Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index facts for kids

The Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index (often called the ATU Index) is a special way to organize and understand folktales. Think of it like a giant library catalog for stories! It helps people who study folklore (called folklorists) find and compare similar tales from all over the world.

This index was created over many years by different experts. It started with Finnish folklorist Antti Aarne in 1910. Later, American folklorist Stith Thompson made it bigger and translated it into English. Finally, German folklorist Hans-Jörg Uther updated it again in 2004. The ATU Index is a very important tool for folklorists, especially when used with Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature.

What is a Tale Type?

In his book The Folktale, Stith Thompson explained what a "tale type" means. He said:

A tale type is a traditional story that can stand on its own. It makes sense by itself and doesn't need another story to explain it. Even if it's sometimes told with another tale, it can still be told alone. A tale type might have just one main idea or many ideas.

So, a tale type is a complete story that people tell again and again. It has its own plot and characters, even if parts of it appear in other stories.

Early Ways to Sort Stories

Before the ATU Index, other people tried to organize folktales.

In 1864, an Austrian consul named Johann Georg von Hahn looked at 44 different story "formulas." He wrote about them in his book of Greek and Albanian folktales.

Later, in 1866, Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould translated von Hahn's list. He made it bigger, listing 52 "Story Radicals." Folklorist Joseph Jacobs then expanded this list even more. He found seventy tale types and put them in a book called Handbook of Folk-Lore.

Also, before Antti Aarne's first system, Astrid Lunding translated a system by Svend Grundtvig. This system had 134 types. It was mostly based on Danish folktales, but it also looked at stories from other collections, like those by the Brothers Grimm.

See also

In Spanish: Clasificación Aarne-Thompson-Uther para niños