31 motifs match “drowns”  ·  back to the chapters

• Mermaid's singing causes sleep. Girl tumbles from boat and drowns. B81.11
• Magic boar drowns houndpack. B184.3.1.1
• Water gradually envelops girl filling pitcher and drowns her. Work of malevolent rice-spirit. D1432.1
• Woman beset by elves (or phantoms) drowns self. F324.2
• Fairy leaves when druid utters spell that drowns her voice. F381.6
• Treacherous river overflows and drowns victims. F932.8.4
• Witch drowns foal. G265.2
• Test of goddess's favor: husband drowns his son to see if his wife's tutelary goddess can bring him back to life. H1577.2
• Raven drowns his young who promise to aid him when he becomes old. He saves one who admits he will not help, because he will have to carry his own young. J267.1
• Fool carries wife across stream head downwards and drowns her. J1916
• Man leaps into river and drowns in effort to save his treasure. J2146.2
• Man lets his infant son play in river. Son drowns. J2175.4
• "Don't allow paint to wear off my daughter's feet." Bridegroom carries her upside down across river and drowns her. (Cf. J2412.6.) J2489.11
• One fewer to pay for. A man carries blind men over a stream at a certain price per head. One falls down and drowns. He comforts the others that there is one fewer to pay for. J2566
• The fool seeks a midwife. Accidentally strikes the dog dead, drowns the midwife, and kills the child. J2661.2
• Fatal swimming race. To trick spirits hero proposes a swimming race. As each spirit arrives, hero drowns it. K869.4
• Dupe crowded into the water: drowns. K892
• Dupe forced on to thin ice: drowns himself. K893
• Husband tricks wife into riding a mule which has been denied water. On fording a stream the mule plunges into the water. Wife drowns. (Sometimes also paramour.) K1567
• Woman who tries to push husband into river falls in when he steps aside. She drowns because she has tied his hands and he is unable to aid her. (She also thinks he is blind because she has fed him rich food to induce blindness.) (Cf. Type 1380.) K1652
• The three hunchback brothers drowned. A drunken man is employed, by the woman who has accidently slain three hunchback brothers, to throw one into the river. He does so. Then she puts another out and finally the third. The man thinks they keep coming to life. Finally he sees the woman's hunchback husband and drowns him. K2322
• Youth gazing at own image reflected in water falls and drowns. N339.10
• Stone bridge appears for fugitives. Disappears and drowns pursuers. R246.1
• River carrier (whale, crocodile) throws passenger off and drowns him. S131.1
• Woman drowns herself as sacrifice to water-gods to save husband's boat from capsizing. (Cf. S263.5.) S264.1.2
• Girl drowns as she swims to see her lover. Her brothers deceive her with false signal light. T83.1
• Woman drowns herself as sacrifice to water-gods to save husband's boat from capsizing. T211.1.1
• Infant born blind immediately drowns self. T585.3
• The funeral procession of the hen. Animals one by one join the procession. The funeral carriage breaks down or the procession drowns. Z32.1
• Little ant finds a penny, buys new clothes with it, and sits in her doorway. Various animals pass by and propose marriage. She asks what they do at night. Each one replies with its characteristic sound, and none pleases her but the quiet little mouse, whom she marries. She leaves him to tend the stew, and he falls in and drowns. She weeps and, on learning the reason, bird cuts off its beak, dove cuts off its tail, etc. Z32.3
• The hen lays an egg, the mouse breaks it. Sorrowing over this mishap, all show extraordinary behavior; the master puts an end to it. Final formula: hen strips off feathers, rubbish heap catches fire, oak falls to ground, hare drowns self, magpie twists leg, ox breaks horns, river flows blood, maid breaks pails, housewife scatters dough. Master locks up wife and maid, goes to seek people more foolish. Z39.5