Writing, Films & Other Creative Story-based Projects
We might write a story with a motif as it's seed, develop more interesting aspects to a character in a story, or help develop hidden symbols within a film. We also frequently get asked for consulting help if you'd like help, please let us know.
| X | Code | Original | Cultures |
|---|---|---|---|
| C229.3 | Tabu: eating griddle cakes (in Garden of Eden) | India | |
| C822 | Tabu: solving sphinx‘s riddle: sphinx perishes | Greek | |
| D1031.2.1 | Cake made by rubbing flour on griddle | Ireland | |
| F451.5.15 | Dwarfs give riddles and questions to mortals | ||
| F451.5.15.2 | Dwarf makes return of child dependent upon guessing of riddle | German | |
| G241.4.3 | Witch travels over water in a sieve or a riddle | Carolina, England, North Carolina, Scotland | |
| G303.12.5.5 | Girl married to devil escapes with answers to his riddles | U.S. | |
| G681 | Ogre gives riddle on pain of death | India, Slavic | |
| H383.1.2 | Bride test: cooking griddle cakes | India | |
| H509.4.2 | Riddles proposed as tests of poetic ability | Ireland | |
| H530 | Riddles | Jewish | |
| H540 | Propounding of riddles | Ireland | |
| H540.1 | Supernatural creatures propound riddles | Iceland, India | |
| H540.2 | Queen propounds riddles | ||
| H540.2.1 | Queen of Sheba propounds riddles to Solomon | Jewish | |
| H540.3 | King propounds riddles | ||
| H540.3.1 | Riddles sent to Solomon by King Hiram | Jewish | |
| H540.4 | Saint as propounder of riddles | Ireland | |
| H540.5 | Bridegroom propounds riddles at wedding feast | Jewish | |
| H541 | Riddle propounded with penalty for failure | India | |
| H541.1 | Riddle propounded on pain of death | England, Italian | |
| H541.1.1 | Sphinx propounds riddle on pain of death | Gascon, Greek, Hindu, Persian | |
| H541.2 | Riddle propounded on pain of loss of property | England | |
| H541.2.1 | Fine for failure to solve riddle | Jewish | |
| H541.3 | Riddle propounded on pain of loss of official position | ||
| H542 | Death sentence escaped by propounding riddle king (judge) cannot solve *Type 927; *De Vries FFC LXXIII 314f | Iceland, Spanish | |
| H542.1 | Riddle assigned defendant in action | India | |
| H543 | Escape from devil by answering his riddles | Jamaica, Lithuanian | |
| H543.1 | Devil held off from person by answering his riddles | ||
| H543.2 | Child in cradle guesses devil’s riddle: all are saved | Lithuanian | |
| H544 | Answers found in other world to riddles propounded on way | India | |
| H548 | Riddle contests | Hawaii, Iceland, Ireland | |
| H548.1 | King and rabbi exchange riddles | Jewish | |
| H551 | Princess offered to man who can out-riddle her | African, Filipino, India, Lithuanian | |
| H551.1 | Man wins wife by instructing her how to answer her mother‘s riddles | ||
| H551.2 | Woman gives self to solver of riddles | India | |
| H552 | Man marries girl who guesses his riddles | Ireland | |
| H561 | Solvers of riddles | ||
| H561.1 | Clever peasant girl asked riddles by king | India, Japanese | |
| H561.1.0.1 | Clever peasant wife asks king riddles | India | |
| H561.1.1 | Conflict between peasant and nobleman decided so that each must answer riddles: peasant’s daughter solves them | India | |
| H561.3.1 | King Solomon as master riddle-solver | Jewish | |
| H561.7 | Druid as solver of riddles | Ireland | |
| H561.8 | Cleric as solver of riddles | Ireland | |
| H561.10 | Saint as solver of riddles | Ireland | |
| H562 | Inscription on home of riddle-solver “I have no care | ||
| H565 | Riddle propounded from chance experience | ||
| H565.1 | Happenings before feast give Samson clue for riddles | Jewish | |
| H570 | Means of solving riddles | ||
| H572 | Reductio ad absurdum of riddle: stallions of Babylon | ||
| H573 | Answer to riddle found by trickery | ||
| H573.1 | Riddle solved with aid of hidden informant | Ireland | |
| H573.3 | Riddle solved by listening to propounder talk in his sleep | German | |
| H574 | Riddles solved with aid of propounder’s wife | Jewish | |
| H575 | Accidental discovery of answer to riddle | India | |
| H583 | Clever youth (maiden) answers king’s inquiry in riddles | India | |
| H630 | Riddles of the superlative | ||
| H631 | Riddle: what is the strongest? *Types 461, 875, 922; *BP II 357; *De Vries FFC LXXIII 84, Aarne FFC XXIII 129; Japanese: Ikeda | Japanese | |
| H632 | Riddle: what is the swiftest? *Type 875; *De Vries FFC LXXIII 69ff | ||
| H633 | Riddle: what is sweetest? Type 875; *De Vries FFC LXXIII 79ff | ||
| H634 | Riddle: what is the sweetest song? *Type 922; *Anderson FFC XLII 233; Irish myth: Cross | Ireland | |
| H635 | Riddle: what is the sweetest sound? Anderson FFC XLII 233; De Vries FFC LXXIII 90; Italian Novella: Rotunda | ||
| H636 | Riddle: what is the richest? Types 461, 875; BP III 357; Aarne FFC XXIII 129 | ||
| H637 | Riddle: what is the hardest? BP III 16 | ||
| H638 | Riddle: what is costliest? BP III 233 | ||
| H641 | Riddle: what is most beautiful? *BP II 357; Köhler-Bolte I 457f | ||
| H642 | Riddle: what is highest? De Vries FFC LXXIII 93 | ||
| H643 | Riddle: what is deepest? De Vries FFC LXXIII 92 | ||
| H644 | Riddle: what is longest? De Vries FFC LXXIII 93 | ||
| H645 | Riddle: what is the heaviest? De Vries FFC LXXIII 94 | ||
| H646 | Riddle: what is greenest? De Vries FFC LXXIII 94 | ||
| H647 | Riddle: what is the most beloved? De Vries FFC LXXIII 94 | ||
| H648 | Riddle: what is best? De Vries FFC LXXIII 95; *Krappe Revue Celtique XLVII 401ff | ||
| H651 | Riddle: what is brightest? De Vries FFC LXXIII 88 | ||
| H652 | Riddle: what is softest? De Vries FFC LXXIII 87; BP II 358 | ||
| H653 | Riddle: what is the fattest? De Vries FFC LXXIII 75ff | ||
| H659 | Riddles of the superlative--miscellaneous | ||
| H659.1 | Riddle: what is oldest? | ||
| H659.2 | Riddle: what four things are hardest to hold? Anderson FFC XLII 228 | ||
| H659.3 | Riddle: what are best and worst stones? | ||
| H659.4 | Riddle: what is the best fowl? | ||
| H659.5 | Riddle: what is best religion--Christian or Mohammedan? | ||
| H659.6 | Riddle: what kind of work occupies most men? | ||
| H659.7 | Riddle: what is greatest? | ||
| H659.9 | Riddle: what is wisest? | ||
| H659.10 | Riddle: what is most general? | ||
| H659.11 | Riddle: what is most useful? | ||
| H659.12 | Riddle: what is most shameful? | ||
| H659.13 | Riddle: what is most pleasant? | ||
| H659.14 | Riddle: what is easiest? | ||
| H659.15 | Riddle: what is the hardest to skin? | ||
| H659.17 | Riddle: what is the best time to eat? For the rich man, when he wishes; for the poor man, when he has something to eat | Spanish | |
| H660 | Riddles of comparison | Ireland | |
| H661 | Riddle: what is swifter than a bird, the wind or lightning? The eye | Gascon | |
| H662 | Riddle: what is dearer than gold? Mother love | Swiss | |
| H663 | Riddle: what is whiter than a swan? An angel | ||
| H671 | Riddle: what is sweeter than honey? (Cf | ||
| H672 | Riddle: what is softer than swan down? (Cf | ||
| H673 | Riddle: what is harder than stone? (Cf | ||
| H680 | Riddles of distance | ||
| H681 | Riddles of terrestrial distance | ||
| H681.1 | Riddle: how far is it from one end of the earth to the other (east to west)? *Type 922; *Anderson FFC XLII 146ff | ||
| H681.2 | Riddle: how deep is the earth (or how far to lower world)? Anderson FFC XLII 140 | ||
| H681.3 | Riddle: what is the center of the earth? *Type 922; Anderson FFC XLII 157 | ||
| H681.4 | Riddle: how deep is the sea? *Type 922; *Anderson FFC XLII 130 | ||
| H682 | Riddles of heavenly distance | ||
| H682.1 | Riddle: how far is it from earth to heaven? *Type 922; BP III 231; Anderson FFC XLII 113; Jewish: *Neuman | Jewish | |
| H682.2 | Riddle: how wide is heaven? Anderson FFC XLII 227 | ||
| H685 | Riddle: how far is it from happiness to misfortune? Anderson FFC XLII 215 | ||
| H690 | Riddles of weight and measure | ||
| H691 | Riddles of weight | ||
| H691.1 | Riddle: how much does the moon weigh? Anderson FFC XLII 172 | ||
| H691.2 | Riddle: how heavy is the earth? Anderson FFC XLII 143 | ||
| H696 | Riddles of measure | ||
| H696.1 | Riddle: how much water is in the sea? Anderson FFC XLII 134 | ||
| H700 | Riddles of numbers | ||
| H701 | Riddle: how many seconds in eternity? Anderson FFC XLII 232 | ||
| H702 | Riddle: how many stars in the heavens? *Type 922; BP III 231; Anderson FFC XLII 162ff | Spanish | |
| H703 | Riddle: how many hairs are in the head? *Types 922, 926**; BP III 231; Anderson FFC XLII 230 | ||
| H704 | Riddle: how many drops in the sea | ||
| H705 | Riddle: how many leaves are on the tree? Anderson FFC XLII 175; West Indies: Flowers 459 | West Indies | |
| H706 | Riddle: how many days have passed since the time of Adam? Anderson FFC XLII 227 | ||
| H707 | Riddle of dates | ||
| H710 | Riddles of value | ||
| H711 | Riddle: how much am I (the king) worth? Anderson FFC XLII 194; cf | ||
| H712 | Riddle: how much is my beard (king‘s) worth? *Type 875; De Vries FFC LXXIII 160; BP II 359 | ||
| H713 | Riddle: how much is a golden plow (throne, crown, palace) worth? *De Vries FFC LXXIII 160ff | ||
| H715 | Riddle: how much does the sun earn for his daily work? Anderson FFC XLII 226 | ||
| H716 | Riddle: how much is a certain crucifix worth? Twenty-nine pieces of silver | Italian | |
| H720 | Metaphorical riddles | Jewish | |
| H721 | Riddle of the year | ||
| H721.1 | Riddle: tree with twelve branches, each with thirty leaves, black and white | ||
| H721.2 | Riddle: tree with leaves white on one side and black on other | ||
| H721.3 | Riddle: twelve cypresses with thirty boughs each | Persian | |
| H721.4 | Riddle: palace consisting of 8760 stones; twelve trees, thirty branches, each with black and white cluster of grapes | ||
| H722 | Riddle of the day and night | ||
| H722.1 | Riddle: white brother, black sister: every morning brother kills sister; every evening sister kills brother; they never die | Gascon | |
| H722.2 | Riddle: black and white horses chasing each other | Persian | |
| H725 | Riddle of the course of the sun | ||
| H725.1 | Riddle: bird nests on top of one cypress in morning, on top of another in evening | Persian | |
| H726 | Riddle: who are the real travellers? The son and the moon | India | |
| H731 | Riddle of king and courtiers | ||
| H731.1 | Riddle: king in red; courtiers in white | ||
| H731.2 | Riddle: king in white; courtiers in white | ||
| H731.3 | Riddle: king in red; courtiers in different colors | ||
| H734 | Riddle: what is the mother who devours her children when they grow up? (Ocean and rivers | ||
| H741 | Riddle white field, black seed | ||
| H742 | Riddle: two legs, three legs, four legs | ||
| H743 | Riddle: four hang, four walk, two show the road, one wags behind | ||
| H744 | Riddle: six legs, four ears, two faces, etc | ||
| H746 | Riddle: bill white, horns on feet, knob on head (cock) | ||
| H751 | Riddle: who of fourfold beard is he, of azure foot and neck so ruddy? Arrow | India | |
| H761 | Riddle of the Sphinx: what is it that goes on four legs in the morning, on two at midday, and on three in the evening | Gascon, Greek | |
| H761.1 | Riddle: two are better than three (two legs better than man with staff in old age) | Jewish | |
| H762 | Riddle: what is the creature that is of all countries, that is loved by all the world, and that has no equal? (The sun | ||
| H763 | Riddle: the father not yet born, the son already at the top of the house | ||
| H764 | Riddle: bird without feathers flies on tree without leaves | ||
| H767 | Allegorical riddles | Ireland | |
| H767.1 | Riddle: what is that thou passest over with haste? (The field of youth; the mountains of youth, etc | Ireland | |
| H770 | Riddles of explanation | Jewish | |
| H771 | Riddle: why is the hair gray before the beard? (It is twenty years older | ||
| H772 | Riddle: why are there more days than nights? (The moon turns some nights into days | ||
| H773 | Riddle: why are there more living than dead? (There are some of the dead of whom we still speak | ||
| H774 | Riddle: why are there more women than men? (Some women make women [i | ||
| H790 | Riddles based on unusual circumstances | India | |
| H791 | Riddle: a fish was my father; a man was my mother | Norse | |
| H792 | Riddle of the unborn | Spanish, Swahili | |
| H793 | Riddle: seven tongues in a head | ||
| H795 | Relationship riddles arising from unusual marriages of relatives | Jewish | |
| H797 | Riddle: what does God do? Anderson FFC XLII 200 | ||
| H802 | Riddle: one killed none and yet killed twelve | Gold Coast, India, Jamaica | |
| H803 | Riddle: deaths from sleepiness, anger, and greed | India | |
| H804 | Riddle: from the eater came forth meat and from the strong sweetness | Jewish | |
| H805 | Riddle of the murdered lover | India | |
| H806 | Riddle: drink this wine which a bird took to nest | Spanish | |
| H810 | Riddles based on the Bible or legend | Jewish | |
| H811 | Riddle: who first spun and when? (Eve | ||
| H812 | Riddle: what were the clothes of Adam and Eve? (Their hair | ||
| H813 | Riddle: who, having neither father nor mother, are dead? (Adam and Eve | ||
| H814 | Riddle: who, having had father and mother, is not dead? (Elias | Jewish | |
| H815 | Riddle: who, having had father and mother, is not dead like other mortals? (Lot’s wife | ||
| H817 | Riddle: who has had, here below, two names? (Jacob-Israel | ||
| H821 | Riddle: what was the walking tomb with the living tenant? (Jonah and the whale | Jewish | |
| H822 | Riddle: what is the land that has seen the sun only once? (The bottom of the Red Sea during the passage of the Israelites | Jewish | |
| H824 | Riddle: what is that which has drunk water for its sustenance and eaten after its death? (Moses’s staff, which became a serpent | ||
| H825 | Riddle: the king is surrounded by his nobles; what is this like? (The idol Bel surrounded by the priests of the god | ||
| H826 | Riddle: what did Christ do in his 30th year? Answer: entered into his thirty-first | Italian | |
| H827 | Riddle: what does the king of the world of the Devas do? Punishes the bad people | India | |
| H831 | Riddle: what house was full of dead? (Philistines in the building demolished by Samson | Jewish | |
| H840 | Other riddles | ||
| H841 | Riddle: worth of the animal | ||
| H841.1 | Riddle: what animal is good living but not dead? (Ass | Ass. | |
| H841.2 | Riddle: what animal is good dead but not living? (Hog | ||
| H841.3 | Riddle: what animal is good living and dead? (Cow | Cow. | |
| H841.4 | Riddle: what animal is not good living or dead? (Wolf | ||
| H842 | Riddle: animal qualities | ||
| H851 | Riddle: what are the two fixed, the two moving, the two joined, the two separated by jealousy, the two eternal enemies? (Heaven and earth; sun and moon; night and day; soul and body; life and death | ||
| H861 | Riddle: what are the two combatants without hands or feet or words? (The bull and the buffalo | ||
| H862 | Riddle: what is that which is neither man nor jinn nor beast nor bird? (Louse and ant | ||
| H865 | Riddle: what do crows do when they are five years old? (They start their sixth year | ||
| H871 | 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 | ||
| H875 | Riddle: what is the difference between a poor man and a rich? (Riches | ||
| H878 | Riddle: what is it that one buys who does not want it or use it? (Coffin | ||
| H881 | Riddles with “none” as answer | ||
| H881.1 | Riddle: how many dead mice go to a feast? (None | ||
| H882 | Riddle: bottom and top of staff | ||
| H883 | Riddle: where is the root of the floor? Below | India | |
| H885 | Riddles about flax | Jewish | |
| H886 | Riddles about naphtha | Jewish | |
| H1278 | Quest to devil for answer to riddle questions | German | |
| H1553.6 | Test of patience by asking irrelevant riddles | Jewish | |
| J1161.7 | Ruler forbids blacksmith to reveal solution of riddle unless he has seen him 100 times | Italian | |
| K418 | The owner is duped by thief who gives him the task of solving a riddle about the theft just accomplished | Lithuanian, Russian | |
| Q499.8 | Humiliating penance: king to rub nose five times on red hot griddle | India | |
| R154.2.1 | Son frees father by bringing riddle the king cannot solve | Spanish | |
| X1031.4.1 | Lie: skating with bacon to grease griddle in big kitchen | U.S. |
About StorySearch
The Project
This website is a search engine of almost 50,000 patterns within stories world over called "Motifs" and several projects fueled by this search engine.
The Motif Collection
The work comes from a folklorist named Stith Thompson who spent his life reading and cataloging these stories which he published as the Motif Index of Folklore and Literature. You can read more about his work here: Wikipedia page for Stith Thompson
The Goal
While we have Mr. Thompson's motifs, we have yet to track down all of the stories he read, which is our ultimate goal. We then will provide the stories for all to read, explore and see the connections and commonalities between these stories which we hope to further understandings between cultures and deeper into ourselves.
The Stories
Of course, since there are a current total of 46,248 motifs, we've estimated there to be as many as 51,822 stories which might take some time to collect.
The Strategy
For now, we are working to build a crowdsourcing application to help us collect, organize these stories along with tagging the motifs within them.
Until then, please use the following FAQ.
Frequently Asked Questions about Story Search
What do you use this site for?
We use it to find stories, or to know there are stories worldwide with patterns in them. From there, we've found three common uses:
Lectures, Professional & other Metaphor Development
Another common request is from people wanting to tell better stories in their work. This might be someone trying to communicate a tricky idea which is in need of a good metaphor. Since we know these "story seeds" have proven themselves to be quite memorable, we try to adapt motifs to fit as a solid and simple metaphor. We've helped Scientists, Lawyers, Medical Organizations, and even those in the Financials Industry to help better convey what they are doing by telling a better story.
Storytelling, Mentoring & Narrative Therapy
And last (usually the most important in the story world) but not least, we do a lot of work with how people can grow and develop parts of who they are and the connection therein through story. So, we might tell research specific stories to tell a child or youth who is working through an issue, such as dealing with anger, attention issues, or life changes by carefully choosing a motif which can help them understand what they're dealing with. (This works well for adults too.)
If you find a new usage for these, please tell us.
What exactly is a Motif?
A Motif is a trait common between two stories. They can be from nearby places, but the interesting ones (we find) are from very different parts of the world. That is to say, two ideas that simultaneously erupted most likely independently. This is because we can then develop a theory about well, pretty much anything.
Let's give you an example of two excerpts from stories so you can spot their motifs.
Sedna - Eskimo
In this mortal peril the father determined to offer Sedna to the birds and flung her overboard. She clung to the edge of the boat with a death grip. The cruel father then took a knife and cut off the first joints of her fingers. Falling into the sea they were transformed into whales, the nails turning into whalebone. Sedna holding on to the boat more tightly, the second finger joints fell under the sharp knife and swam away as seals; when the father cut off the stumps of the fingers they became ground seals.
Handless Maiden - Germany
The devil still could not approach her, he was very angry, and ordered the miller, "Chop off her hands, so I can get to her."
The miller was horrified and answered, "How could I chop off my dear child's hands? No, I will not do it."
"Then do you know what? I will take you, if you don't do it!"
That frightened the miller terribly, and driven by fear he promised to do what the devil had ordered. He went to his daughter and said, "My child, the devil will take me if I don't chop off both your hands, and I have promised him that I will do it. I beg for your forgiveness."
"Father," she said, "do with me what you will," stretched forth her hands, and let him chop them off.
Interpretations
What could we infer about this story? Well, we might use it to interpret a major plot point in another storyline such as Star Wars, Winter's Bone or Game of Thrones.
We might see it as a symbol for the the loss of ability, that is to say, the loss of the ability to do things.
And so, it might be a useful story to tell someone who has issues with motivation, or the lack of the ability to do things.
We'd also be very curious what the relationship between the symbolic "father" is in each of these stories is, including the three newer stories we mentioned.
Where did you get all of the info about Motifs and Stories?
This search engine is a digitized version of the life work comes of a folklorist named Stith Thompson who spent his life reading and cataloging stories which he published as the Motif Index of Folklore and Literature. This book is very hard to come by, as are many of the books Mr. Thompson referenced. We will be collecting the stories (with the help of folks on the internet) to allow everyone to enjoy and educate themselves about this work.
I have a story I'd really like to find. Can you send it to me?
If we can find it, yes, we will definitely try to so you're always welcome to ask. We don't have digital copies of all of the books referenced in the search engine yet, but we currently have more than two thirds of the 800 or so. Feel free to use the contact form, and we will let you know what we can do.
When I be able to read all of the stories online?
That is hard to tell because it is dependent on two things: our helpers and funds.
Feedback - If you have feedback to offer as far as features you'd like, or requests for stories, this helps us polish the new systems we are putting in place in order to collect all of Stith's stories. Don't hesitate to use our contact form.
Donate Time - If you would like to donate some of your time to help comb stories, please fill out the form below.
Donate Funds - Or, you can use the fully tax deductible donation to our 501(c)3 non-profit hosting organization the Center for Symbolic Studies via a form at http://symbolicstudies.org
How can I help?
We've created a twitter feed for StorySearch, and since it is using his work, we've put the feeds under the name @StithThompson.
Every 15 minutes, a new random motif is tweeted. Below are the 20 most recent tweets:
Video
Writing
TEDx - Lower East Side
Here is a talk by the creator of the Story Search, Richard Schwab, did on myth featuring stories about ways we use this site. October 25th 2013.