ATU 450 Little Brother and Little Sister

ATU 450

Little Brother and Little Sister

Aarne–Thompson–Uther tale-type index · Tales Of Magic · The full type description is not served here; the number and name are the classification facts.

Motifs the recorded variants carry

Transformation: man to deer. (Cf. B641.2.) 16 variants
Transformation: man to sheep. 16 variants
Transformation: man to bird. (Cf. B644.) 16 variants
Transformation: man to fish. 16 variants
Transformation by drinking. 16 variants
Recognition by overheard conversation (usually with animals or objects). Person not daring to reveal self directly thus attracts attention and recognition. 16 variants
True bride lives in fish's belly. 16 variants
Person thrown into the water and abandoned. 16 variants
Transformed mother suckles child. 8 variants
Dead mother returns to suckle child. 8 variants
The false bride (substituted bride). An impostor takes the wife's place without the husband's knowledge and banishes (kills, transforms) the wife. 8 variants
False bride takes true bride's place when child is born. 8 variants
King (prince) finds maiden in woods (tree) and marries her. 8 variants
Sister faithful to transformed brother. 8 variants
Cruel stepmother. 8 variants
Girl persuades her father to marry a widow who has treated her kindly. 8 variants

Type numbers and names after Aarne–Thompson–Uther, via Hagedorn, trilogy (2022), CC-BY-NC-SA; motif links weighted by the dataset’s recorded tale variants. Served as classification facts with attribution.