Noverca
The Stepmother
A man's wife dies, and he eventually remarries. His new wife fears that he will favour his son from his first marriage above any children she might have, so she plots against him. When her husband doesn't believe her lies about his son's behaviour, she steals and (in some versions) breaks his treasured golden goblet. She hides the pieces of it in her step-son's room, and upon their discovery, her husband believes his son's guilt. He orders the boy to be killed, and in vengeance, the family of his first wife kill both him and the stepmother.
''Noverca'' offers an obvious and direct parallel to the frame story. Nishimura (2001) notes the parallels to Aesop's fables and the story of Joseph in Egypt (Genesis 44:1-17), and other stories in the Thompson Motif Index code K401.2.3 ("Surreptitious transfer of stolen object to innocent person’s possession brings condemnation").
Critical Literature
No critical literature available
