay old debts.) H583.2.4
• King: What is your mother doing? Youth: She cuts off the heads of the well to cure the sick. (Kills chickens to feed her sick mother.) H583.4.3
• Man cuts hooks for the revenge of his father (Hamlet). H591.3
• Task: getting fruit from top of tall tree without cutting tree. (Cuts roots of tree.) H1038
• Beaver sacrifices scrotum to save life. Cuts it off and leaves it for pursuers. J351.1
• Crab takes hold of heron's neck and fearing attack cuts neck and kills him. J631
• Yogi advises yogi blood for making king's leaky tank hold water: king cuts off yogi's head. J818.1
• Detection of theft by finding bag-repairer. Two men are in a lawsuit and before witnesses seal the documents in a bag to await arrival of the king. One of the men cuts the bag open, changes the documents, and has a repairer sew it up again. On the king's arrival the change is discovered. By having a fine carpet repaired the expert repairer is discovered. Confession follows. J1141.5
• Turning the plate around. A cuts the meat and puts all the good things on his side. B turns the plate around: "See how all things turn about in this world." A turns it back: "However the world may turn, with good friends like us the plate will always remain the same." J1562.1
• Dog mistakes mussel for an egg. Cuts his mouth. J1772.2
• Did the calf eat the man? A fool, liking the shoes on the feet of a man hanged on a gallows, cuts off the swollen feet in order to carry off the shoes. In the room in which he sleeps that night is a newborn calf. The next morning the man takes the shoes but leaves the feet. Peasants agree that the calf has eaten the man all but the feet. They burn the house to destroy the calf. J1815
• Man thinks own toe is snake's head and cuts it off. (Cf. J1782.8.) J1838
• Sickle punished by drowning. In a land where the sickle is not known the new sickle cuts off the head of a man. It is drowned. J1865
• The remodelled stork. A trickster cuts off the bill and legs of a stork to make him look more like a real bird. J1919.1
• Fool cuts off tails of oxen so that they will look like fine steeds. J1919.4
• Getting the calf's head out of the pot. A calf gets its head caught in a pot. A fool cuts off the calf's head and then breaks the pot to get it out. J2113
• Fool cuts off his arms to wear sleeveless sweater. J2131.3.1.1
• Numskull cuts off tree-limb on which he sits. J2133.4
• Thief of deer cuts it up and keeps counting pieces. Rescued by wife. J2136.5.3
• Deer lost through premature celebration. A fool in celebration of the capture of a deer puts his clothes on the bound deer. He throws a knife to cut the deer's throat but the knife cuts the snare and the deer runs away with the clothes. J2173.4
• Animal dupe cuts off limb. Thinks he is imitating another animal. J2413.4
• Fowl makes another animal believe that he has had his leg cut off. Says that he has received large pay. He has his leg hidden under his wing. The elephant (hippopotamus) cuts his off and bleeds to death. (Cf. J2401.) J2413.4.1
• Fowl makes another animal believe that he has had his neck cut off. He has his neck hidden under his wing. The hare cuts his off and dies. (Cf. J2401.) J2413.4.2
• Monkey cuts his throat, thinking that he is imitating the cobbler. J2413.4.3
• The scythe cuts one man's head off. All have theirs cut off. J2422
• Literal numskull cuts peas into four parts. Told that he should have cut up the pancakes which he has eaten whole. J2461.1.4
• Cutting at the plow. Literal fool told to cut at plow if it sticks on roots cuts at bullock's legs. J2465.8
• Fool takes threat to child as an order. Cuts off child's ears. J2465.11
• "Cutting the paper of the accounts" (falsifying accounts). Fool cuts up account books. J2489.4
• Sickle bought at great cost given back. In a land where the sickle is not known the new sickle cuts off the head of a man and is thereupon given back to the original owner. J2514
• Deceptive eating contest: hole in bag. The hero slips his food into a bag and makes the ogre believe that he is the greater eater. (In many versions the hero cuts open the bag; the ogre imitates and kills himself.) (Cf. K82.1.) K81.1
• Thief learns location of dupe's food supply by strewing ashes. Fills the dupe's bag with ashes and cuts a hole in the bag. K321
• Master thief puts watchers to sleep and cuts off their hair. (Cf. K301.) K331.2.1
• Thief shows knife-maker use of purse-cutting knife: cuts his purse and robs him. K341.8.3
• Tailor throws piece of cloth out of the window. The stingy woman has the tailor come to her house to cut cloth. He throws a piece out of the window, "the devil's share". While the woman has gone after it he cuts off a piece for himself. K341.13
• Trickster cuts up partridges with his knife. He is given all of them when he tells his companions that he is an executioner. K344.1.3
• Thief's confederate cuts off own arm to furnish alibi for family's grief. (Previously he had severed father's or brother's head to escape detection.) K407.2.1
• Elephant cuts piece from own leg and puts it on shelf, lest he be accused of stealing meat. K407.3
• Princess cuts hair to escape captor who holds her hair in hand while sleeping with her. K538
• Confederate cuts rope almost in two so that prisoner breaks it and flees. K647
• Fencer calls opponent's attention to something behind him: when opponent looks around he cuts off his head. K832.2
• Dragon deceived into listening to tale: hero cuts off its head. K835
• Ogre suitor persuaded by woman to bury her murdered lover: she cuts off his head. K912.3
• Person cuts drawbridge partly through. Giant falls into moat. (Cf. K14, K1431, K1961.1.3.) K924
• Crab carried by crane, clings round his neck and cuts off his head with pincers. K953.3
• Teaching Latin. Cuts off tip of pupil's tongue or orders him to lick cold iron – pupil injures himself. K1068.2
• Fixing fences: trickster cuts fence down. K1432
• Twisting twine: trickster cuts it. K1433
• Making sheep laugh and dance. Told to bring in sheep laughing and dancing, trickster cuts off their upper lips and breaks their legs. K1445
• The cut-off nose. (Lai of the Tresses.) A woman leaves her husband's bed and has another woman take her place. The husband addresses her, gets no answer and cuts off her nose (hair). In the morning the wife still has her nose (hair). The husband is made to believe that it has grown back by a miracle (or that he was dreaming). K1512
• The husband meets the paramour in the wife's place. Beats him (or cuts off privates). K1561
• Deceiver in swinging contest killed. Old woman planning to kill hero in swinging game by cutting rope is killed when hero cuts the rope first. K1618
• False bride's mutilated feet. In order to wear the shoes with which the husband is testing the identity of his bride, the false bride cuts her feet. She is detected. K1911.3.3.1
• Impostor tries to push foster brother into the water and then cuts rope so that he drifts alone out on the sea in boat without oars. K1931.1.1
• Treacherous queen lures her husband into chest and betrays him to hostile king. He is hung up between two fires, but his second wife cuts the strings so that he falls down and kills his enemy and takes his kingdom back. K2213.15
• Death by rebounding bow. Ants gnaw a bowstring, so that the bow rebounds and cuts off head of man who is leaning on it. N335.3
• Patient laughs at monkey and cures himself. Monkey takes medicine and cuts capers as result. N641.1
• Cuts of meat distributed according to rank. P632.2
• Man who cuts off tongue of swallow has dumb children. (Cf. Q285.1.1.) Q552.5.1