88 motifs match “penance”  ·  back to the chapters

• Origin of penance for sin. A1549.4
• Fox fasts as penance. (Cf. B251.4.) B253.3
• Spider performs penance. B253.4
• Return from dead to do penance. E411.0.2.1
• Ghost laid when penance is done. (Cf. E411.0.2.1.) E451.2
• Condemned soul saved by penance. (Cf. Q520.) E754.1.3
• Journey to otherworld as penance. F5
• Devils appear to knight to try to call him from doing penance. G303.9.4.5
• True penance for even a day is effective. J557.1.1
• Literal penance: boy outwits pope. For three years not to drink wine, not to lie in bed, nor sleep with a prostitute. He goes to a convent, sleeps on eider down, and sleeps with the nuns. (God's daughters). When the pope condemns him he says he will go to his brother-in-law (Christ: he has wedded God's daughters). (Cf. J1764.5.) J1161.5
• Confession made easy. Peasant sees priest at work in the fields. Tells him he wishes to confess. He is told to put money in the box and take the same penance as the year before. J1263.7
• Imagined penance for imagined sin. A penitent confesses that a plan to sin had entered his mind. Priest tells him that the thought is as good as the deed. Assesses four florins as penance. Penitent says that he had only had it in his mind to give the florins; he must take the thought for the deed. J1551.2
• Robber gives priest double his penance and then takes his horse. J1635
• Penance of priest saves him from devil. The priest, who sold his soul to the devil, orders his servant to cut him (alive) up into pieces, to crucify him on a tree (and the like), thus saves his soul from the devils. K218.6
• Husband duped into doing penance while rascal enjoys the wife. K1514.2
• Priest who gives mild penances succeeds where others fail. L361
• Self-righteous hermit must do penance. He has said of a condemned man that he deserves his punishment. L435.1
• Wife undertakes man's penances for him: also to go to heaven for him? He has a dream and when he sees that she also goes to heaven for him he decides against the bargain. M292
• Man admitted to heaven as reward for penance. (Cf. Q520.) Q172.3
• Failure to do penance punished. Monk fails and becomes ill. Q223.8
• Penance for three years and a half for eating horseflesh. Q499.6
• Humiliating penance: king to rub nose five times on red hot griddle. Q499.8
• Penances. Q520
• Substitutions for penances. Q520.0.1
• Murderer does penance. (Cf. Q171.1.1, Q211.) Q520.1
• Robber does penance. (Cf. Q212.) Q520.2
• Life-long penance for brother-sister marriage. Q520.3
• King who loved to give death sentence accepts penance of always postponing sentence until thirty days period of examination has passed. Q520.4
• Penance in wilderness as punishment for men who left holy orders to marry. (Cf. Q226.) Q520.5
• Tedious penances. (Cf. H1110, Q500.) Q521
• Doing penance till green leaves grow on a dry branch. Q521.1
• Penance: crawling on knees and watering a dry staff until it blooms. Q521.1.1
• Penance: carrying water in mouth from a distance and watering dry staff until it blooms. Q521.1.2
• Penance: carrying bag of stones (one for each murder) on the back until it falls off. (Cf. Q211.) Q521.2
• Penance: carrying iron hoop on head until it falls off. Q521.3
• Penance: pasturing black sheep until they become white. Q521.4
• Penance: ferryman setting people over a stream until relieved by another. Q521.5
• Penance: holding midnight mass until someone will make responses. Q521.6
• Penance to be done until seven spires of Benares are reduced to powder and rebuilt. Q521.7
• Self-torture as penance. Q522
• Self-crucifixion as penance. (Cf. Q462.) Q522.1
• Penance: killing oneself with wooden knife. Q522.2
• Penance: creeping naked through thorns. Q522.3
• Penance: pilgrimage with hands and loins weighted with iron. Q522.4
• Penance: iron band forged round a man's waist. Q522.5
• Penance: hanging for a thousand years head downward over a fire of chaff. Q522.6
• Penance: wearing friar's cord about bare skin. Q522.7
• Penance: man wears huge serpent coiled around him in lieu of clothing. Q522.8
• Humiliating penances. (Cf. Q470.) Q523
• Penance: crawling to Rome on knees. Q523.1
• Penance: crawling to grave on knees. Q523.1.1
• Penance: walking on all-fours like beast. Q523.2
• Penance: eating food offered to dogs. Q523.3
• Penance: living under stairs as mendicant. Q523.4
• Penance: planting garden and offering free hospitality to all. (Cf. Q481.) Q523.5
• Penance: slain cats, dogs, etc. to be hung up and covered with grain by man who has killed them. Q523.6
• Penance: seven years' service for seven days' neglect of religious duty. (Cf. Q223.) Q523.7
• Penance: performing all services asked for by anyone. Q523.8
• Penance: king to take off crown and lick spittle from ground. Q523.9
• Penance: fasting in sackcloth and ashes. Q523.10
• Fearful penances. Q524
• Penance: spending lonely night in cave. Q524.1
• Penance: lying the first night with every corpse brought to certain church. Q524.2
• Dangerous penances. Q525
• Penance: staying on rock in dashing sea. Q525.1
• Pilgrimage as penance. Q526
• Penance: inviting one Brahmin for dinner every Wednesday. Q527
• Negative penances. Q535
• Penance: not to speak. Q535.1
• Penance: lioness foregoes meat. Her two cubs are killed. The jackal tells her that he has had the same experience. She gives up eating meat and lives on grass. Q535.2
• Refraining from sexual intercourse as penance. (Cf. C110.) Q535.3
• Lone fasting as penance. Q535.4
• Penance: resisting temptation. (Cf. T330.) Q537
• Penance: adulteress masks as monk and lives chastely in monastery. (Cf. Q241.) Q537.1
• Sitting (standing) in uncomfortable position as penance. Q541
• Penance: sitting in water. Q541.1
• Standing in (Jordan and Tigris) rivers as penance (by Adam and Eve). (Cf. A1331.) Q541.1.1
• Penance: standing in water for forty days. Q541.2
• Penance: Gregory on the stone. Standing on a stone (pillar) as penance for incest. (Cf. Q242, T415.) Q541.3
• Penance: keeping self suspended on two iron hooks placed under armpits. Q541.4
• Penance: staying for ten months rooted to one spot, with eyes closed, while birds build nests in one's hair. Q541.5
• Penance: giving all earnings to poor. Q542
• Penance: being locked in cellar (well) with key thrown into water. Q544
• Murderer's penance complete when he kills a greater murderer and prevents a crime. (Cf. Q211.) Q545
• Penance magically concluded by confession. V27
• The devil goes to confession. Performs very severe penance, but cannot bear to humble himself and to stoop before the altar. (Cf. G303.16.9.) V29.8
• Pirate excommunicated, goes on pilgrimage as penance. V84.3
• Sinful beauty is converted and spends the end of her life doing penance (Mary Magdalene, Mary of Egypt, and Thais). V229.12