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Nar. umjet. 46/1, 2009, pp. 15-32, H.-J. Uther, Classifying Tales: Remarks to Indexes and…
Original scientific paper Received: 1st Dec. 2008 Accepted: 6th Feb. 2009
UDK 82.0-34:39]:025.4(091)

HANS-JÖRG UTHER
Academy of Sciences, Arbeitsstelle Enzyklopädie des Märchens, Göttingen

CLASSIFYING TALES: REMARKS

TO INDEXES AND SYSTEMS OF ORDERING

The paper deals with the historical and recent situation in classifying
international folk tales and gives an overview of new developments, for
example new catalogs for types and motifs. From the outset up to date,
folk narrative researchers have been creating systems for ordering large
masses of tale material according to genres, actors and incidents. The
concentration on oral traditions, however, has largely neglected the
important literary history of many tales.
It was necessary to include such information into the new
international catalog ATU (Aarne/Thompson/Uther). The concept of
tale type and here must be understood to be flexible. It is not a constant
unit of measure or a way to refer to lifeless material from the past.
Instead, as part of a greater dynamic, it is adaptable, and can be
integrated into new thematic compositions and media. Some former
catalog makers also had used the system of numbers for expansion
beyond number 2400 in order to describe other genres such as legends,
riddles, ballads, etiologies, etc.
Although a satisfying system for classification of folk narratives
has not yet been found the present system has provided scholars with
many valuable and practical research instruments, and numerous
methodological and theroretical by-products.
Key words: classification; documentation; distribution/diffusion of
folktales; Folktale; historic-geographic method; motif
catalogue; tale type; type catalogue

In an attempt to classify rapidly expanding collections, late 19th century scho-

lars in Europe began to explore the wealth of tales from oral tradition – e.g.
Johann Georg von Hahn explored Greek folktales, George Laurence Gomme
English folktales and Michail Petrov Arnaudov Bulgarian folktales (Uther
1996; Uther 1997; Voigt 1977). These texts were thus made available for
comparative study. The systematizations were established as a basis for the
documentation of the collections, genres and the stock of folktales from diffe-
rent countries and regions. The aim was to ascertain the extent to which the

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 Nar. umjet. 46/1, 2009, pp. 15-32, H.-J. Uther, Classifying Tales: Remarks to Indexes and…

sources and stylistic traits were connected as well as the degree of in-
terdependency between oral and written traditions. In addition, classifications
served as scientific tools to promote access to certain folktales or collections.
It was Reinhold Köhler, Johannes Bolte, Jiři Polívka and Emmanuel
Cosquin who provided important impulses in this direction. The publication
in 1910 of a German-language classification compiled by the Finnish
folklorist Antti Aarne, a student of Kaarle Krohn, was the most influential
contemporary contribution to the field from an international perspective. He
developed his system on the basis of Finnish, Danish (Sven Grundtvig) and
German folktales (Brothers Grimm) (Aarne 1912). Following a numeric
system, his catalog is divided into categories based on the traditional genres
of folklore: animal tales (No. 1-299), ordinary tales (No. 300-1199),
anecdotes and jests (No. 1200-1999) (Aarne 1910). Moreover, his classi-
fication distinguishes between actors and incidents. We are greatly indebted
to the American folklorist Stith Thompson for his comprehensive extension
and overhaul of Aarne's catalog (Aarne 1910; Aarne/Thompson 1961).
Thompson carried out a revision of the catalog: he described the tale types
more thoroughly and more precisely, incorporated the newly published
regional type catalogs, made reference to the various source archives in
different countries, added secondary sources and indicated a small selection
of literary adaptations. His major work The Types of the Folktale (AaTh)
published in English in 1928 was not merely limited to folktales in a narrow
sense. This is made clear Thompson's preface: "these tales are divided for the
purpose of classification into three principal groups: animal tales, regular
folk-tales, and humorous tales". In 1961 Thompson revised his type-catalog.
This time he extended the coverage of the index: "the Types of the Folk-Tale
of Europe, West Asia, and the Lands settled by these Peoples".
Amplifying the type catalog up to the numbers 2000 Thompson
accepted most propositions made by the north American folklorist Archer
Taylor (Taylor 1933; Taylor 1934-1940) and added the Cumulative Tales,
Catch Tales, and Other Formula Tales to the few types of the Formula Tales
(AaTh 2000-2399). The type numbers 2400-2499 called Unclassified Tales
were represented by four heterogeneous new tale types, however, they could
placed later within the other type numbers without problems.
It is hardly surprising that the catalog also attracted criticism
considering only the amount of bibliographical material its author had to
master. Specialists in the field highlighted the following points which
required consideration:
(1) A typology of narratives implies an exact, scientific scheme, a situation
that does not exist in narrative tradition.

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 Nar. umjet. 46/1, 2009, pp. 15-32, H.-J. Uther, Classifying Tales: Remarks to Indexes and…

(2) Definitions of genres and the classification according to characters are

often neither thematically nor structurally consistent. For example, no
distinct genre is represented by AaTh 850-999, Novelle (Romantic Tales).
(3) The concentration of the "Finnish School" on nineteenth-century oral
tradition relegated literary sources to a secondary position and often
obscured important older forms and occurrences of the tale types.
(4) The system encompassed only European narrative tradition, with relevant
material from western Asia and European settlements in other regions.
Even in Europe, the traditions were documented unevenly.
Documentation varied considerably from place to place, and for some (for
example, Denmark and Russia) no information was provided at all.
Evidence from Portugal, and from eastern and southeastern Europe, was
often missing. The narrative traditions of minor ethnic groups (Basques,
Ladini, Frisians, Sorbs, etc.) were not, or not sufficiently, documented.
Only the Catalans were represented by the collection of Joan Amades.
(5) The presentation of separate localized types with only a few variants each
unnecessarily obscured both the picture of their place in tradition and the
classification system of the catalog as a whole.
(6) References to relevant scholarly literature were often missing.
(7) References to variants were usually taken from older collections, not from
new ones.
(8) The descriptions of the tale types were often too brief, too imprecise, and
male-biased.
(9) The inclusion of so-called irregular types was dubious.
(10) Evidence given for the existence of many types was often provided by
archive texts that were difficult to access.
In the new international type catalog (ATU) by Hans-Jörg Uther and his edi-
torial staff (Sabine Dinslage, Sigrid Fährmann, Christine Goldberg, Gudrun
Schwibbe) this criticism is taken into account without forsaking the tradi-
tional principles of how the tale types are presented (Uther 2004, esp. 7-11).
The descriptions of the tale types have been completely rewritten and made
more precise on the basis of all the results of research available up to
approximately 2003. Research material cited for each type includes extensive
documentation of its international distribution as well as monographic works
on that type or the cycle of types to which it belongs. Note has been made of
the many types scattered throughout the various sections of the AaTh catalog
whose internal properties or structural similarities and affinities with other
types had previously been overlooked. The adoption of new types or subtypes
listed in regional catalogs has been limited: many oikotypes have been
integrated into widely-distributed types with significant regional variations,
rather than as additional types or subtypes.

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 Nar. umjet. 46/1, 2009, pp. 15-32, H.-J. Uther, Classifying Tales: Remarks to Indexes and…

The concept of "tale type" used here must be understood to be flexible.

It is not a constant unit of measure or a way to refer to lifeless material from
the past. Instead, as part of a greater dynamic, it is adaptable, and can be
integrated into new thematic compositions and media. The background for
this model of narrative alteration and innovation is evident in a change of
paradigm that took place in recent decades in historical-comparative folktale
research. Earlier research had been handicapped by a shortage of information
regarding historical and recent narrative material, especially from Europe, in
all the genres. In such a system it was impossible to document all oral and
literary forms on a worldwide basis. The genre-based structure of the AaTh
catalog, and the thematic conception that this implied, made this impossible.
History has shown that folk narratives from outside Europe fit its
thematically-oriented sections only in part and often with difficulty. This is
particularly true of myths, epics, legends, and etiological accounts, and also of
lesser genres such as anecdotes, jokes, rumors, and genres such as life history,
family history, and refugee experiences that have been studied only recently.
For these genres, some other system is needed.
Up until the 1960's, folktale scholars generally believed that oral tradi-
tions had existed unchanged for centuries, and thus provided an important
source of evidence for the belief systems of their ancestors. Thus, oral tradi-
tions constituted a more important source for national identity than did later
written sources. This romantic concept, which continued from the 19th centu-
ry well into the 20th, a period of intense nationalization in Europe, had a
lasting influence on the perceived importance of the documentation of oral
tradition. While Antti Aarne had essentially ignored older, literary sources,
Stith Thompson sometimes made reference to important literary texts by
Chaucer, Boccaccio, Basile, and Johannes Pauli, referring also to medieval
Spanish and English exempla. However, knowledge of the existence of this li-
terary tradition played too minor a role when the spread and development of
the oral traditions were assessed. Written sources were for the most part un-
dervalued. The oldest written texts, particularly of animal tales, were often
dismissed as subtypes or "irregular" forms (Schwarzbaum 1964). Although
such ahistorical treatment clearly represents a deficiency, it cannot be reme-
died within the tale type numbering system. In modern times the perspective
is different, and written sources are valued more highly (Röhrich 1987).
As we now know, many so-called oral narratives have a rich literary
history. Some can be traced back to works of literature, in which the
imaginations of the homo narrans shows itself in adaptations that are
responses changes of function. This is particularly true, for example, of the
fables associated with the name of Aesop and of similar narratives from
oriental traditions. Other important sources for Spain are Petrus Alfonsus and
his Disciplina Clericalis, Juan Ruiz and his Libro de buen amor, or the
anonymous Libro de los exemplos, and for Catalonia late not least Ramòn

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 Nar. umjet. 46/1, 2009, pp. 15-32, H.-J. Uther, Classifying Tales: Remarks to Indexes and…

Llull. Other examples of literary genres relevant in this field include medieval
Arabic jests, European exempla and farcial tales, and the fabliaux and novelle
of the late Middle Ages, all of which entered early modern literature. These
narratives are completely different from the numerous etiological tales of
illiterate peoples. Although the definitions of a tale type as a self-sufficient
narrative, and of a motif as the smallest unit within such a narrative, have
often been criticized for their imprecision, these are nevertheless useful terms
to describe the relationships among a large number of narratives with
different functional and formal attributes from a variety of ethnic groups, time
periods, and genres. On pragmatic grounds, a clear distinction between motif
and type is not possible because the boundaries are not clearly defined. With
this attitude, a monographic investigation can distinguish between content and
theme and still consider form and function as the properties that determine the
genre of the narrative.
Some early advocates of narrative classification envisioned an exact
system like that of the natural sciences, analogous to biological classification;
this vision was later influenced by semantic and structural research. Such
hope for scientific exactness must be seen as a product of the wishful thinking
of the time. Nevertheless, narratives must not be analyzed arbitrarily but
according to structural considerations. Just as genres of narrative are only
intellectual constructs, so, is any typology. Broad definitions permit similar
themes and plots to be included, so that, in the course of the history of the
origins and development of a tradition, its different functions can be
discerned. A precise analysis guarantees that variations in narrative tradition
will not be reduced to simple multicultural similarities.
The ATU tale type catalog is a bibliographic tool that characterizes
such diversity, represented by published narratives from different ethnic
groups and time periods, with a description of each type followed by
references to catalogs, texts, and published research. Paradoxically, a
description of a tale type can show its various and changing structural
elements, but not its meaning or functions. Nor can such a description show
the variation in motifs contained in individual texts, variation that is essential
for understanding the narrative's age, the process of its transmission, and its
place in tradition.
The list of potential sources includes historical works of various
degrees of popularity, such as calendars, magazines, and popular books read
for educational purposes, language study, or pleasure. In the past, European
tradition unjustly dominated the international tale type catalog. Where this
imbalance continues into the ATU, it is not due to any kind of ethnocentric
ideology, but merely reflects the present state of knowledge. For many
countries and regions, systematic classification of narrative tradition has only
recently begun.

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 Nar. umjet. 46/1, 2009, pp. 15-32, H.-J. Uther, Classifying Tales: Remarks to Indexes and…

Existing tale type catalogs covering folktales from various regions and
countries specifically explore traditional genres such as myths, legends,
ballads and anecdotes. In the early 1960's, special systems were divised for
the classification of legends, ballads and exempla; these have provided a
template for subsequent indexes. Other catalogs have concentrated on fields:
such as mythological legends and legends about death. Although the criteria
according to which these catalogs are arranged are mainly content-oriented,
AaTh references are always mentioned.

Problems of classifying tales that cannot be found in ATU

As already mentioned, a large number of catalogs published during the last
six decades have other ordering systems than the international tale type
catalog. Concerning the registration of long and short tales, different
tendencies to arrange the texts according to motifs, themes and/or actors or
semantical and structural aspects become apparent.

Classification according to motifs

All the catalogs following the Motif-Index (1932-36, rev. 1955-58) of Stith
Thompson belong to this category. As generally known, Thompson analyzed
about 40,000 individual motifs followed by references to texts and scholarly
literature (Thompson 1932ff.). He classified the motifs using an alphabetical-
-numeric system according to actors, objects, meanings and singular incidents
that allows space for future additions. This system of ordering aimed at
arranging all motifs in a way enabling users to find them easily in the
appendix of the catalog (Jason 2000; Uther 1999). Within this system of
classification, narrative elements of other genres (myth, etiology, ballad, etc.)
can be incorporated in more detail than in a tale type catalog, as announced by
the subtitle A Classification of Narrative Elements in Folktales, Ballads,
Myths, Fables, Mediaeval Romances, Exempla, Fabliaux, Jest Books and
Local Legends.
The motifs are arranged in the following groups: A. Mythological Mo-
tifs, B. Animals, C. Tabu, D. Magic, E. The Death, F. Marvels, G. Ogres, H.
Tests, J. The Wise and the Foolish, K. Deceptions, L. Reversal of Fortune, M.
Ordaining the Future, N. Chance and Fate, P. Society, Q. Rewards and Pu-
nishments, R. Captives and Fugitives, S. Unnatural Cruelty, T. Sex, U. The
Nature of Life, V. Religion, W. Traits of Character, X. Humor, Z. Mis-
cellaneous Groups of Motifs. According to content, further subdivisions are
made, for instance group M is subdivided as follows: Ordaining the Future:
Judgments and Decrees (Mot. M 0 - M 99), Vows and Oaths (M 100 - M
199), Bargains and Promises (M 200 - M 299), Prophecies (M 300 - M 399),
Curses (M 400 - M 499).

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 Nar. umjet. 46/1, 2009, pp. 15-32, H.-J. Uther, Classifying Tales: Remarks to Indexes and…

Some important catalogs based on other ordering systems were not

considered – perhaps because of language barriers – for example Jiři
Polívka's review of Slovak folktales (Polívka 1923ff.), Lajós György's index
of Hungarian anecdotes and jokes (György 1934), others have been
considered only incompletely. One can therefore with good reason speak of
an indeed imposing but however subjective choice, as far as medieval sources
and recent collections are concerned. This applies, for instance to John Esten
Keller's Motif index of Spanish medieval exempla whose anticlerical motifs
were not adopted by Thompson (Keller 1949), or Dominic Peter Rotunda's
index of novella (Rotunda 1942) partly, whose motifs with sexual content
Thompson ignored, too (Hoffmann 1977:1-19; Legman 1966). Thompson
argues:
Thousands of obscene motifs in which there is no point except the
obscenity itself might logically come at this point, but they are entirely
beyond the scope of the present work. They form a literature to
themselves, with its own periodicals and collections. In view of the
possibility that it might become desirable to classify these motifs and
place them within the present index, space has been left from X700 to
X749 for such motifs (Thompson 1955ff.:5, 514 [note 1]).
Shortly after the motif catalog has been published it attracted criticism: The
numeric system conceals the fact in much cases the classification of motifs is
only approximative and can cause misunderstandings as well as incorrect de-
terminations/identification. The broad characterization of the actors (e.g. Mot.
P 50: Noblemen [knights], Mot. P 150: Rich men, P 200: The family) is not
significant enough to specify individual tales, with the effect that some motif
groups are crowded (A, B, J, K), others in contrast are lesser (L, M, N, P).
Even the term motif (Jason 2000:18-65; Lüthi 1979:80-82, 122-126;
Würzbach 1999), generally today qualified in folk narrative research as a
multifunctional structural element of different function that is the most
important smallest unit in a narrative (Ben-Amos 1980, esp. 26, 30 and note
2; Grambo 1976; Permjakov 1979:55, 74f.; Voigt 1976:10f., 27f.), is defined
very broadly only by Thompson and considered as an analytic category
(Thompson 1955ff.:1, 19). These systems permit the registration of different
and changing structural elements; the same does not apply, however, to the
levels of meaning and the functions of individual motifs as a prerequisite for
investigations concerning textual dependencies, age, transmission, and
dissemination of narratives. In the case of large narrtive units such as the epic,
the sole application of the systems in use – such as the Motif-Index – would
lead to a total fragmentation of content segments, or, in Lutz Röhrich's
words, to an "atomisation of elements" (Röhrich 1976:248).
Such criticism didn't impress later editors of catalogs. They adapted the
Thompson numbers and by using an own system they gave in additon the in-
ternational type and/or motif number. However, it makes sense to develop

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 Nar. umjet. 46/1, 2009, pp. 15-32, H.-J. Uther, Classifying Tales: Remarks to Indexes and…

other systems in parallel with the international system, because in many cases
a classification according to AaTh respectively ATU is not feasable. Further-
more, individual motifs that cannot be classified ought to be documented.
Motif catalogs compiled by Dominic P. Rotunda (1942), James W.
Childers (1948, 1977), Tom Peete Cross (1952), Anita Guerreau-Jalabert
(1992), Helmut Birkhan and others (2005-2006) pay attention only to certain
genres (epics, novellas) within a determined period.

Classification according to the international tale type catalog

Most of the catalogs adopt the traditional ordering system according to
genres, but partly also document new narrative types and motifs with local
diffusion (ecotypes) including their variants in accordance with the system.
Among these are, for instance, the Greek (Megas 1978; Angelopoulou/Brou-
skou 1994, 1999; Angelopoulou/Kaplanoglou/Katrinaki 2004, 2007), Hunga-
rian (MNK 1982ff.), Frisian (van der Kooi 1984), Spanish (Camare-
na/Chevalier 1995ff.), Aragonese (González Sanz 1996, 2004), Catalan
(Oriol/Pujol 2003, 2008), Portuguese (Cardigos 2006) type catalogs or the
huge compendium of the folktale in the Arab world (El-Shamy 2004).

Classification according to other ordering systems

Such ordering systems are developed mostly for legends and exempla, less for
myths, fables, anecdotes and etiologies. Most editors of catalogs primarily are
oriented to actors and incidents. This is the case of the catalog of medieval
Latin exempla, published in 1969 by Frederic C. Tubach (1969). He alpha-
betically registered 5400 texts according the central actor or action. Tubach
had analyzed 37 printed collections. For French exempla, Jacques Berlioz and
Marie Anne Polo de Beaulieu (1992) edited a revised index based on
Tubach’s numbers. Karel Dvořák (1978) in his catalog of old Bohemian
exempla followed the arrangement of Tubach's numbers and added new ones.
For comparison, Dvořák also informed about Greek and Roman literature that
was considered only insufficiently by Tubach. Ákos Dömötör (1992) in his
index of Protestant Hungarian homily exempla proceeded accordingly. He
classified more than 200 Hungarian homily exempla (including those
translated from other languages). Based on the system eleborated by Jean
Théobald Welter (1929), Dömötör divided the material according to themes
into biblical exempla, ancient mythologic exempla as well as legends and
legendary tales. He again suddivided this group into (1) ancient historic
legend material, (2) narratives of the devil, (3) Christian legends, (4) secular
historic legends and (5) belief legends. Two smaller groups are reserved for
fable and fairy tales used as exempla.

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 Nar. umjet. 46/1, 2009, pp. 15-32, H.-J. Uther, Classifying Tales: Remarks to Indexes and…

Another exemplary index has been published by Gerd Dicke and Klaus
Grubmüller. The index which is arranged according to actors, provides a
survey of printed and unpublished texts of the Latin and German fable up to
approximately 1600 and "gives an outline of the subject by making accessible
what has been transmitted, in such a way that the Latin sources from which
the fables in the German language are always derived a new, primarily in the
first period of their history, are disclosed as well" (Dicke/Grubmüller 1987:4).
The index describes the contents of 655 fables from Aal und Schlange (The
eel and the serpent) to Zaunkönig und Adler (The wren and the eagle).
Especially useful are an appendix listing Latin manuscripts fable collections
that are not registered in the standard editions; comprehensive bibliographies;
meticulous indexes of manuscripts, authors, and anonymous works that
amount to a concordance of the editions quoted; and finally, a list of
protagonists, which, however, does not include the other actors involved. The
index by Dicke and Grubmüller is easy to use. For future studies on fables,
and also on the related genre of the exempla, this index is functionally a most
useful tool.
Although anecdotes and jokes classified under the numbers 1000-1999
represent a large part of the international type catalog, the genre occasionally
gave rise to the development of other patterns of documentation. For anticleri-
cal Estonian anecdotes, for example, Loreida Raudsep (1969) divised a the-
matical pattern that contains 427 type numbers. Raudsep grouped her material
in three thematic blocks: (1) The church and Christian doctrine, (2) clergymen
and (3) parodies. She also provided subdivisions, for instance in (2) she
summed up the clergymen according to characteristics, resumes their
misfortunes, their behavior toward the squires as well as the declarations and
judgments concerning clergymen and their work. For the Romanian material
of anecdotes, Sabina Cornelia Stroescu (1969) conceived a tall type catalog
with more than 6200 possible type numbers, that offers six categories and
describes about 400 narrative types: (1) Relations sociales (conflits des
classes), (2) Relations de famille, (3) Traits pschologiques, (4) Défauts
physiologiques, (5) Facéties concernant l'armée, and (6) Anecdotes (général,
a. sur enfants, a. sur écoliers). Based on an archive containing 22,000 units of
German anecdotes of the 17./18. century, Elfriede Moser-Rath (1969)
developed an unpublished model for a type and motif catalog concerning
anecdotes and jokes. The ordering system proposed by Moser-Rath was based
on actors and incidents and envisaged three thematic domains: (1) behavior
patterns and characteristics, (2) chain of life/Family life and (3) social
criticism in different groups of the population. An appendix discusses themes
like revilement and mockery as well as smaller narrative units like conundrum
and wordplay. In two major studies (Moser-Rath 1984, 1991), she gave a
monumental overview and discussed her material under thematical aspects.

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 Nar. umjet. 46/1, 2009, pp. 15-32, H.-J. Uther, Classifying Tales: Remarks to Indexes and…

The foremost interest of catalog editors concerned the legend as a

narrative genre and its phenomenology in ancient and recent texts. At various
congresses, among others at Antwerp, Budapest, Liblice near Prague,
Berkeley, Fribourg (near the Black Forest), Kosovče and Bonn (Peeters 1963;
Ranke 1963; Greverus 1965; Hand 1965; Bošković-Stulli 1966; Hand 1971;
Röhrich 1973; Hlôšková/Krekovičová 1991; af Klintberg 1993;
Heissig/Schott 1998), an international model was proposed as follows (Acta
Ethnographica: 13, 130f.):
(1) Etiological and eschatological legends.
(2) Cultural and historical legends. (2.1) Development of cultural places and
cultural golds. (2.2) Legends and localities. (2.3) Events of far-away
history. (2.4) Wars and calamaties. (2.5) Persons who play a prominent
role in a group. (2.6) Breaking the rules.
(3) Supranormal beings and forces/mythic legends. (3.1) Fortune. (3.2) Death
and the dead. (3) Haunting places and phenomena. (3.4) Processions and
fights of spirits. (3.5) Visit to the other world. (3.6) Supernatural owners
of nature. (3.7) Local spirits inhabiting cultural localities. (3.8) Metamor-
phoses. (3.9) The devil. (3.10) Disease demons and diseases. (3.11)
Persons with supernatural (magic) gifts and forces. (3.12) Mythic animals
and plants. (3.13) Treasures.
(4) Legends (Myths of gods and heroes).
The "handbook of legends" (Handbuch der Sage) has remained a frag-
ment (Peuckert 1961ff.) of which only three fascicles (1961-63) are available.
Only a few catalogs completed were, for instance the index of legends dealing
with dead by Ingeborg Müller and Lutz Röhrich (1967), the catalog of
Finnish mythic legends by Lauri Simonsuuri (1961; Jauhiainen 1998), the
catalog of Finnish historic and local legends established by Pirkko-Liisa
Rausmaa as well as Kristiina Rokala's catalog of belief legends (1973, the
index of Czech folk tales of Horñácko by Dagmar Klímová (1966) or Anna
Bihari's catalog of Hungarian legends (1981). Other surveys document
historic narrative material in a larger temporal or regional context (Brückner
1973, Rehermann 1977), particular themes (Heilfurth 1967) or establish the
inventory of types and motifs of a language area in representative anthologies
(e.g. Top 2004ff.). Despite the continuing discussion about a catalog of
modern legends and the existence of well commend collections of individual
countries, such an attempt was not realized.
The existing type system AaTh/ATU was only rarely used to amplify,
as possible, the domain of the legend. For example, the Norwegian scholar
Reidar Thoralf Christiansen (1958) registrated the about 80 most frequently
attested Norwegian migratory legends in a numeric catalog with detailed
summaries, reserving place for future additions. Christiansen reserved the
numbers 3000-8025 for The Black Book of Magic. The Experts; Witches and

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 Nar. umjet. 46/1, 2009, pp. 15-32, H.-J. Uther, Classifying Tales: Remarks to Indexes and…

Witchcraft, Legends of the Human Soul of Ghosts and Revenants; Spirits of

Rivers, Lakes and the Sea; Trolls and Giants; The Fairies; Domestic Spirits
Nisse, Hausgetusse, Tusse, Gobonden, and Local Legends of Places, Events
and Persons. This catalog served as example for the revised Polish tale type
catalog edited by Julian Krzyzanowski (1962/1963): The Polish folklorist
expanded the AaTh-system up to number 8256 and integrated, in
consideration of thematic aspects, etiologies and legends as well as legends of
the Virgin Mary.
Since the appearance of the morphologic research by Vladimir Ja.
Propp (1928, 21969), especially because of its later reception of his work
following the translation into English, attempts to analyse fairy tales
according to structural and semantic aspects do not end (Voigt 1999;
Dammann 2007). A central starting point is the assumption that the fairy tales
haven't only be ordered according to contents and actors, but also with regard
to the meaning and signification of the text: individual elements therefore had
to be considered in relationship with the structure of and the function of the
text. Because semantics are subject to historical changes and in the way of
tradition the text acquires permanently new meanings, the individual elements
of the text had to be traced back to their nucleus. Even if such ideas were
inspiring, and initiated methodic considerations especially among Russian and
among French folktale researchers (Roland Barthes, Claude Bremond,
Algecirdas Julien Greimas, Eleasar M. Meletinskij, Grigorij L. Permjakov,
Sergej Ju. Nekljudov) and encouraged other scholars to discuss the problem
(e.g. Vilmos Voigt, Mihály Hoppál, Mihai Pop, Alan Dundes, Heda Jason),
the number of those who examined narratives according to these models in a
broader extent was small. Only the Lithuanian scholar Bronislava Kerbelyt
(1999ff., 2001) presented several catalogs of legends and fairy tales arranged
according to semantic and structural aspects.

Conclusion
As the history of type and motif indexes shows, the search for principles
serving the classification of folk narratives has not yet produced a satisfying
system, but indexes have provided scholars with "many valuable and practical
research instruments, many methodical and theoretical by-products", as
Vilmos Voigt (1977:570) asserts. Indexes that follow a generally accepted
standard have contributed to establish interdependencies between oral and
literary traditions and help determine original sources, stylistic dependencies,
and the reception of individual narratives as well as entire text collections:
"This would enable folklore archives and institutions around the world to use
similar language in their indexing, archiving and retrieval of folklore data", as
Lauri Honko (1985) wrote. The last twenty years have shown that discussions
about ancient knowledge hidden in the archives are not only a memory of the

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 Nar. umjet. 46/1, 2009, pp. 15-32, H.-J. Uther, Classifying Tales: Remarks to Indexes and…

past. It still is useful for exploring the opinions and the worldviews of our
ancestors and also for our own.
In spite of the criticism concerning current classification systems and in
spite of the imprecise definitions of the type and the motif, no feasible
countermodel has been suggested. It seems that the only choice is to stick to
the old systems and try to improve them whenever possible.
In establishing concepts for new indexes and classifying the narrative
material of specific regions or ethnic groups, the following requirements
should be met:
(1) a clear definition of the time and area when literary and oral traditions
were documented
(2) a presentation of recordings in accordance with a theme-oriented system,
on the basis of existing classification systems, or as an independent
system, with reference to international type and motif numbers
(3) an indication of individual structural elements
(4) a chronological and structural listing of the variants
(5) indication of contaminations with other narrative types
(6) a suggestion of related tale types
(7) the year of recording (publication)
(8) references to international sources and literature
(9) an index of subject matters, names, places, and narrators
(10) information about translated texts in other languages.

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KLASIFICIRANJE PRIPOVIJEDAKA: NAPOMENE

O INDEKSIMA I SUSTAVIMA KATALOGIZIRANJA

SAŽETAK

Rad opisuje povijesno i suvremeno stanje klasificiranja međunarodnih tipova usmenih

pripovijedaka i predstavlja nove kataloge. Od početka do danas istraživači usmenih priča su
stvarali sustave za razvrstavanje opsežnoga pripovjednog gradiva prema žanrovima, likovima i
zbivanjima. Usredotočenost na usmene tradicije većinom je zanemarivala važnu književnu
povijest mnogih priča.
Bilo je nužno te promjene uključiti u novi međunarodni katalog ATU (Aarne/Thomp-
son/Uther). Pojam tipa pripovijetke treba shvaćati fleksibilno. To nije stalna mjerna jedinica ili
način za referiranje beživotnog materijala iz prošlosti. Umjesto toga, dinamičan je, prilagodljiv
te se može integrirati u nove tematske cjeline i medije. Neki prijašnji sastavljači kataloga
također su širili kataloške brojeve iza broja 2400 da bi opisali druge žanrove poput predaja,
zagonetki, balada i etioloških priča.
Iako zadovoljavajući sustav za klasificiranje usmenih pripovijedaka još nije pronađen,
sadašnji sustav znanstvenicima nudi vrijedne i praktične istraživačke instrumente te brojne
metodološke i teorijske nusproizvode.
Ključne riječi: klasifikacija; dokumentacija; rasprostranjenost pripovijedaka; pripovijetka;
povijesno-geografska metoda; katalog motiva; tip pripovijetke; katalog tipova

32