This may be tangential, but there is the motif generally known as "the giant's heart," in which a giant or other creature hides his heart (in a box at the bottom of a well in the center of a fortress, etc), and so cannot be killed unless his heart is destroyed, often by a man who wants to marry the woman the giant has captured. There's certainly some metaphoric stuff going on there about the meaning of "heartlessness."
There's also the Indian story (a Jataka tale, I think) called "the Monkey's Heart," which I think parodies "the giant's heart" motif. A monkey escapes from an island on shark-back by convincing the shark that his tasty heart is hidden elsewhere; once he reaches the shore, he laughs at the shark for believing that anything can survive without their heart.
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Date: 2007-06-20 03:50 am (UTC)There's also the Indian story (a Jataka tale, I think) called "the Monkey's Heart," which I think parodies "the giant's heart" motif. A monkey escapes from an island on shark-back by convincing the shark that his tasty heart is hidden elsewhere; once he reaches the shore, he laughs at the shark for believing that anything can survive without their heart.
Then there's Yoon Ha Lee's story, "Eating Hearts." http://tangentonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=392&Itemid=174