“forty” — Mythoi

Motifs

Valhalla has five hundred and forty doors. A661.1.0.1
Death can be postponed if man does not break tabu for forty days. D1855.4
Wizard gives man the illusion that he has been away twenty (forty) years. D2012.2
Mouth open to drink for forty days. F544.0.4
God has Elias drive devils from heaven. They use thunder, lightning, and rain for forty days. G303.8.1.1
"Forty-nine gates of wisdom" open to Moses (and Solomon). J182.1
Mice die of hunger. Complaints against underpaid priest that he does not stay at home. Says he cannot stay at home for the mice are dying of hunger since he receives only forty florins a year. J1269.10
Bishop and prince. Peasant tells bishop, who rides by with forty horses, that he wonders if St. Kilian at Würzburg is also riding with forty horses. Bishop excuses extravagance by saying that he is also a prince and that it is the prince, not the bishop, who is using the horses. "If the prince should become a fool, what would the bishop do then?" J1289.2
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
Forty wise men foretell violent rainstorm. Failing to convince people, they go into a cave. After the shower they come out. The people call them fools. J1714.3.1
Picking the louse and the flea. One man rewarded with forty crowns for picking louse from king's robe. Imitator given forty lashes for picking flea. J2415.2
Fifty ships promised. Forty-nine are moulded out of earth. K236.1
All forty of man's sons to die at once. M341.0.2
The sacred partnership. Man is abducted by pirates and kept in slavery forty years. Upon his return his friend divides his earnings with him. P319.4
Penance: standing in water for forty days. Q541.2
Slandered wife is locked in tower for forty days. If no champion appears, she is to be burned. Former suitor rescues her. R41.2.1
Queen kept in palace of forty doors, each of them watched by a dog. R41.5.1
Forty sons born in one day. T586.1.5
Christ's forty-days' fast called "His Lent". V73.6.1
Formulistic number: forty. Z71.12

Episodes

Tale types