Motif-Index of Folk-Literature: A Classification of Narrative Elements in Folktales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediaeval Romances, Exempla, Fabliaux, Jest-Books and Local Legends

Stith Thompson was a folklorist, and this Indiana University Press work is his Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, the standard comparative index classifying narrative motifs across folktales, myths, ballads and legends worldwide by a systematic letter-and-number scheme. Its strength and its long standing as the reference tool of the field come from its sheer comparative scope, cataloguing motifs across a vast span of world folklore rather than any one tradition. Its limit is stated in how this atlas uses it, it is a form-based finding aid grouping narrative elements that resemble each other structurally, such as mythical animals under its B0 to B99 range, and that formal grouping is not itself a claim that the creatures or stories so classified are historically or culturally related.