ATU 476 Coal Turns into Gold
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The tale in brief
Coals, or other worthless things given by a supernatural being, turn into gold. The linked Estonian legends mostly tell the reverse: money taken from a treasure has turned into aspen or birch leaves, or ash, by the time the finder gets home.
Summary written for RunoVerse and checked against the Finnic texts linked on this page.
Estonian treasure legends
Types of Estonian treasure legends that RunoVerse links to this tale type. A canonical reference rests on a catalogue number in the legend type’s name; strong parallels and experimental matches rest on a shared plot or shared motifs.
- P 71: Leitud kuldrahad muutuvad haavalehtedeks vm prahiks. Teatud tingimustel juhtub vastupidi: lehed/s... · 45 records · strong parallel
Finnic and Finland-Swedish sources cited in the catalogue
The entries of the catalogue’s list of literature and variants that concern Finnic tradition.
Finnish Jauhiainen 1998, No. P561
Finnish-Swedish Wessman 1931, No. 388
Full references:
- Jauhiainen 1998: Jauhiainen, Marjatta: The Type and Motif Index of Finnish Belief Legends and Memorates. FF Communications 267. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1998.
Motifs and related tale types
Motifs: Transformation: Coals to Gold D475.1.1·Fairy Gold F342.1·Light Indicates Hidden Treasure N532
Related types: ATU 476* In the Frog's House·ATU 476** Midwife in the Underworld
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 I (FF Communications 284), free online ↗
Treasure-legend links: RunoVerse’s matching of the Estonian treasure-legend types with the tale types.
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.