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41-409: It is categorized as an Aarne-Thompson type 451 ("The Brothers Who Were Turned into Birds"). Other type 451 variants include The Twelve Brothers , The Six Swans , The Seven Ravens , The Twelve Wild Ducks and Udea and her Seven Brothers . In a faraway kingdom, there lives a widowed king with his twelve children: eleven princes and one princess. One day, he decides to remarry, but marries

82-497: A tale type as follows: The Aarne–Thompson Tale Type Index divides tales into sections with an AT number for each entry. The names given are typical, but usage varies; the same tale type number may be referred to by its central motif or by one of the variant folktales of that type, which can also vary, especially when used in different countries and cultures. The name does not have to be strictly literal for every folktale. For example, The Cat as Helper (545B) also includes tales where

123-689: A firm academic footing in the United States". He organized an informal quadrennial summertime "Institute of Folklore" beginning in 1942 which lasted beyond his retirement from tenure in 1955. This brought together scholars with an interest in the field of folklore and helped to bring structure to the growing discipline. In 1962, a permanent Institute of Folklore was established at Bloomington, with Richard Dorson serving as its administrator and chief editor of its journal publication. While Thompson wrote, co-wrote, or translated numerous books and articles on folklore, he became arguably best known for his work on

164-573: A foreign land where she is out of the reach of her evil stepmother . There, Elisa is guided by the queen of the fairies to gather stinging nettles in graveyards to knit into shirts that will eventually help her brothers regain their human shapes. Elisa endures painfully blistered hands from nettle stings, and she must also take a vow of silence for the duration of her task, for speaking one word will kill herself and her brothers. The handsome king of another faraway land happens to come across Elisa, who cannot talk, and falls in love with her. He grants her

205-785: A fox helps the hero. Closely related folktales are often grouped within a type. For example, tale types 400–424 all feature brides or wives as the primary protagonist, for instance The Quest for a Lost Bride (400) or the Animal Bride (402). Subtypes within a tale type are designated by the addition of a letter to the AT number, for instance: tale 510, Persecuted Heroine (renamed in Uther's revision as Cinderella and Peau d'Âne ["Cinderella and Donkey Skin"]), has subtypes 510A, Cinderella , and 510B, Catskin (renamed in Uther's revision as Peau d'Asne [also "Donkey Skin"]). (See other examples of tale types in

246-408: A room in his castle where she continues her knitting. Eventually he proposes to crown her as his queen and wife, and she accepts. However, the archbishop is chagrined because he thinks Elisa is herself a witch, but the king will not believe him. One night Elisa runs out of nettles and is forced to collect more in a nearby church graveyard where the archbishop is watching. Ghoulish spirits that devour

287-448: A sign from Heaven that Elisa is innocent, but the executioner still prepares for the burning. When Elisa finishes the last shirt, she throws the shirts over the swans, and her brothers return to their human forms. The youngest brother has a swan's wing instead of an arm, as Elisa did not have time to finish one sleeve of his shirt. Elisa is now free to speak and tell the truth but faints from exhaustion, so her brothers explain. As they do so,

328-486: A wicked queen who is a witch . Out of spite, the queen turns her eleven stepsons into magnificent swans who are allowed to temporarily become human only at night and forced to fly by day. When their sister Elisa has reached the age of fifteen, the queen tries to bewitch her—but Elisa's goodness is too strong for this, so the queen has her banished after making her unrecognizable by dirtying her face and ripping her dress. Elisa finds her brothers, who carry Elisa to safety in

369-515: Is a catalogue of folktale types used in folklore studies . The ATU index is the product of a series of revisions and expansions by an international group of scholars: Originally published in German by Finnish folklorist Antti Aarne (1910), the index was translated into English, revised, and expanded by American folklorist Stith Thompson (1928, 1961 ), and later further revised and expanded by German folklorist Hans-Jörg Uther (2004). The ATU index

410-536: Is an essential tool for folklorists, used along with the Thompson (1932) Motif-Index of Folk-Literature . Austrian consul Johann Georg von Hahn devised a preliminary analysis of some 40 tale "formulae" as introduction to his book of Greek and Albanian folktales , published in 1864. Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould , in 1866, translated von Hahn's list and extended it to 52 tale types, which he called "story radicals" . Folklorist J. Jacobs expanded

451-453: Is sentenced to death by burning at the stake . The brothers discover Elisa's plight and try to speak to the king but fail, thwarted by the rising sun. Even as the tumbril bears Elisa away to execution, she continues knitting, determined to continue up to the last moment of her life. This enrages the people, who are on the brink of snatching and ripping the shirts into pieces when the swans descend and rescue Elisa. The people interpret this as

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492-730: The Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index , which indexes folktales by type, and the author of the Motif-Index of Folk-Literature , a resource for folklorists that indexes motifs, granular elements of folklore . Stith Thompson was born in Bloomfield , Nelson County, Kentucky , on March 7, 1885, the son of John Warden and Eliza (McClaskey). Thompson moved with his family to Indianapolis at the age of twelve and attended Butler University from 1903 to 1905 before he obtained his BA degree from University of Wisconsin in 1909 (his undergraduate thesis

533-603: The University of Texas , Austin from 1914 to 1918, teaching composition. In 1921, Thompson was appointed associate professor at the English Department of the Indiana University Bloomington , which also had the responsibility of overseeing its composition program. Within a year he began offering courses in folklore: these were among the first courses in the field taught in the United States. His commitment to

574-406: The motifs by which they are classified. Furthermore, Propp contended that using a "macro-level" analysis means that the stories that share motifs might not be classified together, while stories with wide divergences may be grouped under one tale type because the index must select some features as salient. He also observed that although the distinction between animal tales and tales of the fantastic

615-499: The online resource links at the end of this article.) As an example, the entry for 510A in the ATU index (with cross-references to motifs in Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk Literature in square brackets, and variants in parentheses) reads: 510A Cinderella . (Cenerentola, Cendrillon, Aschenputtel.) A young woman is mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters [S31, L55] and has to live in

656-627: The American Folklore Society between 1937 and 1939 and was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1947. He received a number of Honorary Degrees from universities including University of North Carolina (1946), Indiana Central College (1953) and University of Kentucky (1958). Thompson's 1954 article for The Filson Club History Quarterly entitled "The Beauchamp Family" continues in use by genealogists as of 2011 . In this article Thompson states that he

697-519: The Folktale in 1928, creating a catalogue of folktale types , that included tales from Europe and Asia. Thompson used this classification in his Tales of the North American Indians published in 1929. Building upon this, Thompson published his "landmark work" The Motif-Index of Folk-Literature in six volumes between 1932 and 1936. The Motif-Index organised thousands of motifs drawn from

738-560: The Western branch of the Indo-European languages, comprising the main European language families derived from PIE (i.e. Balto-Slavic , Germanic , Italic and Celtic ): International collections : Stith Thompson Stith Thompson (March 7, 1885 – January 10, 1976) was an American folklorist : he has been described as "America's most important folklorist". He is the "Thompson" of

779-464: The ashes as a servant. When the sisters and the stepmother go to a ball (church), they give Cinderella an impossible task (e.g. sorting peas from ashes), which she accomplishes with the help of birds [B450]. She obtains beautiful clothing from a supernatural being [D1050.1, N815] or a tree that grows on the grave of her deceased mother [D815.1, D842.1, E323.2] and goes unknown to the ball. A prince falls in love with her [N711.6, N711.4], but she has to leave

820-408: The ball early [C761.3]. The same thing happens on the next evening, but on the third evening, she loses one of her shoes [R221, F823.2]. The prince will marry only the woman whom the shoe fits [H36.1]. The stepsisters cut pieces off their feet in order to make them fit into the shoe [K1911.3.3.1], but a bird calls attention to this deceit. Cinderella, who had first been hidden from the prince, tries on

861-410: The bodies of the dead are also in the churchyard, and the archbishop believes that Elisa is in league with them. He reports the incident to the king as proof of witchcraft. The statues of the saints shake their heads in protest, but the archbishop misinterprets this sign as confirmation of Elisa's guilt. The archbishop orders Elisa put on trial for witchcraft . She can speak no word in her defense, and

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902-674: The classification of motifs in folk tales. His six-volume Motif-Index of Folk-Literature (1955–1958) is considered the international key to traditional material. In the 1920s, Thompson began collecting and archiving traditional ballads, tales, proverbs, aphorisms, riddles, etc. At around this time, the study of the parallels and worldwide distributions of folktales were being studied in new ways by European scholars (particularly Antti Aarne in Finland). Thompson had developed an understanding of these new techniques through travel and research and published an expanded translation of Aarne's The Types of

943-496: The clever daughter-in-law (and variants); The travelling girl and her helpful siblings ; and Woman's magical horse , as named by researcher Veronica Muskheli of the University of Washington. In regards to the typological classification, some folklorists and tale comparativists have acknowledged singular tale types that, due to their own characteristics, would merit their own type. Although such tales often have not been listed in

984-602: The dissertation "European Borrowings and Parallels in North American Indian Tales," and earning his Ph.D. (The revised thesis was later published in 1919). This grew out of Kittredge's assignment, whose theme was investigating a certain tale called "The Blue Band", collected from the Chipewyan tribe in Saskatchewan may derive from contact with an analogous Scandinavian tale. Thompson was an English instructor at

1025-668: The extensive body of sexual and 'obscene' material", and that – as of 1995 – "topics like homosexuality are still largely excluded from the type and motif indexes." In an essay, Alan Dundes also criticized Thompson's handling of the folkloric subject material, which he considered to be "excessive prudery" and a form of censorship. The ATU folktype index has been criticized for its apparent geographic concentration on Europe and North Africa, or over-representation of Eurasia and North America. The catalogue appears to ignore or under-represent other regions. Central Asian examples include: Yuri Berezkin  [ ru ] 's The captive Khan and

1066-518: The firewood around Elisa's stake miraculously takes root and bursts into flowers. The king plucks the topmost flower and places it on Elisa's chest. She is revived by the white flower, and the king and Elisa are married. Danish folktale collector Mathias Winther  [ da ] collected a similar tale named De elleve Svaner (English: "The Eleven Swans" ), first published in 1823, from which Andersen probably took inspiration. Aarne-Thompson The Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index ( ATU Index )

1107-472: The folktale types he had catalogued in The Types of the Folktale. By introducing these techniques to American folklorists, Thompson has been described as having a "marked influence on the direction of American folklore scholarship in the 20th century". For nearly twenty years after his retirement, Thompson continued to work on his Motif-Index and The Types of the Folktale - he published revised editions of

1148-551: The international folktale system, they can exist in regional or national classification systems. A quantitative study published by folklorist S. Graça da Silva and anthropologist J.J. Tehrani in 2016, tried to evaluate the time of emergence for the "Tales of Magic" (ATU 300–ATU 749), based on a phylogenetic model. They found four of them to belong to the Proto-Indo-European stratum of magic tales. Ten more magic tales were found to be current throughout

1189-468: The list to 70 tale types and published it as "Appendix C" in Burne & Gomme 's Handbook of Folk-Lore . Before the edition of Antti Aarne 's first folktale classification, Astrid Lunding translated Svend Grundtvig 's system of folktale classification. This catalogue consisted of 134 types, mostly based on Danish folktale compilations in comparison to international collections available at

1230-401: The original index. He points out that Thompson's focus on oral tradition sometimes neglects older versions of stories, even when written records exist, that the distribution of stories is uneven (with Eastern and Southern European as well as many other regions' folktale types being under-represented), and that some included folktale types have dubious importance. Similarly, Thompson had noted that

1271-526: The promotion of academic research in folklore resulted in the creation of the PhD programme in folklore at Indiana in 1949 - the first of its kind in the United States. The first doctorate was awarded (to Warren E. Roberts) in 1953. For this - along with the establishment of folklore courses elsewhere in US academia by his former students - Thompson has been claimed to have been "largely responsible for establishing folklore on

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1312-568: The second half of the century. Another edition with further revisions by Thompson followed in 1961. According to American folklorist D.L. Ashliman , The AT-number system was updated and expanded in 2004 with the publication of The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography by German folklorist H.-J. Uther . Uther noted that many of the earlier descriptions were cursory and often imprecise, that many "irregular types" are in fact old and widespread, and that "emphasis on oral tradition " often obscured "older, written versions of

1353-406: The shoe and it fits her. The prince marries her. Combinations: This type is usually combined with episodes of one or more other types, esp. 327A, 403, 480, 510B, and also 408, 409, 431, 450, 511, 511A, 707, and 923. Remarks: Documented by Basile, Pentamerone (I,6) in the 17th century. The entry concludes, like others in the catalogue, with a long list of references to secondary literature on

1394-562: The tale type index might well be called The Types of the Folk-Tales of Europe, West Asia, and the Lands Settled by these Peoples . However, Dundes notes that in spite of the flaws of tale type indexes (e.g., typos, redundancies, censorship, etc.; Author Pete Jordi Wood claims that topics related to homosexuality have been excluded intentionally from the type index. Similarly, folklorist Joseph P. Goodwin states that Thompson omitted "much of

1435-497: The tale types". To remedy these shortcomings Uther developed the Aarne–Thompson–Uther (ATU) classification system and included more tales from eastern and southern Europe as well as "smaller narrative forms" in this expanded listing. He also put the emphasis of the collection more explicitly on international folktales, removing examples whose attestation was limited to one ethnic group. In The Folktale , Thompson defines

1476-526: The tale, and variants of it. In his essay "The motif-index and the tale type index: A critique", American folklorist Alan Dundes explains that the Aarne–Thompson indexes are some of the "most valuable tools in the professional folklorist's arsenal of aids for analysis". The tale type index was criticized by V. Propp of the Russian Formalist school of the 1920s for ignoring the functions of

1517-514: The time by other folklorists, such as the Brothers Grimm 's and Emmanuel Cosquin 's. Antti Aarne was a student of Julius Krohn and his son Kaarle Krohn . Aarne developed the historic-geographic method of comparative folkloristics , and developed the initial version of what became the Aarne–Thompson tale type index for classifying folktales , first published in 1910 as Verzeichnis der Märchentypen ("List of Fairy Tale Types"). The system

1558-524: The volumes of the Motif-Index between 1955 and 1958. During this Thompson also collaborated on projects with other folklorists such as Jonah Balys' The Oral Tales of India and Warren Roberts' Types of Indic Folktales . He even produced an anthology at the age of 83, One Hundred Favorite Folktales . In 1976, Thompson died of heart failure at his home in Columbus, Indiana . Thompson served as President of

1599-434: Was based on identifying motifs and the repeated narrative ideas that can be seen as the building-blocks of traditional narrative; its scope was European. The American folklorist Stith Thompson revised Aarne's classification system in 1928, enlarging its scope, while also translating it from German into English. In doing so, he created the "AT number system" (also referred to as "AaTh system") which remained in use through

1640-552: Was basically correct – no one would classify " Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire Bird and the Gray Wolf " as an animal tale, just because of the wolf – it did raise questions because animal tales often contained fantastic elements, and tales of the fantastic often contained animals; indeed a tale could shift categories if a peasant deceived a bear rather than a devil. In describing the motivation for his work, Uther presents several criticisms of

1681-823: Was titled, 'The Return from the Dead in Popular Tales and Ballads'). For the next two years he taught at Lincoln High School in Portland, Oregon , during which time he learned Norwegian from lumberjacks. He earned his master's degree in English literature from the University of California, Berkeley in 1912, where his dissertation was titled "The Idea of the Soul in Teutonic Popular Tales and Ballads". He studied at Harvard University from 1912 to 1914 under George Lyman Kittredge , writing

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