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

• Devil and God create animals. Wolf created as God's dog. The devil creates goats to destroy things. A63.4
• Rebel god is author of all poisonous things. A63.7
• God makes things and tosses them into the air; what he catches is good for mankind, what opponent catches is bad. A67
• Creator repents of creating certain things. A74.2
• God supplies reproductive energy to all things. A175.1
• Mother Earth. The earth is conceived of as the mother of all things. (Cf. A431.1.) A401
• Creation of universe by creator. The creator is existing before all things. A610
• All things created in pairs (heaven and earth, etc.). A610.1
• Moon made from shining fragments. A cap is opened and shining things fall out. Children pick them up and put them into a box. At the end of the month the box is full. The full moon shines when all the fragments are gathered together. A742
• Creator appoints a chief for each class of created things: Lucifer for demons, Sion for mountains, etc. A1187
• All things receive names. A1191
• Adam's body made of eight (four) things. Body, earth; bones, stones; veins, roots; blood, water; hair, grass; thoughts, wind; spirit, clouds, or warmth, fire; cold, air; dryness, earth; instability, water. A1260.1.3
• Different tribes result from choice of things Sun offers people. A1610.5
• All living things from Jesus' spattered blood. A1724.3
• Fly punished for failing to answer question: is speechless, buzzes and associates with foul things. (Cf. A2426.3.3, A2433.5.2.) A2239.2
• Tabu: not to touch certain things during menses. C145
• Women must wear certain things during menstruation. C146
• Tabu: eating certain things. C220
• Tabu: drinking certain things. C270
• "We three" – "For gold" – "That is right" devil's bargain. Three brothers have agreed to say only these things. They incriminate themselves. C495.2.1
• Tabu: contact with things belonging to a king. C501
• Tabu: contact with things on journey to hell. C542.1
• Tabu: things not to be done by certain class. C560
• Transformation: basket of things to iron. D479.5
• Things miraculously stretched or shortened if needed by a saint. D480.0.1
• Transformers. Demigods who transform things at will so that they assume present form. See all references for motifs A900–A999 for work of transformers. (Cf. D272.) D683.1
• Ghoulish charm. Charm made from parts of corpse or things associated with corpse. D1278
• Magic object produces miscellaneous physical changes in persons or things. D1349
• Magic object splits or cuts things. D1564
• Magic object causes things to seek their proper place. D1565
• Magic object sets things afire. D1566.1
• Magic thieving pot. Boy sells pot to neighbors and when they have put things into it the pot returns to the boy. (Cf. D1171.1.) D1605.1
• Magic power to see concealed things. (Cf. D1817.) D1825.4
• Magic power of seeing things underground. D1825.4.1
• Magic power to see lost things. D1825.4.3
• Invulnerability from certain things. D1841
• Fire turns aside and refuses to catch hold of holy garments, wooden altars and similar sacred things. D2158.1.3.2
• Wild huntsmen cannot die until evil in world has been made right and things return as they had been. E501.3.9
• Ghost takes things from people. E593
• People and things that strike one another in otherworld. F171.3
• Thieving household-spirit. Steals things for its master. F480.3
• Hero throws ball, bat, dart (playthings) and catches them before they reach ground. F698.1
• Trees wither when tragic things happen. F979.23
• Exchanging things with the devil. The cheat appears later. G303.9.9.10
• Who will find the most marvelous thing? Each finds some marvelous thing. It turns out, that to save the girl's life all the things must be used together. H355.0.1
• Riddle propounded from chance experience. On way to riddle trial youth sees things that give him a clue for his riddles. H565
• Riddle: what four things are hardest to hold? H659.2
• What four things are hardest to hold? Wolf by eyebrows, bear by claws, snake by tail, hawk by beak. H659.2.1
• What are the most accursed things? H659.18
• What are the most accursed things? A thriftless wife, a baldheaded daughter, a sour-faced daughter-in-law, a crooked axle, and a field which lies across the village road. H659.18.1
• Riddle: what six things are not worth doing? (Sowing salt, mowing pebbles, drinking from an empty jug, making signs to a blind man, wooing at mealtime, playing a harp in a mill.) H871
• Three stupid things for men to do (various answers). H871.1
• Task: naming those things which have not yet happened. H1026.1
• Task: hauling enormous number of things from one farm to another in one day. H1109.2
• Task: shepherd in God's service tending sheep and following where they go. On the way, he sees many wonderful things. (Cf. F171.0.1.) H1199.12.1
• Quest for things seen in dream. H1320.2
• "Do not ask questions about extraordinary things": counsel proved wise by experience. Those who ask question killed. J21.6
• Monk goes to wilderness to escape work on material things. Finds that he must work to live and returns to monastery. J215.4
• Angel and hermit. Angel takes hermit with him and does many seemingly unjust things. Later shows why each of these was just. J225.0.1
• Choice between bad master, bad official, or bad neighbor. Bad master can do evil if he desires to do so; bad official can harm a poor person and complain against him to his master; bad neighbor can betray secret things about his neighbors. Bad neighbor worst. J229.5
• Noisy things often empty. J262
• What one has is neglected in search for other things. J344
• King advised to marry maid rather than widow. Widow would have things her own way. J482
• Avoiding things which are harmful by nature. J656
• Wild-boar sharpens tusks when no enemy is in sight. Tells fox that when enemy comes there are other things to do. J674.1
• Time renders all things commonplace. J1075
• Talkative wife discredited. Husband tells his talkative wife about treasure he has discovered. To discredit her report he tells her also of impossible things (woodcock in the fish net, fish in the bird trap, etc.). She repeats it all and whole story is disbelieved. Husband may keep his treasure. J1151.1.1
• The woman with bad eyes. Physician called to doctor woman's eyes bandages them and then steals things each day. She refuses to pay fee and is haled to court. She says that her sight is worse than ever for whereas she used to see many things in her house she now sees very little. Theft is thus revealed. J1169.1
• Reductio ad absurdum: the decision about the colt. A man ties his mare to a second man's wagon. The mare bears a colt which the wagon-owner claims, saying that the wagon has borne a colt. Real owner of the colt shows the absurdity (1) by fishing in the street or (2) by telling that his wife is shooting fish in the garden. Neither of these things are so absurd as the decision. J1191.1
• Repartee based on levity toward sacred persons and things. J1261
• Celibacy at the altar. Monk says, "I vowed three things: poverty in the bath, obedience at the table, and celibacy at the altar." J1264.2
• Would be first in all things. Chaplain accused of being first to start all knavery thus defends himself. J1269.3
• No physician at all. A bad physician having predicted the immediate death of a patient meets him recovered. "How go things down below?" "They put you at the head of the list of bad physicians, but I maintained that you were no physician at all." J1432
• Not in good form. A duke invites a notorious eater. The latter consumes eight fowls, forty eggs, and other things in proportion. In leaving he apologizes for eating so little as he had not felt well the night before. He will do better next time. J1468
• Things on highway belong to the public. Man reproves another for picking his cherries that overhang the highway. He is told that things on the public highway belong to no one in particular. He invites the man to climb the tree for better cherries, drives off with his horse and buggy, giving the same answer about things in the public highway. J1511.14
• Turning the plate around. A cuts the meat and puts all the good things on his side. B turns the plate around: "See how all things turn about in this world." A turns it back: "However the world may turn, with good friends like us the plate will always remain the same." J1562.1
• 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
• Things thought to be devils, ghosts, etc. J1780
• Things thought to be ghosts. J1782
• Things thought to be spirits. J1784
• Things thought at night to be other frightful object. J1789
• Other things with mistaken identities. J1809
• Numskulls buy things in common: each pays full price. J2037
• Given things for self and relatives, fool forgets to take his own. J2048
• Cow tied tight with stones in order not to blow away, but is unable to do all others things too. J2119.8
• Thief stops to admire beautiful things before stealing them. Caught. J2136.5.1
• Numskull as thief: tries to carry off grinding-stone when told by confederates to bring out heavy things. Told to bring shiny things; brings out looking glass. J2461.1.7.1
• Peasant opens his mouth. He tells his wife about the good things he gets to eat at the rich man's house. The wife says, "Open your mouth for me once so that I may get some too." The peasant gets up after the next large meal and opens his mouth to the astonishment of all present. J2473
• "Pick up everything!" The youth so instructed picks up too much. The master then tells him to pick things up only when the master gives the signal. The master falls into a hole and cannot give the signal. J2516.2
• Not to sleep for three successive nights. The sleepy man: "I am just thinking, that on earth there are more crooked trees than straight ones ... more hills than plains ... more water than land ..." The devil goes to ascertain these things, meanwhile the man sleeps. Unsuccessful imitation by another man. K216.3
• Master thief. Man undertakes to steal various closely guarded things. Succeeds by cleverness. K301
• Money (or other things) acquired by blackmail. K443
• Girl refuses to dance with a devil until she is well dressed. The devil brings things till the cock crows. Another girl asks for all the things at once and must dance until she dies. K1227.3.1
• Better things at home. A poor boy posing as a prince in the king's court always says that he has better things at home. K1952.2
• Men too prosperous (happy): things are made more difficult. L482
• Swearing by "the Seven Things which they serve." M119.6
• Things accidentally fall and kill person. N331
• Collier and fuller cannot live together: one makes things clean, the other soils them. U143
• Nun tempted into sinning with man who tells her God can't see things that happen in the dark. V465.1.2.2
• Sinner who thinks of God saved; devotee who thinks of worldly things goes to hell. V525