But when they returned, they passed too close to a giant's castle, and he turned them all, both princes and princesses, to stone in a fit of rage.
In a harsher version, the boy splits the heart in two and eats it with the wolf, chopping off the giant's head and keeping it as a trophy.
On his way, he shares his food with a ram and a dove, which, in return, give him a hair and feather to summon the animals should the boy need.
These stories tell of a villain who hides his life force or "heart" in a place outside his body, in a box or inside a series of animals, like a Russian matryoshka.
With the help of the villain's wife or female prisoner (a princess), he locates the ogre's weakness and, aided by grateful animals, destroys the heart.
[3] According to professor Stith Thompson, the giant's heart, in Asian variants, is hidden in a bird or insect, while in European tales it is guarded in an egg.
[6] Scholarship acknowledges the considerable antiquity and wide diffusion of the motif of the "external soul" (or life, "death", heart).
For instance, folklorist Sir James George Frazer, in his book The Golden Bough, listed and compared several stories found across Eurasia and North Africa where the villain of the tale (ogres, witches and giants) willingly extracts their soul, hides it in an animal or in a box (casket) and therefore becomes unkillable, unless the hero destroys the recipient of their soul.
Meanwhile, the youngest brother leaves home and on his journeys spares the life of a lion, an eagle and a fish, which promise the youth to help in the future.
The youth later reaches the cottage of the old man and works for him for a year; when he is paid his wages, his employer informs him of the witch's threat.
Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal also includes an evil giant who cannot be defeated until his heart is located and destroyed.
Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World includes a character who becomes invincible by removing his heart from his body and placing it in another person.