The Index of Serbian Folktales site is a bilingual (Serbian–English) digital index of Serbian folk tale types based on the Aarne-Thompson-Uther system. It consists of the index itself, with types from one to 2, 200 (some being absent, of course) ; the list of the sources used; a short history of indexing in Serbian folkloristics; links to the studies on specific types in Serbian material if they are available online (e. g. , 313, 510A, 934, 980) ; and the description of the project itself. This is not simply an electronic version of an existing index of Serbian tales, since there is no such book published. In the last 100 years, various folklorists in the Serbian-speaking area of the world have worked on indexing folk materials. This work remained scattered in different publications: as an accompaniment to published tale collections, in journals, or in unpublished theses kept in archives and libraries. Some of these works are not easily accessible, or even known to, specialists in folk narratives. Readers interested in the overview of this work will find details on the project's website (The History of Aarne-Thompson System in Serbian Folkloristics, https: //snpindeks. weebly. com/history. html). The goal of this digital project is to unite all this work and present it in one place, thus making it available to folklorists both in Serbia and worldwide. As part of this effort, project team members also added to this collection their own research, which was completed as part of their thesis work. The material encompasses approximately 100 publications. The oldest publication is from 1821 (by Vuk Karadžić, the founding father of Serbian folkloristics), while the most recent is from 2007. Some of these were not unknown to international folkloristics, like Karadžić’s collection, and some were included both in Thompson's revision of Aarne and in Uther's 2004 index. The idea for this Index of Serbian Folktales was inspired by similar projects elsewhere. The internet has offered the opportunity to present indexes of tale types to folklorists around the globe. It is not only about making accessible the published indexes (like Uther's, which has in recent years become available via open access) ; rather, the medium itself prompted scholars to present their actual work on indexing online. Thus, it is possible to consult the Dutch, Irish, Norwegian, Russian, and Georgian Indexes, among others. The scopes of these indexes are different, ranging from a simple catalog to those that include the metadata and texts themselves. Now the Serbian index has joined this array. The project also follows the growing interest in indexes as shown, for example, in those published by the Folklore Fellows Communications (FFC) in the last 20 years (catalog of Portuguese folktales, index of Catalan folktale, the types of the Swedish folk legends, catalog of Greek magic tales, index of Old Czech exempla, catalog of Galician folktales). The project team consists of three members: myself, Nemanja Radulović, professor of folk literature at the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade; Marina Mladenović Mitrović, PhD, researcher at the Institute for Literature and Arts, Belgrade; and Ivan Praštalo, teaching assistant for folk literature at the Faculty of Philology. The project is based on do-it-yourself principles and built using a free website platform called Weebly. From a digital design point of view, this project can provide a useful model for those interested in creating similar sites without funding. Platforms like Weebly show the possibilities offered by free sites for specific purposes. Using the search option allows users to find specific information easily, or they can scroll, providing an analogue to the use of a printed book. The site's image and design have been created specifically for the project, by team member Praštalo. In terms of visibility, the site is supported by the institutions where the team members work, as well as by the Association of Serbian Folklorists (UFS; Udruženje folklorista Srbije). The index is also available as a document (https: //docs. google. com/document/d/1FN2N1ZD8o9ₘvR2B3L9aOB7ucRGfnkan/edit? tab=t), with no login needed. Since indexing was done in a different period, previous researchers used Aarne-Thompson (Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson, The Types of the Folktale, second revision, FFC, 1961), while the newer data is based on Hans Jörg Uther's revision (The Types of International Folktales, FFC, 2004). For some types, the Eberhard-Boratav index (Typen türkischer Volksmärchеn, Steiner, 1953) was used, and there is at least one type that can be regarded as an ecotype. The site has an English version as well (translation by Danijela Lekić, the Institute for Literature and Arts in Belgrade), and can therefore be useful for English-speaking and international communities. The site can be of use to anyone interested in folk narratives, specific tale types, and comparative research, especially when it comes to the Slavic and/or Balkan area. It is important to stress that this is, at the moment (2025), an ongoing project. Once the team members have finished adding material that was already indexed, we will proceed to the next stage, which will include putting up the as-yet unindexed material. The present site is a repository of existing research and, at the same time, it is a kernel of a growing future index.
Nemanja Radulović (Thu,) studied this question.