56 motifs match “needle”  ·  back to the chapters

• Squirrel steals dog's needle: enmity between them. (Cf. A2494.4.1.) A2281.2
• Discontented pine-tree: cause of pine needles. Pine tree given silk leaves, glass leaves, etc. Always discontented. Finally has needles again. (Cf. A2767.1.) A2723.1
• Origin of tree's needles. A2767
• Origin of pine-needles. (Cf. A2723.1.) A2767.1
• Transformation: man to needle. D253
• Transformation: needle to other object. D454.4
• Transformation by magic needle. D582.2
• Magic needle and thread fall from heaven as result of prayer. (Cf. D1766.1.) D811.2.1
• Magic needle. D1181
• Magic needle transforms a room from plainness to beauty. (Cf. D1181.) D1337.1.7
• Needle causes magic sleep. (Cf. D1181.) D1364.14
• Magic needle makes everything fall to pieces. (Cf. D1181.) D1562.4
• Self-sewing needle. (Cf. D1181.) D1601.11
• Needle, placed under hearth, burns and causes death of victim. D2061.2.2.8.1
• Soul as needle. E745.2
• Fées engage in needlework. F271.8
• Thumbling carries needle as sword. F535.1.1.12
• Man so small he can go through eye of needle. F535.2.2
• Little soldiers with officer on rabbit (long needles and knives for weapons). F535.2.8
• Marvelous marksman can shoot eye off needle at quarter-mile distance. F661.5.5
• Skillful marksman throws needles. One enters eye of the other so as to form a straight line. F661.7
• Woman sews nine garments at a time with one needle. F662.0.1.1
• Clever smith makes needle that pierces anvil. F663.2
• Eggplant, needle, and cowdung go on warpath. F1025.2.1
• Goat's tongue pierced with sharp needle; consequently, witch is sick with pierced tongue. G252.2
• Task for devil: making needles. G303.16.19.3.2
• Recognition by unique needle-work. H35.3
• Tailor married to princess betrays trade by calling for needle and thread. H38.2.1
• Needle left in garment of husband by abducted wife as sign. H119.2
• Test: threading needle. Guest of convent is given choice of nuns. On the morrow he is given three opportunities to thread a needle. Success means reward, failure confiscation of his belongings. H509.1
• Task: clothing an army from one hank of flax; countertask: making horseshoes for cavalry from one needle. (Cf. H951.) H1022.2.1
• Task: preparing the food "Oh my". (Needle put in food which causes eater to say "Oh my!") H1185
• Rocks falling together and thread entering needle's eye suggest sexual intercourse: hence its beginning. J86
• Needles and anchors. Fox leaving merchant's warehouse: "I had wanted a needle as big as an anchor and an anchor as small as a needle." J1391.8
• The abbot cannot find his needle. An undesirable abbot furnishes adequate grounds for his dismissal when he cannot find the needle that all monks are supposed to carry with them. If careless in little things he will be careless in great. J1651
• Numskull does not understand about baby's skull. Sticks needle through it. J1911.1
• The needle (or the like) falls into the sea: sought the next summer. J1921
• Sowing needles (like seed). J1932.5
• Protected by the needle. In a storm on the ice, numskulls stick needles into the ice to keep from blowing away. J1965
• Fool sticks needle in haywagon. He has been told to stick it in his sleeve. It is lost. J2129.4
• Master thief pretends to throw needle and thread in anger at his son. But it contains stolen cloth. K341.13.1
• Needle kills an elk. Slips into his stomach. L391
• Punishment: piercing with needles. Q469.9.2
• Murder by sticking needle through head. S115.2
• Murder by piercing with pins and needles. S115.3
• Blinding by thrusting needles into eyes. S165.3
• Learning a trade in bed. Working independently, the lazy fellow spoils the materials received – starts making something big, which at the end turns to nothing. For example, begins with forging a plough: this becomes an axe, the axe a knife, and knife a needle, the needle – nothing. (Cf. J2080.) W111.5.9
• Man trades an egg for a needle, demands treat of a gill of rum, the traditional reward for traders. The storekeeper gives him the rum; he asks for an egg in it. The storekeeper breaks an egg (the one he has just traded the needle for) into the rum. It has two yolks; the trader asks for two needles. W154.26.1
• Thieving tailor can hide stolen cloth even in needle-and-thread tube. X221.2
• Tailors cowards as warriors: go home to their needles. (Cf. W121.) X223
• Sexton puts needle in sacramental bread: parson sticks his hand. X411.2
• Parson rides ox into church. He wants to show how Christ rode into Jerusalem. Sexton sticks ox with needle. X414
• Person swallows pin or needle; it later emerges through skin of relative. X1739.1
• Lie: 900,000 roofs on point of needle. X1743.3
• Pulling the needle out of the seamstress's hand. Final formula: That was just what the cat was waiting for – it sprang to devour the mouse, the mouse to tear the spider's web, the spider to entangle the dog, the dog to eat the goat, the goat to gnaw the rushes, the rushes to grow in the stream, the stream to quench the fire, the fire to burn the stone, the stone to beat the axe, the axe soon pulled out the needle that was stuck in the seamstress's hand. Z41.8
• Symbolism: needle and thread – sexual intercourse. Z186