Aarne-Thompson-Uther (ATU) - Types of Folktales
910: Precepts bought or given correct
Description
Drie mannen, een molenaar met een kwaad wijf, een koopman die het ondanks goede zaken slecht gaat, en een arme dokter, vragen een waarzegster om raad. Zij geeft hen elk een briefje met resp. deze voorschriften: 1. luister naar je molen; 2. koop een…
Variants
910A. Wise through experience
The precepts. Do not visit your friends often; do not marry a girl from a distance, do not lend your horse, etc. Experience teaches the wisdom of these precepts.
910B. The servant's good counsels
Do not leave the highway, etc. The traveler leaves it and falls into the hands of robbers. When you are angry repeat the Lord's Prayer. He is about to kill the man sleeping with his wife: it is his son. Iron is more precious than gold, etc. Cf. Type…
910C. "Think carefully before you begin a task"
The king's throat is to be cut. The barber hired to cut the king's throat sees on the bottom of the basin the words »Whatever you do, do wisely and think of the consequences.» He drops the razor and confesses. [J21.1].
910D. The treasure of the hanging man
The dying rich man tells his son to hang himself if he ever loses his property [J21.15]. The son runs through with everything. At last when on the advice of his father he is about to hang himself the roof falls down with money which his father has…
910E. Father's counsel: where treasure is
Find treasure within a foot of the ground. (Sons dig everywhere and thus loosen soil of the vineyard, which becomes fruitful.) [H588.7].
910F. The quarreling sons and the bundle of twigs
Peasant puts twigs together and cannot break them. Separately they are easily broken. His sons apply the lesson. [J1021].
910H. Never travel without a companion or stay alert
I. Never Travel Without a Companion. The man can find no other companion, so takes along a crab. (a) He is chosen to become a king or marry a princess. The crab kills the snakes which issue from the nostrils of the queen (princess). See Type 507C.…
910J. Never plant a thorn tree
A man is advised (by his father): »Never befriend a policeman (soldier) [J21.46]; never plant a thorn tree [H588.30].» Because of a false accusation (made by his wife), the policeman (soldier) whom he has befriended drags him away to court. His…
910K. The precepts and the Uriah letter
Cf. Type 930. An exiled king, or the like, becomes an official in another court. He happens to observe an intrigue between the queen and a servant or some other treasonable action, but does not tell the king because he has been advised not to tell…
Examples
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