57 motifs match “pieces”  ·  back to the chapters

• Primeval woman cut in pieces: houses, etc., made from her body. A642.1
• Stars as pieces of the moon. A764
• Falling stars as pieces of the moon. A788.1
• Origin of hills and ridges: pieces of shattered god's head. A962.8
• Great fish killed by hero and cut into sixteen pieces: the great stones may still be seen. A972.7
• Origin of emeralds from marvelous vase broken into pieces. A978.3
• Crab thrown to ground: breaks into small pieces. Hence crabs are small. A2214.4
• Mermaids tear their mortal lovers to pieces. B81.2.2
• Jointed snake can join its segments when it is broken into pieces. B765.7
• Transformation: pieces of grass turned into stone steps. D451.5.5
• Transformation: pieces of chalk into tins of oil. D454.13
• Magic needle makes everything fall to pieces. (Cf. D1181.) D1562.4
• Ruby shatters into half-dozen pieces when it is acquired by greedy lapidary. D1641.14.1
• Saint cut into pieces or decapitated comes back to life. E1.1
• Mother's ghost tries to tear daughter to pieces. E222.1
• "If I were not your next of kin." Ghost tells man that otherwise he would tear him into pieces. E229.1
• Dead tears living to pieces. E267
• Ghost laid by beating body to pieces. E446.3.1
• Fairies steal pieces as mortal plays draughts with fairy woman. F365.5
• Dwarfs turn peas into gold pieces. F451.3.3.1
• Child tears to pieces a live snake with his bare hands. (Cf. F611.3.2.) F628.1.3.2
• The danced-out shoes. Every morning girl's shoes are danced to pieces. F1015.1.1
• The devil as tailor to a dandy. The dandy demands clothes sewed without thread. The devil disguised as a tailor makes them. In church the dandy's clothes fall to pieces, leaving him naked. G303.9.9.11
• Ogre torn to pieces by birds. G512.9.2
• Identification by fitting together two pieces of parchment. H102.1
• Pieces taken from flags serve to identify. H103
• How much am I (the king) worth? Twenty-nine pieces of silver, for Christ was sold for thirty. (Cf. H716.) H711.1
• Riddle: how much is a certain crucifix worth? Twenty-nine pieces of silver. (Cf. H711.1.) H716
• Task: fixing the two pieces of a broken sword together. H1023.8
• Task: breaking huge rock to pieces. H1116
• Bent tree test. Bent tree is released so as to tear hero to pieces. H1522.1
• Gold pieces in the honey-pot. Woman leaves honey-pot with neighbor to guard. It has gold below the honey. Neighbor steals the gold and substitutes honey. Theft proved by gold pieces sticking to sides of pot. (Cf. J1192.2.) J1176.3
• The tailor's dream. A tailor dreams that at Judgment Day he sees a flag made up of all the pieces of cloth he has stolen Upon waking he asks his servants to warn him if they ever see him tempted to steal again. This happens. He replies, "The piece I am about to steal does not fit into the flag." J1401
• The 999 gold pieces. A man prays for a thousand gold pieces and says that he will not accept one less. A joker sends him 999. He says that he will trust God for the other coin. J1473.1
• The sound of the harp. An apprentice harpmaker is blamed that he has not made the harp sound. He throws the harp at his master's head and breaks it to pieces: "There you have your sound." J1626
• Watch mistaken for the devil's eye. Knocked to pieces. J1781.2
• Money from the broken statue. Fool sells goods to a statue and when it will not pay him knocks it to pieces. He finds a treasure inside. (Cf. J1852.1.) J1853.1.1
• Thief of deer cuts it up and keeps counting pieces. Rescued by wife. J2136.5.3
• Alleged healing stone sold. A sailor boy sells a seasick Jew "Babylon stones" as a cure. They are pieces of coal. K115.2
• Trick exchange: basket of stones for one of bread; a few pieces of money shown through slit in basket-cover to dupe. K149.1
• 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
• Trail of stolen goods made to lead to dupe. The crane in revenge for the loss of her young ones strews pieces of fish from the dwelling of the mongoose to that of the snake. The mongoose follows the trail and kills the snake. K401.1.1
• Murder by feeding with honey-covered sharpened cross-pieces of wood. K951.6
• Oaths taken over severed pieces of horse. Pieces are then buried. M111
• Vow rather to be cut in pieces than permit oneself to be bound. M166.2
• Curse: head to split in seven pieces. M431.9
• Trained rat upsets pieces in gambling game: trained (or transformed) cat chases it away. N7
• Tiger instead of girl in box tears lecherous teacher to pieces. Q243.6
• Punishment: dropping and dashing to pieces. (Cf. Q551.10.) Q417
• Cutting into pieces as punishment. Q429.3
• Punishment: head split into many pieces. Q451.13
• Murderer's corpse cut into pieces. Q491.6.1
• Punishment: Loki's son transformed into wolf which tears his brother to pieces. Q551.3.2.1
• Fishermen cut fish into pieces and claim that they have none. Saint says, "If you have none, may you have them; if you have, may they be stones." Pieces of fish are changed to stones. (Cf. A977.5.2.) Q552.16.1.1
• Murder by springing bent tree. Man bound to it is torn to pieces. (Cf. H1522.1.) S135
• Murder by slicing person into small pieces. S139.7
• Ungrateful wanderer pulls nut tree to pieces to get the nuts. W154.6