The false hero is a stock character in fairy tales, and sometimes also in ballads. The character appears near the end of a story in order to claim to be the hero or heroine and is usually of the same sex as the hero or heroine. The false hero presents some claim to the position. By testing, it is revealed that the claims are false, and the hero's true. The false hero is usually punished, and the true hero takes their place.[1]
Vladimir Propp identified it as one of the seven roles he found in an analysis of Russian folktales, but the figure is widely found in many nations' tales.[2]
- ^ Tatar, Maria (1987). The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales. Princeton University Press. p. 93. ISBN 0-691-06722-8.
- ^ Propp, Vladimir. Morphology of the Folktale. p. 60. ISBN 0-292-78376-0.