70 motifs match “execution”  ·  back to the chapters

• Helpful animals quench execution fire. Master is to be burned at stake. B526.1
• Man transformed to deer decoy for people at execution of saint's friend. D643.2
• Magic object saves person from execution. D1391
• Saint's bachall saves prisoner from execution. (Cf. D1277, V220.) D1391.2
• Speech magically recovered on execution stake. D2025.1
• Execution sword turned to wood. D2086.1.1
• Premature darkness at time of execution of innocent people. F965.1.1
• Man suddenly acquires long gray beard on scaffold at execution. F1044
• Rakshasa eats horse, dog, and child. Suspected Ranis ordered for execution. G369.1.4
• Magic manifestation at execution proves innocence. H215
• Sword magically changed to wood when executioner is to decapitate innocent person. H215.1
• Execution escaped by use of special permissions granted the condemned. J1181
• Execution: man induced to kill self. King may not execute Brahmin, but gets him drunk and brings about his death. J1181.0.1
• Execution evaded by using three wishes. King ordains that guest who turns his plate shall be executed, but orders that anyone so condemned shall have three wishes granted. One of the wishes: to have all blinded who saw him turn the plate. He is freed. J1181.1
• Execution evaded by having three wishes granted: to be emperor, judge and the emperor's son-in-law during the last week of his life. As judge he frees himself and is in reality freed. J1181.2
• Execution escaped by invoking laws of hospitality. J1183
• Ears not to be cut off a second time. Executioner discovers that the prisoner's ears are of stucco, having been clipped for a previous offense. J1184.2
• Execution escaped by story-telling. Cf. Browning's "Balaustion's Adventure." J1185
• Scheherazade: story with indefinite sequels told to stave off execution. J1185.1
• Youth will answer question only when king places him on throne: then youth calls executioners to punish cruel king. J1189.1
• Execution escaped by threatening with malediction. J1189.2
• Logically absurd defenses. Thief brought to judgment for breaking into house blames mason for building poor house. Mason blames maker of mortar, who blames potter, who blames pretty woman who diverted his attention. She blames goldsmith who caused her to go for her earrings. Goldsmith has no one to blame but he is too old to make a good execution. Hence a shopkeeper across the way is convicted. J2233
• Trickster cuts up partridges with his knife. He is given all of them when he tells his companions that he is an executioner. K344.1.3
• Uriah letter changed. Falsified order of execution. A messenger is sent with a letter ordering the recipient to kill the bearer. On the way the letter is changed so that the bearer is honored. K511
• Death evaded by persuading executioner that another victim was ordered. (E.g., boy has been ordered to kill hare. Hare persuades the boy that the father said, "Kill the rooster for the hare.") K511.1
• Compassionate executioner. A servant charged with killing the hero (heroine) arranges the escape of the latter. K512
• Compassionate executioners. Slaves charged with killing (drowning) the infant heroine are touched by her "laughing smile" and put her in a calfshed (hollow tree), where she is found by cowherds, who rear her. K512.0.1
• "Prince will soon want me back." Executioner persuaded to let hero go. K512.0.2
• Compassionate executioner: bloody coat. A servant charged with killing the hero smears the latter's coat with the blood of an animal as proof of the execution and lets the hero escape. K512.1
• Compassionate executioner: bloody knife (sword) from slain animal substitute. K512.1.1
• 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. K512.2
• Compassionate executioner: substituted brains (other animal for helpful animal). K512.2.0.1
• Compassionate executioner: substituted child. The servant charged with sending the hero to executioners sends his own child instead. K512.2.2
• Executioner makes substitution when victim escapes. K512.2.2.1
• Compassionate executioner: substituted puppet drowned. K512.2.3
• Compassionate executioner: substituted head (made of clay) as proof of execution. K512.2.3.1
• Compassionate executioner: mutilation substituted for death. K512.2.4
• Boy's sixth toe cut off by compassionate executioner as proof he had been killed. K512.2.4.1
• Compassionate executioner: feigns to torture victim. K512.3
• Compassionate executioner: sleeping potion supplied instead of poison. K512.4
• Bribed executioner releases culprit. K513
• Disguise as girl to avoid execution. K514
• Children hidden to avoid their execution (death). K515.1
• Executioner kept busy or interested until rescue comes. Sometimes until he changes his mind. K555
• Man asks to be beheaded standing in tank of water. He ducks and executioners kill each other. K558.2
• Deception into allowing oneself to be hanged. ("Show me how!") Executioner must show the hero how to use the gallows. The hero hangs the executioner. K715
• Cruel king lured to enemy's power by invitation to false execution. He comes to see a girl die and is killed himself. K811.3
• Substitute for execution obtained by trickery. K841
• Substitute for execution obtained by trickery. Report that man executed just then will be king in heaven. K841.1
• Uriah letter. Man carries written order for his own execution. K978
• Message of death. Man carries unwittingly an oral order for his own execution. K978.1
• Altered letter of execution gives princess to hero. On his way robbers steal the letter and change it so that instead of being killed he is married to the princess. K1355
• Husband's letter ordering the calumniated wife to be treated well is altered into an order of execution. K2117.1
• Irrevocable sentence carried out even when innocence is proved. A knight condemned for murdering his comrade is met by the latter on the way to the gallows. A centurion leads them to the emperor, who condemns all three to death: first because he has been sentenced; second for causing by his absence the conviction of his comrade; third for delay in the execution. M12
• Vow to become monk should he escape execution. M183.4
• Loss of eye saves man from execution. Man to be buried with king. Gets off because he lacks an eye. N178
• Man chosen for execution because he is fat. N178.2
• Woman feigns death to meet exiled lover. It leads to his death. Lover hears of her supposed death, returns and submits to execution. N343.3
• Sham execution proves fatal. Jester condemned to die on block. Pail of water used instead of axe. He dies. N384.7
• Delay in bringing pardon allows deserved execution. Messenger, ignorant of contents of message, stops to view culprit's execution. N394
• At execution block condemned man discovered to be king's unknown son. N731.4
• Friend's intercession saves man from execution. P319.3
• Criminal allowed to choose his method of execution. P511
• Release from execution at a woman's request (by marriage to her). P512.1
• Executioner miraculously blinded: condemned man saved. R176
• Escape from execution. R215
• Escape from execution pyre by means of wings. R215.1
• Escape from execution pyre through underground passage. R215.1.2
• Escape from execution on flying wooden horse. (Cf. D1626.1.) R215.3
• Woman confesses murder: unharmed by execution fire. V21.2