25 motifs match “executioner”  ·  back to the chapters

• Sword magically changed to wood when executioner is to decapitate innocent person. H215.1
• 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
• Youth will answer question only when king places him on throne: then youth calls executioners to punish cruel king. J1189.1
• 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
• 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
• 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
• Executioner miraculously blinded: condemned man saved. R176