μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Friends offer to die for each other. (Bürgschaft.) Each falsely confesses crime so as to save the other. Neither guilty. Often combined with P325.

Society. · Other social relationships. · Friendship. · view the constellation · filed as P315

Filed across the traditions
  • Italian Novella *Rotunda.
  • general **Abeles "Die Bürgschaft als Motif in der jüdischen Literatur" Monatschr. f. Geschichte u. Wissenschaft der Juden LX 213ff., 263ff.
  • general **K. Kelling Das Bürgschaftsmotiv in der französischen Literatur (Leipzig diss., 1915)
  • general *Chauvin III 124 No. 113, V 215f., VIII 194ff. IX 16f.
  • general *Hdwb. d. Märchens I 350a s. v. "Bürgschaft"
  • general Köhler-Bolte II 557, 580f.
  • general Gaster Exempla Nos. 362, 419
  • general Basset 1001 Contes II 293ff.
  • general Boccaccio Decameron X No. 8 (*Lee 330)
  • general Fischer Zs. f. deutsche Morgenländische Ges. LXXII 290
  • general Bolte Zs. f. Vksk. XXI 193 n. 4, 194
  • general Scala Celi 10a, 11b Nos. 62, 68
  • general bin Gorion Born Judas IV 20, 274

…and 1 more.

Within the index

Filed under Friendship.

2 finer motifs beneath it
Competition in friendship: prisoner and jailor. Officer in charge of prison offers to let his friend escape, though his own life will be forfeited. The friend refuses; tells officer to let king think he has escaped and if the king demands his life the officer can produce the prisoner. King hears of the generosity and forgives the prisoner Friend gives false witness to set free his accused friend
Filed beside it
Friends want to divide good and evil Friends avenge each other Dying hero sends greetings to friends Friends want their children to be friends too Defeated enemy turns true friend. (Cf. P311.1.) One friend dies shortly after the other Man wins wife for his friend Friendship possible only between equals Friends given the power of reading each other's secret thoughts Sworn brethren. Friends take an oath of lasting brotherhood Blood-brotherhood. Friends take oath of brotherhood by means of mixing their blood Milk-brotherhood. Friends bound in brotherhood through partaking of milk from the same woman Combat of disguised friends Friend sacrifices his life for the other Refusal to believe that a friend has spoken ill of one Man refuses to follow friend in wicked conduct
Carried in tale types

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