A small number of variants of a widely disseminated folktale is surveyed, and then analyzed in an attempt to determine how such variants can emerge while staying within the conventions of the genre. The study follows the classification of types and motifs contained in the Index of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson. The paper’s main contribution is the characterization of four kinds of type interactions in terms of semiotic relations. Our objective is to provide the conceptual basis for the development of semi-automatic methods to help users compose their own narrative plots.