Aarne-Thompson-Uther (ATU) - Types of Folktales

222: The Willow-Wren and the Bear

ATU > 1-299: ANIMAL TALES > 220-299: Other Animals and Objects > 222: The Willow-Wren and the Bear

Description

Birds win by cleverness. The fox's lifted tail is to be the signal. The gnats stick him under the tail. He drops it and the quadrupeds flee. Cf. Type 104. It often serves as introduction to Type 313.

Variants

222A. Bat in War of Birds and Quadrupeds

Because of ambiguous form joins first one side and then the other. Discredited.

222B. War between Mouse and Sparrow

Eagle and dragon act as champions.

Examples

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Text title	ATU	Language	Author	Origin	Publication Date
Het winterkoninkje en de beer	222	Dutch	M.M. de Vries-Vogel	Germany	1940
Der Zaunkönig und der Bär	222	German	Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm	Germany	1812
Chim hồng tước và gấu	222	Vietnamese	_	Germany	_
Gærdesmutten og bjørnen	222	Danish	_	Germany	_
El reyezuelo y el oso	222	Spanish	_	Germany	_
Νυκτερὶς καὶ γαλαῖ	222A	Ancient Greek	Αἴσωπος	Greece	_
The Bat and the Weasels	222A	English	George Fyler Townsend	Greece	1867
The willow-wren and the bear	222	English	_	Germany	_
A taddharita e i baddhottuli	222A	Sicilian	_	Greece	_
The Willow-Wren and the Bear	222	English	Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm	Germany	1909

External Examples

Story	ATU	Origin	Year	Source
De oarloch tusken fûgels en dieren	222	Netherlands	1951	Nederlandse VolksverhalenBank
De oorlog tussen het lopend en vliegend gedierte	222	Netherlands	1970	Nederlandse VolksverhalenBank
King of Birds	222	Arab		Internet Archive
The Bear and the Beetle , or The War of the Animals	222	French		Internet Archive
The Wren and the Bear	222	German		Internet Archive

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