We are all weird sometimes (A to Z Challenge reflections)

This was by far my most successful A to Z Challenge yet! My blog hit an all-time high in visits (more than 8,000 hits over any other month before), and people left over 500 comments on my posts! I also gained new followers, both on the blog and on the Following folktales around the world Facebook page. My three most popular posts were Lobsters Mistaken for Norwegians (this one won by a huge margin), Person transformed into anthill, and Poisonous white hair in eyebrow. In terms of blog traffic, this month was definitely a win.
(Find all 26 posts here)

This was the first year we did the Challenge without a list. As a co-host, I found this very comfortable. I liked posting my link every day, and writing witty (heh) one-liners to lure people in. I also enjoyed others doing the same, and it was good to know that if someone posted a link, their blog was definitely active. It seemed like the new system inspired people to not only link, but also promote and "pitch" their daily posts, which in turn made me want to go and read more of them.

As for the theme itself: I really enjoyed working my way through the Motif Index. I think every storyteller should do it at least once. Apart from the motifs I chose for my posts, and the runner-ups, I also ended up looking up various other stories, and expanding my storytelling repertoire.
Here are some things I learned:

1. The Motif Index is far from perfect. I found various mistakes in references, as well as misinterpretations of motifs, and even the occasional mistranslation or two. Thompson tended to look at stories through a particular lens, and sometimes the names he gave to motifs do not reflect the meaning of the story at all. Which takes me to my second realization:

2. Things that sound weird out of context actually make sense within the story. It is easy to read a motif title and go "Whaaaaaat the...?!" - but that is mostly due to Thompson's whimsical titles. Once you go and read the actual tale, more often than not the WTF element makes perfect sense, and reveals its actual meaning. Which leads to:

3. The same motif can mean very different things in different cultures. This is one of the big limitations of Thompson's index: He tends to put things under the same number, even if (like in the mouse story) they have very different meanings or messages in context. Which also reveals another problem:

4. The motif index needs to be expanded to include cultures Thompson did not explore. While the sources of the original index are very diverse, they by no means include all cultures or all stories in the world. When folklorists publish indexes (such as this one), they often have to expand on Thompson's numbers, since some of them are too vague, and some are too specific, to be universal.
(A good update on the index, for practicing storytellers, is Margaret Read MacDonald's Storyteller's Sourcebook.)

And finally, but most importantly:

5. The folktales of the world are a lot more diverse, varied, colorful, and rich, than most people would ever imagine. It is time that we acknowledged that, and looked beyond making blanket statements such as "folktale princesses are always damsels in distress!" or "there are no pregnant woman heroes in folklore" (heard the latter one from a storyteller). Or maybe we should stop re-adapting the same 5 fairy tales over and over and over again?...
There is a story for pretty much everything and anything out there. Of course the oral tradition is an ever changing, ever expanding, living thing, so if there is no story for one particular situation - wait a few generations, and there will be!

I never intended this series to say "Folktales are weird." My goal, which I hope I accomplished, was to say "Folktales are gloriously strange and intriguing and creative, and we should all be more familiar with them!" Our ancestors had wisdom, but they also had a great sense of humor, and they knew how to make a (sometimes sarcastic) point about the world and the human condition - messages that cross temporal and cultural boundaries. Quoting Kevin Kling, one of my favorite American storytellers: "Kindly rely on the strangeness of others!"

And talking about the strangeness of others: 

Here are some of my favorite themes from this year!

Here is a princess on a turtle,
because why not :)

Sara C. Snider's Magical and Medicinal Herbs (I learned a lot from this one!)
Sophie Duncan's Dragon Diaries (I absolutely adored all of her dragon stories!)
Deborah Weber's Pronoia theme (I learned a lot of new, lovely words and concepts)
C. D. Gallant-King's Weird Canadian Facts and History (See, Canadians can be weird too!)
Emily Bloomquist's Life in Ecuador (Ecuadorians can be weird too)
Pamela and Ken's Highland Days of Fun (and the Scottish too)
Sharon Himsl's Female Scientists Before Our Time (which I adored!)

Sarah Zama's Film Noir theme (which I learned a lot from!)
Anna Tan's whimsical Princess Stories (which made me giggle a lot)

There were, of course, many, many others. If you want to go back and read them, you can do so by visiting the comments sections of the posts on the main blog.

Thank you all for making A to Z such a great experience this year! And yes, I already have a theme in mind for 2018... See you all next April!

Z25. Fly forgets her name (WTF - Weird Things in Folktales)

Welcome to my A to Z Challenge blog series titled WTF - Weird Things in Folktales! Find the introduction post (explaining the theme) here. Find all other participating blogs in the comments of each day's post on the main blog! You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Z, the last word on the list, obvious stands for Miscellaneous Motifs. It is kind of a catch-all for everything that did not fit elsewhere, including chain-tales and endless tales, most of which do not make much sense in the end, but are great entertainment for little kids (of endless frustration, depending on what kind of a kid you are). Here is one of them:

Z25. Fly forgets her name

This is a folktale from India, conveniently called The fly who forgot her name. I'm just going to copy and paste the beginning, because.

A fly having plastered her house with cow-dung forgot her name. Seeing a wood-cutter pass with an axe in his hand she addressed him thus:
"Oh wood-cutter, wood-cutter, what is my name?"
"I do not know your name. Ask the axe which is in my hand."
"Oh axe, axe, what is my name?"
"I don't know you name. Ask the tree which comes to be felled down by the axe."
"Oh tree, tree, what is my name?..."

You get the idea. It goes from the tree to the bird who sits on the tree, from the bird to the water the bird drinks, from the water to the moss that grows in the water, from the moss to the fish that eats the moss, from the fish to the fisherman, from the fisherman to the fishwoman, from the fishwoman to the cook who buys the fish, from the cook to the maid who prepares the dishes, from the maid to the master who eats the meal, from the master to the horse he rides, and from the horse to the foal in the horse's belly. Finally, the horse says: "Is not your name a fly?"

"In surprise, the fly put her finger on her nose and went her way."

(Find the book here.)

And with that, I'm also putting my finger on my nose, and going my way. It has been amazing, A to Z people! Thank you all for the visits and the comments and the wonderful blogs to read! I'll see you all for Reflections on May 8th! :)

Runner-ups
Z15. Tale avoiding all pronouns
Z21.1. Origin of chess
Z33.2. The fat cat.
Z41.4.1. Mouse bursts open when crossing a stream
Z61.4. “He struck him such a blow that he remembered the milk he drank on the sixth day after he was born.”
Z71.1.13. Three persons who spoke immediately after birth
Z71.1.18. Three bad stories of the saints of Ireland
Z71.6.2. Nine whirlpools of the world
Z71.16.1.4. Eight unprofitable types of fasting
Z115.1. Man takes case against wind for damages
Z181. Nudity as sign of anger

Why canaries are yellow (WTF - Weird Things in Folktales)

Welcome to my A to Z Challenge blog series titled WTF - Weird Things in Folktales! Find the introduction post (explaining the theme) here. Find all other participating blogs in the comments of each day's post on the main blog! You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Y is the third and final letter that has been excluded from the Motif Index. Once more, I searched for words that start with Y, and someone on Twitter suggested Yellow. I was not disappointed.

A2391.1 Why canary's eggs are yellow

First off: This is another one of Thompson's misnomers. The story actually explains why canary's feathers are yellow. It is a Flemish legend.

This one looks a little hung over

According to the story, canaries used to be white. One day, however, they went out to celebrate on a feast day, and got a little too much to drink. Instead of sitting on their eggs, they were out late into the night. When they returned home, the male canary fell into the nest and broke the eggs; his feathers were stained golden yellow from them. The female fell in too, but since the male had already soaked up most of the yolk, she did not get the same bright color.

I feel like this story was supposed to teach us something.

(Story in German here.)

X11. Red pepper for the slow ass (WTF - Weird Things in Folktales)

Welcome to my A to Z Challenge blog series titled WTF - Weird Things in Folktales! Find the introduction post (explaining the theme) here. Find all other participating blogs in the comments of each day's post on the main blog! You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

X in the Motif Index stands for Humor. You would think it would be an endless chapter, but actually it is not all that long. It includes jokes, lies, Münchhausen tales, and the favorite practical jokes of various tricksters ("X34. - Use of itch-producing ointment"). Among them I found a story that my grandfather used to tell... as if it happened to him.

(You know you grew up in the oral tradition when you read folktales and go "But... Grandpa told me he did that!!!")

X11. Red pepper for the slow ass

To my endless surprise, this is originally a Nasreddin Hodja story (I always knew Grandpa was a professional trickster). 

The Hodja has a very stubborn donkey. He goes out to cut firewood, but the donkey refuses to move on the way home. A man rides by on a very vigorously prancing donkey, and the Hodja asks him how he made the animal move so quickly. For a small fee, the man agrees to tell the Hodja his secret.

"Once you are done loading up the firewood, buy some red pepper, and smear it on the donkey's butt. Then you'll see how fast he goes."

The Hodja does just that. The moment the red pepper starts burning, the donkey shoots down the road, running towards home. The Hodja realizes he can't keep up... so he decides to use the same trick on himself. Lo and behold, it works. The Hodja runs so fast that he overtakes the donkey, and gets home first. His wife is in the doorway, and she hears him yelling as he runs past:

"The donkey is right behind me! Please unload him while I run a couple of times around the village..."

(To be clear, my Grandpa claimed to be the other guy, not the Hodja.)

(Found the story in English here, in German here, and in Hungarian here.)

Runner-ups
X31.2. Pig licks sleeping man’s lips: man thinks he is being kissed
X142.1. Dwarf king falls into porridge-pot at court of human king
X222. Tailor always associated with goat
X351. Music teacher charges double for those who have taken music before
X372.3. Eyedrops prescribed for stomach ache so that patient can see what he eats
X372.4.1. Man with cheeks stuffed with food operated on to remove swellings
X413. One-eyed parson in dimly lighted church joins the wrong couples
X435.3. Parson: Where was Christ when he was neither in heaven nor on earth?--He was in the willow-grove looking for a stick to beat those who ask foolish questions
X651. Battle between lice of Strassburg and of Hungary
X1280.1.1. Bumblebees imported to rout mosquitoes; the two insects crossbreed and have stingers on both ends

W111.2.5. Boy to see whether there is fire in the house: feels cat to see if she is warm (WTF - Weird Things in Folktales)

Welcome to my A to Z Challenge blog series titled WTF - Weird Things in Folktales! Find the introduction post (explaining the theme) here. Find all other participating blogs in the comments of each day's post on the main blog! You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

W is for Traits of Character, both favorable and unfavorable. Folktales are full of nice and less nice characters, and their personalities are represented through various actions - some more peculiar than others. Tales depicting extraordinary laziness (W111) are especially entertaining. Observe:

W111.2.5. Boy to see whether there is fire in the house: feels cat to see if she is warm 

This story, commonly known and shared around Europe in the Middle Ages, features an extraordinarily lazy servant. When his lord tells him to get up and see if it rained, the servant calls in the dog instead, to see if it is wet. When asked whether there is enough fire in the house, the servant, instead of checking the fireplace, calls in the cat and pets it, to see if it is warm. When his lord asks why the door has been open all night, the servant answers: "I knew you would ask me to open it in the morning, so I left it open the night before to save myself the trouble."

Let's face it, we all know that person (like someone who asks the phone if it's raining instead of looking out the window). Also, most of us have been that person, from time to time. I know from experience that you sometimes only notice it's raining when the dog comes in soaking wet...

(Read the French version of the story here, the German version of the story here, and the Yiddish version of the story here.)

Runner-ups
W11.9. Prince donates all including a tooth
W11.16. Generous king gives away his only eye
W28.4. Saint threatens to take place of homicide in hell unless soul is released.
W111.1.1.1. Man is burned to death because he is too lazy to put out spark
W111.5.13. Man weeds garden from cushioned rocking chair, using fire tongs to reach weeds
W116.7. Use of strange language to show one’s high education
W128.3. Dissatisfied rivers complain against sea
W152.3. Stingy dead woman raises her head to correct account of laundress, who is overcharging her daughter
W152.7. Spider in stingy woman‘s house grows thin
W152.12.2. Stingy farmer encourages help by promise of hot lunch. The servant discovers that the hot lunch is a mustard sandwich.
W152.14.2. Man saves sausage skins, sends them back for refilling
W212.1. Eager warriors go through tent wall

U114. Mountain in labor brings forth a mouse (WTF - Weird Things in Folktales)

Welcome to my A to Z Challenge blog series titled WTF - Weird Things in Folktales! Find the introduction post (explaining the theme) here. Find all other participating blogs in the comments of each day's post on the main blog! You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

U in the Motif Index stands for the (rather short) category of The Nature of Life. It includes stories about injustices and inequalities, and wisdoms about how life is. It includes such entertaining tidbits as "U115. - The skeleton in the closet," or

U114. Mountain in labor brings forth a mouse 

This fable from Aesop is so short, I'm just going to copy and paste it.

"One day people noticed a Mountain in labor; smoke coming out of its summit, the earth quaking at their feet, trees crashing, and huge rocks tumbling. They felt sure something horrible was going to happen. They all gathered together to see what terrible thing this could be. They waited and they waited, but nothing came. Suddenly there was a still more violent earthquake, and a huge gap appeared in the side of the Mountain. The people all fell down upon their knees and waited. At last, a teeny mouse poked its little head and bristles out of the gap and came running down towards them."

Moral of the story: "Don't make much ado about nothing."
Moral of the story according to Phaedrus: "Some people make loud threats but don't deliver."

Read a bunch of versions of the Aseop's fable here. Read the Phaedrus translation here.

Runner-ups
U11.1.1.1. Animals confess sins to lion holding court
U11.2. He who steals much called king; he who steals little called robber
U15.0.1. Dwarf king (fairy) laughs at the absurdities he sees about him
U21.1. Hen complains that man eats her, but she eats ant
U67. Jester takes cow and tells king people have plenty of milk, for “he who is warm thinks everyone else is.”
U68. Optimist becomes pessimist when his money is stolen
U112. Beard on she-goats do not make a male
U119.5. Stories to show that one’s name does not alter his condition
U137. Mill horse when taken to war keeps going in a circle, as he has learned in the mill

R9.1.2. Sun and Moon captured by creditor, thus causing eclipse (WTF - Weird Things in Folktales)

Welcome to my A to Z Challenge blog series titled WTF - Weird Things in Folktales! Find the introduction post (explaining the theme) here. Find all other participating blogs in the comments of each day's post on the main blog! You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

R in the Motif index is for Captives and Fugitives - including such folktale staples as "R11.1. -  Princess (maiden) abducted by monster," "R11.2.1. - Devil carries off wicked people," and of course "R111.1.3. - Rescue of princess (maiden) from dragon."

R9.1.2. Sun and Moon captured by creditor, thus causing eclipse

This story was collected from the Didayi people in Orissa, India.

The whole thing starts with the wedding of the Sun and the Moon, arranged by Rumrok, the supreme god. Platters were made of leaves for the wedding feast, but the last platter needed one more bamboo pin. Rumrok borrowed one from a merchant, and the wedding was duly celebrated.
After the wedding, Rumrok had a quarrel with the Sun, and went to live separately. Some time later, the merchant showed up, asking for the return of the bamboo pin, but Rumrok sent him to the Sun, since he was now the head of the house. The Sun returned the pin, but the merchant did not accept it - saying that with interest, the Sun now owed him one lakh (one hundred thousand) pins. The Sun could not pay, so he sent the merchant away.
Years passed by, and the merchant kept showing up; the Sun kept hiding from his creditor. One day the merchant threatened him, saying he would take his wife the Moon as payment. So ever since then, whenever the merchant shows up to collect their debt, the Sun and the Moon hide in their house, only leaving a crack in the door so they can peek out and see when the debtor is gone...

(Read the story here. Pg. 52)

Runner-ups
R5.1. Enemy host imprisoned by earthen walls thrown up by hero’s chariot wheels
R7. Men held captive in the Land of Women
R9.2. Grain and pulse in human form imprisoned by wicked king
R9.5. Cow imprisoned until it promises not to eat men
R9.6. King imprisons all living creatures
R13.1.3. Rhinoceros carries off man
R13.1.8. Abduction by rabbit
R13.2.3. Abduction by cat
R33. Fairy physician abducted to heal wounded mortals.
R115. King transformed to parrot frees captured parrots
R121.4. Ants carry silk threads to prisoner, who makes rope and escapes
R121.10. With her teeth woman files away chain tying up husband
R169.3. Boy saved by werwolf
R212.1.2. Captive buried alive to his neck fastens his teeth on jackal that comes to eat him and companions
R351.1. Milk drops from woman’s breast on tiger‘s leg and reveals her hiding place in tree

Q551.1. Undutiful son punished by toad clinging to face (WTF - Weird Things in Folktales)

Welcome to my A to Z Challenge blog series titled WTF - Weird Things in Folktales! Find the introduction post (explaining the theme) here. Find all other participating blogs in the comments of each day's post on the main blog! You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Q in the Motif Index stands for Rewards and Punishments. You encounter some fairly common folktale elements in it such as "Q112. - Half of kingdom as reward", or "Q45. - Hospitality rewarded." This section also lists all kinds of horrible executions and punishments (which are also a folklore staple), including:

Q551.1. Undutiful son punished by toad clinging to face 

This very popular medieval anecdote, known from French, German, and English sources, tells of a son who is too gluttonous and stingy to share his meal with his own mother or father. 

According to the story, the son of a wealth family inherits all his money and properties from his parents - and yet when one of them pays him a visit, the young man hides the meat / roast chicken / other delicacies away in a box, and lies to them, saying he does not have any food to share. After driving the parent away, the son returns to the meal - only to find a toad (or sometimes two toads) sitting on it. The toad launches itself at the son's face and latches on, impossible to remove (and, in some cases, blocking his mouth so he cannot eat). The sinner then goes to the bishop /archbishop / other church person for penance, and is paraded around as a cautionary tale against gluttony and for the importance of filial duties.

TOAD IN THE FACE!

Bring this up to your kids next time they don't want to share the Halloween candy.

(Read about this story here, here, here, or here.)

Runner-ups
Q42.6. Reward for tearing out eye when demanded
Q57.1. Reward for shielding Mary in childbirth from gaze of onlookers
Q88.1. Fra Lippo Lippi is freed by Moors because of his greatness as a painter
Q115.2. King promises daughter she may marry anyone she desires
Q151.2. Death passes by man who fed his stepmother
Q211.7. Punishment for splitting head and eating man‘s brains
Q265.2.1. Blotches on face of satirist (judge) as punishment for wrongful satire (judgment)
Q281.3. Woman eats flesh and leaves cat only bones of fish cat has caught for them. Cursed by cat
Q291.1. St. Peter’s mother dropped from heaven because of hardheartedness
Q415.2. Mice devour hard-hearted man
Q451.0.3. Strong girl breaks impudent suitor‘s right hand and left foot
Q497.1. Moustache pulled out as punishment
Q499.8. Humiliating penance: king to rub nose five times on red hot griddle
Q551.1.1. Betel-nut grows upon a person‘s knee as a punishment
Q551.8.4. Man’s eye bursts forth when he urges saint to marry
Q589.2. Man goes forth naked: cursed with nakedness throughout life

P327. Barmecide feast (WTF - Weird Things in Folktales)

Welcome to my A to Z Challenge blog series titled WTF - Weird Things in Folktales! Find the introduction post (explaining the theme) here. Find all other participating blogs in the comments of each day's post on the main blog! You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

P in the Motif Index stands for Society, and the people in it: Kings and Queens and where they come from; artisans, peasants, people of the church - as well as families ("P233.8. - Prodigal son returns"). It also includes law, military affairs, hospitality, things that go with dealing with other people ("P361. - Faithful servant"). The story I found the most entertaining was

P327. Barmecide feast 

On the thirty-first of the Thousand and One Nights, a barber tells a tale about his past adventures (The barber's tale of himself).

The story begins in Baghdad, where ten highway robbers had been arrested, and they are being taken to the Caliph for judgment. They are being embarked on a boat just when the Barber walks up, and seeing the ten men getting the boat, he immediately jumps into the conclusion that they must be going to a wedding feast. Not wanting to miss out (FOMO), he gets in the boat with them.

The boat takes the prisoners to the opposite bank of the river, where they are chained - the Barber along with them. He is too polite to complain, and never says a word. The robbers are taken to the Caliph, who orders them to be beheaded. The executioner goes down the line with a sword, striking heads off... until only the Barber remains.

Here is where things get a little confusing. The Caliph demands to know why the executioner only killed nine of the prisoners. The executioner swears up and down that he cut ten heads off, but the Caliph points out that one man is still alive, therefore they must have miscounted. In the end, they count the heads again, and turns out that ten are dead, and the Barber makes eleven. At this point a very confused Caliph asks the Barber who he is, and just what on earth he is doing in the lineup. The Barber very politely explains what happened, how he misunderstood a situation, but he did not want to make a fuss about it. 

The Caliph falls over laughing.

(Read the story here.)

Now, "Barmecide" according to the dictionary means "illusory or imaginary." The term comes from the Arabian Nights itself - and it is directly related to our Barber above. The Barber tells the Caliph stories about his brothers. The sixth brother, impoverished, seeks charity at the house of the Barmecides, a noble family famous for its generosity. The old Barmecide pretends to serve him food and drinks - but it is all just play. Still, the beggar goes through the motions, even pretending to get drunk from the invisible wine. The lord of the house is so pleased with his miming capabilities that he keeps him around as a guest for twenty years.

Runner-ups
P11.0.1. Prophecy that brother who first kisses saint will be king
P14.6. King‘s (prince’s) sulking chamber. He sulks here until his wishes are carried out
P14.7. None permitted to enter hall of king unless he possesses an art
P15.4. King is cursed by disguised dwarf-smiths whose work he criticised
P19.3. King must procure whatever visiting poets ask, or suffer from their satire
P192.4. Fool can live under water
P214. Wife drinks blood of slain husband
P233.3. Berserks scold their father who apparently without reason called their adversary invincible
P311.2. Flower-friendship
P341. Teacher dies of pride over success of pupil
P412.3. Hero as rabbit-herd
P427.7.2.1.1. Poets and fools closely allied.
P641. Injured husband will not kill a naked man.

Oil sold to iguana (WTF - Weird Things in Folktales)

Welcome to my A to Z Challenge blog series titled WTF - Weird Things in Folktales! Find the introduction post (explaining the theme) here. Find all other participating blogs in the comments of each day's post on the main blog! You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Once again, there is no O in the Motif Index (probably because it looks too much like a zero). So I just searched for random terms that begin with O in the Motif Index, and came up with this gem:

J1852.1.2 Oil sold to iguana

This is a folktale from the Shan people in Southeast Asia, titled The Poor Man.

The tale tells about a poor man who wants to make some money. He hears about a city where there is a shortage of oil, so he borrows money from his friends, buys two gourds of oil, and sets out to sell it. On the way to the city he sees an iguana; the iguana sees him too and runs. The man chases the iguana, hoping to catch it for dinner, but the lizard disappears in a hole in the ground. The man starts digging - and lo and behold, finds three pots full of gold, and three pots full of silver. He tosses the gourds of oil away, takes the six pots, and sets out to the city.

When he gets to the marketplace, he wants to walk around, but the pots are very heavy. He goes to a house, and asks the people who live there to watch his pots, saying "there is only a little oil in them." He spends the day strolling around the market, enjoying the thought of being rich... and by the evening, he completely forgets which house he left the pots in. So he goes from door to door, asking for his pots of oil, but everyone denies having them.

Disappointed and tired, the poor man goes back to the hole of the iguana, hoping to find more gold. What he does find, however, is a day's wages in coin, and a written note: "The owner of the gold and silver thanks you for carrying his pots to the city."

The poor man goes home and remains poor.

(Read the story here.)

I have so many questions. Who was the owner of the pots? Was it the guy the poor men left the pots with? Was it someone else? Was it the iguana?!?!

N339.5. Uxorious king is burned to death while taking an alcohol bath (WTF - Weird Things in Folktales)

Welcome to my A to Z Challenge blog series titled WTF - Weird Things in Folktales! Find the introduction post (explaining the theme) here. Find all other participating blogs in the comments of each day's post on the main blog! You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

N in the Motif Index stands for Chance and Fate. It includes wagers and gambling ("N2.5. - Whole kingdom as wager"), treasure troves, divine helpers... and what I personally like to call the Folktale Darwin Awards. Behold an example:

N339.5. Uxorious king is burned to death while taking an alcohol bath 

For those of you like me, who never heard the word before: Uxorious means "having or showing an excessive or submissive fondness for one's wife." Which is totally NOT what is happening in this story. 

Although it is marked as a folktale motif, this story comes from the Novellas of Matteo Bandello, a 16th century Italian writer. His stories, just like other books of novellas such as the Decameron, are based on older tale types, anecdotes, and other folk genres. In this case, a very popular medieval legend about the death of Charles II of Navarre.

Bandello paints a none-too-kind picture of King Charles. He claims that he was a "man of very ill fashions and very cruel" - sins including siding with the English against the French, rebelling against the dauphin Charles (later Charles V) and killing many Parisians, sacking and burning towns and slaughtering people, ruling Navarre in terror by massacring men and ravishing women, and beheading envoys who were pleading with him to lower taxes. So, not a nice person.

Of course there is a painting

Legend says that Charles was "very old and decrepit", but still lustful and "never without a concubine." Shortly before his death he lusted after a woman of twenty-two years, and after a hard day of beheading envoys, he wanted to sleep with her - but alas, he "felt himself wax very feeble." In order to get his strength back up, he had himself wrapped in sheets soaked in spirits of wine (alcohol), and stood in a room, surrounded by copper vessels filled with red-hot coals. On top of this brilliant idea, he ordered his servants to blow on the coals with bellows, to keep them burning. As one would expect, sparks flew from the fire, alighted on the king, and promptly burned him to a crisp in his alcohol-soaked cocoon.

Bandello labels this as "an express judgment from God."
I'm surprised we have not seen this on Game of Thrones yet.

(Read the story here.)

Runner-ups
N2.3.5. Intestines wagered
N7. Trained rat upsets pieces in gambling game: trained (or transformed) cat chases it away
N56. Wager: woman to turn somersault in middle of public square
N119.1. Dog tries to catch its fate in its own tail
N125.2. Luck determined by whether a crooked-necked demigod is looking at one
N211.2. Unavailing attempt to get rid of slippers; they always return
N228. Leopard tied in bag in water floats to shore and finds a mate
N271.9. Tree follows murderer
N314. Persons fall asleep on rock, which magically shoots upward
N318.2. Princess accidentally elopes with wrong man
N334.3. Practical joker asks doctor to castrate him
N335.2.1. Sick queen lying under red satin carried off by bird who thinks it is red meat
N340.3. Woman wrongly condemned for drunkenness when seen to take one drink
N383.1. Man falls dead when he realizes that he has been riding over frozen sea
N542.2. Treasure to be found when three-legged cat shrieks over the burial place
N684. Naked soldier becomes general

M149.4. Quarreling prince and princess vow that if they are married he will desert her on the wedding day and she will make him eat boiled rice and thin broth for six months (WTF - Weird Things in Folktales)

Welcome to my A to Z Challenge blog series titled WTF - Weird Things in Folktales! Find the introduction post (explaining the theme) here. Find all other participating blogs in the comments of each day's post on the main blog! You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

M in the Motif Index stands for tales about Ordaining the Future. It includes judgments, vows, oaths, prophecies, bargains, promises, and curses - things such as "M211. - Man sells soul to devil." Some of them go into a little more detail than others... Case in point:

M149.4. Quarreling prince and princess vow that if they are married he will desert her on the wedding day and she will make him eat boiled rice and thin broth for six months 

(This is typically the type of motif that should not have its own number. I don't think there will ever be another tale that fits this description.)

The title of this tale is also pretty interesting: Katmanush, or The human being who was made of wood. It is a Bengali story. The motif pretty much describes the beginning: A prince and a princess haggle for the same item on the market one day, and they get into such a fight that they mutually curse each other out. The prince swears that if they ever got married, he would leave her right away; the princess swears that she would make him so ill he can only live on jhol bhaat for six months. 

Of course a few years later their parents arrange a marriage for the two (without them knowing about it). True to his oath, the prince walks away on the wedding day and never looks back. 

Some months later the prince's mother hires a very peculiar new servant: It is a woman made of wood, but she walks and talks like a living being. She insists on never cooking, and sleeping in her own room, but in all other regards, she works just like a regular servant.

One day when everyone is away from home, the princess - because she is the one inside the wooden doll, duh - comes out of her shell to sit on the roof. The prince returns unexpectedly and sees her. The whole palace is turned upside down, looking for the "beautiful woman" he had glimpsed - but there is no one there but the wooden doll. The prince get so lovesick that he is about to die.

The god Shiva reveals to the prince's sister that his life can be saved if the wooden woman cooks for him for six months, and sleeps in his chambers. The queen and the sister beg Katmanush to do it for the prince; after a whole lot of begging, the wooden woman agrees, but only if she can cook alone, and sleep with the lights off.

Six months pass by. The princess feeds thin broth and boiled rice to her husband for six months, as she had once promised. As she does, they slowly fall in love with each other. At the end of the six months, she reveals herself to him - and they lock themselves in the bedroom for a looong time, and the prince emerges "healthy and cheerful."

How is that for a love-hate romance?...

(Read the original text here.)

Runner-ups
M114.3. Vows taken on holy swine
M114.5. Taking oath on cowdung
M115.1.1. Oath so heavy it dries up stream; oath so great it splits the rock in twain; oath so violent it makes the tree wither
M119.7. Oath by placing hand on genitals
M142. Vow never to carry a woman
M166.3. Vow to kill anyone who touches his beard
M205.1.2. Cat witness to betrothal punishes violator
M211.6. Man sells soul to devil for visit home in boat that sails through sky
M242.1. Mortal fosters fairy child to prevent destruction of crops
M301.15. Mountain in human shape prophesies whole family’s death
M304. Prophecy from enigmatical laugh
M364.2. Prophecy: remission of tax through endeavor of saint
M429.1. Release from curse by burning vomit

L315.5.1. Elephant killed by mouse who runs up open end of trunk to head and there smears poison over his brain (WTF - Weird Things in Folktales)

Welcome to my A to Z Challenge blog series titled WTF - Weird Things in Folktales! Find the introduction post (explaining the theme) here. Find all other participating blogs in the comments of each day's post on the main blog! You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

L is a fun little category within the Motif Index that stands for Reversals of Fortune. It includes unlikely heroes ("L10. - Victorious youngest son," "L50. - Victorious youngest daughter"), the triumph of the weak over the strong, and poor boys marrying princesses. Also... this:

L315.5.1. Elephant killed by mouse who runs up open end of trunk to head and there smears poison over his brain 

And this is not even just one story, but two. One from Nepal, and one from the Congo.

Rawr

In How the Mouse Won His Wife (Congo), a girl is offered as a wife to anyone who can cut down the mahogany tree outside her house. Elephant, Buffalo, Hyena, Leopard, and other large animals all try, but when they stop chopping to take a break, the tree grows back to a whole. Eventually Mouse shows up, gnaws the tree down, and wins the girl.

On the way home with his new wife, Mouse runs into Elephant, who wants to claim the girl for himself. Mouse runs up Elephant's trunk and causes him so much pain that he lets them go, and gives them two pigs. Farther down the road they run into Buffalo who makes the same claim, but Mouse gets into his ear and tortures him until he hands over five sheep. Hyena is next; this time, Mouse calls on a bunch of Squirrels to attack Hyena while he gets away with his wife. After this comes a large Rat; Mouse opens his bag and shows him the head of a dead rat, saying "I have eaten nine rats, you will be the tenth." Rat, very sensibly, runs away. They get home.

One day Leopard shows up at Mouse's house, and tries to run away with the wife. Mouse nonchalantly pulls a Leopard head out of his bag and flashes it, saying "I have killed nine Leopards, you will be the tenth." Leopard is so panicked, he gets into Mouse's calabash, which Mouse puts on the fire, and burns Leopard to death.

Then Mouse says: "I will govern this country, for there is not another chief left."

And if you think this Mouse is hardcore, let me introduce you to Mother Mouse.

Mom?...

In The Mouse's Three Children (Nepal), Mouse has three sons: A Tiger (she prayed for a strong child), a Peacock (she prayed for a beautiful child), and a human Boy (she prayed for a wise, wealthy, and powerful child). The latter gets the King's attention when it turns out that his hair, when cut, turns into pearls and diamonds, and his nails turn into turquoise. The King wants to keep him as a slave, and if the Boy wants to avoid that, he needs to fulfill tasks. The first two are solved with help from Tiger and Peacock, but the last one is different: Mother Mouse has to fight the King's largest bull elephant.

Mother Mouse covers herself in poison, ties a string to her tail, and goes to fight the elephant for her son. She jumps onto the elephant's leg, and then runs up inside of its trunk, and crawls all over its brain, smearing it in poison. When the elephant keels over, the Boy pulls the Mouse out by the string. 

Moral of this motif: Never, ever piss off a mouse.

Ever.

Runner-ups
L111.2.3. Future hero found on top of a tree
L111.2.5. Heroine found in harp
L112.11. Heroine born with pigeon’s head
L113.1.3. Mad fisherman as hero
L113.7. Quack-doctor as hero
L114.5. Hero with disgusting habits
L152. Daughter succeeds on quest where son fails
L301. Hermes distributes wit
L311.4. Little innocent girl is able to drive giant out of land
L315.12. Rabbit slays rhinoceros
L391.1. Reed pricks and drives away dog that urinates on it
L419.1. Goose boasts superiority to mushroom
L476. Jackal singing about his deeds falls down from tree and is eaten by alligator
L478. Gnats having overcome lion are in turn killed by spider

K366.7. Thieving butterflies (WTF - Weird Things in Folktales)

Welcome to my A to Z Challenge blog series titled WTF - Weird Things in Folktales! Find the introduction post (explaining the theme) here. Find all other participating blogs in the comments of each day's post on the main blog! You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

K is another very long list in the Index: It stands for Deception - which is a fancy way of saying these are stories about cheating. One famous example is "K11 - Race won by deception" - most commonly known as The Tortoise and the Hare. Or "K112.2. - Stone soup." The category also includes murder, villains and traitors, false accusations, bluffs, and...

K366.7. Thieving butterflies 

When I read the name of this one, I just had to look it up.

The story is titled Rongo and the Lizard-God, and it is a Maori legend from the Cook Islands. In it, Rongo, god of cultivated lands, and Matarau, the eight-headed, eight-tailed lizard god are at war with each other. Rongo captures a warrior, turns him into a swordfish, and intends to sacrifice him - but Matarau steals the swordfish from the altar, places it in a cave, and guards it with his two hundred eyes day and night. 

NZ copper butterfly

Rongo at first sends colorful little songbirds to find the swordfish and bring it back - but Matarau kills them. Then he sends large birds and birds of prey - but they die too. Then he sends two red-and-black velvety butterflies, but Matarau squashes them with his tail. Finally, he makes a plan involving two yellow butterflies, as well as other butterflies and moths. They all use mimicry to hide themselves among the yellow leaves of a nearby banyan tree, as well as pieces of bark, all according to their color, so that Matarau never notices he is surrounded by insects. Then, when the evening wind picks up and creates a shower of yellow leaves that blind the lizard, the yellow butterflies descend among the leaves, alight on the swordfish, and give a signal. All moths and butterflies descend, grab hold of the fish, and fly away with it, back to Rongo.

And this is how the first human sacrifice in the world was made possible. By "thieving butterflies."

(Read the full story here. And here is an article about it.)

Runner-ups
K11.7. Race won by deception: blinding opponent by spitting pepper into face
K12.5. Wrestling between porcupine and deer
K42.2.1. God cheats devil at mowing
K74. Deceptive contest in pulling fingers
K83. Deceptive scratching contest
K95. Finger-drying contest won by deception
K137.1. Two jars full of live black wasps sold as interpreters of foreign language
K219.7. Devil gets a flea instead of man‘s soul
K335.0.4.2. Porcupine, made to believe that rabbit‘s ears are horns, flees and leaves food behind
K335.1.5. Robber frightened from his goods by playing of bagpipe
K343.4. Monkeys lure tortoise into a tree and carry away his load of salt
K366.5. Speaking goat swallows gold coins in temple and voids for master
K417.1. Flower thief eats flowers to escape detection
K425. King‘s daughter put into brothel to catch thief
K437.3. Sausage as revolver
K499.6. God cheats birds by giving false description of tamarind fruit
K522.1.1. Woman covers fleeing man with placenta of goat and with blood to convince pursuers she has just given birth and thus prevents their capturing him
K546. Pope escapes captivity and death by dressing in full regalia and overawing captor
K602.2. ”Bee is eating the sweets.“ Man has eaten sweets and says his name is B
K771. Unicorn tricked into running horn into tree
K922. Artificial whale made as stratagem. Enemies surprised and killed
K951.6. Murder by feeding with honey-covered sharpened cross-pieces of wood
K952.1.2. Ungrateful rat defecates upon head of (or kills) octopus that rescues him from sea.
K1025.1. The fox suggests eating his own brains
K1211. Vergil in the basket
K1215. Aristotle and Phyllis: philosopher as riding horse for woman
K1227.10.1. Abducted princess tells her abductor to wait for her menstrual period of 12 years to terminate

J1762.7. Lobsters mistaken for Norwegians (WTF - Weird Things in Folktales)

Welcome to my A to Z Challenge blog series titled WTF - Weird Things in Folktales! Find the introduction post (explaining the theme) here. Find all other participating blogs in the comments of each day's post on the main blog! You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

The J section of the Motif index is for The Wise and the Foolish. All the numskull and noodlehead folktales are on this list, as well as moral judgments, such as "J711.1. - Ant and lazy cricket (grasshopper)," or "J1171.1. - Solomon’s judgment." Hands down the best line on the list, however, was this:

J1762.7. Lobsters mistaken for Norwegians

Which is a story from Denmark.

The tale is about a slightly foolish man who lives in a little town in Denmark, and owns a pastry shop. One day news come that a Norwegian ship has arrived to the town's harbor; our friend is very excited, because he has never met real-life Norwegians before. Leaving the shop to his wife, he goes down to the harbor to see them. He is pointed to the Norwegian ship, but when he gets aboard, there is no one there - the sailors had all gone to shore.
What he does meet, however, is a bunch of lobsters that had gotten free from their boxes, and are crawling around on deck. Our man assumes that they must be Norwegians (although he imagined them to be taller). He politely introduces himself to one of them, and offers a hand. The lobster pinches and holds on to his hand, causing a lot of pain. Eventually, he manages to shake it off, and goes home to his shop. When his wife inquires if he'd met the Norwegians he says "Yes. They are very short, but they have strong handshakes!"

(I could not locate the text Thompson referenced, but I found a children's book version of the tale here.)

Runner-ups
J21.4. ”Do not marry a girl from abroad“
J21.18. ”Do not trust the over-holy“
J21.47.1. “Do not send your wife for a long visit to her parents”
J21.49. “Never give a cup made of a single ruby as a present to the king”
J23. Merchants try honesty for a year and find that it pays
J25. Why great man plays with children
J52.2. King descends to bottom of sea in glass barrel to learn wisdom from observing fish
J229.8.1. Weaver prefers master with one hedgehog
J411.9.1. King refuses to quarrel with bird
J413.1. Lion licks sick man, who is thereby disgusted
414.3. Unsuccessful marriage of jackals and turtles
J512.15. Frogs want to collect honey like bees
J1309.2. ”How often do you kill your ducks?“ Answer: ”Only once.“
J1361. Monk says that he is a stallion
J1714.3.1. Forty wise men foretell violent rainstorm
J1756. Other animals thought to be a giant cat
J1757. Rabbit thought to be a cow
J1758.1. Tiger mistaken for goat
J1772.4. Culture hero’s pubic hair thought to be bear hair
J1785.1. Grasshopper thought to be the devil
J1971. Fools try to use buffalo tongue as a knife
J2106. Man kills self to make quarrelsome wife a widow
J2119.9. Hero beheads old woman who asks him to cure her of old age
J2133.11. Hedgehog and crab jump from boat after turtle
J2233.1. Innocent man executed because his neck fits the noose
J2275.1. Falling star supposed to have been shot down by astronomer

H506.5. Test of resourcefulness: To swing seventy girls until they are tired (WTF - Weird Things in Folktales)

Welcome to my A to Z Challenge blog series titled WTF - Weird Things in Folktales! Find the introduction post (explaining the theme) here. Find all other participating blogs in the comments of each day's post on the main blog! You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

The H section of the Motif Index lists all the Tests that heroes in folktales need to go through to accomplish their goals. And none of them are standardized... You might recognize some of them (such as "H41.1. - Princess on the pea," "H36.1. - Slipper test," or "H761. - Riddle of the Sphinx"), while other are a little more obscure. Case in point:

H506.5. Test of resourcefulness: to swing seventy girls until they are tired

The tale is aptly titled How Raja Rasalu swung the seventy fair maidens, daughters of the King, and it is from Punjab. 

Raja Rasalu, "tender-hearted and strong" (a popular Punjabi hero) rescues a cricket from a forest fire, and the cricket promises to return the favor. The Raja visits a King who has seventy daughters (whew!), and falls in love with the youngest princess. The other sixty-nine get jealous, and decide to give him tasks to win their sister. First he has to separate a hundredweight of millet seed from a hundredweight of sand - which he does successfully with the help of an army of crickets. Second - he has to swing all seventy maidens in swings until they are tired.

Raja Rasalu tells the girls that he has no time to swing them one by one - if they want to be swung, they all have to get into one swing. The girls all pile in, "merry and careless, full of smiles and laughter," and the Raja fastens the swing rope to his mighty bow, shooting an arrow into the sky. The swing goes up and up and up, pulled by the arrow - and when it swings down, the Raja draws his sword and cuts the ropes. All seventy girls fall out, getting bruises and broken bones - except for the youngest, who lands on top of the pile. 

The Raja also breaks seventy drums and seventy gongs; the father of the maidens then tries to poison him, but doesn't succeed. In one version of the story, a whole lot of other adventures follow; the others end kind of abruptly. 

(Read the story here, here, or here.)

Image from here

Runner-ups
H13.2.7. Recognition by overheard conversation with stove
H35.5. Recognition by manner of throwing cakes of different weights into faces of old uncles
H71.10.3. Frogs croak at prince‘s command
H186. Hero spits twice at his wife as sign of recognition
H316.5. Expressing love by throwing little stones
H322.3. Suitor test: bringing leg that fits into dragon claw left by the beloved of the princess
H326.1.1. Suitor test: constructing automatic peacock
H328.2. Suitor test: being swung by mustache without shedding tears
H411.16. Catching salmon as proof of virginity
H412.2. Chastity ordeal: holding shaven and greased tail of bull
H413.5. Chastity test: throwing certain number on dice
H1021.4. Task: making a knot of spilled brandy
H1154.10. Task: capturing badgers
H1212.3. Prince sulks until quest is accomplished
H1212.4. Quest assigned because of longings of pregnant woman
H1331.5. Quest for marvelous goat
H1377.2. Quest for bouquet of all flowers. (Beehive.)
H1381.3.2. Quest for Glass Princess
H1521. Clam test
H1522. Killing trees threaten hero
H1536. Toboggan test. Attempt to kill hero on dangerous toboggan
H1588.1. Litter of puppies tested by throwing them one by one at hanging hide of wild beast, and keeping the one that grips hide

G11.6.2. Woman who marries tiger is fed human nails regularly (WTF - Weird Things in Folktales)

Welcome to my A to Z Challenge blog series titled WTF - Weird Things in Folktales! Find the introduction post (explaining the theme) here. Find all other participating blogs in the comments of each day's post on the main blog! You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

G is a relatively short category, and it is somewhat vaguely labeled as Ogres. It encompasses things that usually appear as villains or adversaries in folktales, such as "G200. Witch," or "G303. Devil" (do not get me started on my pet peeve rant of people translating all kinds of folk creatures as 'ogre', which is simplistic and eurocentric...). One of the largest categories on this list deals with cannibalism, such as:

G11.6.2. Woman who marries tiger is fed human nails regularly

The story comes from the Lepcha people in Sikkim, one of the Himalayan states of India, and it is titled The tiger hunted by wind and lightning. It tells of three siblings: Two brothers, Yong-rumbo and Yok-gnibu, and their sister Naremnom. Naremnom is married to a tiger named Tung-bo. The tiger and his brother kill and eat people, and fry their fingernails, which the wife eats as her favorite delicacy.

Eventually word gets out, and when the two (human) brothers set out to find wives for themselves, everyone rejects them - since they are the brothers of a cannibal, and no one is sure if they are cannibals too, so prospective wives are not keen on taking a chance.

The brothers go and seek out their sister, and they find her munching on something. They snatch the food away from her, and it indeed turns out to be fried human fingernails (yum). The brothers grow angry and decide to kill the man-eating tiger husband. One turns into wind, and the other into lightning, and they chase down and kill the tiger with the help of a bamboo plant.

When Naremnom finds out that her husband died, she turns into a bird in her grief, and flies off into the jungle. People say she can still be heard crying for the tiger, making a distinctive "hoo-hoo" sound. 

Love works in mysterious ways. For some, it's flowers and chocolates... and for others, it's fried human fingernails. 

(Read the original story here.)

Runner-ups
G11.1. Cannibal dwarfs
G11.6.3. Old woman calls beasts together to join her in feast on human flesh
G11.8. Cannibal meteor
G211.2.8. Witch as raccoon
G241.1.5. Witch rides on whale
G269.19. Witches as ducks pinch victim
G303.3.1.22. Devil as astrologer
G303.4.1.2.5. Devil has passionate look in eyes
G303.4.1.4.2. Devil has only one nostril or is without nostrils at all
G303.9.8.1. Devil spins and knits
G303.9.8.4. Devil causes salamander to appear in glass of rum, drinks it
G303.10.14. The bagpipe is the devil’s bellows
G308.9. Demon-octopus
G328. Rectum snakes
G362.2. Pug-nosed ogre

F555.7. Poisonous white hair in eyebrow that causes death to the first person who sees it each day (WTF - Weird Things in Folktales)

Welcome to my A to Z Challenge blog series titled WTF - Weird Things in Folktales! Find the introduction post (explaining the theme) here. Find all other participating blogs in the comments of each day's post on the main blog! You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

F in the Motif Index describes the abundant category of Marvels. It is just as varied as the tales of the world are; it includes things like "F57. - Road to heaven," and "F95.2. - Broad path to hell," (heh), as well as "F200. - Fairies (elves)," with all their shenanigans. As you can tell from the long list of runner-ups, this one was a hard choice - but there was one entry that immediately jumped out at me:

F555.7. Poisonous white hair in eyebrow that causes death to the first person who sees it each day 

Of course it is an Irish story.

St. Molaise

The entry refers to the legendary meeting of two Irish saints - Saint Molaise and Saint Sillán - in the 7th century AD. According to legend, Saint Sillán had a magical white hair in his eyebrow that had a very peculiar power: Whoever saw it first early in the morning would die immediately. (Good thing Sillán didn't own a shaving mirror, I guess). As horrible as that sounds, the legends claim it made Sillán very popular with people who were gravely ill or suffering, as they all hoped to be the first one to see his eyebrow in the morning, and thus gain a painless death. 

One day, early in the morning, Saint Sillán was taking a walk around the graveyard, when Saint Molaise ran into him, and said "This hair shall not be killing everyone," and plucked it right out of Sillán's eyebrow (ouch). Of course the power still worked, and Molaise dropped dead immediately - but in the comforting knowledge that the dangerous eyebrow hair was no more.

This story was preserved in the calendar of Óengus of Tallaght, a 9th century Irish bishop (read it here or here, and an article about it here). Saint Sillán's feast day is September 11th. Some folklorists seem to claim that the story has some solar mythology hidden behind it.

I personally think this power could be fitting for a great Marvel character.

Runner-ups
F57.2. Person‘s tongue as path to sky
F57.3. Path to heaven on beard
F112.1. Man on Island of Fair Women overcome by loving women
F130.2. Spain as otherworld
F162.7. Rainbow of honey appears regularly in otherworld
F167.11.2. Hogs with bath of molten lead (iron) in otherworld
F167.15. Great tattooer in otherworld
F183.1. Automatic service in otherworld
F232.1.2. Fairy has back rough like pine cone
F232.2. Fairies have breasts long enough to throw over their shoulders
F233.7. Fairies are multicolored
F241.5.1. Fairies own herd of ibexes
F242.1. Fairy car
F254.5. Fairies commit adultery
F285. Anchor falls on fairies
F343.16. Gigantic ox rib as gift from fairies
F366. Fairies abuse livestock
F369.8. Elephants become lean from listening too much to fairy music
F438.2. Spirit of earthquake has very long mouth
F451.1.5.1. Dwarf as reincarnation of rat
F451.2.0.4. Dwarfs appear nodding and anxious to speak
F451.3.7.1. Dwarfs dislike caraway seed in food
F481.0.1.4. Cobold accidently acquired
F516.1.1. Armless people have legs growing from their shoulders
F517.1.5.1. Men whose feet turn backward so that they will not stub toes
F521.3.3.2. Person with golden anus
F529.3. Man with grass growing from his joints
F529.4. Person has small animal within his body
F529.7.1. Person without joints
F544.3.2.1. Luminous tooth of saint
F545.1.6. Beard travels detached from owners
F546.2. Woman with three breasts
F546.4. Thorns around nipples
F546.5. Woman with breasts hot enough to cook food
F547.5. Extraordinary vagina
F547.3.3. Toothed penis
F559.8.1. Person’s urine melts rocks
F569.2. Men menstruate
F594. Man whose entrails are visible when he laughs
F610.3.3. Twelve berserks
F615.3.1.2. Camels having fallen from sky into girl’s eyes
F624.1.2. Strong man throws walrus
F628.2.7. Strong man uses man as weapon
F635. Remarkable spitter. Spits lake of soap
F811.11. Trees disappear at sunset
F989.19. Cock with enormous silver ears
F989.22.3. Pig swallows necklace
F1034.2. Magician carries mistress with him in his body. She in turn has paramour in hers

E581.6. Ghost rides giant demijohn (WTF - Weird Things in Folktales)

Welcome to my A to Z Challenge blog series titled WTF - Weird Things in Folktales! Find the introduction post (explaining the theme) here. Find all other participating blogs in the comments of each day's post on the main blog! You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

E in the Motif Index stands for... *ominous sounds*... the Dead. And all the tales, beliefs, and rumors attached to them, such as "E80. - Water of Life," or simply "E251. - Vampire." (If anyone ever asks you "what's the folktale number of a vampire?" now that is a thing you know. You're welcome. Use it as an Easter egg in your next urban fantasy novel.)
And on a less terrifying note, there is also:

E581.6. Ghost rides giant demijohn

The legends surrounding Dosoris Island (Long Island, NY) claim that the small patch of land is "a common resort of elves and goblins," and it has "three vexatious spooks" (gotta love 19th century sources for the language): 

Derrick Wilkinson, a "hard-riding jockey" who broke his neck and is now haunting late night travelers to "larrup them with a strangely ponderous cudgel;"

Billy Cowles, who died of asthma, and is running around searching for his breath with his cravat in hand; 

and

A bibulous miller, who was "often seen flying up the lane like a belated member of the Wild Hunt, astride a monster demijohn that he lashed and spurred until it had carried him to the foot of the Drinking Tree" (the tree under which he had drunk himself to death). 

Well, if you gotta spend eternity somewhere, you could do worse than riding a monstrous demijohn around Long Island, I guess...

(Read the story here.)

**Classic Hungarian joke time**

Young soldiers on guard at night; one of them hears a noise.

"Halt! Who goes there?"

"Your mother with a demijohn!"

"Mother, halt! Demi John, step forward!"

Runner-ups
E17. Resuscitation by licking corpse
E18. Resuscitation by tickling
E29.3. Resuscitation by pricking anus
E251.4.1. Vampire with elephant face
E402.1.1.5. Ghost snores
E616.5. Reincarnation as bedbug
E692.4. Jealous woman reborn as chilly

D192.2. Transformation: centipede (WTF - Weird Things in Folktales)

Welcome to my A to Z Challenge blog series titled WTF - Weird Things in Folktales! Find the introduction post (explaining the theme) here. Find all other participating blogs in the comments of each day's post on the main blog! You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

D is a very hefty chapter in the Motif Index: It stands for Magic. And everything magical, from transformations to items with special powers, speaking animals, and the like. You can find such things on the list as "D113.1.1. - Werewolf," "D395 - Transformation: Frog to person," or "D1093. Magic missile" (you're welcome, D&D fans) - and these are just the most mundane of the lot. Kissing a Frog Prince suddenly sounds a lot nicer when you compare it to:

D192.2. Transformation: man to centipede

In the Korean folktale spoiler-tastically titled The Centipede Girl, a poor man, incapable of supporting his family, decides to end his life and jumps from a cliff into a river. However, he does not die: He is rescued by a mysterious, beautiful maiden, who takes him to her luxurious home. The two of them fall in love, and our nameless protagonist spends quite a long time happy in the lavish love-nest.

Eventually, however, he does decide to visit his actual family, to see how they fared since he had left them. To his surprise, he finds them in a brand new home, wearing expensive clothing: Turns out someone had been sending them money regularly since the husband's disappearance. Content with the news and guilt-free (heh), the man decides to return to his gorgeous lover. But.

Picture from here

On the way back, a voice calls out to him from a hollow tree, claiming to be the spirit of his grandfather, and warns him that the beautiful woman is actually a thousand-year-old giant centipede, who has enchanted him with her illusions. The spirit suggests that the man should smoke some tobacco, keep the juices in his mouth, and spit them in the woman's face, to reveal her true nature. 

The man sets out to do exactly that... but when he sees the perfect face of his lover, he changes his mind, and spits the tobacco out the window. The girl cries and thanks him, telling her story: She is the daughter of the Heavenly King, who has been seduced and slandered by a servant. As punishment, the servant was turned into a snake (hence the vindictive voice in the tree), and the girl into a centipede, to spend three years on earth. Her time is up the very next day, and our hero wakes up alone, lying on a bare rock...

So, the point is, she really was a centipede after all.

(Story from Zong In-sob's Folk Tales from Korea)

Runner-ups
D55.2.1. Dwarf contracts self to enter nostrils of cannibals
D179.4. Transformation: man to shrimp
D211.2. Transformation: man (woman) to pomegranate
D222. Transformation: man to nut
D251.1. Transformation: man to saucepan
D412.3.1. Transformation: pig-fairy to fish
D415.1.1. Transformation: mantis to hartebeest
D435.1.4. Wax prince animated by serpent becomes human being
D439.6. Fire takes the form of a woman and runs away
D451.3.2. Transformation: coconut to philosopher's stone
D457.14.1. Transformation: ogress's tongue to surfboard
D476.3.2. Bacon changed to iron
D562.2.1. God's urine makes chilly fiery
D991.2. Magic pubic hair
D1023.4. Magic hair of ant's beard
D1359.1.1. Magic olive branch makes woman master in household
D1402.15.1. Magic poem (satire) causes man to melt
D1454.9. Treasure from nose (with sneezing)
D1511.1. Magic carpet cures drunkenness
D1610.3.4. Speaking egg-plant
D1610.6.3. Speaking buttocks
D1641.16. Bananas run and hide when stone is thrown at them