Murderer cannot rest in grave — Mythoi

Motif

Murderer cannot rest in grave.

The dead. · Ghosts and other revenants. · Ghosts and revenants – miscellaneous. · The unquiet grave. · view the constellation · filed as E411.1

Filed across the traditions

North Carolina Brown Collection I 678
Greek Aeschylus Eumenides 100.
general *Type 760
general Jellinek Zs. f. Vksk. XIV 323
general Fb "gjenganger" I 443b, "lig" II 412b
general Tobler 83, 90. – Finnish-Swedish: Wessman 4 No. 32
general England, U.S.: *Baughman

Within the index

Filed under Dead cannot rest because of sin.

1 finer motif beneath it

Suicide cannot rest in grave. (Cf. E334.7, E431.16.)

Filed beside it

Hand of sinner sticks out of grave Unquiet dead sinner taken to priest for absolution Horse unable to draw evil dead man Sinner wanders between earth and heaven Other dead drive sinner from graveyard Earth rejects buried body. (Cf. V62.1.) Demons cast evil man from grave leaving only his shroud Saint's body miraculously moves so that it is laid properly north and south, not northeast and southwest Adulterous person cannot rest in grave Perjurer cannot rest in grave Usurer cannot rest in grave Swindler cannot rest in grave Person who never said "good morning" cannot rest in grave Monk who dies without his cowl cannot rest in grave Pilate appears periodically at Mt. Pilatus and washes his hands Magician who has sold his soul to the devil hires his servant to bury him properly: the coffin bursts. (Cf. E261.2.1.)

Travels with (Thompson’s cf.)

Ghost haunts burial spot. (Cf. E411.1.)

Carried in tale types

The Unquiet Grave · ATU 760 1 recorded variant

ask the rhapsode about this motif · search the shelf for “murderer” · wander