21 motifs match “middle”  ·  back to the chapters

• Ant collects incense and myrrh for Christ: grows thin in middle. (Cf. A2451.1, A2453.1.) A2221.4
• Why corn does not yield in the middle. A2793.5.1
• Hydra: nine-headed monster. Middle head immortal. B15.1.2.8.1
• Vasa Mortis. Bird with four heads, middle like a whale, feathers and feet of a griffin. B46
• Animals bequeath characteristics to man. Horse gives him the characteristics of youth (fiery), cow of middle age (avaricious), and the dog of old age (fractious). B592
• Wild hunt avoided by keeping on one's road. Sometimes in middle of road or on right side of road. E501.17.5.1
• Divine swans are on an inaccessible island in middle of seven seas. F134.4
• Giant with one eye in middle of forehead. (Cf. F512.1.1.) F531.1.1.1
• Marvelous sensitiveness: man feels little point of simple thorn in middle of his clothes. F647.9.2
• Archer shoots eggs through middle. F661.4.1
• Castle at middle point of earth. F771.3.4
• Extraordinary flower-bearing tree in middle of seven forts. F811.23
• Princess stands in middle of dried-up tank so serpent will release the water, which he had swallowed up completely. F914.1
• Devil with eye in middle of forehead. G303.4.1.2.1
• Riddle of the Sphinx: what is it that goes on four legs in the morning, on two at midday, and on three in the evening. (Man, who crawls as a child, walks in middle life, and walks with a stick in old age.) H761
• Which mare is mother of colt: colt taken in boat to the middle of river; mother will swim to it. J1171.4
• Sticking to the rules. Merchant at inn deprives monk of fowl. "It's against the rules of your order." Later the monk undertakes to help merchant across stream. In the middle of the stream he asks the merchant if he has any money. "Yes." The monk drops him in the water. "It's against the rules of our order to have any money on us." J1638
• Each of two persons wants to sleep in the middle. (Sometimes solved by placing an object on one side of the bed.) J2213.1
• Cat brings suspicion between eagle and sow. Eagle lives in the top of the branches, cat in the middle, and sow at bottom; all are happy. Cat tells eagle that sow is trying to root down the tree: eagle is frightened and dares not leave tree. Cat tells sow that eagle plans to carry off pigs: sow dares not leave. They starve and fall victims to the cat. K2131.1
• Wager: woman to turn somersault in middle of public square. It is performed not exactly in the center of the square; hence she loses. N56
• Sinners in hell forced to sit in dark puddles up to their middles. (Cf. A689.1.) Q569.1