Tricksters around the World
















Click on each icon to read about stories around the world.

Kathy Hempel

Characteristics
 Contributions
 Tricksters Get Tricked
 Controversy
Illustrations
 Final Essay
 Bibliography
 Lesson Plans

Trickster tales are short, imaginative narratives that usually use anthropromorphic animal characters to convey folk wisdom and to help us understand human nature and develop proper human behavior. Trickster tales can be grouped into 4 distinct themes:

  1. Amusing Tales
  2. Tales with Morals
  3. Aetiological or Pourquoi Tales - accounting for how things came to be
  4. Etymological Tales - accounting for how things came to be named (Tortello)
These stories were originally passed down through oral tradition and were eventually written down. The literary Greek storyteller Aesop was reported to have orally passed on his animal fables, and has been linked to earlier beast tales from India. The Greeks and Romans later wrote down his tales. Many trickster tales are also pourquoi stories, giving us explanations for certain animals' appearances and occurrences in our world. Trickster tales provide comic relief when times are tough, but also explain how humans came to have the knowledge they possess. Many people around the world find the trickster intriguing. The trickster character appears in the narratives of many Native people throughout North America as well as in much of the rest of the world. Even in our own modern culture, people use trickster characteristics in our modern cartoon characters like Wile E. Coyote, and Bugs Bunny © Warner Brothers. Some trickster characters begin and develop in one country and then migrate to another, like Brer Rabbit.