ATU 740** The Brother (the Poor Man) about to Hang Himself Finds a Treasure (previously The Brother to Hang Himself)

Tales of Magic › Other Tales of the Supernatural (ATU 700–749)

The tale in brief

A poor man (in the older title, a brother) who has lost everything goes to hang himself, and at that very moment finds a treasure. In the two Estonian legends a father foresaw it: he told his wasteful son where to hang himself if life grew too hard, and the money hidden there pours down on the son, or is found when the rotten tree breaks.

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 740: Poomiskatsel murduva puu alt leitud raha (ATU 740**) · 2 records · canonical reference

Finnic sources cited in the catalogue

The entries of the catalogue’s list of literature and variants that concern Finnic tradition.

Estonian Aarne 1918, No. 910D*

Full references:

Aarne 1918: Aarne, Antti: Estnische Märchen- und Sagenvarianten. Verzeichnis der zu den Hurt'schen Handschriftensammlungen gehörenden Aufzeichnungen. FF Communications 25. Hamina: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1918.

Motifs and related tale types

Motifs: Treasure Found in Hollow of Tree N528

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.