These pages bring the ATU and AT Type Classifications together with the Thompson Motifs.
Look here if you are trying to locate online folk tales by ATU Type.
The AT Classification
The core of the list comes from the AT classification numbers and headings used by D.L. Ashlimann in his book:
A Guide to Folktales in the English Language. Because that book is a guide to folktales in English, he does not
use every type found in the AT classification.
Because I used Ashlimann's AT numbers as my base, the ATU numbers sometimes appear out of order. For example:
| ATU 1096 Sewing Contest | AT 1096 Contest in Sewing | K47.1. Sewing contest won by deception: the long thread. |
| ATU 43 Bear Builds a House of Wood, the Fox of Ice | AT 1097 House of Stone and House of Ice (now ATU 43) | J741.1. Bear builds house of wood; fox of ice. |
| ATU 1115 Attempted Murder with a Hatchet | AT 1115 Attempting to Kill the Hero in His Bed | K525.1. Substituted object left in bed while intended victim escapes. |
This looks odd in the ATU column, but makes sense if you look at the AT column.
ATU Classification is not complete
The ATU classification presented in these pages is not complete nor
comprehensive, but it does cover a significant portion of the classification.
The left column gives the ATU number and heading, the center column the AT number and Ashlimann's headings,
and the right column the Thompson Motifs found in the folktale. See the example below.
| ATU 303 The Twins or Blood-Brothers | AT 303 The Blood Brothers | T511.5.1.5.1. Conception from eating fish. |
| T589.7.1.7.1. Simultaneous birth of (domestic) animal and child. | ||
| E761. Life token. | ||
| R111.1.3.1.3. Rescue of princess (maiden) from dragon. | ||
| D231. Transformation: man to stone. | ||
| K1311.1.1. Husband's twin brother mistaken by woman for her husband. | ||
| T351. Sword of chastity | ||
| N342.3.3. Jealous and overhasty man kills his rescuing twin brother. * | ||
| B512. Medicine shown by animal. |
As you can see, one folk tale type can have many motifs.
The occasional NA in the motif column stands for "not available."
Either there is no motif associated with the tale or I could not find one.
The motifs assigned to the folk tale type are not exhaustive and some motifs may not be listed, Also,
not every motif assigned to a folk tale type is used in every story. Two stories assigned to the same folk tale
type might use different motifs and tell similar yet different stories.
If you are looking at a particular tale, Stith Thompson's The Types of the Folktale is invaluable.
He breaks the more complex tales into parts, gives variants, and lists motifs.
