Folklore & Mythology: Tale Type & Motif Indexes

Tale types refer to recurring plot patterns in folk-tales. Motifs are the building blocks, repeated story-elements, within these plot-patterns. Tale type indexes classify tales and and provide a concise description of the narrative plot. "When defining a tale type, a folklorist presents an outline of the main events of a number of narrative texts resembling each other. For example, the stories depicting the imprisonment of two children in a witch's or devil's house and their clever escape represent the tale type “The Children and the Ogre”; its main sequences of action are “arrival at ogre's house,” “the ogre deceived,” and “escape.” Tale type indexes allow researchers to "examine a certain narrative from a cross-cultural perspective."

The standard tale type index is Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography (also referred to as the Aarne-Thompson-Uther index). Each tale type is given a code (e.g., AT 327 “The Children and the Ogre”) and describes common themes and motifs. The tale type index is also crossed referenced with the Motif-Index of Folk-Literature.

Quote from Apo, Satu. "Tale Type." in Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Beliefs, Customs, Tales, Music, and Art.

There are a variety of tale type indexes covering various regions and cultures. These are a selection available at the UW Libraries. 

Additional tale and motif indexes are listed in Azzolina, David S. Tale Type- and Motif-Indexes: An Annotated Bibliography. Garland Pub., 1987.

Motifs are the smallest elements or building block of folktales - the distinguishing "details out of which full-fledged narratives are composed.” Motives can include archetypes, creatures, objects, phenomena, themes, and more. 

A motif index is a tool that identifies folktales by these distinguishing elements. It allows researchers to find folk narratives (tales, ballads, legends) across cultures that share similar motifs and is useful in comparative analysis. 

The most well-known, broad-ranging motif index is the Stith Thompson Motif-Index of Folk Literature. This index organizes motifs into twenty-six broad classes, each designated with a letter followed by numbers that identify more granular sub-categories. This classification scheme is used in other motif indexes. Classification example:

There are a variety of motif indexes covering various regions and cultures. These are a selection available at the UW Libraries. 

Additional tale and motif indexes are listed in Azzolina, David S. Tale Type- and Motif-Indexes: An Annotated Bibliography. Garland Pub., 1987.