Sümi folktales exhibit remarkable narrative density, symbolic continuity, and moral complexity, particularly in tales concerned with love, transgression, death, and transformation. This paper undertakes a comparative folklore criticism of two Sümi narratives Anishe Xamunu and Tsüipu and Khaulipu (The Fairy Wife) which, despite their independent circulation, share striking thematic, structural, and symbolic parallels. Both tales depict women who undergo posthumous metamorphosis into plants or trees, foreground the act of overhearing or violating prohibitions as a narrative catalyst, and feature antagonists whose deception and violence disrupt social and cosmic order. Drawing upon structuralist folklore theory, performance-centred approaches, and feminist folklore criticism, this study analyses how villainy, climax, and catharsis operate within these narratives to encode Sümi moral philosophy and cosmological beliefs.

The paper argues that transformation into flora functions not merely as etiological explanation but as a form of moral memory embedded in the landscape. Villainy is constructed not only through overt violence, as in the murder of Nisheli or Khaulipu, but also through disobedience, curiosity, and patriarchal authority. Climactic moments are marked by irreversible breaches such as recognition of deception, breaking of taboos, or the revelation of true identity while catharsis is achieved through communal recognition, sorrow, and ecological continuity rather than narrative closure. By placing these two folktales in dialogue, the study demonstrates how Sümi oral tradition negotiates gender, power, fidelity, and loss through recurring narrative motifs that reinforce cultural ethics while allowing emotional release.