AT Types of Folktales – The Gold Scales (original) (raw)
The AT Divisions of Tales
In the AT catalogue, the tales (AT-number entries) are sorted into these groups:
- Animal Tales (Types 1-299)
- Ordinary Folktales (Types 300-1199)
- Jokes and Anecdotes (Types 1200-1999)
- Formula Tales (Types 2000-2399)
- Unclassified Tales (Narrationes Lubricae) (Types 2400-2499)
Norwegian Folktales
There are about 4200 Norwegian folktale types today (Hodne 1984, 10). Folktales may serve inspiration. And folktales are arranged in international folktale cataloges by their allotted numbers with titles added and summaries of the types of tales (descriptions).
Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson worked out the numbers that refer to folktale types. An AT-number may cover a whole folktale, or a sequence (an episode) of a folktale.
Folktales are arranged in international catalogues according to the motifs (themes) in them. A motif is given a number, a title, and a description where main traits or features of the tale are shown by way of a capsule. Example:
AT 211*. The hog who was so tired of his daily food (Grisen og levemåten hans)
The pig went to court to get a better way of life, but the fox fooled him on the way home so that the pig forgot what the judge had said in the pig's favour. Hence the pig's life stayed as before.
In case there is a chain of AT-numbers in an entry - for example AT 302+400+461+613 = AT 302 nr. 28 - it means the tale is classified as a variant of one or more tales.
Many AT-numbers connected with a tale shows that the classification system is convoluted. Futher, both folktales and folktale variants may be classified in this way, by more than one AT-number. It goes to show that the tale/variant is made up of several motifs, one after another, in a "string of events" - the folktale plot or "chain of action". Also, many folk tales remain unclassified to this day. In the survey, some 260 of them are listed with AT –.
In The Types of International Folktales, the "ATU Catalogue" edited by Hans-Jörg Uther (2004), ATU numbers replace AT numbers. Further, ATU-types are now the classification devices in force (see previous page).
In a great many cases the ATU numbers of well-known Norwegian folktales are as their AT numbers. Uther (2004) offers valuable backup-information for comparing or tracing tales by their ATU numbers and sources.
AT-Numbers Explained
The A in 'AT' stands for Aarne, and the T for Thompson. More specifically: "The Finnish folklorist Antti Aarne and the American folklorist Stith Thompson." AT-numbers are practical tools of folklore in that folktales are sorted into groups of tales, and similar tales and variants of tales may be given the same AT number and a general summary (abstract). Some sources may be added too. This information may help in comparing tales from different European countries and cultures mainly. AT-numbers serve as a common reference across languages and cultures.
Aarne and Thompson devised a catalogue (classification system) of the types of international folktales. The initial catalogue was developed and published in 1910 by Aarne under the title "Index of Types of Folktale" in German. Aarne's system was devised to organise and index Scandinavian collections. Aarne's system was translated and enlarged by the American folklorist Stith Thompson in 1928, and revised in 1961.
The indexed AT motifs are limited mainly to European and European-derived tales that are known to have been told by mouth at the time they were published. The AT index yields a single classification system, and with its help, different variants may be grouped or banded together under the headings of AT-numbers. AT-numbers can be used to (1) identify tale types, (2) isolate motifs, (3) locate cultural variants. If there are variants that include other motifs, (more AT-numbers), motif numbers are given too.
In 2004, Hans-Jörg Uther published a novel edition in three volumes, called The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson. Different types of folktales are given different ATU-numbers in i (after the surname initials of Aarne, Thompson, and Uther). Thus, the AT classification system has become the Aarne-Thompson-Uther or ATU system, which covers more ground. [Uther 2004] [ATU page]
Various Catalogues Are at Hand
The Types of the Folktale (1961) is one the most important reference works and research tools for comparative folktale analysis. Tales are organized according to type and assigned a title and number and/or letter. Ørnulf Hodne's catalogue of Norwegian fairytale types (1984) and the 12-volumed collection of Norwegian folktales, Norsk Eventyrbibliotek (see end part of the page) both sort folktales into types of tales according to the international type system of Aarne and Thompson.
Specifications
Ørnulf Hodne's very comprehensive catalogue of collected Norwegian folktales includes well known folktales, such as the ones collected, edited and published by Asbjørnsen and Moe. An old, well-known folktale is given an AT-number as a general rule. There are other tales that incorporate some of the elements (parts, episodes, motifs) of such tales, and still other tales that contain other elements. Hodne explains how he has organised his survey:
- Uncertain classification of types may be put in parenthesis.
- Variants composed of various types, such as AT 1 + 2 + 5, have as a rule been appended to each of these types (not shown here).
- Some AT motifs may be combined when it is difficult to separate them in a tradition.
- Some tale types are like legends. It is a matter of judgement what tales of this sort are included.
- Many folktales are not (yet) typified according to the Aarne-Thompson system. They are put after the rest of the tales in the section they may belong to (and marked by AT–:).
- At the rear of the long list of tales, special tales (Narrationes lubricae) are put without any AT-number either.
More to know:
- Some folktales have an atypical recording and edition form: they may be fragments only, or registered by catchwords.
- In many cases the printed version has been composed of two or more records of the same type, as Peter Christian Asbjørnsen often did. In such cases the printed tales are termed compilations.
Despite the rich material that has been preserved in Scandinavia, much traditional material was never recorded.
Main sources: Hodne 1984; 5-15; Ashliman 1987. Compare Hans-Jörg Uther's The Types of International Folktales (2004).
AT Numbers of Norwegian Tale-Types (Expanded, 2019)
In the survey that follows, most AT-numbers and titles in English are given. Some AT-numbers are left out, and many composite AT-numbers too, and most descriptions (capsules) of AT-numbers and titles. Also, listings of variants and of biographical data are left out.
Animal Tales
AT 1 — The theft of fish
A fox played dead by the side of the road, and a man with a load of fish picked him up, praising his luck for the skin with the fur still on it. But the clever fox stole the fish and escaped. (Ashliman)
AT 2 — How the bear lost his tail. The tail-fisher
The bear was persuaded to fish with his tail through a hole in the ice and got it frozen fast. He tried to get free, and lost his tail (cf. Hodne).
AT 5 — Biting the foot
AT 7 — The calling of three tree names
AT 9 — The unjust partner
AT 9C — In cooking dinner the fox's porridge is light
AT 10*** — Over the edge
AT 15 — The theft of butter (honey) by playing godfather
AT 20C — The animals flee in fear of the end of the world
A hen believes the world is coming to an end, and flees. Many other animals join her. And then the large animals eat the small ones.
AT 21 — Eating his own entrails
AT 31 — The fox climbs from the pit on the wolf's back
AT 34B — Wolf drinks water to get cheese
AT 37* — The fox as shepherd
AT 38 — Claw in split tree
AT 41 — The wolf overeats in the cellar
AT 47A — The fox (bear, etc) hangs by his teeth to the horse's tail, hare's lip
AT 48* — The bear who went to the monkey for the gold chain
AT 49 — The bear and the honey
AT 50 — Curing a sick lion
The king of beasts lay ill. The fox delayed paying him a visit, but the wolf went to pay his respect to this king. As a result of beastly intrigues, the lion had the wolf killed and flayed.
AT 56A* — Fox plays dead and catches bird
AT 57 — Raven with cheese in his mouth
AT 60 — Fox and crane invite each other
AT 61 — The fox persuades the cock to crow with closed eyes
AT 62 — Peace among the animals - the fox and the cook
AT 65 — The she-fox's suitors
AT 70 — More cowardly than the hare
AT 81 — Too cold for hare to build house in winter
AT 96* — When the hare was married
AT 105 — The cat's only trick
The gull [cat] has only one trick, the fox says he has ten. When dogs come, the gull flies [the cat climbs a tree and is safe], the fox is killed by dogs.
AT 106 — Animals' conversation
AT 111 — The cat and the mouse converse
AT 112 — Country mouse visits town mouse
Two mice visit each other. One of them prefers hardy country conditions to urban insecurity.
AT 113' — The cat's funeral
AT 116 — The bear on the hay-wagon
AT 120 — The first to see the sunrise
AT 122 — The wolf loses his prey
A cat fools a bird into being caught. Then the bird tricks the cat into letting it loose.
AT 122A — The wolf (fox) seeks breakfast
AT 122E — Wait for the fat goat
AT 123 — The wolf and the kids
AT 130 — The animals in night quarters)
(Domestic) animals join company with each other and wish to live together. They frighten in different ways intruding wild beasts, e.g. a bear and a wolf.
AT 132 — Goat admires his horns in the water
AT 153 — The gelding of the bear and the fetching of salve
AT 154 — 'Bear-food'
The fox rescues a man's horse from a bear, and is promised a goat in reward. Instead of that the man less the dogs attack the fox, who finds he had been swindled and ill paid.
AT 155 — The ungrateful serpent returned to captivity
AT 157 — Learning to fear men
AT 168A — Old woman and wolf fall into pit together
AT 179/179* — What the bear whispered in his ear - Man and bear
AT 204 — Sheep, duck and cock in peril at sea
Three domestic animals (cock, ram, pig or duck) go to sea in a boat and get into peril. Each expresses fear in his own characteristic way.
AT 211* — The hog who was so tired of his daily food
The pig goes to court to get a better way of life. The judge agrees with him and rules in his favour. However, the fox craftily brainwashes him on the way home until the pig forgets what the judge said. His life stays as before.
AT 219*11* — The hen and the dog
An industrious hen and a lazy dog on a chain quarrel about who is the more useful. They become friends when the dog warns his master about a fox-visit in the poultry-house and thereby rescues the hen.
AT 221A — The election of bird-king - Test: Who can fly highest?
AT 222 — War of birds and quadrupeds
AT 230* — The race of the cock, the birch cock and the birch-hen
AT 247 — Each likes his own children best
AT 275 — The race of the fox and the crab
AT 275A — Hare and tortoise race: sleeping
AT 275D* — The hare and the earth
In a race between the hare and the earth the earth wins, for it is always there wherever the hare comes.
AT 280A — The ant and the lazy cricket
AT 281A — The dungbeetle and the fly
The dungbeetle proposes to the fly in summer, but isn't distinguished enough and is refused. In autumn the opposite happens. Then the dungbeetle answers: 'No, you are too fine to live with me.'
AT 293D* — The hops and the turnips quarrel
AT 299 — The moon, the bundle of leaves, and the bucket of water
AT 1030 — The crop division
The bear and the fox have a field together. They sow corn, and the fox gets the top. Next time the bear will have the top. Then they sow root-crops.
AT — The horse and the fox
AT — The cuckoo and the pigeon
AT — The ram and the raven
AT — The ram and the reindeer
AT — The goat
AT — The fox and the bird's eggs
The fox goes hungry for three weeks in order to become so light that he can take bird's eggs from a bog. Yet he sinks down. He should have fasted for six weeks, he says.
AT — The jaybird
AT — The two crows
AT — The he-goat and the ram who were going to drive the hay home
AT — The bear and the mirror
AT — The frog and the crow
AT — The snake and the eft
AT — When the loom exchanged his legs
AT — The goat getting hooves
AT — The bear and the moss
AT — The halibut and the salmon
The halibut and the salmon talk together about why they always lose to the fiskerman.
AT — The bear and the fox
AT — When the fox plays the role of parson and the bear the role of the sexton
AT — The young ravens
AT — The hare and the dog
Ordinary Folktales
Tales of magic
AT 300 — The dragon-slayer
AT 301 — The three stolen princesses
AT 302 — The ogre's (devil's) heart in the egg
AT 303 — The twins or blood-brothers
AT 304 — The hunter
AT 306 — The danced-out shoes
AT 307 — The princess in the shroud
AT 311 — The giant and the three sisters
AT 311*** (311 + 312). Father's jacket
A man forgets his jacket in the forest, and sends his children out to fetch it. The three oldest are captured by a troll; the youngest takes with him a pack of wild animals, and follows the troll home. Here the animals try one by one to kill the trolls, but only the lion succeeds. The boy revives his brothers and sister, and they return with great treasures.
AT 312 — The giant-killer and his dog - Bluebeard
AT 313 — The girl as helper in the hero's flight
AT 314 — The youth transformed to a horse
AT 316 — The nix of the mill-pond
AT 325 — The magician and his pupil
AT 326 — The youth who wanted to learn what fear is
AT 327 — The children and the ogre
AT 327C — The devil (witch) carries the hero home in a sack
AT 328 — The boy steals the giant's treasure
AT 328 — Jack and the beanstalk
AT 330 — The smith outwits the devil
AT 330B — The devil in the knapsack (bottle, cask)
A blacksmith who has made a contract with the devil, gets off by tricking him into a steel purse, which he beats in the smithy and hammers flat. Later the smith is not admitted into either heaven or hell for a long while, perhaps.
AT 331 — The spirit in the bottle
AT 332 — Godfather death
AT 360 Bargain of the three brothers with the devil
Three brothers get money from the devil in return for pledging themselves always to say the same words: "We three," "for money," and "that was right." The host of an inn kills a man, the brothers are accused and judged by their answers. But the devil rescues them from the gallows, and the host is hanged in their place. The devil is satisfied to take one soul.
AT 361 — Bear-skin
AT 363 — The vampire
A girl marries an unknown man with a green beard. On returning home she discovers that the bridegroom eats corpses in (three) churches. Later he appears to his bride in the form of her different relatives and questions her thoroughly about what she might have seen him do. When she finally tells her "mother" the truth about him, he eats her.
AT 365 — The dead bridegroom carries off his bride - Lenore
AT 366 — The man from the gallows
AT 400 — The man on a quest for his lost wife
The hero (often promised to a giant, sea monster, etc.) is carried to a foreign land or castle in a self-propelling boar. There he finds a bewitched princess or three. He rescues them and marries one of them. When he wants to go home on a visit, she gives him a wishing ring and forbids him to do certain things. He disobeys the prohibitions and loses her. He then sets out in search of her, and finds her finally in a distant troll castle by means of supernatural helpers (old women, eagle, the north wind, etc.) and remedies (invisibility hat, seven-mile boots). The princess, who is about to be married to an ogre, recognises him and is reunited with her first bridegroom.
AT 402 — The mouse (cat, frog, etc.) as bride
AT 403 — The black and the white bride
AT 403B — The black and the white bride
AT 405 — Jorinde and Joringel
AT 408 — The three oranges
AT 410 — Sleeping beauty
AT 425 — The search for the lost husband
AT 430 — The ass
AT 432 — The prince as bird
AT 433A — The prince as serpent: A serpent carries a princess into its castle
AT 450 — Little brother and little sister
AT 451 — The maiden who seeks her brothers
AT 461 — Three hairs from the devil's beard
AT 465 — The man persecuted because of his beautiful wife
AT 470 — Friends in life and death
AT 471 — The bridge to the other world
AT 471A — The monk and the bird
AT 475 — The man as heater of Hell's kettle
AT 480 — The spinning women by the spring
AT 500 — The name of the helper
AT 501 — The three old women helpers
AT 502 — The wild man
AT 506 — The rescued princess
AT 507A — The monster's bride
AT 510AB — Cinderella
AT 511A — The little red ox
AT 513 — The helpers
AT 514 — The shift of sex
AT 530 — The princess on the glass mountain
AT 531 — Ferdinand the true and Ferdinand the false
AT 545A — The cat castle
AT 545B — The cat as helper
AT 550 — Search for the golden bird
AT 551 — The sons on a quest for a wonderful remedy for their father
AT 552 — The girls who married animals
AT 552B — The girls who married animals
AT 553 — The raven helper
AT 554 — The grateful animals
AT 555 — The fisher and his wife
A poor fisher catches a flounder who is a transformed prince, and puts him back in the water. In gratitude the fish grants all the wishes of the fisher's wife until her wishes become so extravagant that she finally loses all.
AT 559 — Dungbeetle
AT 560 — The magic ring
AT 561 — Aladdin
AT 562 — The spirit in the blue light
AT 563 — The table, the ass, and the stick
AT 565 — The magic mill
AT 566 — The three magic objects and the wonderful fruits. Fortunatus
AT 567 — The magic bird-heart
AT 569 — The knapsack, the hat and the horn
AT 570 — The rabbit-herd
AT 571 — 'All stick together'
AT 577 — The king's tasks
AT 580 — Beloved of women
AT 590 — The prince and the arm bands
AT 591 — The thieving pot
AT 592 — The dance among thorns
AT 593 — 'Fiddiwaw'
AT 594* — The magic bridle
AT 611 — The gifts of the dwarfs
AT 613 — The two travellers
AT 621 — The louse-skin
AT 650A — Strong John
AT 653 — The four skilful brothers
AT 654 — The three brothers
AT 655 — The wise brothers
AT 660 — The three doctors
AT 675 — The lazy boy
AT 676 — Open sesame
AT 700 — Tom Thumb
AT 704 — Princess on the pea
A prince who wants to marry a real princess puts a pea under her mattresses to test how sensitively refined she might be.
AT 705 — Born from a fish
AT 708 — The wonder-child
AT 709 — Snow-white
AT 710 — Our Lady's child
AT 711 — The beautiful and the ugly twins
AT 720 — My mother slew me; my father ate me. The Juniper tree
AT 726 — The oldest on the farm
AT 727* — Invisible voices
AT — The princess with the golden ball
AT — "Marsi"
AT — The princess who played the game of the golden dice
AT — The three brothers
AT — The wolf and the girl
AT — The boy and the ball of bread
AT — The golden billy-goat
AT — The young Alv
AT — The animals and the prince
AT — Alexander
AT — The boy and the raven
AT — The magic hazel stick
AT — The three riders who wanted to go to Paris
Three friends who are seeking their fortune eat a magical bird, and they all get something that brings them luck. One of them gets a purse that will never be empty, the second one a bag that mobilises 15 soldiers for every blow he gives it, and the youngest one sees his future bride - a princess that a king has promised to the one who can free his kingdom of a dragon. The youngest succeeds and marries her. The other two give false evidence against the couple and persuade the king to put the married ones in prison and sentence to death the couple's children, a boy and a girl. The children are rescued by the maid and grow up with the king's miller. After some time they are recognised because of their golden hair and have to flee. At last they return to the king's palace, persuade the king to set free their parents and expose the "friends."
AT — The shepherd boy and the bear
AT — The saving blood
AT — The white-bear that dug up the boy
AT — "Lill Lill Lye"
AT — "The turnip ram"
AT — The princess in the forest with wild animals
B. Religious Tales
AT 750A — The wishes. Hospitality rewarded
A supernatural being grants two persons the same recompense for a night's lodging. The poor and hospitable one wishes/acts wisely and is rewarded, the rich and avaricious one does the opposite and is punished.
(b) A short-sighted woman punishes herself by means of three foolish wishes: that the buckets should move by themselves, that everything she strikes must break, and everything she pulls should be made longer. The buckets move around, she claps her thighs, weeps and pulls her nose.
AT 750B — The wishes: Hospitality rewarded
A supernatural being punishes a discontented host, and rewards another who is pleased with life and get much out of little.
AT 751A — The peasant woman is changed into a woodpecker
AT 753 — The Master-smith
AT 755 — Sin and grace
AT 756B — The devil's contract
AT 758 — The various children of Eve
AT 759B+826 — Holy man has his own mass
AT 762 — Woman with three hundred and sixty-five children
AT 765 — The mother who wants to kill her children
An evil mother keeps trying to kill her five-year-old daughter, but the little girl is always rescued at the eleventh hour. The mother is finally executed.
AT 766 — The seven sleepers
AT 768 — St Christopher and the Christ child
AT 774C — The legend of the horseshoe
AT 777 — The wandering Jew
AT 779) — Miscellaneous divine rewards and punishments
AT 791 — The Saviour and Peter in night-lodgings
AT 800 — The tailor in heaven
AT 810 — The snares of the evil one
AT 811 — The man promised to the devil becomes a priest
AT 812 — The devil's riddle
AT 821A — The thief rescued by the devil
AT 822 — The lazy boy and the industrious girl
The Lord and Peter come across a very lazy boy and a very clever, industrious girl. The Lord decides, to Peter's astonishment, that these two are to be married.
AT 826 — Devil writes down names of men on a hide in church
AT — The thief and the devil
AT — Jesus and the claybirds
AT — Jesus cures his friend
AT — The knife in the dish
AT — The rhyme
AT — Christ's speech from the cross
AT — The worm in the stone
AT — The Jew, the Catholic and the Protestant
AT — Thank you three times
AT — The Virgin Mary, the thistle, the aspen, and the hazel
AT — When the Virgin Mary sowed corn
Aitiological tales
Ait. leg. 16 — (The Adam's apple)
Ait. leg. 22b — (The child's hip)
Ait. leg. 51. — (The dog's snout)
Ait. leg. 58. — (The horse)
Ait. leg. 59. — (The horse)
Ait. leg. 61. — (The marks on the horse's leg)
Ait. leg. 74. — (The fox)
Ait. leg. 80. — (The shrew-mouse)
A shrew-mouse once made the wish that if brides should not prove to be virgins, he should never succeed in crossing the high-road alive. This is why people often saw dead shrew-mice on the road earlier . . .
Ait. leg. 85. — (The swallow)
Ait. leg. (103). — (The loom)
Ait. leg. (104). — (The wild goose)
Ait. leg. 117 — (The flounder)
[The flounder/the halibut is wry-mouthed for some wise reason.]
Ait. leg. 131 — (The aspen)
[The aspen leaves tremble. They are made that way.]
AT — Why it turned winter
AT — How the woodcock was created
AT — The Virgin Mary's teargrass
AT — The lady's slipper
AT — Our Lord and the ear of corn
AT — At the owl's shriek
AT — The devil's weeping
AT — The spider brings luck
AT — The cuckoo
AT — Drink for the family
AT — The English language
AT — How the louse was created
AT — Soknedalen
AT — Why the cat has a short nose
AT — The common polypody
AT — How the Finns were created
AT — The Virgin Mary's breast
AT — Our Lord, the devil and the spruce branches
AT — The fairies descend from Cain
AT — Our Lord and the salmon
AT — Our Lord punishes the female cuckoo
AT — The drinking cup of the Virgin Mary
D. Romantic Tales
AT 850 — The birthmarks of the princess
AT 851 — The princess who could not solve the riddle
AT 852 — The hero forces the princess to say: 'That is a lie'
AT 853 — The hero catches the princess with her own words
A princess is offered in marriage to the youth who outwits her in repartee. The hero succeeds by means of some objects (a dead crow, two soles of a shoe, etc.), which he picks up on the way to the king's court.
AT 854 — The golden ram
AT 870 — The princess confined in the mound
AT 870A — The little goose-girl
AT 872* — Brother and sister
AT 875 — The clever peasant girl
AT 882 — The wager on the wife's chastity
AT 883 B — The seducer punished
AT 887 — Griselda
AT 890 — A pound of flesh
AT 892 — The children of the king
AT 900 — King Thrushbird
AT 901 — Taming of the shrew
AT 910 A — Wise through experience
AT 910 B — The servant's good counsels
AT 922 — The shepherd substituting for the priest answers the king's questions) (The king and the abbot)
AT 923 A — Like wind in the hot sun
AT 924 — Dicussion by sign language
AT 927 — Out-riddling the judge
AT 934 E — The magic ball of thread
AT 950 — Rhampsinitus
AT 952 — The king and the soldier
AT 955 — The robber bridegroom
AT 962** — The girl who played with the bread
AT — The boastful king
AT — The half-wit
AT — The blood that testified to the truth
AT — The big girl
AT — The wonderful player
The wonderful player frees a town of its mice and rats by playing in such a way that the animals follow him into the sea and are drowned.
AT — The cottar and the thief
AT — The miser
AT — The boy who killed 'Misfortune'
AT — The small bailiff
AT — The man who wants to hang himself on Wednesday evening
AT — The partition of an inheritance
AT — The innkeeper murderer
AT — The maiden many men would like to marry
E. Tales of the stupid ogre
AT 1000 — Bargain not to become angry
AT 1002 — Dissipation of the ogre's property
AT 1003 — Plowing
AT 1004 — Hogs in the mud; sheep in the air
AT 1005 — Building a bridge . . .
AT 1006 — Casting eyes
AT 1012 — Cleaning the child
AT 1013/1121 — Bathing or warming grandmother/ogre's wife burned in his own oven
AT 1029 — The woman as cuckoo in the tree
AT 1030 — The crop division
AT 1031 — Granary roof used as threshing flail
AT 1049 — The heavy axe
AT 1050 — Felling trees
AT 1051 — Bending a tree
AT 1052 — Deceptive contest in carrying a tree/riding
AT 1060 — Squeezing the (supposed) stone
A man shows an ogre how strong he is by squeezing water out of a 'stone', which is a cheese. He frightens the ogre.
AT 1062 — Throwing the stone
AT 1063 — Throwing contest with the golden club
AT 1084 — Contest in shrieking or whistling
AT 1085 — Pushing a hole into a tree
AT 1087 — Rowing contest
AT I088 — Eating contest
AT 1093 — Contest in words
AT 1096 — The tailor and the ogre in a sewing contest
AT 1115 — Attempted murder with hatchet
AT 1116 — Attempt at burning
qAT 1117 — The ogre's pitfall
AT 1122 — Ogre's wife killed through other tricks
AT 1131 — The hot porridge in the ogre's throat
AT 1133 — Making the ogre strong (by castration
AT 1135 — Eye-remedy
AT 1137 — The ogre blinded - Polyphemus
AT 1143 — Ogre otherwise injured
AT 1153 — Wages: as much as he can carry
AT 1157 — The gun as tobacco pipe
AT 1158 — The ogre wants to look through the gun barrel in the smithy
AT 1160 — The ogre in the haunted castle. Beard caught fast
AT 1161 — The bear trainer and his bear
AT 1164 — The evil woman thrown into the pit - Belfagor
AT 1165 — The troll and the christening
AT 1179 — The ogre on the ship
AT 1186 — With his whole heart
AT — The man who competes with the devil in mowing the grass
AT — The girl and the troll
AT — The boy and the ogre
AT — Per Staka
AT — The ogre and the ogress
AT — The first-born man and the troll
Jokes and Anecdotes
A. Numskull stories
AT 1201 — The plowing
A Gotham man (molbu) wants to drive a bird/birds out of a field. Several others carry him so that he will not trample on the field.
AT 1225 — The man without a head in the bear's den
AT 1227 — One woman to catch the squirrel; the other to get the cooking pot
AT 1240 — Man sitting on branch of tree cuts it off
A man cuts off the branch he is sitting on.
AT 1241 — The tree is to be pulled down
AT 1242 — Loading the wood
AT 1242 A — Carrying part of the load
AT 1243 — The wood is carried down the hill
Numskulls carry timber down the hill. Then they understand that it would have been better to roll it down. They carry it back up and roll it down.
AT 1245 — Sunlight carried in a bag into the windowless house
Sunshine is carried into a windowless house.
AT 1255 — A hole to throw the earth in
AT 1260 — The porridge in the ice hole
AT 1260** — Jumping into the sea for fish
AT 1260 B* — Numskull strikes all the matches in order to try them
A manservant is sent to buy the best matches. To make quite sure he strikes all the matches in order to try them before he returns.
AT 1276 — Rowing without going forward
AT 1278 — Marking the place on the boat
AT 1285 — Pulling on the shirt
AT 1287 — Numskull unable to count their own number
Numskulls are unable to count their own number, for they all forget to include themselves. Another man helps them.
AT 1288* — 'These are not my feet'
AT 1310 — Drowning the crayfish as punishment
Numskulls suspect an eel of consuming their fish (salt herring), and plan to drown it as punishment.
AT 1313A — The man takes seriously the prediction of death
AT 1319* — Other mistaken identities
AT 1321 — Fools frightened
AT 1326 — Moving the church
AT — Foxes in the sails
AT — A dead man as bait
AT — The father and the son who were out travelling
AT — Carrying the pelt
AT — Denmark does not exist
AT — Rowing in the middle of the fiord
AT — The worms in the herring
AT — The yawl-child
AT — Making fast the boat to the mast
AT — The old woman searching for her goat
AT — The untamed boat
AT — Sailing in a contrary wind
AT — Setting up the sail
AT — Pulling the boat on the reef
AT — Strange wind
AT — Reducing the boat's speed
AT — Hospitality
AT — The wind-bound 'stril'
A sailing man from the Strile district near Bergen in Norway meets a contrary wind and becomes wind-bound for fourteen days consuming his load of meal. When the meal diminishes, he asks Our Lord for help.
AT — Twisted braces
AT — Good fellows
AT — Getting room for the eggs
Numskulls crush eggs in order to get room for more eggs.
AT — Staying with a friend in rainy weather
AT — Driving in the nail's head first
AT — The shoes in the furnace
AT — Carrying the sail
AT — The woman and the north wind
AT — His beard or his lif e
AT — The land-lubbers who are 'reefing sails'
AT — The wandering mountain
AT — How wide the world is
AT — The closed strait
AT — Measuring the height of the flag-staff
AT — The girl who patched her apron
AT — The bear's tail
AT — The cod
AT — Binding the boat
B. Stories about Married Couples
AT 1350 — The loving wife
AT 1351 — The silence wager
AT 1353 — The old woman as troublemakar
AT 1360B — Flight of the woman and her lover from the stable
AT 1360 C — Old Hildebrand
AT 1362 — The snow-child
AT 1365 AB — The obstinate wife
AT 1365C — The wife insults the husband as a lousy-head
AT 1380 — The faithless wife
AT 1381 — The talkative wife and the discovered treasure
AT 1383 — The woman does not know herself
AT 1384 — The husband hunts for three persons as stupid as his wife
AT 1386 — Meat as food for cabbage
AT 1391 — Every hole to tell the truth
AT 1406 — The merry wives wager . . .
AT 1408 — The man who does his wife's work
AT 1415 — Lucky Hans
A peasant goes to town to sell a cow, but trades it for a horse, the horse for a hog, etc. until finally he has nothing left. He bets with his neighbour that his wife will not get angry, and wins the wager.
AT 1416 — The mouse in the silver jug. The new Eve
AT 1431 — The contagious yawns
AT — The man who wanted to get rid of his wife
AT — The thunderstorm
AT — The tailor with the beautiful wife
AT — The bet
AT — The lame couple
AT — The three wives
AT — The queen and the calf
C. Stories about a Woman (Girl)
AT 1440 — The tenant promises his daughter to his master against her will
AT 1450 — Clever Elsie
A girl visited by a suitor is to get beer from the cellar. There she sits and ponders what the first child's name shall be. Her father and mother do the same, and the suitor departs.
AT 1452 — Bride test: thrifty cutting of cheese
AT 1453 — Bride test: key in flax reveals laziness
AT 1453A — The fast weaver
AT 1454* — The greedy fiancee
AT 1454**** — Nobody is flawless
AT 1456 — The blind fiancée
AT 1457 — The lisping maiden
AT 1458 — The girl who ate so little
AT 1459** — Keeping up appearances
AT 1461 — The girl with the ugly name
AT 1462 — The unwilling suitor advised from the tree
AT 1462* — Clean and tidy
AT 1464 C* — Good housekeeping
A suitor chooses the girl who puts his room in order for him.
AT 1464 D* — Nothing too cook
A girl says she cannot cook. The suitor says: 'It doesn't matter, I have nothing to cook anyway.'
AT 1468* — Marrying a stranger
AT 1477 — The wolf steals the old maid
AT 1503*(?) — The daughter-in-law and the real daughter
AT — The boy and the two gentlemen
A rich widow tests three suitors, two gentlemen and a poor boy. She chooses the latter because he is kind, strong and young.
AT — The silk skein
AT — The girl who is spinning the thread of fate
AT — The 'rich' suitor
AT — A clever boy
AT — The skein
AT — The farm hand and the rich widow
AT — The boy who had to exaggerate
AT — The suitor and the piece of butter
AT — The suitor repents
AT — The girl who was clever at spinning
AT — The maiden who had two suitors
A maiden disguises herself and visits her two suitors, a rich man and a poor one. The rich one is mean, untidy and inhospitable. The poor one does his very best for her. She favours him.
AT — The three sons who married the three daughters of the neighbour
AT — The two goats
AT — The princess who ran so fast
AT — The practical girl
AT — The girl and the sledge
AT — The girl who wanted to be always young
AT — The dirty woman
AT — The first harbinger of spring
AT — The woman and the peas
AT — The piglet recognises his cup
A traveller (minister) is served milk in a cup, and the piglet begins screaming while the man is drinking. The woman says: 'Poor piglet, he recognizes his cup, you see.'
AT — The woman keeps squatting
AT — The women and the dead wolf
D. Stories about a Clever/Stupid, Lucky/Unlucky Man (Boy)
AT 1525 A-F — The master thief
AT 1525 R — The robber brothers
AT 1533 — The wise carving of the fowl
AT 1535 — The rich and the poor peasant
AT 1536A — The woman in the chest
AT 1537 — The corpse killed five times
AT 1538 — The youth cheated in selling oxen
AT 1539 — Cleverness and gullibility
AT 1540 — The student from Paradise (Paris)
AT 1541 — For the long winter
AT 1542 — The clever boy
AT 1543* — The man without a member
AT 1544 — The man who got a night's lodging
AT 1545 — The boy with many names
AT 1553A* — The sailor's promise
AT 1560 — Make-believe eating; make-believe work
AT 1561* — The boy 'loses his sight'
AT 1562B — Wife follows written instructions
AT 1563 — 'Both'
AT 1568* — The master and the servant at the table
AT 1573** — Inspecting the daughter
AT 1574* — The flattering foreman
AT 1600 — The fool as murderer
AT 1620* — The conversation of the one-eyed man and the hunchback
AT 1628 — The learned son and the forgotten language
AT 1635* — Eulenspiegel's tricks
AT 1640 — The brave tailor
AT 1641 — Doctor know-all
AT 1651 — Whittington's cat
AT 1653AB — The robbers under the tree
AT 1655 — The profitable exchange
AT 1675 — The ox (ass) as mayor
AT 1678 — The boy who had never seen a woman
AT 1681* — Foolish man builds aircastles
AT 1682 — The groom teaches his horse to live without food
AT 1685+1696 — The foolish bridegroom + 'what should I have said/done'?
AT 1687 — The forgotten word
AT 1688B* — Two match-makers
(AT 1688A) + 1535 IV — Jealous suitors
AT 1698G — Misunderstood words lead to comic results
AT 1968J — 'Good day,' - 'a woodchopper'
A deaf man answers questions from another person with premeditated remarks that make no sense as the conversations unfolds (about his work etc.).
AT 1698K — The buyer and the deaf seller
AT 1701 — Echo answers
The questioner gets back the last words of the question as an answer, and is fooled by the echo.
AT 1718* — God can't take a joke
AT — A realistic demonstration
AT — The wise Lisbeth
AT — The man who will never say thanks
AT — The man and the mill
AT — The dead shall remain dead
AT — The filthy host and hostess
AT — The king and the soldier
AT — The horse stomach
AT — The soldier who ran away
AT — Drive out Elison
AT — Good-bye, you dirty world
AT — The boy from Vola
E. Jokes about parsons and religious orders
AT 1725 — The foolish parson in the trunk
AT 1730 — The entrapped suitors
AT 1735 — 'Who gives his own goods shall receive it back tenfold'
AT 1736 — The stingy parson
AT 1738A* — What does God do?
AT 1739 — The parson and the calf
AT 1745 — Three words at the grave
AT 1840 — At the blessing of the grave the parson's ox breaks loose
AT 1775 — The hungry parson
AT 1776 — The sexton falls into the brewing-vat
AT 1791 — The sexton carries the parson
AT 1792 — The stingy parson and the slaughtered pig
AT 1804 — Imagined penance for imagined sin
AT 1804* — The eel filled with sand
AT 1810 — Jokes about catechism
AT 1810A* — How many gods are there?
AT 1811B — The patience of Job
AT 1824 — Parody sermon
AT 1825A — The parson drunk
AT 1825C — The sawed pulpit
AT 1827 — You shall see me a little while longer
AT 1827A — Cards (liquor bottle) fall from the sleeve of the preacher
AT 1830 — In trial sermon the parson promises the laymen the kind of weather they want
AT 1832 — The sermon about the rich man
AT 1832* — Boy answers the priest
(AT 1832*D) — How many sacraments are there?
AT 1833 — Application of the sermon
AT 1833E — God died for you
AT 1833** — Other anecdotes of sermons
AT 1834 — The clergyman with the fine voice
AT 1835* — Not to turn round
AT 1836A — The drunken parson: 'Do not live as I live, but as I preach'
AT 1838 — The hog in church
AT 1841 — Grace before meat
AT 1843 — Parson visits the dying
AT 1844A — No time for sickness
AT 1845 — The student as healer
AT — The parson who was going to sell his daughter
AT — The bells of Heaven
AT — The greedy sexton
AT — The board in the bed
AT — The parson and the lieutenant
AT — About the parson who received a sausage as tithe
AT — The coughing in the sermons
AT — Worse than the parson
AT — The boy and the bishop
AT — Another matter
AT — The wager
AT — The peasant and the parson
AT — Father and son
AT — The sausage made of a parson
AT — The rich man condemned to death
AT — The fellow-sufferers
AT — Horse-intellect and parson-intellect
F. Tales of Lying
AT 1889B — Hunter turns animal inside out
AT 1889G — Man swallowed by fish
AT 1890 — The lucky shot
AT 1890D — Ramrod shot plus series of lucky accidents
AT 1894 — The man shoots a ramrod full of ducks
AT 1895 — A man wading in water catching many fish in his boots
AT 1896* — Hunting the wolves with rod and line
AT 1920 — Contest in lying
AT 1925 — Wishing contests
AT 1931 — The woman who asked for news from home
AT 1948 — Too much talk
AT 1950 — The three lazy ones
AT 1960A — The great ox
AT 1960B — The great fish
AT 1960C — The great catch of fish
AT 1960D — The great vegetable
AT 1960E — The great farmhouse
AT 1960G — The great tree
AT 1960G — The great tree
AT 1960H — The great ship
AT 1960K — The great loaf of bread; the great cake etc
AT 1960M — The great insect
AT 1960Z — Other stories of great objects and the like
AT 1960Z — Other stories of great objects and the like
AT 1961 — The big wedding
AT — Queen Victoria and the skipper from Lillesand
AT — A miraculous escape
AT — The strong storm
AT — Stuffed head
AT — The great ice lump
AT — The catch of blackcocks
AT — The man who overate himself
AT — Loose talkers
AT — The upside down stories
AT — Good luck
AT — I knew you were coming
AT — A swimming competition
AT — The thick fog
AT — The whale spawn island
AT — The louse in the binoculars
AT — The lead in the coffee-pot
AT — Be careful with the pork
AT — Bitter frost
AT — The man who was always falling asleep
AT — The ship's cat
AT — The jacket that returned.
AT — The strong draught
AT — Heavy seas
AT — The bear hunting
AT — The cat's eye
AT — The snail and the christening water
AT — A busy man
AT — The thriving ram
AT — Unusual hearing
AT — Unusual eye-sight
4. Formula Tales
A. Cumulative Tales
AT 2010I — How the rich man paid his servant
AT 2014A — The house is burned down
AT 2015 — The goat that would not go home
AT 2021 — The cock and the hen
A cock and a hen are gathering nuts. The hen gets a nut in her head/ a nut-shell in her throat and is about to die. The cock asks in vain all he meets for help. Finally he gets help and the hen is saved.
AT 2022 — The death of the little hen
AT 2025 — The fleeing pancake
A woman makes a pancake, which flees from the frying-pan. Various animals try in vain to stop it. Finally a hog or a fox eats it up.
AT 2027 — The fat cat
AT 2035 — House that Jack built
AT 2044 — Pulling up the turnip
AT 2075 — Tales in which animals talk
A hen reproaches the cock because she has not got the shoes she was promised. The cock entreats her to sell her eggs and buy the shoes herself. (The sounds of the animals are imitated.)
AT 2200 — Catch-tales
B. Catch tales
AT 2250 — Unfinished tales
A boy finds a key and a mysterious casket. He opens it. A calf's tail lies the casket. 'If the tail had been longer, the tale bad been longer too.'
AT 2271 — Mock stories for children
The tale is suddenly brought to an end after the introduction formula, for example by means of a rhyme.
AT 2320 — Rounds
The story is told to a certain point, then it starts again from the beginning. This can be repeated and repeated and repeated . . .
AT — The feather that turned into live hens
Some trivial event (a hen loses a feather) is told of among the animals and gradually grows bigger.
AT 2320 — Rounds
AT — The talk of the peas
5. Unclassified Narrationes Lubricae
AT — To tie knots on 'the arrow'
AT — The strange animal
AT — The boy and the clergyman
AT — The sexton, the boy, and the parson's wife
AT — The parson in our parish
AT — 'Hans the gay one'
AT — The maiden who pissed so far
AT — To heaven on her husband's member
A wife is dissatisfied with the size of her husband's member and admonishes him to do something to it. He receives help from a Finnish woman. The result exceeds all expectations.
AT — Baking waffles
AT — The boy who had so large a member
AT — Casting tin-plates
AT — A dangerous crevice
AT — The swollen finger
AT — The girl who took care of her maidenhood
AT — An avaricious parson
AT — The stupid bridegroom
AT — The dungbeetle and the snail
AT — ('Brudenuggen') The tailor and the bridegroom
AT — The wanton dead
AT — The old harmonica-player
AT — The king without a son
AT — The quack
AT — The girl who wanted the boy punished
AT — The lobster
AT — The three suitors
AT — The roomy type
AT — Try with butter first
AT — The foolish boy
AT — The boy who sold the he-goats
AT — The stick in the wall
AT — The man who confessed
AT — The housewife who should not fart
AT — 'Frisk-guss-spass-gass-ber-hu '
AT — The woodpecker hole
AT — The tough sausage
AT — Adam and Eve
AT — The wishing ring
AT — The wedding at Velkje
AT — The three suitors of the widow
AT — How the first organ-pipes originated
AT — The sailor and the student who pretended to be St. Peter and Our Lord
A sailor and a student stay with a rich and mean woman and make her believe that the world will come to an end the same night. The daughter loses her maidenhood and the mother all her money.
AT — The sailor who becomes sexton
AT — The student who could beget parsons, deans, and bishops at pleasure
AT — The penis and the shoesole
AT — Strange animals
AT — The Catholic Painter
A Catholic painter washes his hands in the holy-water, but escapes corporal punishment when he paints an image of the Virgin Mary on his penis. The parson believes that a miracle has happened.
The excellent, annotated series Norsk eventyrbibliotek (Norwegian Folk Tale Collection) edited by B. Alver (et. al) was published by Det norske Samlaget in Oslo 1967-1981, and contains 12 volumes. They are:
- Bø, Olav og Hodne, Bjarne eds: Dei tri blå tårni. Eventyr frå Telemark 1. Oslo: Det norske Samlaget, 1974. - 251 p.
- Bø, Olav, red: Dyret i hagjen: Eventyr frå Agder. Oslo: Det norske Samlaget, 1978. - 203 p.
- Alver, Brynjulf, red: Guten i gadden: Eventyr frå Sogn og Fjordane, Møre og Romsdal. Oslo: Det norske Samlaget, 1980. - 250 p.
- Bø, Olav, red: Guten som snudde på halvskillingen: Eventyr frå Hedmark og Oppland. Oslo: Det norske Samlaget, 1981.
- Kvideland, Reimund, red: Glunten og riddar rev: Eventyr frå Nord-Norge. Oslo: Det norske Samlaget, 1977. - 234 p.
- Bø, Olav ed: Guten som tente i tri år for tri skilling. Eventyr frå Telemark 2. Oslo: Det norske Samlaget, 1975. - 216 p.
- Alver, Brynjulf, ed: Jomfru Marias gudmorsgåve: Eventyr frå Hordaland. Oslo: Det norske Samlaget 1972. - 215 p.
- Alver, Brynjulf, red: Kongsdottera i koppartårnet: Eventyr frå Trøndelag. Oslo: Det norske Samlaget, 1970. - 287 p.
- Kvideland, Reimund, red: Lita-Frid-Kirsti: Eventyr frå Valdres, Numedal, Hallingdal og nedre Buskerud. Oslo: Det norske Samlaget, 1979.
- Alver, Brynjulf, red: Prinsessene som dansa i åkeren: Eventyr frå Rogaland. Oslo: Det norske Samlaget, 1967. - 206 p.
- Alver, Brynjulf ed: Ridder Skau og jomfru Dame: Eventyr frå Ringerike. Oslo: Det norske Samlaget, 1969. - 242 p.
- Alver, Brynjulv, ed: Sunnafor sør og nordafor nord: Eventyr frå Akershus, Vestfold og Østfold. Oslo: Det norske Samlaget, 1976.
Aarne, Antti. The Types of the Folktale: A Classification and Bibliography. Translated and Enlarged by Stith Thompson. 2nd rev. ed. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia / FF Communications, 1961.
Ashliman, D. L. A Guide to Folktales in the English Language. New York: Greenwood, 1987. ⍽▢⍽ Ashliman adheres to the type classification of Annti Aarne and Stith Thompson with 1,000 basic plots and enhances the AT type listing, yet streamlining it somewhat in that minor subtypes combined. A few new AT numbers have been inserted. Each described plot is presented in consisely, followed by the titles and central bibliographic data of published variants. Ashliman's summaries of tale types are rewritten to better elucidate the content of the tales. An index at the back includes entries by title, subject, and characters. There is also a ten-page bibliography of folktale collections, and a bibliography of 134 secondary sources.
Hodne, Ørnulf. The Types of the Norwegian Folktale. Bergen: Universitetsforlaget, 1984. ⍽▢⍽ The folklorist Hodne's catalogue conforms to the international catalogue of Aarne and Thompson. Hodne's work contains information about all known folktales in Norwegian - 4,200 variants in all. Hodne tells who were the tale informants, tale collectors and in what places tales tales were recorded, and of any printed editions of the variants. Hodne has included a group of aitiological tales among the folktales.
Uther, Hans-Jörg.
The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson. Vols 1-3.
FF Communications No. 284-86, Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2004.