ATU 2034C Lending and Repaying: Progressively Worse (Better) Bargain
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The tale in brief
A chain of lendings and repayments, or of exchanges, in which each thing handed on comes back as something else, so that the bargain grows better (or worse) at every step. In the Finnic songs a straw or a bundle of hay goes to the cow for milk, the milk to the piglet for a side of pork, and on through the smith, the oak and the sheep to wool for new clothes, or to a bride for a kiss.
Summary written for RunoVerse and checked against the Finnic texts linked on this page.
Runosong types
Possibly related: the songs of these types follow the formula of this chain tale (as judged by a language model).
- Pakeneva The fleeing one · SKVR · 610 poems
- Kits kile karja! Goat, off to the herd! (chain song) · ERAB · 283 poems
- Kips kilo karjaan Kips kilo, to the herd · SKVR · 23 poems
- Mina leidsin õlekõrre I found a straw · ERAB · 13 poems
- Ann läks aita Ann went to the storehouse · ERAB · 3 poems
- Memm läks aita Old woman went to the granary · ERAB · 2 poems
Motifs and related tale types
Motifs: Foolish Bargain: Horse for Cow, Cow for Hog, Etc Finally Nothing Left J2081.1·Lending and Repaying: Progressively Worse (Or Better) Bargain Z41.5
Related types: ATU 1415 Lucky Hans
Sources
Tale-type number, title, classification, related types and the Finnic sources: Hans-Jörg Uther, The Types of International Folktales (FF Communications 284–286, Helsinki 2004). · Uther 2004, part II (FF Communications 285), free online ↗
Possibly related runosong types: a reading of the song types by a language model (Claude Opus 5.5, 2 November 2026); only links it rated high or medium in confidence are shown.
Motifs and combinations with other tale types: the Trilogy dataset, from Stith Thompson’s Motif-Index of Folk-Literature and the ATU catalogue.
The plot summary, the notes and the arrangement of this page are RunoVerse’s own.