232 motifs match “promise” — showing the first 100; narrow the words for the rest  ·  back to the chapters

• God makes promises to mortal. A182.3.4
• God promises mortal prosperity for man and offspring. A182.3.4.2
• Deity promises to restore city. A185.8
• Sun-snarer: fast sun. The sun goes too fast to dry clothing. The hero snares the sun's legs with a rope as he is climbing up from the underworld. He releases the sun upon the promise to go more slowly. A728.2
• God's promise never to destroy world by water does not apply to local floods. A1011.3
• God promises never again to destroy world by water. A1113
• Man chosen as best gift by primeval women. In beginning only women on earth. Deity kills one by accident and promises anything as reparation. They choose man. A1276
• Bad women from transformed hog and goose. Peter, having only one daughter, foolishly promises her to three men. He asks the Lord to create two others. This request is granted. The first creature he meets on two successive mornings he is to greet, and they will be transformed. He meets a hog and a goose. His two new daughters have these characteristics. A1371.3
• Wedding of eagle and kite. Kite promises to secure ostrich as attendant. Fails and is put to shame. B282.2.1
• Fish promises to spare man in coming flood. (Cf. B375.1.) B527.1
• Daughter promised to animal suitor. B620.1
• Tabu: offending devil. A smith or priest continually insults the devil's statue or picture (cf. C13). The devil brings the offender into dangerous situation (suspicion of theft or murder), and saves him miraculously when he promises never again to abuse the devil's likeness. C45
• Tabu: breaking promise to fairy: death on twelfth day. C46.1
• Magic flight with the help of a he-goat. Speaking he-goat saves the girl promised to the devil. D674
• Disenchantment of monster when prince promises to marry the monster's mother. The prince imagines falsely that the mother is also a monster. D741
• Disenchantment by promise to marry. D742
• Disenchantment promised if girl may marry transformed man. D791.2.2.1
• Twig of a tree bows down and releases a bag with relics when the man makes a promise. D1648.1.2.2
• Return of the dead to keep promise and tell of land of the dead. Two friends promise each other that the first to die will do so. E374.1
• Naked ghost asks for shirt and promises luck on market for man. E412.3.2
• Dead rich man returns to rebuke his children who have kept the money he promised to the church. E415.2
• Voyage to Land of Promise. F111.2
• Island of Tir Tairngire (Land of Promise) cannot be reached in boat made of "dead soft skins of animals." F111.2.1
• Contrast between people of the fairy mounds and inhabitants of the Land of Promise. F211.0.2
• Captured water fairy promises to make ugly man beautiful in return for her release. F341.2.1
• Fairy promises abundant crops, etc., to mortal. F349.4
• Water-spirits avenge selves on mortal who fails to keep promise. F420.5.2.6.4
• Dwarf prevented from getting into his stone before sunrise till he promises to do what hero demands (especially forge weapons). (Cf. D451.3.4.2, D451.4.1.12, F451.5.2.13.) F451.3.2.1.1
• Dwarfs make promises with mental reservations. F451.5.10.8
• Dwarfs exact promise from mortals. F451.5.13
• Dwarf promises mortal much money if he will guess his name. F451.5.15.1
• Dwarf promises money and property to mortal father for hand of daughter. F451.5.18.1
• Dwarfs promise to emigrate if captured dwarfs are released. F451.9.1.5
• Flower from otherworld (Land of Promise) miraculously appears to persons (saints). F979.10
• Devil tempts youth to deny Virgin. Promises youth riches. G303.9.4.8
• Devil wooes woman; she discovers identity in time to escape with aid of minister who swallows candle after getting devil to promise she could live as long as the candle lasted. (Cf. K551.9.) G303.12.5.4
• Devil promises help to mistreated apprentice if youth will meet him by night in lonely spot. G303.22.12
• Youth promised to ogre visits ogre's home. G461
• Substitution of low-caste boy for promised child detected when he prefers long road to short one through jungle (swimming instead of ferry, etc.) H38.2.5
• Maiden queen promises herself to the man who heals her husband and kills his bewitcher. H346.1
• Youth asks for branch of tree; promised root. (Branch = youngest daughter; root = eldest.) H611
• Quest undertaken by hero to fulfill promises. H1229.1
• Which was the most generous – husband, robber, or lover? Woman has promised her lover to go to him on her wedding night. Husband lets her go. On way she meets robbers and tells her story. Robbers take her to her lover. She tells what has happened. Lover returns her immediately to her husband. H1552.1
• Test of curiosity: the clock. A man is promised a beautiful clock if he can mind his own business for a whole year. He does. The giver tells him he is the second man who almost made sure of getting the clock. The man asks how the other missed getting it; he loses the clock himself. H1554.2
• Test of curiosity: the paternoster. Plowman is promised a horse if he can say a paternoster without thinking of anything else. In the midst of the recitation, he asks if he will get the saddle and bridle too. He loses bargain. H1554.3
• Test of gratitude: magician makes pupil believe himself superior. Though he has promised magician great rewards he forgets his promise. Wealth removed. H1565.1
• Raven drowns his young who promise to aid him when he becomes old. He saves one who admits he will not help, because he will have to carry his own young. J267.1
• Queen flogs suspects telling them to produce stolen gem: thief promises to do so. J1141.1.10
• Man breaks promise to sleep chastely with woman. Decision: deceived fiance is to sleep with seducer's wife, if he ever marries. J1174.2.1
• King promises thieves pardon for confession: pleased with their cleverness. J1198.1
• Price of consecration. Bishop is paid 100 ova (eggs) instead of 100 oves (sheep) for consecrating man as priest. To bishop's protests the man answers, "You should have refused to consecrate me. If I had been worthy I should not have had to promise oves or ova." J1263.2.1
• The weighted order-cards. To a man going on a voyage, various people give commissions for purchases, which he writes down on cards. Some give him money; some promise it on his return. On ship he looks the cards over, placing the proper gold on the proper card. A wind blows into the sea those not weighted with gold. J1382.2
• Bridegroom promises thief spoils later if he will not interfere with wedding. J1392.5
• The old man nods "Yes". A monk at an old man's deathbed asks if he hasn't promised this and that to the church. The old man from weakness rather than understanding nods "Yes". The son standing by asks, "Shall I throw this fellow down stairs?" The old man nods "Yes". J1521.2
• Singer repaid with promise of reward: words for words. J1551.3
• Man refuses to lend horse: sued for consequent damages. The would-be borrower gets one from another neighbor. He overworks the horse and renders him useless. The owner of the horse sues the man who had refused to lend his animal. Reasoning: "If he had lent his horse this would not have happened to mine." Settled by compromise. J1552.3
• That which was promised him. A tenant promises his daughter to his master against her will. The master sends for "that which was promised him." The daughter sends the horse, and it is taken into the master's chamber. J1615
• "Thank God it's over!" Man who has been promised a beating lives in constant dread. Is eventually beaten. He thanks God. J2568
• Deceptive land purchase: king, as reward for help in winning battle, promises wounded chieftain as much land as his chariot can travel around; bribes charioteer to turn back whenever chieftain faints from loss of blood. K185.7.3
• Deceptive land purchase: saint's enemy promised as much land as he can see from certain point. Saint causes cloud to obstruct vision. K185.12
• Strokes shared. The boy promises the soldier what the king has promised to give him. The soldier receives a beating in place of the boy. K187
• Stealing only a small amount. A man promises in confession to steal only a small amount. He steals a rope with a mare on the end of it. K188
• Devil cheated of his promised soul. The man saves it through deceit. K210
• Devil cheated by pretended hanging. The man has promised himself to the devil in return for money. He stuffs his clothes with straw and hangs them up. The devil thinks the man has hanged himself and is satisfied. K215
• Devil cheated of promised soul by intervention of Virgin Mary. K218.4
• Other ways of cheating the devil of his promised soul. K219
• Devil cheated of his promised soul by making the intended victim drunk. The devil may punish the drunk man's body but has no power over his soul. K219.1
• Devil cheated of his promised soul when the victim sells his to a comrade. The latter says, "The devil can take only one soul from each person. I bought the soul so that when he comes I can give him one and still save my own." K219.2
• God cheats the devil of his promised soul. The devil is to fill a cask full of money. God knocks the bottom out of the cask. K219.3
• Refusal to make sacrifice after need is past. In distress a person promises a sacrifice to a god (saint) but disregards the promise when the danger passes. K231.3
• Golden lamb promised to goddess. Common lamb sacrificed. K231.3.2
• Fish promised in return for bacon. Later: "Drink up the river, you shall then have fish. All the fishes there are mine." K231.11
• Woman promises marriage for pair of earrings: she escapes with them. K233.8
• King promises valuable dog to each of two powerful and mutually hostile tribes. At feast prepared by king the two tribes get into fight and king escapes. K234.1
• Fox is promised chickens: is driven off by dogs. K235.1
• Husband promises a cow to tiger; wife frightens the tiger away. K235.1.1
• Fifty ships promised. Forty-nine are moulded out of earth. K236.1
• King promises beggars new clothes: burns their old and gets much gold and silver. Keeps it. K245
• Robber induced to give respite and come to man's office to get promised larger sum. Cheated. K439.7
• Trickster exacts promise of marriage as price of silence after having seen a princess naked. K443.6
• Eavesdropping sexton duped into giving suppliant money. The trickster prays to the Virgin for a certain sum of money and promises repayment of double at the end of the month. The sexton throws the money to him, but never receives it back. K464
• "Have we leave to go?" Two prisoners are made stable boys on their promise not to escape secretly. Before horse race starts they ask: "Do we have your leave to go?" They go home. K475.2
• Ram promises to jump into wolf's belly. Gives him a hard knock. The stunned wolf thinks he has swallowed the ram. (Cf. K579.5.1.) K553.3
• Hare promises to dance if doorway is left free: escapes. K571.1
• Prisoner released on promise to wed guard (captor). K612
• Prisoner released on promise of life-long allegiance. K613
• Animal persuaded to be tied by promise of food. K713.1.3
• Fish enticed into trap (promised new skins). K714.8
• Birds led into trap by promise of a feast. K730.5
• Snake promises to do no harm to frog. Kills him. K815.6
• Ruler promises minister that he will not kill him "on any day of his life." Dispels his suspicions. Has him killed at night. K929.3
• Burning children on promise of giving them fawn's beautiful spots. K1013.2.2
• Hot tin under the horse's tail. The smith promises to make the horse wild. The numskull on the horse's back. K1181
• Seduction on promise that issue will be the fifth Evangelist. K1315.1.2
• Seduction attempted on promise of magic transformation: woman to mare. Finishing the tail. K1315.3.2
• Seduction upon false promise of marriage. K1315.8
• Seduction by promise of jewels. K1332.3
• Woman deceived into sacrificing honor. Ruler promises to release her brother (husband) but afterward refuses to do so. K1353
• Husband discovers wife's adultery by riddling conversation. In this indirect manner the wife confesses and promises reform. K1557
• The "loyal" adulteress. Complacent in all except kissing. Explains that her mouth is the only part of her body which has promised fidelity to her husband. K1595