Stith Thompson motif index · Motif

Thompson K512.2 — Compassionate executioner: substituted heart

K512.2
Thompson motif reference
K
Deceptions
3
Associated ATU tale types
Full Thompson index Search metadata for this motif Browse K · Deceptions ATU concordance (3)

Description

Motif

Compassionate executioner: substituted heart. A servant charged with killing the hero (heroine) substitutes an animal, whose heart he takes to his master as proof of the execution. *Types 671, 709; *Böklen Sneewittchenstudien 79ff.; *BP I 450ff., 463; *Aarne FFC XXIII 57, MSFO XXV 181; *Prato RTP IV 178; Chauvin V 208 No. 120; *Cox 474; *Saintyves Perrault 68; Fb "hjaerte" I 631a, "lever" II 404b, "tunge" III 894a.—Icelandic: Boberg; Spanish: Boggs FFC XC No. 706C*; Missouri French: Carrière; French Canadian: Sister Marie Ursule; India: Thompson-Balys; Jewish: Neuman (S350); Chinese: Graham; Japanese: Ikeda; N. A. Indian (Shuswap): Teit JE II 730 No. 50; S. A. Indian (Quiche): Alexander Lat. Am. 172.

Associated ATU tale types

Concordance

These links are derived from the Thompson motif references stored in the Folklore Database's ATU concordance.

ATUTitle
ATU 671 The Three Languages
ATU 709 Snow White
ATU 883A Undefined
Previous motif
← K512.1.1 — Compassionate executioner: bloody knife (sword) from slain animal substitute




If you wish to get access to data for projects and research, then please contact us, we do our best to help

How to cite: Fielder-White, Jonathan (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com ORCID iD 0009-0006-1672-4451
Please cite the relevant sources, catalogues, and classification systems, including the Folklore Database, Berezkin-Duvakin Catalogue, ATU, Thompson, alongside the page accessed and the last time accessed. Please respect copyright and licenses.

Editorial annotations and database enhancements © Jonathan Fielder-White licensed under CC BY 4.0. Berezkin-Duvakin derived narrative and metadata licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Full rights information can be found here.
All rights are reserved in the database structure, selection, arrangement, metadata, classifications, software, interface design, and original editorial content.

Important: The Folklore Database expressly reserves all rights in relation to text and data mining, automated extraction, scraping, machine learning, dataset creation, and the training, development, validation, or improvement of artificial intelligence technologies or systems. No part of this website or database may be scraped, copied, reproduced, harvested, downloaded in bulk, or otherwise used for AI training or commercial data extraction without prior written permission.

Designed and Developed by Jonathan Fielder-White.
© 2024–2026 Crecganford / Jonathan Fielder-White. All rights reserved.