A vigorous imagination is the principal source for many of the abnormalities of fictional characters. Many of the motifs also bear some relation to the rituals and religious symbols embraced by the people among whom they are or were at one time, current. Another important source can be found in symbolism of a religious or social kind. This motif-index is the first to present and analyse this material in biblical narrative and post-biblical literature down to the twelfth century CE; it lists all possible abnormalities, deformities and disabilities, arranged according to the parts of the body affected and the type of deformity, sums up the narrative and gives the explicit or implicit reason for its appearance.
