52 motifs match “farmer”  ·  back to the chapters

• Farmer tells begging monk that potatoes are hard as stones: why potatoes are hard. A2721.3.2
• Ghost upsets farmers' wagons. E299.3
• Fairies ride farmer's calves. F366.1.3
• 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
• Mowing contest with household spirit. Farmer puts harrow teeth in plot spirit is to mow. Spirit mows through them, thinking they are dock weeds. F488.2
• Devil builds road for farmer in one day. G303.9.2.2
• Devil plows and plants grain for farmer in one day. G303.9.2.3
• Devil hires out to a farmer. G303.9.3.1
• The devil takes service with a farmer in return for the bread he stole. Punishes the evil landowner and makes his master prosperous. G303.9.3.1.1
• Farmer has devil aid in reaping contest, loses his shadow when devil attempts to take hindmost. (Cf. K42.) G303.19.2
• A farmer who trades horses with the devil is cheated. G303.25.12
• Arrested farmer tells who he is: one son is thief (priest), second beggar (teacher), and third murderer (doctor). H581.4
• Grain will be cut when farmer attends to it himself. Lark leaves her young in the cornfield. They hear farmer tell sons to go to neighbors for help in harvesting. Lark tells young not to worry. Same when he sends for relatives. Farmer decides to harvest it himself. Larks move, for they now know that it will be done. J1031
• Stone as witness. Farmer will not pay servant wages due. Closing his bargain with the servant he had said: "May this stone be witness." Judge orders stone brought to court. The farmer: "Oh, but the stone is too big (or very far away)". J1141.1.3.1
• Bought behind the village. Lawyer declares unjustly that stolen horse has been bought and paid for. Angry farmer: "Yes, behind the village he bought and paid for it" (meaning that he stole it from the pasture). Lawyer pleads successfully that it is as well to buy a horse outside as inside the village. J1169.2
• Farmer looks at his hay on ground after a rain: "If I was a God, I'd be a God and not a damned fool!" J1261.1.4
• Husband mistaken for lover in bed. Farmer has whiskers shaved off, hair cut short. He gets home late, slips into bed with his wife. She runs her hand over his face, says: "Young man, if you're goin' to do anything, you'd better be agittin' at it, 'cause Old Whiskers'll be here pretty soon." J1485.1
• Counterfeit money burned up. A priest who has lent money to a Jew, but will not lend to a farmer, on being reproached by the latter, says that the money he lent the Jew was "false". When the Jew gets to know of this, he claims that as soon as he heard the money was false he burnt it up. J1511.10
• Better to donate half of what is asked than lend all. Two farmers ask a priest to lend two measures of grain to each of them. The priest refuses to lend them any but donates one measure to each. Thus he saves two measures. J1552.4
• Urine diagnosis to tell where a man comes from. A farmer takes some of his master's urine for examination. The doctor asks where the man comes from. "You will soon see," says the man, expecting the analysis to tell. (Cf. K2321.1.) J1734.1
• Fattening the pig. A farmer who wanted to fatten a pig fed it only twice a day. When told to feed it three times a day he says, "A working man must have more to eat than a pig." J1903.3
• Three brothers buy cow for common use; each brother pays the farmer full price. J2037.2
• The cat to guard the cheese. A farmer troubled with mice eating his cheese places a cat in the tub with the cheese. She eats the mice and the cheese. J2103.1
• Taking the short-cut. Farmer takes a few feet off his journey and lifts a wheelbarrow over 22 stiles in so doing. J2119.2.1
• Proud sheriff has only nine farmers in his jurisdiction. J2331.1
• The two presents to the king: the beet and the horse. A farmer takes an extraordinary beet as present to the king and receives a large reward. His companion is eager for a reward and leads a handsome steed to the palace. The king rewards him with the beet. J2415.1
• "Skinning farmers". A master tells his servant that he is going to skin some farmers (i.e., cheat them). When a farmer inquires for a tanner, the servant directs him to his master. J2472
• The dog refuses to help the wolf. A farmer plans to kill a faithful old dog. The wolf makes a plan to save the dog. The latter is to rescue the farmer's child from the wolf. The plan succeeds and the dog is rewarded. The wolf in return wants to steal the farmer's sheep. The dog refuses his assistance. K231.1.3
• Trickster steals farmer's cow and then sells her to the farmer. K258.1
• The dance of the thief. While singing and dancing in the farmer's house, the thief gives hints to his friend in the loft, how to steal the bacon. K341.21
• The supposed magic spell. The thief orders the farmer to crawl into a tub and to sit there quietly and not look about, while he makes a magic spell (cure him of childlessness). Meanwhile, he steals all the farmer's property. K341.22
• Stolen bacon offered to the owner. Making off with bacon, thief accidentally enters farmer's living-room. Boldly says: "Master, the devil from hell sends you bacon." The farmer: "Take yourself off to hell with the bacon." K419.4
• Disguise as farmer so as to escape. K521.2.4
• Jackal escapes by telling farmer he is jackal king and will call upon his subjects. K547.4
• Seduction by feigned stupidity. Cautious farmer seeks laborer who knows nothing about sex. Trickster makes silly explanation of copulation of animals. When admitted into service, seduces both farmer's wife and daughter. K1327
• Incognito king rewards farmer for gift. K1812.9
• Jackal persuades deer to steal from farmer, then informs farmer who catches deer. K2037
• Farmer surpasses astronomer and doctor in predicting weather and choosing food. L144.2
• Arrogant farmer allows none to ride his precious horse without permission. He kills the man who does it, but is in revenge deprived of most of his goods. L434
• Misfortune pursues farmer. N251.7
• Ass gets progressively worse masters. Finally the farmer beats him living and will not spare his hide when he is dead. N255.2
• During rainy spring, farmer wishes that Lord would sleep till harvest time. Farmer himself sleeps until all neighbors have finished harvesting. When he wakes, he finds his crops ruined. (Cf. Q235.) Q585.3
• Fool laughs at the absurdities he sees about him. (1) Sees a man who is to die that day buy shoes. (2) Sees sheriff leading a man to the gallows: a big thief leading a little one. (3) Sees farmer weeping at funeral of his child, while priest (the real father) sings. U15
• Farmer's son and noble's reared in country. The former takes to toil on farm, the latter to riding and hunting. U121.3
• Farmer prefers stable smells to flowers. Latter make him ill. U133.1
• Farmer gets help up early in morning for a light breakfast: a glass of water and a lantern. W152.12.1
• Stingy farmer encourages help by promise of hot lunch. The servant discovers that the hot lunch is a mustard sandwich. W152.12.2
• The honest miller. Baker cannot understand how a man who has been a miller can be a beggar. It is a wonder that the farmers are not beggars instead. X212
• How the Rich Man paid his Servant (Lönen hos den rike man). A farmer pays his servant in the first year a hen, in the second a cock, goose, goat, cow, horse, .... girl. farmstead. Z23
• The mouse regains its tail. The cat bites off the mouse's tail and will return it in exchange for milk. The mouse goes to the cow for milk, the farmer for hay, the butcher for meat, the baker for bread. Other persons mentioned are the locksmith and the miner. Z41.4
• The house that Jack built. Final formula: This is the farmer that sowed the corn that fed the cock that crowed in the morn, that waked the priest all shaven and shorn, that married the man all tattered and torn, that kissed the maiden all forlorn, that milked the cow with a crumpled horn, that tossed the dog, that worried the cat, that caught the rat, that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. Z44
• The wolf who wanted to make bread. The farmer explained to him how bread is made. He keeps on asking: "Shall I then be able to eat?" Decides he will not have enough patience to make bread. (Cf. K555.1.2.) Z49.5.2