Stith Thompson motif index · Motif
Thompson N825.3 — Old woman helper
Description
MotifOld woman helper. *Types 316, 400, 480, 707; *BP II 380ff., 466; *Cosquin études 563; Hdwb. d. Märchens I s.v. "Alte im Walde"; Roberts 150. — Irish myth: *Cross; Icelandic: *Boberg; Finnish: Kalevala rune 7; Breton: Sébillot Incidents s.v. "vieille"; Missouri French: Carrière; Italian: Basile Pentamerone V No. 9, Rotunda; Spanish: Espinosa II Nos. 99—103, 126—132, Espinosa Jr. Nos. 107, 109; India: *Thompson-Balys; Korean: Zong in-Sob 63, 166; Polynesia (general): Beckwith Myth chapt. 17 passim; Hawaii: ibid. 257—264, 491; Tahiti: ibid. 251; Tonga: Gifford 156; Maori: Dixon 59; Eskimo (Greenland): Rasmussen II 162; N. A. Indian: *Thompson Tales 327 n. 180; Africa: Werner African 233, (Ekoi): Talbot 18, 207, 235, 364, (Basuto): Jacottet 118 No. 17, 142 No. 20, 204 No. 30, 226 No. 33, (Kaffir): Theal 48ff., 82, 145, (Zanzibar): Bateman 128 No. 7, (Angola): Chatelain 47 No. 1, 57 No. 2, 93 No. 5, (Zulu): Callaway 217.
Associated ATU tale types
ConcordanceThese links are derived from the Thompson motif references stored in the Folklore Database's ATU concordance.
If you wish to get access to data for projects and research, then please contact us, we do our best to help
How to cite: Fielder-White, Jonathan (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
0009-0006-1672-4451
Please cite the relevant sources, catalogues, and classification systems, including the Folklore Database, Berezkin-Duvakin Catalogue, ATU, Thompson, alongside the page accessed and the last time accessed. Please respect copyright and licenses.
Editorial annotations and database enhancements © Jonathan Fielder-White licensed under CC BY 4.0. Berezkin-Duvakin derived narrative and metadata licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Full rights information can be found here.
All rights are reserved in the database structure, selection, arrangement, metadata, classifications, software, interface design, and original editorial content.
Important: The Folklore Database expressly reserves all rights in relation to text and data mining, automated extraction, scraping, machine learning, dataset creation, and the training, development, validation, or improvement of artificial intelligence technologies or systems. No part of this website or database may be scraped, copied, reproduced, harvested, downloaded in bulk, or otherwise used for AI training or commercial data extraction without prior written permission.
Designed and Developed by Jonathan Fielder-White.
© 2024–2026 Crecganford / Jonathan Fielder-White. All rights reserved.