Outside of Europe, however, Aarne's index is of little use. In the remoter parts of the world, whither any adequate study must lead us, the European tale-types are applicable to very few stories. Yet there is much common matter in the folk-literature of the world. The similarities consist not so often in complete tales as in single motifs. Accordingly, if an attempt is made to reduce the traditional narrative material of the whole earth to order (as, for example, the scientists have done with the worldwide phenomena of biology) it must be by means of a classification of single motifs — those details out of which full-fledged narratives are composed. It is these simple elements which can form a common basis for a systematic arrangement of the whole body of traditional literature. Only after such cataloguing will it be possible to make adequate use of the collections now existing in print and in manuscript.
The work here presented is an attempt at such a classification. In preparing it I have had in mind above all the practical need of using simple principles that will be easily apparent to everyone. According to this plan, motifs dealing with one subject are handled together, irrespective of the literary form in which they may appear. No attempt has been made to determine the psychological basis of various motifs or their structural value in narrative art, for though such considerations have value, they are not, I think, of much practical help toward the orderly arrangement of the stories and myths of a people.[1]
The present problem of classification is analogous to that of the books in a great library. All works on history, of whatever nature and whether good or bad, appear together there, and these in turn are divided into Roman History, French History, and the like. Side by side with Gibbon and Mommsen rests an amateurish dissertation on some minute fact in the life of the Empire. The library cataloguer is not concerned with the merit of the work he includes, nor can he arrange the books according to any principle of literary criticism about which there may be debate. The "literature of knowledge and the literature of power" are illuminating as principles of criticism; they will not serve as a plan for the arrangement of books. The orderly listing of narrative motifs is likewise best accomplished by the simple and usually easy method of placing together all which deal with the same subject.
Acting upon this principle of practical usefulness, I have also made
- ↑ Division of motifs on philosophical grounds has been made by several scholars. In his Märchen des Mittelalters (p. xvii) Albert Wesselski divides the motifs of folktales, novelle, and myths into Mythenmotive, Gemeinschaftsmotive, and Kulturmotive. By means of this distinction he discusses the difference between the narrative forms. A very elaborate analysis of the concept of motif is found in Arthur Christensen's study, Motif et Theme (FFCommunications No. 59). Divisions are made into "éléments de relation," "motifs," "accessoires épiques," "thème," "motifs sans thème," "motifs a thèmes faibles," and the like. The study throws light on the psychological nature of various motifs.
