List of fictional tricksters


The trickster is a common stock character in folklore and popular culture. A clever, mischievous person or creature, the trickster achieves goals through the use of trickery. A trickster may trick others simply for amusement or for survival in a dangerous world. The trickster could be a personification of the chaos that the world needs to function.
An archetypical example is the simple peasant successfully put to the test by a King who wishes a suitable suitor for his daughter. In this fairy tale, no brave and valiant prince or knight succeeds. Aided only by his natural wit, the peasant evades danger and triumphs over monsters and villains without fighting. Thus the most unlikely candidate passes the trials and receives the prize. Such characters are a staple of animated cartoons, in particular those used and developed by Tex Avery et al. during the Golden Age of American animation.

Characteristics

Hynes and Doty, in Mythical Trickster Figures state that every trickster has several of the following six traits:
  1. fundamentally ambiguous and anomalous
  2. deceiver and trick-player
  3. shape-shifter or master of disguise
  4. situation-inverter
  5. messenger and imitator of the gods
  6. sacred and lewd bricoleur

Tricksters in folktale and mythology

  • Àjàpá - The turtle trickster of Yoruba folk tales
  • Anansi - The spider trickster of African origin. He considers himself cunning enough to trick and outwit anyone, but is also proud, lazy and impulsive, which often proves his undoing.
  • Azeban - "the Raccoon," a trickster spirit in Abenaki mythology.
  • Birbal, a real advisor to the Mughal emperor Akbar the Great, is often cast as a trickster in Indian folklore.
  • Br'er Rabbit - A slave trickster of African American origin.
  • Coyotes in various Native American mythologies.
  • Curupira - A Brazilian folklore jungle genie that protects the animals and the trees of the forests. It has red hair and backwards feet to confuse hunters and lumberjacks.
  • Dionysus - Greek God of wine, madness, and ecstasy. More than any other Greek God, he is associated with shape-shifting and taking on other identities. A thoroughly ambiguous person, in personality, but also in his androgynous figure, one can never know exactly what he will do next.
  • Eris - Greek Goddess of discord in Greek mythology. Infamous for starting a fight between other goddesses over the Apple of Discord, leading to the Judgement of Paris and, ultimately, the Trojan War.
  • Eshu/Eleggua/Legba - One of the primary orishas in Yorùbá religion, patron of roads, doors, and travelers, as well as a spirit of chaos and trickery.
  • The Fair Folk in many European cultures.
  • Hermes - Messenger of the gods in Greek mythology, patron of travelers, boundaries and thieves. Notably stole a herd of cattle from Apollo in his youth, but then invented the lyre and gave it to Apollo as payment.
  • Hershele Ostropoler - In Ashkenazic Jewish folklore, based on a real person who lived during the 18th century.
  • Huehuecoyotl - the gender-changing coyote god of music, dance, mischief and song of Pre-Columbian Mexico and Aztec Mythology. Befitting a trickster, he is the patron of uninhibited sexuality and often engages in trickery against the gods with camaraderie among mortals.
  • Jack - is a young boy who uses his wit to outsmart characters in many stories.
  • Jack Mary Ann - A folk hero from the Wrexham area of north Wales whose fictionalised exploits continue to circulate in local folklore.
  • Jacob - Biblical Patriarch and the ancestor of the Israelites.
  • John the Conqueror - Character who appears in many stories from the African American tradition. He is a slave that is so much smarter than any slave-master, he simply cannot be controlled.
  • Kitsune - In Japanese folklore, they are described as "tricksters" with no care for the concept of right or wrong.
  • Kuma Lisa - A fox and trickster figure in Bulgarian folklore.
  • Loki - A cunning, shape-shifting god, sometimes benefactor and sometimes foe to the gods of Asgard. Famous as a catalyst for Ragnarök. The precise nature of Loki's being defies clear classification, as there is little detail regarding his mother, but he is at least half-giant on his father's side.
  • Māui - A Polynesian culture hero famous for his exploits and his trickery.
  • Maximón - A cunning deity in modern Mayan tradition. Famous for being a womanizer and using trickery to achieve his goals.
  • Nasreddin - In Turkish folklore, based on a historical 13th Century person.
  • Odysseus - Hero and king in Greek mythology. Came up with the idea for the Trojan Horse, and used his wits to escape perilous situations during the Odyssey, e.g. outwitting Polyphemus the Cyclops.
  • Pan - God of shepherds and flocks. He is a satyr: a creature that has the upper body of a man and the legs of a goat. In many stories, they talk of Pan, or just satyrs, in general, are known to play tricks on people, especially children, for their amusement.
  • Pedro Urdemales – a trickster folk hero from Iberian and Latin American folklore
  • Prometheus - Tricks Zeus over sacrifices at Mecone, steals fire on behalf of mankind.
  • Puck/Robin Goodfellow - A "merry domestic fairy" from British Folklore. Prominently featured in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, where he plays tricks on a group of humans who stumble into a forest. His final monologue explains the nature of tricksters.
  • Puss in Boots - A clever and magical cat who tricks a king into raising a lowborn miller to the station of a great noble, and defeats a shapeshifting ogre by tricking him into becoming a mouse.
  • Raven amongst the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast.
  • Reynard - A red fox and trickster figure who plays a central role in the moralistic fables of the Reynard cycle.
  • Saci - A Brazilian folklore character, a one-legged black or mulatto youngster with holes in the palms of his hands, who smokes a pipe and wears a magical red cap.
  • Sang Kancil, the mouse-deer trickster of Malaysian and Indonesian folklore.
  • Scheherazade, the heroine in the frame story of the One Thousand and One Nights. By her wit and guile, she delays her execution every night by the murderous Shah, until she cures him of his madness by winning his heart.
  • Sisyphus - Sly and audacious mortal king in Greek mythology who managed to cheat death twice, but angered the gods in the process and was condemned to endlessly push a boulder up a slope in Tartarus.
  • Sly Peter - In Bulgarian and Macedonian folklore.
  • Stingy Jack - a folkloric character associated with Halloween. He outwits the Devil, but displeases God in the process. Because his soul is denied entry into Heaven and Hell, he is doomed to haunt the earth as a ghost, carrying a lantern - thus being the origin of the Jack-o'-Lantern.
  • Sun Wukong - Irrepressible Monkey King of Chinese mythology, whose exploits are described in Journey to the West.
  • Sri Thanonchai - In Thai and other Southeast Asian folklore. He is known as Xiang Miang or Sieng Mieng in Laos, Saga Duasa in Myanmar, and Ah Thonchuy Prach in Cambodia.
  • Susanoo - Amaterasu's brother, god of storms and trickster of Japanese mythology. His destructive behaviour gets him banished from Heaven, though he later redeems himself through deeds of heroism.
  • Trạng Quỳnh – A trickster in Vietnamese folklore is based on a historical figure of the 17th and 18th centuries, his deceitful targets are often high-class figures in society.
  • Till Eulenspiegel – Trickster of German folklore.
  • Tokoloshe – Trickster of Zulu mythology.
  • Twm Siôn Cati - A Welsh trickster who was reputed to have lived in the 16th century: according to legend, he was a gentleman farmer by day, but a highwayman at night.
  • Zomo, a rabbit from Nigerian folklore.

Tricksters in fiction

Novels, short stories, and comics

Movies, television, animation, and video games