Folk Motifs

Just some of the

very many recurring
plot elements we
find in folk literature
Sources:http://pixel.fhda.edu/Content/Dept/InstrDev/Templ
ates/child_lit_style/Model/L5PrintVersion.html and Norton,
Through the Eyes of a Child 5th ed.

Motifs

a younger brother or sister who is good

an elder brother or sister who is mean or
evil
a clever trickster
a wicked stepmother
a poor or mistreated younger child
the use of magical objects
a marvelous transformation

Motifs

a long sleep or enchantment

magical powers
an incantation (Mirror, Mirror, on the
wall)
three wishes
trickery
the power of naming (as in
Rumpelstiltskin)
invisibility

Motifs

becoming stuck somehow

the number 3 or 7
a repetitive phrase
a journey
repetitive tasks
a wise or a foolish beast
a family member leaves home
a villain surveys the situation

Motifs

hero or heroine is forbidden to do something

hero or heroine violates an order forbidding
something
villain attempts to trick the victim in order to
possess the victim or the victims belongings
hero or heroine leaves home
hero or heroine is tested, interrogated, or
attacked, which prepares the way for him or
her to receive a magical agent or a helper

Joseph Campbell and the

Monomyth
the

hero or heroine undergoes:

separation from the familiar world

initiation into new truths and
understanding
return to the original world, where that
newly won insight makes a difference