{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_39408/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_39408","id":"gutenberg_39408","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39408","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Dead -- Folklore","Folk literature -- Themes, motives","Grateful dead (Tale)"],"text":"Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net/ for Project\nGutenberg (This file was produced from images generously\nmade available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                         The Folk-Lore Society\n                      For Collecting and Printing\n                   Relics of Popular Antiquities, &c.\n                             Established in\n                         The Year MDCCCLXXVIII.\n\n                              Publications\n                                   Of\n                         The Folk-lore Society\n\n                                  LX.\n\n                                 [1907]\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                           THE GRATEFUL DEAD\n                      The History of a Folk Story\n\n                                   By\n                          GORDON HALL GEROULD\n                            B. Litt. (Oxon.)\n              Preceptor in English in Princeton University\n\n                 Published for the Folk-Lore Society by\n                      David Nutt, 57--59 Long Acre\n                                 London\n\n                                  1908\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                                   To\n                         Professor A. S. Napier\n                      In gratitude and friendship\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTABLE OF CONTENTS\n\n\n    Chap.                                                          Page\n          Introduction                                               ix\n       I. A Review                                                    1\n      II. Bibliography                                                7\n     III. Tales with the Simple Theme and Miscellaneous\n          Combinations                                               26\n      IV. The Grateful Dead and The Poison Maiden                    44\n       V. The Grateful Dead and The Ransomed Woman                   76\n      VI. The Grateful Dead and The Water of Life or Kindred\n          Themes                                                    119\n     VII. The Relations of The Grateful Dead to The Spendthrift\n          Knight, The Two Friends, and The Thankful Beasts          153\n    VIII. Conclusion                                                162\n          Index                                                     175\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\nThe combination of narrative themes is so frequent a phenomenon\nin folk and formal literature that one almost forgets to wonder at\nit. Yet in point of fact the reason for it and the means by which it\nis accomplished are mysteries past our present comprehension. If we\ncould learn how and where popular tales unite, if we could formulate\nany general principle of union or severance, we should be well on\nthe way to an understanding of the riddle which has hitherto baffled\nall students of narrative, namely, the diffusion of stories. We have\ntheories enough; our immediate need is for more studies of individual\nthemes, careful and, if it must be, elaborate discussions of many\nwell-known cycles. Happily, these are accumulating and give promise\nof much useful knowledge at no distant day.\n\nOne principle has become clear. Since motives are so frequently found\nin combination, it is essential that the complex types be analyzed\nand arranged, with an eye kept single nevertheless to the master-theme\nunder discussion. Collectors, both primary and subsidiary, have done\nsuch valiant service that the treasures at our command are amply\nsufficient for such studies, so extensive, indeed, that the task of\ngoing through them thoroughly has become too great for the unassisted\nstudent. It cannot be too strongly urged that a single theme in its\nvarious types and compounds must be made predominant in any useful\ncomparative study. This is true when the sources and analogues of\nany literary work are treated; it is even truer when the bare motive\nis discussed.\n\nThe Grateful Dead furnishes an apt illustration of the necessity of\nsuch handling. It appears in a variety of different combinations,\nalmost never alone. Indeed, it is so widespread a tale, and its\ncombinations are so various, that there is the utmost difficulty in\ndetermining just what may properly be regarded the original kernel\nof it, the simple theme to which other motives were joined. Various\nopinions, as we shall see, have been held with reference to this\nmatter, most of them justified perhaps by the materials in the hands\nof the scholars holding them, but none quite adequate in view of later\nevidence. The true way to solve the riddle appears to be this: we must\nask the question,--what is the residuum when the tale is stripped\nof elements not common to a very great majority of the versions\nbelonging to the cycle? What is left amounts to the following,--the\nstory reduced to its lowest terms, I take it.\n\nA man finds a corpse lying unburied, and out of pure philanthropy\nprocures interment for it at great personal inconvenience. Later he is\nmet by the ghost of the dead man, who in many cases promises him help\non condition of receiving, in return, half of whatever he gets. The\nhero obtains a wife (or some other reward), and, when called upon,\nis ready to fulfil his bargain as to sharing his possessions.\n\nNowhere does a version appear in quite this form; but from what follows\nit will be seen that the simple story must have proceeded along some\nsuch lines. The compounds in which it occurs show much variety. It\nwill be necessary to study these in detail, not merely one or two of\nthem but as many as can be found. Despite the bewildering complexities\nthat may arise, I hope that this method of approach may throw some\nnew light on the wanderings of the tale.\n\nOf my debt to various friends and to many books, though indicated\nin the body of the work, I wish to make general and grateful\nacknowledgment here. My thanks, furthermore, are due to the librarians\nof Harvard University for their courteous hospitality; to Professor\nG. L. Kittredge for his generous encouragement to proceed with this\nstudy, though he himself, as I found after most of my material was\ncollected, had undertaken it several years before I began; and to\nProfessor R. K. Root for his help in reading the proofs.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nA REVIEW.\n\n\nTo Karl Simrock is due the honour of discovering the importance of\nThe Grateful Dead for the student of literature and legend. In his\nlittle book, Der gute Gerhard und die dankbaren Todten, [1] he called\nattention to the theme as a theme, and treated it with a breadth\nof knowledge and a clearness of insight remarkable in an attempt\nto unravel for the first time the mixed strands of so wide-spread\na tale. Using the Middle High German exemplary romance, Der gute\nGerhard, as his point of departure, he examined seventeen other\nstories, all but two of which have the motive well preserved. [2]\nUnhappily, the versions which he found came from a limited section\nof Europe, most of them from Germanic sources. Thus he was led to an\ninterpretation of the tale on the basis of Germanic mythology. This,\nthough ingenious enough and very erudite, need not detain us. It was\ndone according to a fashion of the time, which has long since been\ndiscarded. Simrock took the essential traits of the theme to be the\nburial of the dead and the ransom from captivity. [3] \"Wo nur noch\neine von beiden das Thema zu bilden scheint,\" he said, \"da hat die\nUeberliefertung gelitten.\" Here again he was misled by the narrow range\nof his material, as later studies have shown. Nearly all the versions\nhe cited have the motive of a ransomed princess, though the majority\nof the stories now known to be members of the cycle do not contain it.\n\nThree years after the publication of Simrock's monograph Benfey treated\nsome features of the theme in a note appended to his discussion of\nThe Thankful Beasts in the monumental Pantschatantra. [4] Though he\nnamed but a few variants, he found an Armenian tale which he compared\nwith the European versions, coming to the conclusion not only that the\nmotive proceeded from the Orient but also that the Armenian version\nhad the original form of it. That is, he took the ransom and burial\nof the dead, the parting of a woman possessed by a serpent, and the\nsaving of the hero on the bridal night as the essential features. This\nwas a step in advance.\n\nGeorge Stephens in his edition of Sir Amadas [5] held much the\nsame view. He added several important versions, and scored Simrock\nfor admitting Der gute Gerhard, saying that he could not see\nthat it had \"any direct connection\" with The Grateful Dead. [6]\nHe was at least partly in the right, even though his statement was\nmisleading. According to his Opinion, [7] \"the peculiar feature of the\nPrincess (Maiden) being freed from demonic influence by celestial aid,\nis undoubtedly the original form of the tale.\"\n\nIn a series of notes beginning in the year 1858 Koehler [8] supplied\na large number of variants, which have been invaluable for succeeding\nstudy of the theme. Nowhere, however, did he give an ordered account of\nthe versions at his command or discuss the relation of the elements--a\nregrettable omission. The contributions of Liebrecht, [9] though less\nextensive, were of the same sort. In his article published in 1868 he\nsaid that he thought The Grateful Dead to be of European origin, [10]\nbut he added nothing to our knowledge of the essential form of the\nstory. The following decade saw the publication by Sepp of a rather\nbrief account of the motive, [11] which was chiefly remarkable for\nits summary of classical and pre-classical references concerning the\nduty of burial. Like Stephens he assumed that the release of a maiden\nfrom the possession of demons was an essential part of the tale. In\n1886 Cosquin brought the discussion one step further by showing [12]\nthat the theme is sometimes found in combination with The Golden\nBird and The Water of Life. He did not, however, attempt to define\nthe original form of the story nor to trace its development.\n\nBy all odds the most adequate treatment that The Grateful Dead has\nyet received is found in Hippe's monograph, Untersuchungen zu der\nmittelenglischen Romanze von Sir Amadas, which appeared in 1888. [13]\nNot only did he gather together practically all the variants mentioned\nprevious to that time and add some few new ones, but he studied\nthe theme with such interpretative insight that anyone going over\nthe same field would be tempted to offer an apology for what may\nseem superfluous labour. Such a follower, and all followers, must\ngratefully acknowledge their indebtedness to his labours.\n\nYet one who follows imperfectly the counsels of perfection may\ndiscover certain defects in Hippe's work. He neglects altogether\nCosquin's hint as to the combination of the theme with The Water\nof Life and allied tales, thus leaving out of account an important\nelement, which is intimately connected with the chief motive in a large\nnumber of tales. Indeed, his effort to simplify, commendable and even\nnecessary as it is, brings him to conclusions that in some respects,\nI believe, are not sound. Though he states the essential points of the\nprimitive story in a form [14] which can hardly be bettered and which\ncorresponds almost exactly to the one that I have been led to accept\nfrom independent consideration of the material, [15] he fails to see\nthat he is dealing in almost every case, not with a simple theme with\nmodified details but with compound themes. Thus he starts out with the\n\"Sage vom dankbaren Toten und der Frau mit den Drachen im Leibe\" [16]\nand explains all variations from this type either by the weakening of\nthis feature and that or by the introduction of a single new motive,\nthe story of The Ransomed Woman. He would thus make it appear [17]\nthat we have a well-ordered progression from one combined type to\nvarious other combined and simplified types. Such a series is possible\nwithout doubt, but it can hardly be admitted till the interplay of\nall accessible themes, which have entered into combination with the\nchief theme, is investigated. Hippe passes these things over silently\nand so gives the subject a specious air of simplicity to which it\nhas no right.\n\nI should be the last to deny the necessity of treating narrative\nthemes each for itself, and I have nothing but admiration for the\ngeneral conduct of Hippe's investigation; but I wish to show that\nhis methods, and therefore his results, are at fault in so far as\nhe does not recognize the nature of the combinations into which\nThe Grateful Dead enters. Traces of other stories, unless their\npresence is obviously artificial, must be carefully considered,\nsince in dealing with cycles of such fluid stuff as folk-tales it\nis certainly wise to give each element due consideration. Certain\nminor errors in Hippe's article will be mentioned in due course,\nthough my constant obligations to it must be emphasized here.\n\nSince the appearance of Hippe's study no one has treated The Grateful\nDead with such scope as to modify his conclusions. Perhaps the\nmost interesting work in the field has been that of Dr. Dutz [18]\non the relation of George Peele's Old Wives' Tale to our theme. He\nfollows Hippe's scheme, but gives some interesting new variants. Of\nless importance, but useful within its limits, is the section devoted\nto the saga by Dr. Heinrich Wilhelmi in his Studien ueber die Chanson\nde Lion de Bourges. [19] Though he added no new versions, the author\nstudied in detail the relationship of some of the mediaeval forms to\none another, basing his results for the most part on careful textual\ncomparison. His gravest fault was the thoroughly artificial way in\nwhich he mapped out the field as a whole, a method which could lead\nonly to erroneous conclusions, since he classified according to a\ncouple of superficial traits. An English study by Mr. F. H. Groome\non Tobit and Jack the Giant-Killer [20] unhappily was written without\nregard to the previous literature of the subject, and simply rehearses\na number of well-known variants.\n\nIn this brief review I have touched only on such studies of The\nGrateful Dead as have materially enlarged the knowledge of the subject\nor have attempted a discussion of the theme in a broad way. In the\nfollowing chapter reference will be made to other works, in which\nparticular versions have been printed or summarized.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nBIBLIOGRAPHY.\n\n\nThe following list of variants of The Grateful Dead includes only\nsuch tales as have the fundamental traits, as sketched above, either\nexpressed or clearly implied. Thus Der gute Gerhard, for example, is\nnot mentioned because it has only the motive of The Ransomed Woman,\nwhile one of the folk-tales from Hungary is admitted because it follows\nin general outline one of the combined types to be discussed later,\neven though the burial of the dead is obscured. I cite by the short\ntitles which will be used to indicate the stories in the subsequent\ndiscussion. The arrangement is roughly geographical.\n\n\nTobit.\n\nIn the apocryphal book of Tobit. According to Neubauer, The Book of\nTobit, a Chaldee Text from a unique MS. in the Bodleian Library, 1878,\np. xv, Tobit was originally written in Hebrew, although the Hebrew text\npreserved was taken from Chaldee. Neubauer (p. xvii) quotes Graetz,\nGeschichte der Juden, (2nd ed.) iv. 466, as saying that the book was\nwritten in the time of Hadrian, and he concludes that it cannot be\nearlier because it was unknown to Josephus. The correspondence with\nSir Amadas, and thus with The Grateful Dead generally, seems to have\nbeen first noted by Simrock, p. 131 f., again by Koehler, Germania,\niii. 203, by Stephens, p. 7, by Hippe, p. 142, etc.\n\n\nArmenian.\n\nA. von Haxthausen, Transkaukasia, 1856, i. 333 f. A modern\nfolk-tale. Reprinted entire by Benfey, Pantschatantra, i. 219,\nnote, and by Koehler, Germania, iii. 202 f. A somewhat inadequate\nsummary is given by Hippe, p. 143; a better one is found in\nArch. f. slav. Phil. v. 43, by Koehler, who mentioned the tale again\nin Or. und Occ. ii. 328, and iii. 96. Summarized also by Sepp, p. 681,\nGroome, Folk-Lore, ix. 228 f., and mentioned by Wilhelmi, p.45.\n\n\nJewish.\n\nReischer, Schaare Jeruschalajim, 1880, pp. 86-99. Summarized by\nGaster, Germania, xxvi. 200-202, and from him by Hippe, pp. 143,\n144. A modern folk-tale from Palestine.\n\n\nAnnamite.\n\nLandes, Contes et legendes annamites, 1886, pp. 162, 163, \"La\nreconnaissance de l'etudiant mort.\" A modern folk-tale.\n\n\nSiberian.\n\nRadloff, Proben der Volkslitteratur der tuerkischen\nStaemme Sued-Siberiens, 1866, i. 329-331. See Koehler,\nArch. f. slav. Phil. v. 43, note.\n\n\nSimonides.\n\nCicero, De Divinatione, i. 27, referred to again in ii. 65 and\n66. Retold by Valerius Maximus, Facta et Dicta, i. 7; after him by\nRobert Holkot, Super Libros Sapientiae, Lectio 103; and again by\nChaucer in the Nun's Priest's Tale, Cant. Tales, B, 4257-4294. For\nthe relationship of Chaucer's anecdote to those in Latin see Skeat,\nnote in his edition, Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, 1892, ii. 274,\nand Petersen, On the Sources of the Nonne Prestes Tale, 1898,\npp. 106-117. Connected with The Grateful Dead by Freudenberg in a\nreview of Simrock in Jahrbuecher des Vereins von Alterthumsfreunden im\nRheinlande, xxv. 172. See also Koehler, Germania iii. 209, Liebrecht in\nHeidelberger Jahrbuecher der Lit. lxi. 449, 450, and Sepp. p. 680. Not\ntreated by Hippe.\n\n\nGypsy.\n\nA. G. Paspati, Etudes sur les Tchinghianes ou Bohemiens de\nl'Empire Ottoman, 1870, pp. 601-605, Translated from Paspati by\nF. H. Groome, Gypsy Folk-Tales, 1899, pp. 1-3. Summarized by Koehler,\nArch. f. slav. Phil. v. 43 and carelessly by Hippe, p. 143. This\ntale was heard near Adrianople. Cited by Foerster, Richars li Biaus,\np. xxviii, and by Wilhelmi, p. 45.\n\n\nGreek.\n\nJ. G. von Hahn, Griechische und albanesische Maerchen, 1864, no. 53,\npp. 288-295, \"Belohnte Treue.\" Summarized in part by Hippe, p. 149. See\nalso Liebrecht, Heid. Jahrbuecher, lxi. 451, and by Groome, Folk-Lore,\nix. 243. This tale was found in northern Euboea.\n\n\nMaltese.\n\nHans Stumme, Maltesische Maerchen, Gedichte und Raetsel, 1904, no. 12,\npp. 39-45.\n\n\nRussian I.\n\nAfansjew, Russische Volksmaerchen, Heft 6, p. 323 f. Analyzed by\nSchiefner, Or. und Occ. ii. 174, 175, and after him by Hippe, p. 144,\nwith some omissions. See Koehler, Or. und Occ. iii. 93-103, and Sepp,\np. 684.\n\n\nRussian II.\n\nChudjakow, Grossrussische Maerchen, Heft 3, pp. 165-168. Translation\nby Schiefner, Or. und Occ. iii. 93-96 in article by Koehler. In\nEnglish by Groome, Folk-Lore, ix. 229 ff. Summarized by Koehler,\nArch. f. slav. Phil. v. 43, and (with an important omission) by Hippe,\npp. 144, 145. See Koehler's notes in Gonzenbach, Sicilianische Maerchen,\nii. 250.\n\n\nRussian III.\n\nReproduced from an illustrated folk-book in the Publications of\nthe Society of Friends of Old Literature in St. Petersburg, 1880,\nno. 49. Summarized by V. Jagic, Arch. f. slav. Phil. v. 480, and by\nHippe, p. 145. Jagic remarks that the tale must have been widely known\nin Russia in the eighteenth century, though clearly of foreign origin.\n\n\nRussian IV.\n\nDietrich, Russische Volksmaerchen in den Urschrift gesammelt,\n1831, no. 16, pp. 199-207. English translation, Russian Popular\nTales. Translated from the German Version of Anton Dietrich, 1857,\npp. 179-186. \"Sila Zarewitsch und Iwaschka mit dem weissen Hemde.\" Like\nother tales in the collection this was taken from a popular print\nbought at Moscow. Mentioned by Benfey, Pantschatantra, i. 220, and\nby Koehler, Or. u. Occ. ii. 328.\n\n\nRussian V. [21]\n\nP. V. Sejn, Materialien zur Kenntniss der russischen Bevoelkerung\nvon Nordwest-Russland, 1893, ii. 66-68, no. 33. Cited by Polivka in\nArch. f. slav. Phil. xix. 251.\n\n\nRussian VI.\n\nP. V. Sejn, work cited, ii. 401-407, no. 227. Cited by Polivka,\nArch. f. slav. Phil. xix. 262.\n\n\nServian I.\n\nVuk Stefanovic Karadzic, 2nd ed. of his Servian folk-tales,\n1870. Translated by Madam Mijatovies (Mijatovich), Serbian\nFolk-Lore, 1874, p. 96. Summarized from Servian by Koehler,\nArch. f. slav. Phil. ii. 631, 632, and from him by Hippe, p. 145.\n\n\nServian II.\n\nSummarized from Gj. K. Stefanovic's collection, 1871, no. 15, by\nJagic in Arch. f. slav. Phil. v. 40 f. with the title \"Vlatko und\nder dankbare Todte.\" Thence by Hippe, p. 145.\n\n\nServian III.\n\nJagic in Arch. f. slav. Phil. v. 41 f, from Stojanovic's collection,\nno. 31. Hippe's summary, p. 146, is exceedingly brief and faulty.\n\n\nServian IV.\n\nJagic, Arch. f. slav. Phil. v. 42, from Matica, B. 105 (A.D. 1863,\nSt. Novakovic). Summary of this by Hippe, p. 146. Jagic calls the tale\n\"Ein Goldfisch.\"\n\n\nServian V.\n\nKrauss, Sagen und Maerchen der Suedslaven, 1883, i. 385-388, \"Der\nVilaberg.\" Summarized by Dutz, p. 11.\n\n\nServian VI.\n\nKrauss, work cited, i. 114-119. \"Fuhrmann Tueguts Himmelswagen.\" From\nthe manuscript collection of Valjavec. Summarized by Dutz, p. 18,\nnote 2.\n\n\nBohemian. [22]\n\nWaldau, Boehmisches Maerchenbuch, 1860, pp. 213-241. Mentioned by Koehler,\nOr. und Occ. ii. 329, and by Hippe, p. 146. Summarized by the former,\nOr. und Occ. iii. 97 f.\n\n\nPolish.\n\nK. W. Wojcicki, Klechdy, Starozytne podania i powiesci ludowe,\n2nd ed., Warsaw, 1851. Translated into German by F. H. Lewestam,\nPolnische Volkssagen und Maerchen, 1839, pp. 130 ff; into English by\nA. H. Wratislaw, Sixty Folk-Tales from exclusively Slavonic Sources,\n1889, pp. 121 ff.; and into French by Louis Leger, Recueil de contes\npopulaires slaves, 1882, pp. 119 ff. Summarized by Koehler, Germania,\niii. 200 f., and by Hippe, pp. 146 f. See also Sepp, p. 684, Dutz,\np. 11, Groome, Gypsy Folk-Tales, p. 3, note, and Arivau, Folk-Lore\nde Proaza, 1886, p. 205.\n\n\nBulgarian.\n\nLydia Schischmanoff, Legendes religieuses bulgares, 1896, no. 77,\npp. 202-209, [23] \"Le berger, son fils, et l'archange.\"\n\n\nLithuanian I.\n\nL. Geitler, Litauische Studien, 1875, pp. 21-23. Analyzed by Koehler,\nArch. f. slav. Phil. ii. 633, and after him briefly by Hippe, [24]\np. 147, as his \"Lithuanian II.\"\n\n\nLithuanian II.\n\nKoehler, Arch. f. slav. Phil. ii. 633 f. From Prussian\nLithuania. Summarized by Hippe, p. 147, as his \"Lithuanian III.\"\n\n\nHungarian I.\n\nG. Stier, Ungarische Sagen und Maerchen, 1850, pp. 110-122. Mentioned\nby Koehler, Germania, iii. 202, and by Hippe, p. 147.\n\n\nHungarian II.\n\nG. Stier, Ungarische Volksmaerchen, 1857, pp. 153-167. Summarized by\nKoehler, Germania, iii. 199 f., and too briefly by Hippe, p. 148.\n\n\nRumanian I.\n\nArthur Schott, Neue walachische Maerchen, in Hacklaender and Hoefer's\nHausblaetter, 1857, iv. 470-473. Mentioned by Stephens, p. 10, Hippe,\np. 147, and Benfey, Pantschatantra, ii. 532.\n\n\nRumanian II.\n\nF. Obert, Romaenische Maerchen und Sagen aus Siebenbuergen, in Das\nAusland, 1858, p. 117. Mentioned by Koehler, Germania, iii. 202,\nand by Hippe, p. 147.\n\n\nTransylvanian.\n\nHaltrich, Deutsche Volksmaerchen aus dem Sachsenlande in Siebenbuergen,\n1856, pp. 42-45. Analyzed by Koehler, Or. und Occ. ii. 326, and\nincompletely by Hippe, p. 148. Mentioned by Stephens, p. 10, and Sepp,\np. 684.\n\n\nEsthonian I.\n\nSchiefner, Or. und Occ. ii. 175 f., whence the analysis by Hippe,\np. 148.\n\n\nEsthonian II.\n\nReisen in mehrere russische Gouvernements in den Jahren 1801, 1807\nund 1815, 1830, v. 186-192, from Ein Ausflug nach Esthland im Junius\n1807. Reprinted by Kletke, Maerchensaal, 1845, ii. 60-62. Summarized\nby Dutz, p. 18, note 3.\n\n\nFinnish.\n\nLiebrecht, Germania, xxiv. 131, 132. Communicated by Schiefner\nfrom Suomen, Kansan Satuja, Helsingfors, 1866. Summarized by Hippe,\npp. 148 f.\n\n\nCatalan.\n\nF. Maspons y Labros, Lo Rondollayre: Quentos populars catalans, Segona\nSerie, 1872, no. 5, pp. 34-37. Analyzed by Liebrecht, Heid. Jahrbuecher\nder Lit. lxv. 894 (1872), and after him by Hippe, p. 151. Mentioned\nby d'Ancona, Romania, iii. 192, and by Foerster, Richars li Biaus,\np. xxviii.\n\n\nSpanish.\n\nDuran, Romancero general, 1849-51, ii. 299-302, nos. 1291,\n1292. Summarized by Koehler, Or. und Occ. ii. 323 f. and after him\nby Cosquin, Contes populaires, i. 215, and by Hippe, p. 151. [25]\nMentioned by Sepp, p. 686.\n\n\nLope de Vega.\n\nComedy in two parts, Don Juan de Castro. According to J. R. Chorley,\nCatalogo de comedias y autos de Frey Felix de Vega Carpio, p. 5, this\nplay is to be found in Part xix. of the Comedias published in 1623\n(later issues 1624, 1625, and 1627). A. Schaeffer, Geschichte des\nspanischen Nationaldramas, 1890, i. 141, says that the second part,\ncalled Las aventuras de don Juan de Alarcos, is in Part xxv. of Lope's\ncomedies. The entire play is edited by Hartzenbusch, Comedias Escogidas\nde Lope de Vega, iv. 373 ff. and 395 ff. in the Biblioteca de autores\nespanoles, lii. Schaeffer, pp. 141, 142, gives a careful summary of\nthe play, and Koehler, Or. und Occ. iii. 100 f., gives another. The\nlatter is followed by Hippe, p. 151. Mentioned by Duran, Romancero\ngeneral, ii. 299, by Sepp, p. 686, and by Wilhelmi, pp. 45 ff. and 60.\n\n\nCalderon.\n\nEl Mejor Amigo el Muerto, by Luis de Belmonte, Francisco de Rojas,\nand Pedro Calderon de la Barca, in Biblioteca de autores espanoles,\nxiv. 471-488, and in Comedias escogidas de los mejores ingenios de\nEspana, 1657, ix. 53-84. Analyzed by Koehler, Or. und Occ, iii. 100 f.,\nand briefly after him by Hippe, p. 151. Mentioned by Sepp, p. 686,\nand by Wilhelmi, pp. 60 f. Schaeffer, work cited, ii. 283 f., says\nthat a play of this name was written by Belmonte alone in 1610,\nwhich was revised about 1627 with the aid of Rojas and Calderon.\n\n\nTrancoso. [26]\n\nContos e historias de proveito e exemplo, by Goncalo Fernandez\nTrancoso, Parte 2, Cont ii., first published in 1575 and frequently\nre-issued during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In\nthe edition published at Lisbon in 1693, our tale is found on\npp. 45r.-60r.; and in that published at the same place in 1710,\non pp. 110-177. Menendez y Pelayo, Origenes de la Novela (Nueva\nBiblioteca de autores espanoles vii.), 1907, ii. lxxxvii ff., gives\na bibliography, the table of contents, and a description of the work\non the basis of seventeenth century editions; on p. xcv. he connects\nthe tale above-mentioned with The Grateful Dead. See T. Braga, Contos\ntradiconaes do povo portuguez, 1883, ii. 63-128, who prints nineteen\nof the tales in abbreviated form, but not ours.\n\n\nNicholas.\n\nJohannes Junior (Gobius), Scala Celi, 1480, under Elemosina. Gobius\nwas born in the south of France and lived about the middle of the\nfourteenth century. [27] Summary by Simrock, pp. 106-109. Mentioned\nby Hippe, p. 169.\n\n\nRichars.\n\nRichars li Biaus, ed. W. Foerster, 1874. A romance written in Picardy\nor eastwards in the thirteenth century (Foerster, p. xxi). Analyzed by\nKoehler, Revue critique, 1868, pp. 412 ff., and Hippe, p. 155. Compared\nin detail with Lion de Bourges by Wilhelmi, pp. 46 ff.\n\n\nLion de Bourges.\n\nAn Old French romance known to exist in two manuscripts, the earlier\ndating from the fourteenth century, [28] the later from about the end\nof the fifteenth. [29] It has never been edited, but the portion which\nconcerns us was analyzed in detail by Wilhelmi, pp. 18-38. This summary\nI have made the basis of my discussion. The romance was mentioned by\nP. Paris, Foerster, and Suchier (as cited in note below), Gautier,\nLes epopees francaises, 1st ed. 1865, i. 471-473, Ebert, Jahrbuch\nf. rom. und engl. Lit. iv. 53, 54, and Benfey, Pantschatantra,\ni. 220. A prose translation into German is found in manuscripts of\nthe fifteenth century, which does not differ materially from the\noriginal. [30] This was printed in 1514, and summarized by F. H. von\nder Hagen, Gesammtabenteuer, 1850, i. xcvii-xcix, Simrock, pp. 104-106,\nand Hippe, p. 154. See E. Mueller, Ueberlieferung des Herpin von Burges,\n1905, who analyzes the work and treats its relations to Lion.\n\n\nOliver.\n\nOlivier de Castille et Artus d'Algarbe, a French prose romance\ncomposed before 1472, according to Foulche-Delbosc (Revue hispanique,\nix. 592). The first and second editions were printed at Geneva,\nthe first in 1482, the second before 1492. [31] There exist at\nleast three manuscripts of the work from the fifteenth century:\nMS. Bibl. nat. fran. 12574 (which attributes the romance to a David\nAubert, according to Groeber, Grundriss der rom. Phil. ii. 1, 1145);\nMS. Brussels 3861; and Univ. of Ghent, MS. 470. The designs of the\nlast have been reproduced, together with a summary of the text, by\nHeins and Bergmans, Olivier de Castille, 1896. An English translation\nwas printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1518. A translation from the second\nFrench edition into Castilian was made by Philippe Camus, which was\nprinted thirteen times between 1499 and 1845. [32] The edition of\n1499 has lately been reproduced in facsimile by A. M. Huntington,\nLa historia de los nobles caualleros Oliueros de castilla y artus\ndalgarbe, 1902. A German translation from the French was made\nby Wilhelm Ziely in 1521, and this was translated into English by\nLeighton and Barrett, The History of Oliver and Arthur, 1903. From the\nGerman prose Hans Sachs took the material for his comedy on the theme\n(publ. 1556). A summary of Ziely's work is given by Froelicher, Thuering\nvon Ringoltingen's \"Melusine,\" Wilhelm Ziely's \"Olivier und Artus\"\nund \"Valentin und Orsus,\" 1889, pp. 65 f., which is used by Wilhelmi,\npp. 55, 56, in his comparison of the romance with Richars and Lion\nde Bourges. An Italian translation, presumably from the French,\nwas printed three or four times from 1552 to 1622. [33] A summary\nof the story is given in Melanges tires d'une grande bibliotheque,\nby E. V. 1780, pp. 78 ff., with an incorrect note about the romance,\nreproduced by Hippe, pp. 155 f., with an analysis from the same source\nof the part of the tale belonging to our cycle. Robert Laneham in\nhis list of ballads and romances, made in 1575, mentions Olyuer of\nthe Castl. See Furnivall, Captain Cox, his Ballads and Books, Ballad\nSoc. 1871, vii. xxxvii and 30.\n\n\nJean de Calais.\n\nI. Mme. Angelique de Gomez, Histoire de Jean de Calais, 1723. Sketched\nin the Bibliotheque universelle des romans, Dec. 1776, pp. 134\nff. Koehler, Germania, iii. 204 ff., gives a summary of the work,\nwhich Mme. de Gomez stated was \"tire d'un livre qui a pour titre:\nHistoire fabuleuse de la Maison des Rois de Portugal.\" A later\nanonymous redaction of this Jean de Calais exists in prints of 1770,\n1776, and 1787, and it continued to be issued in the nineteenth\ncentury. Summarized by Hippe, pp. 156 f., and by Sepp, pp. 685\nf. Mentioned by Koehler in Gonzenbach, Sicil. Maerchen, ii. 250.\n\nII. Blade, Contes populaires de la Gascogne, 1886, ii. 67-90. This\nand the following folk-versions of Jean deserve careful consideration\nbecause of the interesting character of their variations.\n\nIII. J. B. Andrews, Folk-Lore Record, iii. 48 ff., from Mentone. See\nLiebrecht, Engl. Stud. v. 158, and Hippe, p. 157.\n\nIV. and V. J. B. Andrews, Contes ligures, traditions de la Riviere,\n1892, pp. 111-116, no. 26, and pp. 187-192, no. 41. These two versions\ndiffer slightly from one another, but more from the preceding.\n\nVI. P. Sebillot, Contes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne, 3me. serie,\n1882, pp. 164-171.\n\nVII. Wentworth Webster, Basque Legends, 1877, pp. 151-154. See Luzel,\nLegendes chretiennes, p. 90, note.\n\nVIII. A. Le Braz, La legende de la mort chez les Bretons armoricains,\nnouv. ed., 1902, ii. 211-231.\n\nIX. L. Giner Arivau, Folk-Lore de Proaza (Asturia), in Biblioteca de\nlas tradiciones populares espanolas, viii. 194-201 (1886).\n\nX. Gittee and Lemoine, Contes populaires du pays Wallon, 1891,\npp. 57-61.\n\n\nWalewein.\n\nRoman van Walewein, ed. Jonckbloet, 1846. Analyzed by G. Paris,\nHist. litt. de la France, xxx. 82-84, and by W. P. Ker, The Roman\nvan Walewein (Gawain) in Folk-Lore, v. 121-127 (1894). My analysis\nis a combination made from these two summaries.\n\n\nLotharingian.\n\nCosquin, Contes populaires de Lorraine, 1886, i. 208-212\n(no. xix). Noted by Hippe, p. 157.\n\n\nGasconian.\n\nCenac Moncaut, Contes populaires de la Gascogne, 1861, pp. 5-14,\n\"Rira bien qui rira le dernier.\" Summarized by Koehler, Or. und\nOcc. ii. 329. Mentioned by Hippe, p. 157, and by Groome, Folk-Lore,\nix. 239.\n\n\nDianese.\n\nNovella di Messer Dianese e di Messer Gigliotto, ed. d'Ancona and\nSforza, 1868. Analyzed by Liebrecht, Heid. Jahrbuecher der Lit. lxi. 450\n(1868), by d'Ancona, Romania, iii. 191, (reprinted in his Studj di\ncritica e storia, 1880, p. 353), and by Hippe, p. 152. D'Ancona's\nsummary is from Papanti, nov. xxi. The variant is of the fourteenth\ncentury, according to the writer of the introduction of the edition of\n1868, p. 5. See also Foerster, Richars li Biaus, p. xxiv, and Wilhelmi,\npp. 44 and 57.\n\n\nStellante Costantina.\n\nD'Ancona, Romania, iii. 192, mentions the popular poem Istoria\nbellissima di Stellante Costantina figliuola del gran turco, la\nquale fu rubata da certi cristiani che teneva in corte suo padre e fu\nvenduta a un mercante di Vicenza presso Salerno, con molti intervalli\ne successi, composta da Giovanni Orazio Brunetto. I have not been able\nto find this poem and do not know how closely it accords with Dianese.\n\n\nStraparola I.\n\nNotti piacevoli, notte xi, favola 2. Analyzed by Grimm, Kinder-\nund Hausmaerchen, 1856, iii, 289; and rather too briefly by Simrock,\npp. 98-100, and Hippe, p. 153. See Benfey, Pant. i. 221, Koehler in\nGonzenbach, Sicil. Maerchen, ii. 249, and Groome, Tobit and Jack,\nFolk-Lore, ix. 226 f., and Gypsy Folk-Tales, p. 3, note.\n\n\nStraparola II.\n\nNotti piacevoli, notte v, favola 1. See Benfey, Pant. ii. 532.\n\n\nTuscan.\n\nG. Nerucci, Sessanta novelle popolari, 1880, pp. 430-437, no. lii. A\nfolk-tale from the neighbourhood of Pistoia. See Webster, Basque\nLegends, pp. 182-187, Crane, Italian Popular Tales, p. 350, and\nCosquin, Contes populaires, i. 215.\n\n\nIstrian.\n\nIve, Novelline popolari rovignesi, 1877, p. 19. See d'Ancona, Studj di\ncritica, 1880, p. 354, and the summary by Crane, Italian Popular Tales,\n1885, no. xxxv. pp. 131-136, from whom, as Ive's collection has been\ninaccessible to me, I derive my knowledge of the story. Crane gives\nthe title of Ive as Fiabe, etc., d'Ancona as above.\n\n\nVenetian.\n\nG. Bernoni, Tradizioni populari veneziane, 1875, pp. 89-96. Referred\nto by Crane, Italian Popular Tales, p. 350.\n\n\nSicilian.\n\nLaura Gonzenbach, Sicilianische Maerchen, 1870, ii. 96-103. Summarized\nbriefly by Hippe, pp. 153 f., and by Groome, Folk-Lore, ix. 239 f.\n\n\nBrazilian.\n\nRomero and Braga, Contos populares do Brazil, 1885, no. x. pp. 215. See\nCosquin, Contes populaires, i. 215.\n\n\nBasque I.\n\nWentworth Webster, Basque Legends, 1877, pp. 182-187. See Cosquin,\nContes populaires, i. 215, and Luzel, Legendes chretiennes, p. 90,\nnote.\n\n\nBasque II.\n\nWebster, work cited, pp. 146-150. See Crane, Italian Popular Tales,\np. 351.\n\n\nGaelic.\n\nCampbell, Popular Tales of the West Highlands, new ed. 1890,\nii. 121-140, no. 32, \"The Barra Widow's Son.\" Summarized by Koehler,\nOr. und Occ. ii. 322 f., by Sepp, p. 685, by Hippe, p. 150, and by\nGroome, Folk-Lore, ix. 235. See Koehler in Gonzenbach, Sicil. Maerchen,\nii. 249, and Groome, Gypsy Folk-Tales, p. 3, note.\n\n\nIrish I.\n\nW. Larminie, West Irish Folk-Tales and Romances, 1893, pp. 155-167,\n\"Beauty of the World.\" Mentioned by Kittredge, Harvard Notes and\nStudies, viii. 250, note.\n\n\nIrish II.\n\nDouglas Hyde, Beside the Fire. A Collection of Irish Gaelic\nFolk-Stories, 1890, pp. 18-47, \"The King of Ireland's Son.\" [34]\nMentioned by Kittredge, place cited.\n\n\nIrish III.\n\nP. Kennedy, Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts, 1866, pp. 32-38,\n\"Jack the Master and Jack the Servant.\"\n\n\nBreton I.\n\nSouvestre, Le foyer breton, contes et recits populaires,\nnouv. ed. 1874, ii. 1-21. Analyzed by Simrock, pp. 94-98, by Sepp,\np. 685, and in part by Hippe, p. 149. See Luzel, Legendes chretiennes,\ni. 90, note.\n\n\nBreton II.\n\nF. M. Luzel, Legendes chretiennes de la Basse-Bretagne, 1881,\ni. 68-90, \"Le fils de Saint Pierre.\" Cited by von Weilen,\nZts. f. vergl. Litteraturgeschichte, N.F. i. 105. Analyzed in part\nby Hippe, pp. 149 f.\n\n\nBreton III.\n\nLuzel, work cited, ii. 40-58. Mentioned by von Weilen, place cited,\nand analyzed by Hippe, p. 150. The title, slightly misquoted by Hippe,\nis \"Cantique spirituel sur la charite que montra Saint-Corentin\nenvers un jeune homme qui fut chasse de chez son pere et sa mere,\nsans motif ni raison.\"\n\n\nBreton IV.\n\nP. Sebillot, Contes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne, 1880,\npp. 1-8. Noted by Luzel, work cited, p. 90, note, and by Cosquin,\nContes populaires, i. 215.\n\n\nBreton V.\n\nF. M. Luzel, Contes populaires de Basse-Bretagne, 1887, ii. 176-194,\n\"La princesse Marcassa.\"\n\n\nBreton VI.\n\nF. M. Luzel, work cited, ii. 209-230, \"La princesse de Hongrie.\"\n\n\nBreton VII.\n\nF. M. Luzel, work cited, i. 403-424, \"Iouenn Kermenou, l'homme\nde parole.\"\n\n\nOld Swedish.\n\nStephens, pp. 73 f., reprinted with translation from his Ett\nForn-Svenskt Legendarium, 1858, ii. 731 f. This variant from 1265-1270\nis analyzed by Hippe, pp. 158 f.\n\n\nSwedish.\n\nP. O. Baeckstroem, Svenska Folkboecker, 1845-48, ii. 144-156,\nfrom H--d (Hammarskoeld) and I--s (Imnelius), Svenska Folksagor,\n1819, i. 157-189. Baeckstroem also cites several editions of the\nfolk-book, which he says is of native origin. Mentioned by Stephens,\np. 8. Summarized by Liebrecht, Germania, xxiv. 130 f., and by Hippe,\np. 158.\n\n\nDanish I.\n\nS. Grundtvig, Gamle Danske Minder i Folkemunde, 1854, pp. 77-80,\n\"Det fattige Lig.\" Mentioned by Stephens, p. 8, by Hippe, p. 160,\nand by Wilhelmi, p. 45. Summarized by Koehler, Or. und Occ. iii. 99.\n\n\nDanish II.\n\nGrundtvig, work cited, pp. 105-108, \"De tre Mark.\" Summarized by\nKoehler, Or. und Occ. iii. 100. Cited by Hippe, p. 160, and Wilhelmi,\np. 45.\n\n\nDanish III.\n\nAndersen, \"Reisekammeraten,\" in Samlede Skrifter, xx. 54\nff. (1855). Found in most English editions of Andersen's tales as\n\"The Travelling Companion.\" Based on Norwegian II. Analyzed by Sepp,\np. 678. Cited by Koehler, Or. und Occ. ii. 327, by Hippe, p. 159,\nand by Groome, Gypsy Folk-Tales, p. 3, note.\n\n\nNorwegian I.\n\nAsbjoernsen, Iuletraeet, 1866, no. 8, and Norske Folke-Eventyr, 1871,\nno. 99, pp. 198-201. Summarized by Liebrecht, Heid. Jahrbuecher der\nLit. lxi. 451 (1868), and by Hippe, p. 159. See Liebrecht, Germania,\nxxiv. 131.\n\n\nNorwegian II.\n\nAsbjoernsen, Illustreret Kalender, 1855, pp. 32-39, Iuletraeet, no. 9,\nand Norske Folke-Eventyr, no. 100, pp. 201-214. Translated by Dasent,\nTales from the Fjeld, 1874, pp. 71-88. Cited by Stephens, p. 8,\nLiebrecht, Germania, xxiv. 131, and Groome, Gypsy Folk-Tales, p. 3,\nnote. Somewhat inadequate summaries by Liebrecht, Heid. Jahrbuecher\nder Lit. lxi. 452, Hippe, p. 159, and Groome, Folk-Lore, ix. 230.\n\n\nIcelandic I.\n\nArnason, Islenzkar \u25a0josoegur og aefintyri, 1864, ii. 473-479. English\ntranslation in Powell and Magnusson, Legends Collected by Jon. Arnason,\n1866, pp. 527-540. German translation in Poestion, Islaendische Maerchen,\n1884, p. 274. Cited by Liebrecht, Heid. Jahrbuecher, lxi. 451, and\nGermania, xxiv. 131, and by Wilhelmi, p. 45. Summary by Koehler,\nOr. und Occ. iii. 101 f., and by Hippe, p. 159.\n\n\nIcelandic II.\n\nA. Ritterhaus, Die neuislaendischen Volksmaerchen, 1902, no. 57,\npp. 232-235. From MS. 537, Landesbibliothek, Reykjavik.\n\n\nRittertriuwe.\n\nF. H. von der Hagen, Gesammtabenteuer, 1850, i. 105-128, no. 6. A\npoem of 866 lines from the fourteenth century. Summaries in Benfey,\nPant. i. 221, in Simrock, pp. 100-103, and, with a rather bad error,\nin Hippe, p. 164. See Foerster, Richars li Biaus, p. xxiv. Compared\nwith Richars, Oliver, and Lion de Bourges by Wilhelmi, pp. 56 f.\n\n\nTreu Heinrich.\n\nDer Junker und der treue Heinrich, ed. K. Kinzel, 1880. Previously\nedited and analyzed by von der Hagen, Gesammtabenteuer, iii. 197-255,\nno. 64. Summary by Simrock, pp. 103 f. Cited by Hippe, p. 165.\n\n\nSimrock I.\n\nJ. W. Wolf, Deutsche Hausmaerchen, 1858, pp. 243-250, contributed by\nW. von Ploennies. Summary by Simrock, pp. 46-51, by Koehler, Or. und\nOcc. iii. 98, and by Sepp, p. 683. Cited by Hippe, p. 165.\n\n\nSimrock II.\n\nW. von Ploennies in Zts. f. deutsche Myth. ii. 373-377. From the\nOdenwald. Summary by Simrock, pp. 51-54. See Hippe, p. 165. This\nis the story analyzed by Sepp, p. 688 f., though he also refers to\nWolf's and Zingerle's tales.\n\n\nSimrock III.\n\nE. Meier, Deutsche Volksmaerchen aus Schwaben, 1852,\nno. 42. pp. 143-153. Summarized by Simrock, pp. 54-58, Koehler,\nOr. und Occ. iii. 99, and Sepp, pp. 686 f. See Hippe, p. 165.\n\n\nSimrock IV.\n\nH. Proehle, Kinder- und Volksmaerchen, 1853, pp. 239-246. Summary by\nSimrock, pp. 58-62. See Hippe, p. 165.\n\n\nSimrock V.\n\nSimrock, pp. 62-65, contributed by Zingerle, who afterwards printed\nit in the Zts. f. deutsche Myth. ii. 367 ff., in Sagen, Maerchen und\nGebraeuche aus Tirol, 1859, pp. 444 f., and in Kinder- und Hausmaerchen\naus Tirol, 2nd ed., 1870, pp. 261-267. Analyzed without mention of\nsource by Sepp, pp. 687 f. See Hippe, p. 165.\n\n\nSimrock VI.\n\nSimrock, pp. 65-68, from Xanten. See Hippe, p. 165.\n\n\nSimrock VII.\n\nSimrock, pp. 68-75, from Xanten. See Hippe, p. 165.\n\n\nSimrock VIII.\n\nF. Woeste, Zts. f. deutsche Myth. iii. 46-50, from Grafschaft\nMark. Given by Simrock, pp. 75-80. Analyzed by Sepp, p. 685, who\ninadvertently speaks of it as \"nach irischer Sage.\" See Hippe, p. 165.\n\n\nSimrock IX.\n\nSimrock, pp. 80-89, contributed by Zingerle, who afterwards printed\nit in Sagen, Maerchen und Gebraeuche aus Tirol, 1859, pp. 446-450, and\nin Kinder- und Hausmaerchen aus Tirol, 2nd ed., 1870, pp. 254-260. See\nStephens, p. 9, Hippe, pp. 165 f., and Wilhelmi, p. 45.\n\n\nSimrock X.\n\nSimrock, pp. 89-94, from the foot of the Tomberg. Summarized by Koehler,\nOr. und Occ. ii. 326. See Hippe, p. 166, and Wilhelmi, p. 45.\n\n\nOldenburgian.\n\nL. Strackerjan, Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogtum Oldenburg,\n1867, ii. 308 ff. Cited by Hippe, p. 166, and by Foerster, Richars\nli Biaus, p. xxviii.\n\n\nHarz I.\n\nA. Ey, Harzmaerchenbuch, 1862, pp. 64-74. Summary by Koehler, Or. und\nOcc. iii. 96. Cited by Hippe, p. 166.\n\n\nHarz II.\n\nA. Ey, work cited, pp. 113-118. Summary by Koehler, Or. und\nOcc. iii. 97. Cited by Hippe, p. 166.\n\n\nSir Amadas.\n\nEd. Weber, Metrical Romances, 1810, iii. 241-275, Robson, Three Early\nEnglish Metrical Romances, 1842, pp. 27-56, Stephens, Ghost-Thanks,\n1860. Stephens seems to have been the first to note the connection of\nSir Amadas with The Grateful Dead. The romance, as it is preserved in\ntwo manuscripts of the fifteenth century, must accordingly have been\ncomposed as early as the second half of the preceding century. It\ncontains 778 verses in the tail-rhyme stanza. Summarized by Koehler,\nOr. und Occ. ii. 325, by Foerster, Richars li Biaus, pp. xxiv-xxvi,\nby Groome, Folk-Lore, ix. 236, and by Hippe (with great care),\npp. 160-164. Compared with Oliver by Wilhelmi, pp. 58 f.\n\n\nJack the Giant Killer.\n\nFound without essential difference in several chapbooks, the earliest\nowned by the British Museum being entitled: The Second Part of |\nJack and the Giants. | Giving a full Account of his victorious\nConquests over | the North Country Giants; destroying the inchanted |\nCastle kept by Galligantus; dispersed the fiery Grif- | fins; put\nthe Conjuror to Flight; and released not | only many Knights and\nLadies, but likewise a Duke's | Daughter, to whom he was honourably\nmarried. Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1711. [35] Other editions with the story\nare: The History of Jack and the Giants, Aldermary Churchyard, London;\nsame title, Bow Church Yard, London; same title, Cowgate, Edinburgh;\nThe Pleasant and delightful History of Jack and the Giants, Nottingham,\nPrinted for the Running Stationers, and The Wonderful History of Jack\nthe Giant-Killer, Manchester, Printed by A. Swindells; all without\ndate. The Newcastle edition was reprinted by Halliwell-Phillipps in\nPopular Rhymes and Nursery Tales, 1849, in which our tale appears\nat pp. 67-77. Apparently the British Museum copy dated 1711 is that\nowned by Halliwell-Phillipps. From his edition it has been reprinted\nby Groome, Folk-Lore, ix. 237 f., and summarized by Koehler, Or. und\nOcc. ii. 327 f., and Sepp, p. 685. See also Stephens, p. 8, Hippe,\np. 164, and Wilhelmi, p. 45.\n\n\nFactor's Garland. [36]\n\nThe Factor's Garland or The Turkey Factor, a tale in English verse,\nwhich may be regarded as a popular ballad, though by no means\nas a primitive one. It has often been reprinted as a chapbook or\nbroadside. The library of Harvard University possesses copies of\nno less than eight different editions (see W. C. Lane, Catalogue\nof English and American Chap-Books and Broadside Ballads in Harvard\nCollege Library, 1905, nos. 809-815, 2420). An examination of these\nshows that they differ from each other in no essential point, though\nthey vary considerably in statements of time. The British Museum\nCatalogue of Printed Books lists seven editions, all different from\nthose at Harvard, with one possible exception. The popularity of the\nstory, at one time at least, is thus strikingly illustrated. Another\nvariant, reported from oral tradition, has been found in North\nCarolina. See the paper read by J. B. Henneman before the Modern\nLanguage Association of America on Dec 29, 1906.\n\n\nOld Wives' Tale.\n\nGeorge Peele, The Old Wives' Tale (1590), published in 1595, Ed. by\nDyce, 1828 and 1861, by Bullen, 1888, and by Gummere in Gayley's\nRepresentative English Comedies, 1903, pp. 349-382. See H. Dutz for\nan elaborate discussion of the connection of the play with our theme.\n\n\nFatal Dowry.\n\nPhilip Massinger (and Nathaniel Field), The Fatal Dowry. First printed\nin 1632. Ed. A. Symons, Mermaid Series, 1889, ii. 87-182.\n\n\nFair Penitent.\n\nNicholas Rowe, The Fair Penitent, The Dramatick Works of Nicholas\nRowe Esq., 1720, vol. i.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nTALES WITH THE SIMPLE THEME AND MISCELLANEOUS COMBINATIONS.\n\n\nOf the tales enumerated in the previous chapter, over one hundred in\nnumber, all but seventeen fall into well-defined categories as having\nThe Grateful Dead combined with one or more of three given themes:\nThe Possessed Woman, The Ransomed Woman, and The Water of Life. Of\nthese seventeen variants, moreover, only four can be regarded as\nhaving the simple motive of The Grateful Dead; and they are in part\ndoubtful members of the family.\n\nThe first of them is Simonides, thus related by Cicero: \"Unum de\nSimonide: qui cum ignotum quendam proiectum mortuum vidisisset eumque\nhumavisset haberetque in animo navem conscendere, moneri visus est\nne id faceret ab eo, quem sepultura adfecerat; si navigavisset, eum\nnaufragio esse periturum; itaque Simonidem redisse, perisse ceteros,\nqui tum navigavissent.\" The source of Cicero's story we do not know,\nbut in all probability it was Greek. Whether it really belongs to\nour cycle, being so simple in form and nearly two centuries earlier\nin date than any other version yet unearthed, is a matter for very\ngreat doubt. It may have arisen quite independently of other similar\ntales in various parts of the world, and have no essential connection\nwith our tale; but it deserves special consideration, not only\nfrom its antiquity, but also from its subsequent history in lineal\ndescent through Valerius Maximus, and possibly Robert Holkot [37] to\nChaucer. We are at least justified in looking for some influence of so\nwell-known an anecdote upon better-authenticated members of the cycle.\n\nThe three other variants with the simple theme are all folk-tales\nof recent gathering. The first of them is Jewish, [38] which runs\nas follows: The son of a rich merchant of Jerusalem sets off after\nhis father's death to see the world. At Stamboul he finds hanging in\nchains the body of a Jew, which the Sultan has commanded to be left\nthere until his co-religionists shall have repaid the sum that the\nman is suspected of having stolen from his royal master. The hero pays\nthis sum, and has the corpse buried. Later during a storm at sea he is\nsaved by a stone on which he is brought to land, whence he is carried\nby an eagle back to Jerusalem. There a white-clad man appears to him,\nexplaining that he is the ghost of the dead, and that he has already\nappeared as stone and eagle. The spirit further promises the hero a\nreward for his good deed in the present and in the future life.\n\nThe second variant is the Annamite tale. Two poor students were\nfriends. One died and was buried by the other, whose fidelity was\nsuch that he remained three years by the tomb. He dreamed that his\nfriend came to him and said that he should gain the title of trang\nnguyen. So he built a chapel by the tomb, where the dead friend often\nappeared to him. When the king heard of his loyalty, he was praised\nand rewarded with a title. After his death the two friends appeared\nto their son and daughter, bidding them marry. [39]\n\nThe third story is Servian VI. An uncle of Adam, who honoured God\nand the \"Vile,\" [40] was so good a man that God came to him in human\nform one day. After a battle between the good and evil in the world,\nthe latter would not bury the slain. The Vile told Tuegut that this\nwould not do, so he hitched up his wagon and carried the slain to their\ngraves. Then God came to earth, told him to put all he possessed in\nhis wagon, and carried him on a cloud to heaven, where he was made\nthe constellation now called Driver Tuegut's Heavenly Wagon.\n\nOf these three tales the Annamite does not fulfil the usual condition\nthat the dead man shall be a stranger to the one who does the good\naction. Together with Simonides, all of them vary widely in the reward\ngiven the hero. In Simonides he is warned against embarkation, and\nthus saved from shipwreck; in the Jewish he is actually rescued from\na storm-tossed vessel by the ghost, which masquerades as a rock and an\neagle, and afterward promises him further rewards here and hereafter;\nin the Annamite he is provided with earthly glory; and in Servian\nVI. he becomes a part of the galaxy of heaven. Only the underlying\nidea is the same,--that the burial of the dead is a pious act and\na sacred duty, which will meet a fitting reward. [41] This belief\nis so widespread and ancient that it is not difficult to surmise how\nstories inculcating the duty might have grown up independently in many\nlands. At the same time, the very diversity of reward in these simple\ntales allies them to one or another of the compound types, which,\nthough multiform and widespread, are yet unmistakably the offspring\nof a single parent form, or better, of a chance union between two\nmotives. [42] Thus Simonides and Jewish recall the combination of\nThe Grateful Dead with The Ransomed Woman, since they have the hero\nrescued from drowning by the ghost, and they suggest one point of\nunion between the two themes. It therefore seems best to include\nthem in our list, not only for the sake of completeness, but because\nthey point to the reason which sometime and somewhere gave rise to a\nmore developed form of the motive,--to the maerchen as we shall study\nit. A consideration of these basal principles can be undertaken,\nhowever, only after the story theme in its various ramifications and\nmodifications has been thoroughly discussed.\n\nThe probability that The Grateful Dead once existed in a simple,\nuncompounded form, which became the parent on one side of the more\nimportant combined types, is strengthened by the minor compounds in\nwhich it is found. How can the correspondences of detail seen in\na considerable number of different compounds, as far as they run\nparallel, be otherwise explained? Surely it is more reasonable to\nbelieve in the existence of such a parent form than to suppose that\nan originally complicated form was hacked and hewn asunder to produce\nnew compounds. This will become clearer, I hope, as we proceed.\n\nIn Greek, a boy was sold to a pasha, who betrothed him to his\ndaughter. Because of the mother's objections, however, he was sent\naway as a shepherd, while the girl was promised to another pasha's\nson. The hero fed his flock under the shelter of the castle, and was\nsummoned by the maiden, who gave him her betrothal ring in a beaker,\nthough pretending not to know him. The next day she asked her parents\nto let the two suitors go into the world with a thousand piasters\napiece, and see which came back with the most money. So they were\nsent forth. The pasha's son remained in a city enjoying his money,\nwhile the shepherd went on till he met an old man, to whom he told\nhis story. The man gave him a thousand piasters more, and told him to\nbuy an ape in a town hard by. He succeeded in doing this, and brought\nthe ape back to the old man, who cut it in pieces, much to the youth's\ndisgust, and made eye-salve of the brain. With this he sent the hero\naway after exacting a promise of half of what was obtained. The youth\nwon a thousand piasters by curing the blind, and later a great sum,\nbesides thirty ships, by healing a very rich man. With this wealth he\nreturned to the old man, and with him to the city where the pasha's son\nhad sojourned. The latter agreed to let the shepherd's seal be burned\non his arm in return for the payment of his debts; but, while the hero\nand the old man sailed home, he rode fast by land with the story that\nhis rival was dead. The shepherd arrived at home just in time for his\nrival's wedding, and at the end of it showed the bride her ring. She\nrecognized her lover, called her parents, and, after the hero had\ntold his story and proved it by the seal on his rival's arm, married\nhim. That night the old man knocked on the door of their chamber,\nand demanded that the bride be divided. According to his promise,\nthe hero prepared to cut her in twain, when the intruder said that\nhe wished only to test his fidelity, explaining that he was God,\nWho had taken him under His protection because his father had sold\nhim in order to keep the lamp burning in honour of his saint.\n\nIn this variant the elements of The Grateful Dead have been merged\nwith a story about how a young man of low birth won a princess\nby overcoming another suitor in spite of the treachery of the\nlatter. As I have met with but one example of this, from Lesbos,\n[43] I will summarize it briefly. A princess becomes enamoured of\nthe son of her father's gardener, and refuses to marry the son of\nthe first minister. So the two suitors are sent out to a far country\nwith the understanding that the one who returns first shall have the\nprincess. On the way the gardener's son helps an old beggar-woman,\nwhom his rival has spurned, and is told by her how to cure a sick king\n(by boiling him and sprinkling him with a certain powder). For this\nservice the youth obtains a ring of bronze, which has the virtue\nof giving whatever its possessor desires. By means of this he gets\na wonderful ship, and sails to the city where the minister's son,\nthrough extravagance, has fallen into poverty. He provides him with\na wretched ship, in which to return home, on condition that he may\nmark him with his ring. The minister's son reaches home in his crazy\nvessel, and is about to marry the princess, when the hero appears on\nhis beautiful ship of gold, exposes his rival, and weds the lady. The\nremainder of the story, which tells how the magical ring was lost\nand afterward recovered, does not concern us. It will be seen that\nGreek has preserved only the later part of The Grateful Dead at all\nclearly, though that combination with a tale of the type of the Lesbian\nnarrative has actually taken place is evident from the part which the\nhelper plays. He not only obtains a promise of division, but calls for\nits fulfilment. His first appearance is, however, quite unmotivated,\nwhile the old woman of the Lesbian story serves the purpose, according\nto a common formula, of showing the hero's kindness in contrast to\nhis rival's hard heart. The point common to the two tales, which led\nto their combination, is without doubt this helping friend.\n\nIn Servian V. a youth on a journey pays his all to rescue a debtor from\nhanging. By his new-found friend the youth is led to the wondrous\nVilaberg, where he is left with the admonition that he must not\nspeak. He disobeys, and is made dumb and blind by an enchantress;\nbut he is cured by the man whom he rescued, who plays on a pipe\nand gives him a healing draught. So he dwells for some years in the\nmountain with one of the ladies as his wife, but afterward goes home,\nthough every summer he returns to his friends in the Vilaberg.\n\nHere we have our theme combined with a form of The Swan-Maiden,\n[44] which occurs in only one other case, as far as I am able to\ndiscover. The reason for the combination is not far to seek. The\nlatter part of the tale represents the reward of the rescuer by the\nrescued. That the benefit does not take the form of actual burial\nneed not disturb us. The man was at least far gone towards death, and\nhe was a debtor--a trait found in about two-thirds of the variants\nknown to me. Moreover, the supernatural character of the comrade is\nindicated by the adventure into which he leads the youth. The tale\nhas been partly rationalised, that is all.\n\nEsthonian I. [45] shows a different combination, which is unique as\nfar as I know. In a gorge not far from the village of Arukaela (near\nWesenberg) a howling was heard every night for years. Finally a bold\nman went by night to the place and found the skeleton of a murdered\nking, which told him that it had howled thus for a hundred years\nbecause it had not been buried with holy rites. The next day the man\ntook the bones to a priest, and, while burying them, discovered an\nenormous treasure.\n\nAs Schiefner said, [46] when he first printed the story, it recalls\nthe Grimms' Der singende Knochen, [47] which in turn is a compound\nof The Water of Life, with the idea of murder discovered by means of\na dead man's bones. The Esthonian tale has, however, only the latter\ncircumstance, combined with a simple form of The Grateful Dead. The\nhero's reward is immediate--he finds gold in the earth while digging\nthe grave; and the ghost does not appear. The variant is thus of no\ngreat significance.\n\nThe group of tales that must next be considered furnishes rather\nmore important evidence as to the development of the theme. It\nis a compound of The Grateful Dead with the motive which we may\ncall The Spendthrift Knight. As far as I know, the type is purely\nmediaeval. The group includes Richars, Lion de Bourges, Dianese,\nOld Swedish, Rittertriuwe, and Sir Amadas.\n\nThe plot of Richars, as far as it concerns us, runs thus: Richars, in\nthe pursuit of knightly exercises, wastes all his father's property\nas lord of Mangorie. When he hears that the King of Montorgueil has\npromised the hand of his daughter to the victor in a tourney, he is\nsad at the thought of his inability to engage. Through the generosity\nof a provost, however, he is enabled to set out with a horse, three\nattendants, and a supply of gold. At the city of Osteriche he spends\npart of his money in giving a great feast. In the roof of the house\nwhere he stays he is astonished to see a corpse lying on two beams,\nand he learns that it is the body of a knight, who died owing the\nhouseholder three thousand pounds. Richars gives everything he has,\neven to his armour, to secure the release and burial of the dead\nman. He then proceeds to the tourney on a poor horse that his host\ngives him, and quite alone, since his attendants have deserted him. On\nthe way he is joined by a White Knight, who offers him help in the\ntourney and places at his disposal his noble steed. Richars wins the\ntourney and obtains the hand of the Princess Rose. He now offers the\nWhite Knight his choice of the lady or the property. The stranger,\nhowever, refuses any division, explains that he is the ghost of the\nindebted knight, and disappears. [48]\n\nLion de Bourges runs thus: Lion, son of Duke Harpin de Bourges, was\nfound by a knight in a lion's den and reared as his son. When he grew\nup, he wasted his foster-father's property in chivalry. Finally, he\nheard that King Henry of Sicily had promised the hand of his daughter\nto the knight who should win a tourney that he had established. So Lion\nstarted for the court, and on the way ransomed the body of a knight,\nwhich he found hanging in the smoke, on account of unpaid debts. At\nMontluisant the hero won the favour of the Princess Florentine, and,\nbefore the tourney, obtained from a White Knight the charger which\nhe still lacked, on condition of sharing his winnings, the princess\nexcepted. With the help of this knight Lion was victorious and obtained\nthe princess. He was then asked by his helper to give up either the\nlady or the whole kingdom, and did not hesitate to do the latter. At\nthis, the stranger explained that he was the ghost of the ransomed\nknight and disappeared, though he afterwards returned to assist the\nhero at need.\n\nAccording to Dianese, [49] the knight of that name has wasted his\nsubstance. When he hears that the King of Chornualglia (Cornwall)\nhas promised his daughter and half of his kingdom to the knight who\nwins the tourney that he has called, Dianese gets his friends to fit\nhim out and sets forth. On the way he passes through a town where the\ntraffic is diverted from the main street because of a corpse which\nhas long been lying on a bier before a church. He learns that it is\nthe body of a knight, who cannot be buried till his creditors have\nbeen paid. At the cost of everything he possesses, save his horse,\nthe hero satisfies the creditors and has the knight buried. When he\nhas gone on two miles, he is joined by a merchant, who promises him\nmoney, horses, and weapons if he will give in return half of what he\nwins in the tourney. Dianese agrees, is fitted out anew, and succeeds\nin overcoming all comers in the contest. Thus he obtains the hand\nof the princess and half the kingdom. With his bride, the merchant,\nand his followers he starts for home; but, when they are only a\nday's journey from their destination, he is required by the merchant\nto fulfil his promise--to choose between his bride as one half, his\npossessions as the other. Dianese takes the lady and rides on. Soon,\nhowever, he is joined by the merchant, who praises his faithfulness,\ngives up the treasures, explains that he is the ghost of the debtor\nknight, and disappears.\n\nIn Old Swedish [50] the daughter and heiress of the King of France\npromises to marry whatever knight is victor in a tourney which she\nannounces. Pippin, the Duke of Lorraine, hears of this and sets out\nfor France. At the end of his first day's journey he finds lodging\nat the house of a widow, who is lamenting because her husband, once\nin good circumstances, has died so poor that she cannot bury him\nproperly. Pippin takes pity on her, and pays for the man's funeral. On\nhis further journey he falls in with a man on a noble steed, who gives\nhim the horse on condition of receiving half of whatever he shall\nwin. Unthinkingly Pippin agrees and wins the tourney with the help of\nthe horse. After he has married the princess, he is asked by the helper\nto fulfil his promise. He offers at first half, then the whole of his\nkingdom, in order to keep his bride, and is finally told by the man\nthat he is the ghost of the dead, while the horse was an angel of God.\n\nRittertriuwe is of the same romantic character. When Graf Willekin von\nMontabour had spent his substance in chivalrous exercises, he learned\nthat a beautiful and rich maiden had promised her hand to the knight,\nwho should win a tourney, which she had established. Thereupon he\nset forth and came to the place announced for the combats. There he\nfound lodging in the house of a man, who would only receive him if he\nwould promise to pay the debts of a dead man, whose body lay unburied\nin the dung of a horse-stall. [51] Willekin was moved by this story\nand paid seventy marks, almost all his money, to ransom the corpse\nand give it suitable burial. He then had to borrow from his host in\norder to indulge in his customary generosity. On the morning of the\njousting he obtained from a stranger knight a fine horse on condition\nof dividing everything that he won. He succeeded in the tourney above\nall the other contestants, and so wedded the maiden. On the second\nnight after the marriage the stranger entered his room and demanded\na share in his marital rights. After he had offered instead to give\nall his possessions, the hero started from the room in tears, when\nthe stranger called him back and explained that he was the ghost of\nthe dead, then disappeared.\n\nA brief summary of Sir Amadas, [52] the last of the six variants,\nmust now be given. Amadas finds himself financially embarrassed,\nand sets forth for seven years of errantry with only forty pounds\nin hand. This he pays to release and bury the body of a merchant who\nhas died in debt. When thus reduced to absolute penury, Amadas meets\na White Knight, who tells him that he will aid him on condition of\nreceiving half the gains. The hero finds a rich wreck on the seacoast,\nand so with new apparel goes to the court, where he wins wealth in a\ntourney and the princess's heart at a feast. After he marries her and\nhas a son born to him, the White Knight reappears and demands that the\naccepted conditions be complied with. Hesitatingly Amadas prepares to\ndivide first his wife and afterwards his son, but he is stayed by the\nstranger, who explains that he is the ghost of the dead merchant. So\nAmadas is at last released from misfortune and lives in happiness.\n\nIn all six of these stories we have a knight, who sets out to\nwin a tourney in which the victor's prize is to be the hand of a\nprincess. In all of them save Old Swedish he is represented as being\nimpoverished by previous extravagance, in Richars, Lion de Bourges,\nand Rittertriuwe it being expressly stated that he had wasted his\nfortune by over-indulgence in his passion for jousting. On his way\nto the place appointed for the contest the hero pays for the burial\n[53] of a man whose corpse is held for debt. [54] He goes on and\nis approached either before (Richars, Lion de Bourges, Dianese, Old\nSwedish, and Sir Amadas) or after (Rittertriuwe) he reaches the lists\nby a man, who provides him with a horse, by the aid of which he wins\nthe tourney and the princess. In Dianese the hero is a merchant, in Old\nSwedish his estate is not mentioned, but in the other four variants\nhe appears as a knight (a white knight in Richars, Lion de Bourges,\nand Sir Amadas). In Dianese the hero is also provided with armour;\nin Richars and Lion de Bourges he is assisted in his jousting by the\nWhite Knight; and in Sir Amadas he finds a wreck on the coast from\nwhich he obtains all things needful. In Richars we find the somewhat\ninept conclusion that the hero asks his friendly helper whether\nhe will take the princess or the property [55] as his share. The\nlatter responds that he wishes only his horse, explains who he is,\nand vanishes. In all the other variants, however, the condition is\nmade that the hero divide whatever he shall gain. [56]\n\nWith reference to Richars and Lion de Bourges, Wilhelmi's careful\ndiscussion [57] has made it clear that, though they agree in many\npoints as against all the other related versions, not only in respect\nto The Grateful Dead, but to the further course of a complicated\nnarrative, neither one could have been taken from the other. The\ndifference in the matter of the division between Richars and all the\nother variants he neglects, though it strengthens his position. Back\nof Richars and Lion de Bourges, earlier than the thirteenth century,\nthere must have existed a literary work which was their common\nsource. This hypothetical French romance may be considered as the\nfoundation of the whole group which we are discussing.\n\nSince Old Swedish agrees with most of the other variants with regard\nto the division, and furthermore with Rittertriuwe, in stating\nthat the hero offered all his property in order to keep his wife,\nthere seems to be no doubt that it belongs to this particular group,\ndespite the fact that it says nothing about the hero's poverty. The\nconnection is not improbable on the score of chronology, if we suppose\nthat the source of Richars and Lion de Bourges, or some similar tale,\nfound its way into the North by translation in the first half of the\nthirteenth century, a time when translations into Icelandic at any\nrate were made in great numbers. Indeed, the names Pippin, Lorraine,\netc., immediately suggest a French source; and the story is not really\na legend at all, though it appears in a legendary, but a narrative\nquite in the style of the romans d'adventure.\n\nWith reference to Sir Amadas, two points of special interest\nappear. The hero is provided the wherewithal for his successful\ncourtship by means of a wreck to which he is directed by the White\nKnight; and he is required to divide his child as well as his wife with\nhis helper. These peculiarities, together with the different opening,\nmake it improbable that Richars, as preserved, was the direct source\nof the romance, though its author may have known some text either of\nthat romance, or of Lion de Bourges. It seems more likely, however,\nthat the source of Sir Amadas was rather the common original of\nboth those versions. In the present state of the evidence it is\nimpossible to do more than to show, as I have attempted to do, that\nthe fourteenth-century Sir Amadas is a member of the little group\nunder discussion.\n\nThe proposed division of the son is peculiarly important in that it\nconnects the group with the stories in which The Grateful Dead is\ncompounded with the theme of Amis and Amiloun. Indeed, the general\nrelationship of The Spendthrift Knight to that theme must be considered\nin a later chapter [58] after more important compounds have been\ndiscussed. It will be noted that the group just considered is purely\nliterary and purely mediaeval. Though it has representatives in Italy,\nGermany, Sweden, and England, it is to all intents and purposes French\nin source and character. Five of its members are the only variants\ntreated in this chapter where the question of dividing the hero's\nprize is brought up. The group thus stands by itself, and may be\nconsidered as an entity when we come to a discussion of the larger\nmatters of relationship.\n\nA solitary folk-tale now demands attention--my Breton II. The\nGrateful Dead in a simple form is here combined with a story told of\nGregory the Great, [59] as Luzel, to whom the tale was recounted by\na Breton peasant, indeed briefly noted. [60] The Breton tale runs as\nfollows: A rich lord and lady had no children. While the lady was\npraying to St. Peter in a chapel that was being repaired, she fell\na victim to a young painter, and had by him a son, who was named\nafter St. Peter. When the boy was twelve years of age, he carried\nSt. Peter across a stream one day, while his shepherd companion carried\nChrist. The companion died soon after. Pierre then set forth to visit\nhis patron in Paradise. On his way he stopped overnight at the house of\nan old woman, whose husband lay unburied because there was no money to\npay the priest. Pierre gave all his money for the interment, and went\non. When he came to the sea, a naked man, who said that he was the\ndead, carried him across to a point near the gates of Paradise. There\nhe found Peter, and was shown the glories of heaven by the Saviour,\nas well as Purgatory and Hell. In the last he saw a chair reserved\nfor his mother, but by his entreaties induced the Lord to grant her\na release on condition of doing penance himself for her. So he was\ntold to put on a spiked girdle, to throw the key of it into the sea,\nand not to take it off till the key should be found. After donning\nthis instrument Pierre was carried by the ghost back to his own land,\nwhere he lived on alms--first on the public ways, and later, without\ndiscovering himself, in his father's castle. During his father's\nabsence he was killed at the command of his mother, but was dug up\nalive by his father and treated with respect. One day at a feast\nhe found the key in the head of a fish. When the girdle was opened,\nhe died, and his soul was borne to heaven by angels.\n\nTwo Danish variants present a curious but not inexplicable combination\nof The Grateful Dead with Puss in Boots, as was noted by Koehler. [61]\nDanish I. relates how a youth pays three marks, which is his all,\nto bury the body of a dead man, for whose interment the priest has\ndemanded payment in advance. He is then joined by another youth,\nwho is the ghost of the dead, and goes to a certain city. There, by\ngiving himself out as a prince at the advice of his companion, who\nprovides him with proper trappings, he wins the hand of a princess. In\nDanish II. an old soldier pays his last three marks to prevent three\ncreditors from digging up a corpse. He is joined by a pale stranger,\nwho takes him in a leaden ship to a land where he marries a princess,\nwho is fated to marry no one save a man who comes in this way. The\nstranger secures, by a lying ruse, a troll's castle for the hero, and,\nafter explaining that he is the ghost of the buried debtor, disappears.\n\nThe traces of the Puss in Boots motive [62] are, I think, sufficiently\nclear, especially in the first of the two variants, since the point\nof that familiar tale is certainly that the hero marries a woman of\nhigh estate by making himself out as of equal rank, substantiating\nhis statements by a succession of clever ruses. That the grateful dead\nenables him to fulfil the required conditions is an introduction that\ncould easily replace the ordinary one, especially since a helper of\nsome sort is necessary to the story. Just what the relation of these\ntwo variants is to other Puss in Boots stories does not here concern\nus. From the side of The Grateful Dead, however, it is possible\nto see how the combination--found only in two folk-tales from a\nsingle country, it will be observed--may have arisen. The benefits\nbestowed on the hero show an essential likeness to those found in a\nwidespread compound type to be studied in a later chapter, [63] where\nthe thankful dead helps his friend to obtain a wife by the performance\nof some feat. Since the combination now in consideration seems to\nbe confined to the region about Denmark, while mediaeval and modern\nexamples of the other are found in many lands, it may be regarded as\na mere variation on the better-known compound type, produced by the\nsimilarity of the two endings. Yet it has to be treated separately,\nbecause it involves an independent theme.\n\nAn echo of the simple theme of The Grateful Dead is found in two\nEnglish plays--Massinger's Fatal Dowry and Rowe's Fair Penitent. In\nthe former young Charolais goes to prison to release his father's\nbody from the clutch of creditors, who wish to keep it unburied\nfor vengeance. [64] He is rescued by Rochfort, who pays the debts\nand gives him his daughter in marriage. The intrigues of love and\nvengeance that follow do not concern us. In Rowe's play, which was\nbased on Massinger's, this part has been curtailed to a few slight\nreferences. Altamont gives himself as ransom for his father's body\nto the greedy creditors, who will not allow burial to take place. He\nis rewarded by the care and bounty of Sciolto, who becomes a second\nfather to him.\n\nStephens was certainly right in connecting [65] the story in The Fatal\nDowry with The Grateful Dead, though it is only a fragment and lacks\nsome of the most essential features of the complete theme. The ghost,\nindeed, does not appear at all, but the part played by Rochfort may\nbe regarded as a greatly sophisticated reminiscence of that trait,\nespecially since he not only rescues the hero, but provides him with\na wife. The echo of the theme is too vague for us to distinguish the\nform in which it was found by Massinger, though I think that we should\nnot go far wrong in supposing that he had in mind some narrative,\neither popular or literary, nearly approaching the compound type\ntreated in chapter vi. below. As one of the comparatively few traces\nthat the motive has left in England this double dramatic use is not\nwithout interest. [66]\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nTHE GRATEFUL DEAD AND THE POISON MAIDEN.\n\n\nOne of the most prevalent types of The Grateful Dead is that in which\nit has combined with The Poison Maiden, a theme almost world-wide in\ndistribution and application. From the time of Benfey and Stephens\n[67] the connection between the two themes has been regarded\nas vital. Though Hippe recognized that the stories were perhaps\noriginally independent, [68] he took the compound as his point of\ndeparture and derived all other forms from it. As will be seen in\nthe course of our study, such a filiation is exceedingly improbable,\nif the essential features of The Grateful Dead and The Poison Maiden\nbe closely examined. Hippe went wrong, I should say, in failing to\ndifferentiate between what traits belong to the former and what to\nthe latter theme.\n\nAs a matter of fact, The Poison Maiden exists in a cycle of its\nown. Any doubt about this and any necessity of studying the theme in\ndetail here is removed by the valuable monograph of Wilhelm Hertz,\nDie Sage vom Giftmaedchen, [69] in which the literature of the subject\nhas been marshalled with masterly skill. Starting with the stories of\nhow a maiden, who had been fed with snake-poison, was sent to Alexander\nthe Great from India by an enemy, and how the plot to kill the emperor\nthrough her embraces was foiled by the cunning of Aristotle, [70]\nHertz shows [71] that the central idea of the tale is the belief that\na man could be killed by sexual connection with a woman who had been\nnourished on poison. In most of the variants, to be sure, it is the\nbite of the woman that is venomous, while in others it is her glance\nor her breath; but these are natural modifications. Without following\nthe study into details, the important fact to remember is that there\nhas existed from early times a tale relating how a man was saved by\na watchful friend on his bridal night from a maiden whose embraces\nwere certain death. [72] With this in mind we can safely proceed\nto a consideration of the variants of The Grateful Dead which have\nsimilar features.\n\nTwenty-four of the stories in my list fall into this category,\nviz.: Tobit, Armenian, Gypsy, Siberian, Russian I., II., III.,\nand IV., Servian II., III., and IV., Bulgarian, Esthonian II.,\nFinnish, Rumanian I., Irish I., II., and III., Breton I., Danish\nIII., Norwegian II., Simrock X., Harz I., Jack the Giant Killer,\nand Old Wives' Tale. All but three of them [73] are folk-tales,\na fact that considerably simplifies the discussion.\n\nAccording to the apocryphal story, Tobit buries by night the dead\nwho lie in the street. He is thrown into prison, and later becomes\nblind and poverty-stricken. He sends his son Tobias to his brother\nGabael for the return of a loan. The youth is accompanied by the\nangel Raphael in disguise, who calls himself Azarias. On the journey\nTobias catches a fish and preserves the heart, liver, and gall at the\nbidding of his companion. When they arrive at their journey's end,\nthe angel, as go-between, asks Gabael's daughter Sara in wedlock for\nTobias, though seven men have died while consummating their marriage\nwith her. By burning the heart and liver of the fish at the command\nof the angel, and by prayer, Tobias escapes; for the demon Asmodeus\nis driven out of the maiden and bound by Raphael. With his bride and\ncompanion Tobias goes home, where he cures Tobit's blindness by means\nof the gall of the fish. After being offered half of the wealth that he\nhas brought the family, Raphael explains his identity and disappears.\n\nThis variant is peculiar in that the father does the good action, while\nthe son is chiefly rewarded. Indeed, it is the son whose life is saved\nfrom the possessed woman whom he marries. Moreover, the grateful dead\nis replaced by an angel, who indeed commends Tobit for his good deed,\nbut is certainly a substitute for the ghost. Obviously Tobit with\nsuch peculiarities as these cannot be regarded as the general source\nof the widespread folk-tale. At the same time we must not forget\nthat it has been, perhaps, the best-loved story in the Apocrypha,\n[74] and that its influence on details of the narrative may be looked\nfor almost anywhere in Christendom.\n\nIn the Armenian story from Transcaucasia [75] a man finds a corpse\nhanging in a tree and being beaten by his late creditors. The man pays\nthe debt and buries the body. Some years later he becomes poor. A rich\nman offers him in marriage his daughter, with whom five bridegrooms\nhave already met death on the wedding night. While thinking over\nthe proposition, he is approached by a man who offers to become his\nservant for half of his future possessions, and counsels him to\nmarry the woman. On the night of the marriage the servant stands\nwith a sword in the chamber, cuts off the head of a serpent that\ncomes from the bride's mouth, and pulls out its body. Later he asks\nfor his share of his master's gains. When he is about to split the\nwoman through the middle, a second snake glides from her mouth. The\nservant then says that he is the ghost of the corpse long ago rescued,\nand disappears. Here the story appears in a very normal form, except\nthat the hero is not taking a journey at the time of his kind deed,\nand that he waits several years for his reward. Moreover, the second\nsnake appears to be due to reduplication.\n\nIn Gypsy a youth gives his last twelve piasters for the release of a\ncorpse, which is being maltreated by Jews. The ghost of the dead man\nfollows him and promises to get him a bride if he will share her with\nhim. The youth consents and marries a woman whose five bridegrooms\nhave died on the wedding night. The companion keeps watch in the\nchamber and cuts off the head of a dragon that comes from the bride's\nmouth. Later he demands his half of the woman, and takes a sword to\ncut her asunder, when she screams and disgorges the dragon's body. The\nghost then explains the situation and disappears. [76]\n\nWith the Siberian variant some very important modifications enter. A\nsoldier buys a picture of the Saviour from a peasant and maltreats\nit. A merchant's son then buys it out of reverence and takes it to\nhis mother. Later he helps an old man on a raft and goes with him to\nmarket. There he meets the daughter of a priest and, by the advice of\nhis friend, marries her. When the old man strikes her with a whip,\nshe splits open, and the devil comes out. She is put together again\nby the mysterious companion, and accompanies them home, where the old\nman asks for a division of the gains they have made together. Again\nhe divides the woman. After she has been burned, she is found living\nand purified. Then the old man says that he is God and departs.\n\nThis tale, found among the Turkish race of southern Siberia, has\ntransformed the opening incident altogether. For the burial of\nthe corpse it substitutes a good deed, which is entirely different\nfrom the original trait. Yet it is evident that we have to do with\nThe Grateful Dead, after all, since the divine image is rescued\nfrom senseless contumely and God himself appears in the role of the\nthankful ghost. It is evident also that the theme is combined with\nThe Poison Maiden. Though we do not hear of any misadventures of\nother men with the priest's daughter, the marvels which attend her\npurification indicate the danger in which the hero stood.\n\nRussian I. is likewise peculiar in several respects. The younger of\ntwo brothers angers his parents by going to the wars without their\npermission. He is killed. Later he appears to his brother, asking\nhim to implore pardon of their mother, whose anger prevents him\nfrom resting quietly in his grave. The elder brother thus succeeds\nin giving peace to the ghost. Later, when he marries a merchant's\ndaughter, whose first two husbands have been killed by a dragon on\nthe wedding night, he is saved by the ghost of the dead, which keeps\nwatch in the chamber with a sword and kills the nine-headed dragon.\n\nThis tale stands almost alone [77] in giving the two chief characters\npersonal relations, since it is nearly always a total stranger whom\nthe hero benefits. That actual burial of the dead does not come in\nquestion is not so remarkable, as various changes have been made in\nthis trait. One story, [78] indeed, which otherwise has no likeness,\nsimilarly makes the dead man uneasy in his grave. The beginning of\nRussian I. has thus suffered considerable modification. The ending\nis also different from the normal type in that the division of the\nproperty and the woman has entirely disappeared.\n\nRussian II. has also some peculiarities, though none which is\ndifficult to explain. A youth named Hans receives three hundred\nrubles from his uncle, who has taken his inheritance, and goes into\nthe world. In another province he ransoms with his whole stock of\nmoney an unbeliever, who is being bled by the people. He has the\npoor man baptised, but is not able to save his life, so sorely has\nhe been wounded. The people, however, pay for proper burial. Hans\ngoes on and is joined by an angel, who proposes that he take him as\nuncle and divide with him whatever they get while in one another's\ncompany. They come to a city where the king proposes that Hans marry\nhis daughter, and to this the hero agrees at his companion's advice,\ndespite the protests of the citizens, who say that the princess\nhas already strangled six bridegrooms. On the wedding night the\nuncle keeps watch, and slays a dragon which is approaching to kill\nthe young man. After two months the pair set out for home with\nthe uncle. On the way they are saved by the old man from robbers,\nand get a store of gold. When they arrive at the place where the\nuncle first appeared, he calls for a fulfilment of their agreement,\nand saws the bride asunder. Young dragons come out of her; but, when\nshe has been washed and sprinkled with water, she is made whole. The\nangel thereupon parts with the couple.\n\nFor the burial of the dead we have in this tale the interesting\nsubstitution of an unsuccessful attempt of the hero to save a man's\nlife by paying his entire inheritance as ransom. That the man dies and\nis buried shows how the change probably arose. Strangely enough, as in\nthe case of Tobit, an angel appears in the role of the grateful dead,\nand, even more oddly, takes the form of the hero's uncle, who gave\nhim the money with which he set forth on his journey. The recurrence\nof the angel in this and in one other variant [79] inclines me to\nthe belief that the essential feature of the reward in the original\nstory was that it came from heaven. The remainder of Russian II. has\nno characteristic unusual in the tales where the woman is actually\ndivided to get rid of the snakes or dragons.\n\nIn Russian III. [80] the youngest of three brothers rescues a swimming\ncoffin from the sea and takes it on his ship. From the coffin comes a\nman clothed in a white shirt, who enters the service of his rescuer,\nand helps him win a beautiful princess as wife. A six-headed dragon\nhas hitherto killed all her bridegrooms on the wedding night, but it\nis overcome by the hero through his obedience to the advice of his\nservant. The latter cleanses the bride's body of the dragon brood\nand goes away. Here the opening has been modified, though not beyond\nrecognition, since the rescued man is clearly enough the grateful dead.\n\nRussian IV., taken like the preceding from a folk-book, differs from\nthat in only minor points, though the ampler form in which I have\nfound it makes it of more importance. The three sons of a czar go\nout in separate ships to see the world. The youngest, named Sila,\nrescues a swimming coffin, which his brothers have not heeded,\nand buries it on shore. There he leaves his companions, and goes\non alone till joined by a man dressed in a shroud, who says that he\nis the rescued corpse and proposes that Sila win a certain Princess\nTruda as wife by his aid. The hero is dismayed when he sees the walls\nof her city decorated with the heads of countless former suitors,\nbut he is told by his servant not to fear. On the bridal night he\nis counselled to keep silence, and, when his wife presses her hand\non his breast, to beat her, as she is in league with a six-headed\ndragon. Sila obeys, the dragon appears, and the servant cuts off two\nof its heads. Two more heads are cut off on the second night, and the\nremaining two on the third. The bride is not completely cleansed,\nhowever, till the end of a year, when the servant cuts her in two,\nburns the evil things that emerge from her body, and sprinkles her\nwith living water to make her well again. He then disappears.\n\nHere the grateful dead appears with perfect clearness, as he did not\nin Russian III. The course of events by which the lady is won does not\ndiffer materially from that of Russian II. Presumably III. would follow\nthe same procedure, had we an adequate summary. III. and IV. are like\nI., and different from II., in omitting all mention of any division\nof property or of the woman between hero and assistant. The division\nfor the sake of cleansing in IV. is, however, actual.\n\nNot without contamination from another source, Russian V. and\nVI. still belong to the class containing variants with The Poison\nMaiden. In Russian V. the only son of a rich man went out into the\nworld to seek his fortune. On the road he gave a large sum of money\nfor two horses. Later he stopped at an inn, where the widow of the\nlandlord was weeping because she had no money to pay the debts of her\nhusband, who was cursed by all the people, though he had been dead\ntwo years. The hero gave all his money to save the memory of the dead\nman, and proceeded. Soon he met two unsatisfied creditors, who still\ncursed the dead landlord, and to them he gave his two horses. Not long\nafterward he was joined by a man, who accompanied him on condition of\nreceiving half of what they might win together. They came to a place\nwhere a lord offered a thousand rubles to anyone who would watch his\ndaughter's corpse over night in a chapel. The hero undertook the\nadventure, and received payment in advance. At dark his companion\ncame to him, and gave him a cross as protection. At midnight the\nlady came out of her coffin, but could not find the man because he\nheld the cross. The same adventure was repeated the next night. On\nthe third night the hero, according to his companion's advice, got\ninto the coffin when the vampire rose, and would not get out for all\nher entreaties, being protected by the cross. So in the morning both\nwere found alive, and were betrothed. Then came the companion, cut the\nmaiden into halves, took out her entrails, and put her together again,\nwhen she became very beautiful. Next day he called the hero aside,\nexplained his identity with the dead landlord, and disappeared.\n\nRussian VI. differs from the above in several points, but is closely\nallied to it. There were two brothers, one good and the other\nstingy. The former expended in benevolence all his wealth, save\na hundred rubles, while the latter grew richer and richer. A poor\nman borrowed a hundred rubles from the miser, calling St. George as\nwitness that he would pay; but he died in debt. The rich brother came\nto the widow, and said that he would get his money from St. George if\nnot from the dead man. He pulled down an image of the saint from the\nwall, dug up the corpse, and spat upon them both. At this juncture\nthe good brother came by, and gave his last hundred rubles to put\nthe matter right. He then went to a large city, where the king's\ndaughter had eaten all the deacons who watched with her dead body. So\nwhen volunteers were called for to stay with her, the hero offered\nto undertake the task at the advice of an old man, who promised to\npray for his safety on condition of receiving half his winnings. He\nreceived payment in advance from the king, and divided with the old\nman, by whom he was given a sanctified coal, a taper, a cross, and a\nscapulary, together with advice how to act. So he entered the chapel,\nlighted his taper, closed his eyes, made the sign of the cross, and\nenclosed himself in a circle marked with the coal near the head of\nthe bier. At cockcrow the vampire came out all blue and grinning;\nbut, though she yelled horribly, she could not touch the man in the\ncircle, who put the cross in the coffin. At the second cockcrow she\ntried to get into the coffin, and unavailingly begged him to take\nout the cross. At the third cockcrow he put the scapulary on her,\nwhereupon she rose and thanked him, promising to be his wife and\nservant. So in the morning the hero married her and received the\nkingdom from her father. To their chamber that night came the old man,\nand recalled the agreement to divide. He cut the lady into halves,\nminced her flesh on the table, and blew on the bits, whereupon she\ncame together more beautiful than ever. The helper then threw off\nhis gaberdine, and showed himself to be St. George.\n\nIn the two stories just summarized The Grateful Dead is clear enough,\nthough in VI. St. George has ousted the ghost from part of its proper\nfunctions, just as the angel does in Tobit, Russian II., and Simrock\nIV., God in Siberian, and various saints elsewhere. The introduction\nin VI. is a unique trait, as far as I know. In both the variants\nthe main features of the theme appear without distortion, including\nthe picturesque cleansing of the woman by actual division. The\nPoison Maiden, however, has been replaced by a story of similar\ncharacter, but of different content, which I have not elsewhere found\ncompounded with The Grateful Dead. A vampire infests a church (or a\nchurchyard). A soldier is sent to watch nights, and to try to dislodge\nher. He successfully counters her tricks, and finally gets hold of\nsomething belonging to her, which he refuses to return. Thereupon she\nis reduced to submission, promises him happiness, and is married to\nhim with the consent of the king. [81] This tale, it will be evident,\nbears a strong likeness to The Poison Maiden in the figure of the\nheroine, though it certainly is independent. The vital difference\nbetween the two is the absence of any helping friend in the story of\nthe vampire. Because of the lack of this figure it seems improbable\nthat the tale was compounded with The Grateful Dead without the\nintermediary stage in which The Poison Maiden appears. I regard the\nvampire as usurping the place of the possessed maiden, and the two\nRussian variants as a secondary growth. Given the normal form of the\ncompound as it appears in Russian II., for instance, there would be\nno difficulty in substituting an even more gruesome figure for that\nof the heroine there depicted, and in making the hero's danger lie\nin a prenuptial attack on her part.\n\nThe three Servian tales, which fall in this section, differ widely\nin their characteristics. The first of them, Servian II., [82] is\nthe most nearly normal. Vlatko goes into the world to trade, but\npays all his money to free from debt a corpse, which creditors are\ndigging up in order to vent their spite upon it. He returns home,\nand is sent out again by his parents, receiving a greater sum of\nmoney and, from his mother, an apple by means of which he can tell\nthe intentions of anyone who desires his friendship by the way. [83]\nHe is joined by a man, who cuts the apple into two exact halves,\nand so is accepted as a friend. After Vlatko has prospered in trade,\nthe friend proposes that he marry the emperor's daughter, with whom\nninety-nine men have already died on the wedding night. Arrangements\nare made, and the friend keeps watch in the bridal chamber. During\nthe night he cuts off the heads of three snakes, which come from the\nlady's mouth. Sometime afterwards all three set out for Vlatko's home;\nand on the way the hero divides his property with his friend. Jestingly\nthe latter proposes that they divide the wife, and, after blindfolding\nthe husband, shakes her three times, when three dead snakes come out\nof her. Thereupon he disappears.\n\nLike Armenian and Gypsy, this variant has the ghost cut off the head of\nthe monster (here three snakes) that possesses the maiden. The actual\ndivision of the woman as it appears in those tales occurs here as a\nmere jest, which is the case with most of the European versions. [84]\n\nServian III. has a more romantic character. The daughter of an emperor\nhad been married thirteen times, but each of her bridegrooms had died\non the wedding night. A certain prince, who had fallen in love with\nher through a dream, set out for her castle. On the way he paid the\ndebts of a poor man, whose corpse was held by creditors, and buried\nhim. Soon after, he was met by a man who became his servant, and won\na castle for him by a wonderful adventure. After the wedding this\nman killed the snakes that came out of the bride, and also caused\nher to disgorge three snake eggs by threatening her with his drawn\nsword. He then disappeared.\n\nThis variant shows traces of foreign substance in the dream and\nthe winning of the castle by the unrevealed companion. Possibly the\nlatter trait unites it with the combined type of which The Water of\nLife is one of the elements. It will be noticed that the division of\nthe property and of the woman is not brought into question, though\nthe sword is used somewhat incongruously for the removal of the last\ntraces of the heroine's snaky infestation. Thus, by an evident change\nin structure, the identity of the hero's companion is never explained.\n\nWith Servian IV. [85] we encounter a most serious problem, which must\nreceive special treatment later on, [86]--the relation of The Grateful\nDead to The Thankful Beasts theme. A poor youth three times set free\na gold-fish which he had three times caught. Later he was cast out of\nhis father's house and sent into the world. He was joined by a man,\nwho swore friendship with him on a sword, and accompanied him to a\ncity where many men had been mysteriously slain while undertaking\nto pass a night with the king's daughter. The hero undertook the\nadventure, and was saved by his companion, who cut off the head of\na serpent that came from the princess's mouth. In the morning the\nyouth was married to the lady, and divided all his property with his\nhelper. On their way home the latter demanded half of the bride, and,\nwhile she was held by two servants, swung a sword above her. With\na shriek she cast first two sections, and finally the tail, of a\nserpent from her mouth. Thereupon the friend leaped into the sea,\nfor he was the gold-fish.\n\nThe burial of the dead has here been ousted by a good deed which the\nhero does to a gold-fish. That the trait is foreign to the type,\nhowever, seems clear. From the time when the companion appears to\nthe hero, the story follows the normal course until the very end,\nwhen the man unexpectedly leaps into the sea. The thankful dead has\nbeen replaced by the thankful beast, but the tale really belongs to\nthe present category, since otherwise it has all the characteristics\nof the type. Thus the division of the woman is almost precisely\nsimilar to that of Armenian and Gypsy--that is, the sword is raised,\nand the woman disgorges the serpent with a scream. That it comes out\npiecemeal may be a faulty recollection of the actual division. As so\noften, it is not stated that the companion made a share of the gains\na condition of his help.\n\nBulgarian is in some respects very primitive, though fragmentary. A\nfather sends his son out into the world to gain experience. The youth\nis joined by an archangel, who promises him assistance on condition\nthat he will pay their joint expenses and will be obedient. The\ncompanion kills a negro and a serpent, and goes with the hero into\ntheir den, where the adventurers find, but leave, great treasure. They\ncome to a city where the king's daughter has been thrice married,\neach time only to have her bridegroom die on the wedding night. Now\nshe is to be given to any man who can live with her one night; and\nmany wooers have died in the attempt. The youth offers himself as a\nsuitor, and is saved by the archangel, who draws a serpent out of the\nwoman. Later he helps the hero to get the wealth previously found in\nthe cave, and demands the division of everything, even the wife. When\nhe cuts her in two, many little snakes fall out of her body. He then\nunites her, and gives the hero all the riches they have obtained.\n\nThe burial of the dead has entirely disappeared, as will be observed,\nthough the other traits of the story show that we must regard it as\nof the type now under consideration. The appearance of the archangel\nas companion, and the plunder which they take by the way, suggest the\ninfluence of Tobit, which indeed appears as a folk-tale in the same\ncollection. [87] The conditions made by the angel are only slightly\naltered from the normal form, while every other feature is found\nintact, even to the actual division of the woman.\n\nEsthonian II. has altogether lost the essential features of our theme;\nand it has besides put in several traits from a maerchen, which, as\nwe shall soon see, is joined to ours with considerable frequency. The\ninclusion of this variant here is justified only by some vague traces\nindicating that the extraneous parts of the narrative have replaced\nothers which, if preserved, would make it an ordinary representative\nof The Grateful Dead.\n\nA certain couple had a weak-minded son, who could not learn. Wishing\nto get rid of him, the father took the boy into a forest and gave\nhim gladly to an old man whom he chanced to meet. From the man the\nyouth received books in foreign tongues, which he learned to read in a\nday. He then wandered till he came to a city, where lived a princess\nwho was in the power of devils and went to church with them every\nnight. The hero watched in the church for three nights, with three,\nsix, and twelve candles, successively. Thus on the third night he\nfreed the princess and married her, receiving half the kingdom. He then\nsought the old man, who told him to cut the woman in halves and divide\nher. The old man halved her himself, when there sprang out a serpent,\na toad, and a lizard. After this he gave her back to her husband.\n\nThe obscurity of motivation in this tale makes apparent the extensive\nrevision that it has undergone. The introduction is nowhere else\nfound combined, as far as I know, with the stories of our cycle. The\ncharacteristics of The Poison Maiden are sufficiently evident in the\nconclusion; but there seems to be no way to account for the peculiar\nform of demonic possession, together with the actual division of\nthe woman, except by supposing, with Dutz, [88] that the variant has\nlost the part concerning the burial of the dead man. If this be true,\nthe story belongs in the category where it is here placed.\n\nThe Finnish variant [89] presents difficulties of a somewhat different\nsort. A merchant's son, to whom it has been foretold that he will marry\na three-horned maiden, goes abroad to escape this fate. There he sees\nthe corpse of a debtor hanging nailed to a church wall, and insulted\nby the passers-by. He expends all but nine silver kopecks in rescuing\nthe body, and turns homeward. He is joined by a companion, who makes\nthe money last three days, and on the fourth arranges for him to marry\nthe three-horned daughter of a king. On the wedding night the helper\nbrings the hero fresh-cut twigs. By beating the maiden with these her\nblood is purified, the horns drop off, and she becomes very beautiful.\n\nNo new material is here introduced; but the handling is considerably\nchanged, and the narrative abridged. The woman in the case is\nthree-horned instead of possessed by snakes, nor is there any hint of\nharm to the bridegroom. A reminiscence of the division of the woman,\nthough not of the dowry, appears in the beating which the ghostly\ncompanion gives her, whereby she is freed from her horns and made very\nbeautiful. The variant appears to be weakened by frequent retelling.\n\nRumanian I. is more striking, since it has undergone both revision\nand addition. The only daughter of an emperor wears out twelve pairs\nof slippers every night, until her father offers her hand and the\nheirship of the kingdom to any man who can explain this extraordinary\nand costly habit. Many men of high birth and low make the attempt\nunsuccessfully. Meanwhile, a certain peasant, whose servant had died\nwhen his year of service was but half ended, had placed the body in a\nchest under the roof in revenge for his disappointment. The new servant\nhad discovered this, and had given the corpse the rites due the dead,\nas far as permitted by his master. When he departs at the end of\nhis year of service, the dead man comes from the earth, thanks him,\nand proposes that they swear on the cross to be brothers. So they do,\nand go on together till they come to an iron wood. The vampire breaks\noff a twig, and casts it to the earth in the place where the emperor's\ndaughter comes at night with the sons of the dragon. When she appears,\nshe sees the broken twig, and is afraid. So she goes to the copper\nwood, where she sees another twig broken by the vampire, and hastens\non to the place where the sons of the dragon dwell. It is in going\nso far that she wears out her slippers. When she comes to the place,\nand is about to sit down at table, she drops her handkerchief. The\nvampire, who has followed her from the copper wood in the form of a\ncat, takes it away, as he does also the spoon that falls from her\nhand and the ring that falls from her finger. He goes back to the\ncopper wood with them, and explains everything to his friend. The\nlatter takes them to the emperor and wins the lady.\n\nThis curious tale has several elements which make it difficult to\nclassify. As far as the kindness to the dead goes, the matter is\nsimple. Instead of an agreement between the companions to divide their\ngains, however, an oath of brotherhood is introduced. This is probably\na local substitution, since it has long been a custom of the Slavs of\nthe south to swear brotherhood on the cross, [90] but it necessitates\nthe further loss of important features at the end of the narrative\nsuch as the saving of the bridegroom on the wedding night and the\ndivision of the maiden (or some modification of that feature) by the\nvampire. Indeed, the heroine is rather enchanted than possessed. The\nwhole series of acts by which she is freed introduces traits into the\nnarrative which we have hitherto met only in Esthonian II. Were it\nnot that they are repeated in all the other members of the group save\nBreton I., which we have still to consider, there would be considerable\ndoubt about placing this variant under the category of The Grateful\nDead + The Poison Maiden. As it is, we can with security say that\nthis and the following versions belong here. They have simply modified\nthe normal form by the addition of certain elements from another theme.\n\nThe three Irish versions all have this form. In Irish I. a king's son,\nwhile hunting, pays five pounds to the creditors of a dead man, so that\nhe may be buried. Later the prince kills a raven, and declares that he\nwill marry only that woman who has hair as black as the raven, skin as\nwhite as snow, and cheeks as red as blood upon the snow. [91] On his\nway to find her he meets a red-haired youth, who takes service with him\nfor half of what they may gain in a year and a day. The youth obtains\nfor him from various giants by threats of what his master will do [92]\nhorses of gold and silver, a sword of light, a cloak of darkness,\nand the slippery shoes. When they come to the castle of the maiden,\nhe helps the Prince to keep over night a comb and a pair of scissors\nin spite of enchantment, and he obtains at her bidding the lips of\nthe giant enchanter, which are the last that she has kissed. He then\ntells the prince and the maiden's father to strike her three times,\nwhen three devils come from her mouth in fire. So the prince marries\nher, and is ready at the end of a year and a day to divide his child\n[93] at the servant's command. But the latter explains that he is\nthe soul of the dead man, and disappears.\n\nIrish II. differs little except in details from the above. The king\nof Ireland's son sets forth to find a woman with hair as black as the\nraven, skin as white as snow, and cheeks as red as blood. Ten pounds\nof the twenty which he takes with him he pays to release the corpse\nof a man on which writs are laid. He meets a short green man, who\ngoes with him for his wife's first kiss; and he comes upon a gunner,\na man listening to the growing grass, a swift runner, a man blowing a\nwindmill with one nostril, and a strong man, all of whom accompany him\nfor the promise of a house and garden apiece. After various adventures\nin the castles of giants, they arrive in the east, where the prince's\nlady dwells. She says that her suitor must loose her geasa from her\nbefore she can marry him. With the help of the short green man he\ngives her the scissors, the comb, and the King of Porson's head,\nwhich she requires. He is then told to get three bottles of healing\nwater from the well of the western world. The runner sets out for\nthem, and is stopped and put to sleep by an old hag on the way back;\nbut the earman hears him snoring, the gunman sees him and wakes him\nup, and the windman keeps the hag back till he returns. Finally the\nstrong man crushes three miles of steel needles so that the prince\ncan walk over them. Thus the bride is won. The short green man claims\nthe first kiss, and finds her full of serpents, which he picks out of\nher. He then tells the youth that he is the man who was in the coffin,\nand disappears with his fellows.\n\nIn Irish III. three brothers set out from home with three pounds\napiece. The youngest gives his all to pay a dead man's debts to three\ngiants. He shares his food with a poor man, who offers to be his\nservant, saying that the corpse was his brother, and had appeared\nto him in a dream. [94] Jack the servant frightens the first giant\ninto giving up his sword of sharpness, the second giant his cloak\nof darkness, and the third giant his shoes of swiftness. The two\nJacks come to the castle of a king, whose daughter has to be wooed\nby accomplishing three tasks. Jack the servant follows the princess\nin the cloak of darkness to the demon king of Moroco and rescues\nher scissors. Next day Jack the master runs a race with the king and\nbeats him because shod with the shoes of swiftness. That night Jack\nthe servant goes again to the demon king and cuts off his head with\nthe sword of sharpness, thus accomplishing the third task. So Jack\nthe master marries the princess.\n\nThese three variants make evident the nature of the foreign material\nin Esthonian II. and Rumanian I. The whole sub-group, indeed, has\nin combination with The Grateful Dead + The Poison Maiden important\nelements from the themes of The Water of Life and The Lady and the\nMonster. These features will be considered in detail in a later\nchapter, [95] when we study the general type The Grateful Dead +\nThe Water of Life. For the present it is enough to indicate how the\naddition has affected the type with which we are immediately concerned.\n\nOf the three Irish tales, the first two have best preserved the\ncharacteristics of the compound as found in Asia and Eastern\nEurope. Irish I. has all the essential features of Armenian and\nGypsy,--for example, the burial, the agreement to divide what is\ngained, and the removal of the evil things by which the woman is\npossessed. To be sure, the latter are devils, not serpents, and the\nwoman is beaten, not divided. Yet the division appears in another\nform, since the hero is ready to share his child with the red-haired\nman, a trait connected with the theme of Amis and Amiloun. [96] Irish\nII. is in some respects more changed, and in some respects less, than\nIrish I. The agreement to divide is changed to a promise that the\ngreen man shall have the first kiss of the bride. On the other hand,\nthe serpents in the woman's body are retained, a trait which is very\nprimitive and very important in enabling us to identify the position\nof these variants. Irish III. has lost most of the typical features\nof the compound. Kennedy's evidence shows that Jack the servant\nis to be regarded as really the thankful dead; but the agreement\nto divide the gains and the removal of the demons or serpents have\nentirely disappeared under pressure from the secondary theme, the\nessential idea of which is the accomplishment by the hero of certain\nunspelling tasks. In conjunction with the other two variants, however,\nthe position of Irish III. is clear.\n\nVery different from the Irish tales is Breton I., since under the\ninfluence of a tendency very common in Brittany, the narrative\nhas become a Mary legend and has lost its clearness of outline in\nthe process. Yet it really belongs to this group, replacing by a\ndragon-fight and a rescue of the hero from the villain the cleansing\nof the bride. At least, I am led to the belief that such is the case\nby the fact that the story fits into no other category. Nor is it\nsurprising that the position of the tale should be obscure in view\nof the grotesque transformation which it has undergone.\n\nA youth named Mao pays all his money to have the body of a beggar\ninterred. The spirit of the dead man helps him win the daughter of a\nrich man after killing a dragon in the stables. The lady's treacherous\ncousin tries to burn him alive in an old mill, whence he is saved by\nthe ghost. He forgives the man, and is tricked into promising him\nhalf of all his possessions in order to save his wife. When a son\nis born, the villain demands its division. At the hero's appeal, the\nVirgin comes with the ghost and takes Mao and his family to heaven,\nwhile the cousin is sent to hell.\n\nNorwegian II. and Danish III. stand together, since the relation of\nthe latter (Andersen's Reisekammeraten) to the former is simply that\nof a literary redaction to its original. A brief analysis of each is,\nhowever, necessary.\n\nIn Norwegian II. a young peasant on account of a dream sets forth to\nwin the hand of a princess. On his way he gives most of his money\nto bury a dishonest tapster, who has been executed and left frozen\nin a block of ice outside a church for passers-by to spit upon. As\nhe proceeds, the youth is joined by the ghost of the tapster, who\naccompanies him. They go to a hill, where they get a magic sword from\none witch, a golden ball of yarn from another, and a magical hat from\na third. Of the yarn they make a bridge, and so come to the princess's\ncastle. The hero is told to keep her scissors overnight and loses them;\nbut the companion rides behind the princess on her goat in the hat\nof invisibility, when she goes to her troll lover, and so rescues\nthem. The hero is told to keep a golden ball overnight, and the\nsame adventure is repeated. The hero is then told to bring what the\nprincess is thinking of. The companion rides again with the princess\nand beats her with his sword, gets the troll's head for his master,\nand so enables him to win the lady. On the wedding night the hero flogs\nhis wife at the advice of the companion, only just in time to save\nhimself, indeed, as she is about to kill him with a butcher-knife. He\ndips her into a tub of whey, whence she comes out black as a raven,\nbut after a rubbing with buttermilk and new milk she becomes very\nbeautiful. The companion discovers his identity and disappears.\n\nIn Danish III. poor John, whose father has died, dreams of a beautiful\nprincess, and sets forth to find her. He does various kind deeds by\nthe way, and one night takes refuge from the storm in a church. There\nhe sees two evil men dragging a corpse from its coffin, and pays his\nall that it may be buried. He is joined by the ghost of the dead\nman, who accompanies him. They get three rods from an old woman,\nwho is healed by the comrade's salve, and they come to a city,\nwhere they get a sword from a showman, whose puppets are made alive\nby the salve. They come to a mountain, where the companion cuts off\nthe wings of a great white swan and carries them along. They come at\nlength to the city of the beautiful princess, who is a witch. Anyone\ncan marry her who guesses three things, but every man who has tried\nhas failed and been killed. John tells the king that he will try to\nwin her, and is told to come the next day. In the night the comrade\nputs on the wings of the swan, takes the largest of the rods, and\nfollows the princess when she flies out to the palace of her wizard\nlover. There he hears that she is to think of her shoe when her suitor\ncomes in the morning. All the way to the mountain and back the comrade\nbeats her so that the blood flows. The next morning he tells John to\nguess her shoe when asked what she has thought of. Everyone save the\nprincess rejoices when the youth guesses right. The next night the\ncompanion beats the princess with two rods as she flies, and learns\nthat she is to think of her glove. Again everyone is pleased with\nJohn's answer. The third night the companion takes all three rods\nand the sword. He cuts off the wizard's head when he learns that the\nprincess is to think of that, and he gives it to John, wrapped in a\nhandkerchief. John produces this when asked by the princess what she\nhas thought about, and so he wins her. That night, at the bidding\nof the companion, he dips her three times in a tub of water, into\nwhich have been shaken three swan's feathers and some drops from a\nflask. The first time she becomes a black swan, the second a white\nswan, and the third a more beautiful princess than ever. The next\nday the comrade explains his identity and disappears.\n\nIt will be seen that Andersen simply embroidered the Norwegian tale\nas was his wont, adding a good many picturesque details, and softening\nsome features. The changes do not materially affect the course of the\nnarrative, nor need they delay us here, interesting though they are\nof themselves, [97] since the position of the variant with reference\nto the story-type under consideration is perfectly clear. Norwegian\nII. demands further attention. Like Esthonian II., Rumanian I., and\nIrish I., II., and III., it has the form The Grateful Dead + The Poison\nMaiden + The Water of Life. The burial of the dead is undisturbed,\nbut the agreement between the companions to divide their gains has\nentirely disappeared, perhaps because the secondary theme takes so\nlarge a place. The removal of the poisonous habitants of the bride\nis clearly indicated, though it has been weakened into a flogging,\nwhich is given, however, only just in time to save the bridegroom\nfrom death. The subsequent milk bath seems to show a conflict between\nthe conclusions of the two subsidiary motives--the end of The Poison\nMaiden being release from something like demonic possession, and that\nof The Water of Life in this form being release from a spell--though\nperhaps the bath is only a reduplication of the purifying process.\n\nSimrock X. is not unlike the two variants just cited. A king's son\nwastes his property, and is sent out to shift for himself. He pays\nthe debts of a naked corpse, and has only enough money left to pay\nhis reckoning at his inn. So he takes the body to a wood, and buries\nit there. As he goes his way, he is met by a man, who becomes his\nfollower and secures three rods, a sword, and a pair of wings from a\ndead raven. They come to a castle, where to win the king's daughter\nthe prince has to guess her thoughts for three days in succession. The\ncompanion flies with her each night when she goes to her wizard for\ncounsel, and learns that the prince must say \"bread,\" \"the princess's\njewels,\" and \"the wizard's head\" in turn. On the last night he cuts off\nthe wizard's head and brings it to his master, who displays it at court\nand so breaks the spell. When the couple are married, the companion\nexplains that he is the spirit of the dead man, and disappears.\n\nThis variant obviously belongs to the same type as those preceding. As\nin Irish I. and II. the hero is a prince instead of a youth of\nlow birth; but there is no general uniformity in this trait. The\nagreement of division and the violent dispossession of the heroine have\ndisappeared. Indeed, so far has The Water of Life supplanted the other\nmotives that the position of the tale is only evident when it is placed\nside by side with other versions of the same class. When so considered,\nhowever, the peculiar features of the succession of feats by which\nthe bride is won appear very prominently, and establish the type.\n\nHarz I. stands closer to Norwegian II. than the preceding. A youth pays\nhis all for the burial of a poor man, whose ghost joins him. They go\nto a city, where a bespelled princess kills all her suitors who cannot\nanswer a riddle. The companion spirit tells the youth to save her,\nexplaining his own identity. He gives wings and an iron rod to the\nhero, who flies with the princess to a mountain spirit, and hears that\nhe must guess that she is thinking of her father's white horse. The\nnext night the youth follows her with two rods and is thus enabled\nto guess that she is thinking of her father's sword. The third night\nhe follows her with two rods and a sword, with which he cuts off the\nmonster's head. This he shows her in the morning when asked the usual\nquestion, and so he breaks the spell. On the wedding night he dips her\nthrice in water. The first time she comes from the bath a raven, the\nsecond time a dove, and the third time in her own shape, but purified.\n\nThe burial is here retained, but the agreement is entirely\nlost. Though the variant follows Norwegian II. in general, even to\nsuch details as the preliminary beating of the lady, and the bath\nof final purification, the important trait of flogging the bride,\nby which the hero is saved on the wedding night, has altogether\ndisappeared. Like Simrock X., the tale has obscured the first of the\ntwo secondary themes for the benefit of the second. Its position seems\nsure, however, as a member of the little group now being considered.\n\nJack the Giant-Killer clearly belongs to this group, approaching\nIrish I. in form. The earliest complete version that I know is\nunfortunately not older than the eighteenth century, and perhaps has\nlost several features of interest which might be found in earlier\nforms. King Arthur's son sets forth to free a lady possessed of seven\nspirits. At a market town in Wales he pays almost all his money to\nrelease the body of a man who died in debt. He gives his last twopence\nto an old woman, who meets him after he has left the town. Jack the\nGiant-Killer is so pleased with these good deeds that he becomes the\nprince's servant. They go to a giant's castle together. Jack tells\nthe giant that a mighty prince is coming [98] and locks him up,\nso that the two take all his gold. Jack takes also an old coat and\ncap, a rusty sword, and a pair of slippers. They arrive at the lady's\nhouse. She tells the prince to show her in the morning a handkerchief,\nwhich she conceals in her dress. By putting on the coat of darkness,\nand the shoes of swiftness, and following her when she goes to her\ndemon lover, Jack gets the handkerchief for his master. Next day the\nlady tells the prince to get the lips which she will kiss the last\nthat night. Jack follows her again and cuts off the demon's head,\nwhich the prince produces, thus breaking the spell that has bound\nher to the evil spirits.\n\nThis variant, even in what is probably a mutilated state, is strikingly\nsimilar to Irish I. in such details as the means used to follow the\nlady, and the tasks imposed upon the suitor. Indeed, the fact that\nthe adventures take place in Wales might lead one to suppose that\nthe story in this form was Celtic, were not the knowledge of it so\npersistent in England also. Several features are obscured, at least\nin the form from which I cite. Though the burial of the dead is given\nclearly enough, and the fact that the lady is possessed is insisted on,\nthe prince is kind to an old woman as well as to a dead man, and Jack\nis certainly not understood to be a ghost. All mention of an agreement\nbetween the companions, and of the means taken to free the heroine\nfrom her possession by dividing her or flogging her, has likewise\ndisappeared. However, the correspondence both in outline and in detail\nwith Irish I. is sufficient to establish the position of the variant.\n\nIn the Old Wives' Tale the theme of The Grateful Dead is imbedded in\nsuch a mass of folk-lore and folk-tales that it is quite impossible\nto restore adequately the narrative as Peele found it. He treated the\nstory as a literary artist, of course, modifying and adding details to\nsuit the scheme of his play. The outline of the story, as Peele gives\nit, is as follows: A king, or a lord, or a duke, has a daughter as\nwhite as snow and as red as blood, who is carried off by a conjurer\nin the form of a dragon. Her two brothers set forth to seek her,\nand by a cross meet an old man named Erestus, who calls himself the\nWhite Bear of England's Wood. He, they learn, has been enchanted by\nthe conjurer, and is a man by day and a bear by night. He tells them\nof his own troubles, and gives them good advice. Later he is met by\nthe wandering knight Eumenides, who likewise  is seeking the lady\nDelia and is counselled:\n\n\n           \"Bestowe thy almes, give more than all,\n            Till dead men's bones come at thy call.\"\n\n\nEumenides pays all his money except three farthings to bury the body\nof Jack, while the conjurer compels Delia to goad her brothers at the\nwork to which he has set them. Eumenides is overtaken by the ghost of\nJack, who becomes his servant, or \"copartner,\" provides him with money,\nand slays the conjurer while invisible, thus breaking the spell of all\nthe enchanted persons. Jack then demands his half of Delia, refuses\nto take her whole, and, when Eumenides prepares to cut her in twain,\nexplains that he has asked this only as a trial of constancy. He\nquickly disappears.\n\nDutz has already shown [99] that Old Wives' Tale has three of the\nessential features of The Grateful Dead, viz.: the burial of the\ndead with the peculiar prophetic advice of Erestus, the reward of\nthe hero by assistance in getting a wife, and the sharing of the\nwoman. Because of the non-schematic nature of his discussion he did\nnot make any attempt to classify the variant more specifically. In\nhis edition of the play, [100] Professor Gummere, in indicating some\nof the folk-lore which Peele used, has likewise called attention\n[101] to the connection with our theme. Of particular importance is\nhis hint as to the likeness of the variant to the story which I call\nIrish III. It is practicable, however, to carry the matter somewhat\nfurther. The adventures of Delia, Eumenides, and Jack are all that\nreally concern us. It will be seen that these conform in essentials\nto the type under consideration. There is the burial, the agreement,\nthe death of the wizard, and the division. To be sure, as in other\ninstances, the dispossession of the woman has been obscured by other\nelements; yet the type is unmistakable, it seems to me. One trait in\nparticular connects Old Wives' Tale with Irish I. and II. In all three\nthe hero seeks a maiden who is white as snow and red as blood. On\nthe other hand, the ghost is called Jack as in Irish III. and the\nEnglish tale which bears Jack's name. Because of these similarities\nand discrepancies one is forced to conclude that for this part of his\nplay Peele drew upon some version of Jack the Giant-Killer, which was\nfar better preserved than the forms known to-day. His original must\nhave had many points in common with the tale as extant in Ireland,\nthough we need not believe that he knew it in other than English dress.\n\nIt yet remains to consider the relations of the two sets of variants\ndiscussed in this chapter to The Poison Maiden and to one another. The\ngroup is peculiar in that all the members of it are folk-tales, save\nthree: Tobit, Danish III. and Old Wives' Tale. The two latter are,\nhowever, immediately derived from popular narratives of an easily\ndiscernible type. Thus Tobit is an anomaly from almost any point of\nview, obscure in its origin and possessed of only trivial influence\nupon the other tales belonging to the same group. Of the twenty-six\nvariants, fifteen have The Grateful Dead + The Poison Maiden simply,\nwhile the other eleven add thereto more or less distinct elements of\nThe Water of Life.\n\nIn the following versions the hero is saved on the wedding night, or\nthe bride is purified by some means: Tobit, Armenian, Gypsy, Siberian,\nRussian I., Russian II., Russian III., Russian IV., Russian V., Russian\nVI., Servian II., Servian III., Servian IV., Bulgarian, Esthonian II.,\nIrish I., Irish II., Danish III., Norwegian II., and Harz I. Not all\nthe stories which I have placed in the group, it will be observed,\nhave this feature; but, out of all the variants of The Grateful Dead\nenumerated in the bibliographical list, not one has it except members\nof the group. Now this purification of the bride, by means of which\nthe hero is saved, is precisely the element of The Poison Maiden which\nis most essential. There can be no doubt, therefore, that this theme\nactually united with a more primitive form of The Grateful Dead to\nform the compound discussed in this chapter. The combination must\nhave been made very early and in Asia, as Tobit and Armenian bear\nwitness. It will be noted that all the variants, save Finnish, which\nhave the simple compound, retain the rescue of the bridegroom, while\nonly half of those where a subsidiary motive has been introduced have\nthe like. Apparently the intrusion of new matter of a very romantic\nsort tended to obscure the original climax of the combined type.\n\nAnother feature of much importance in this connection is the division\nof the woman, or whatever is substituted for it. In a large majority\nof the variants studied, which have the trait at all, the purpose\nof the division proposed or accomplished is to test the fidelity of\nthe hero. Hippe believed [102] that this was a modification of the\noriginal trait, an opinion which would be justified if the compound\ntype The Grateful Dead + The Poison Maiden only were considered. The\nversions which have the purification are the following: Armenian,\nGypsy, Siberian, Russian II., Russian IV., Russian V., Russian VI.,\nServian II., Servian III., Servian IV., Bulgarian, Esthonian II.,\nFinnish, Irish I., Irish II., and Old Wives' Tale. In these the\npurpose of the division, or beating, whether actually performed or\nnot, is the disposal of serpents or other venomous creatures by which\nthe woman is possessed. [103] It will be noted, however, that all\nof these variants are of the type treated in the present chapter. If\nthe division for the sake of purification were then regarded as more\nprimitive and older than the division for the sake of sharing the\ngains or of testing the hero, it would naturally follow that all\nthe combined types must proceed from The Grateful Dead + The Poison\nMaiden. Hippe followed the logical course from his premises in so\nregarding the relationship of the groups. [104] However, it seems\nclear to me--and it will be increasingly evident as we study the\nother groups--that the division for purification belongs solely to\nthe compound treated in this chapter. It would follow logically from\ncombining The Poison Maiden, where a friend saves the hero from the\nfatal embraces of a woman, with The Grateful Dead, where the hero\nis willing to divide his wife to satisfy the agreement which he has\nmade with his benefactor. Only by such an explanation is it possible\nto account for the development of the several groups from a common\nroot. The barbarous character of the division for purification,\nand the softening which it has undergone in the group which we have\nbeen studying, give it an appearance of antiquity to which it has\nno right. In point of fact, it belongs only to this group, which is\nthus clearly set off from all the others as an independent branch. The\ndivision for the sake of fulfilling an obligation is more widespread,\nthough it has suffered many modifications.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nTHE GRATEFUL DEAD AND THE RANSOMED WOMAN.\n\n\nAs has already been shown, [105] Simrock regarded as an essential\nfeature of The Grateful Dead the release of a maiden from captivity by\nthe hero. Stephens and Hippe [106] saw that such was not the case. The\nlatter's treatment of the matter [107] leaves little to be desired\nas far as it goes, save that it implies a derivation of the compound\nThe Grateful Dead + The Ransomed Woman from the compound treated in\nthe last chapter--a view which I believe erroneous.\n\nThe Ransomed Woman appears as a separate tale or in combination with\nother themes than The Grateful Dead more than once. A prolonged study\nof the motive would probably yield a rich harvest of examples, though\nit is sufficient for the present purpose to refer to Hippe's article as\nestablishing the existence of the form. His Wendish folk-tale [108] and\nGuter Gerhard, from the latter of which Simrock started his enquiry,\nare of themselves evidence enough. [109] Neither example has anything\nwhatever to do with The Grateful Dead. [110] The characteristics\nof The Ransomed Woman will appear as we consider the compound type,\nwhich contains folk-tales almost exclusively, as was the case with\nthe type studied in the previous chapter, but in most cases from\nWestern Europe instead of from both Asia and Europe.\n\nNineteen variants have The Grateful Dead and The Ransomed Woman\ncombined in a comparatively simple form without admixture with related\nthemes. These are: Servian I., Lithuanian I., [111] Hungarian II.,\nTransylvanian, Catalan, Spanish, Trancoso, Nicholas, Gasconian,\nStraparola I., Istrian, Gaelic, Breton III., [112] Swedish, Norwegian\nI., Icelandic I. and II., and Simrock IV. and VI.\n\nIn Servian I. a merchant's son, while on a journey, ransoms a company\nof slaves whom he finds in the hands of freebooters. Among them is\na beautiful maiden with her nurse. He marries the lady, who proves\nto be the daughter of an emperor. On a second voyage he ransoms two\npeasants, who have been imprisoned for not paying their taxes to the\nemperor. On his third journey he comes to his father-in-law's court,\nand is sent back for his wife. He is, however, cast into the sea\nby a former lover of the princess, and succeeds in getting ashore\non a lonely island, where he remains for fifteen days and fifteen\nnights. [113] Then an angel in the disguise of an old man appears to\nhim, and, on condition of receiving half of his possessions, brings\nhim to court, where he is reunited with his wife. After renouncing\nhis claim, the old man explains who he is, and disappears.\n\nThe most striking peculiarity of the variant is the loss of the burial,\nfor which appears rather awkwardly the ransoming of some peasants on\nthe hero's second voyage. That substitution has occurred is apparent,\nhowever, both from the clumsiness of the device by which the original\ntrait is replaced, and from the angel in the form of an old man,\nwho takes the role of the ghost. It will be remembered that the\nsame substitution has already been met with in the case of Tobit and\nRussian II.\n\nIn Lithuanian I. is found a variant which, as we shall find, is of\na common type. A king's son pays three hundred gold-pieces, all that\nhe possesses, to release a dead man from his creditors and have him\nburied. The hero then becomes a merchant, and finds a princess on an\nisland, whither she has been driven by a storm. He takes her to a city,\nwhere he makes his home, and marries her. A messenger, sent out by\nher father to seek her, arrives, takes them aboard ship, and pitches\nthe hero into the sea in order to obtain the offered reward. He is\nsaved by a man in a boat, who says that he is the ghost of the dead,\nand instructs him how to rejoin his bride. So everything ends happily.\n\nThe events as here related follow a very normal course, which is\nrepeated again and again in stories of this type: a burial, a ransom,\nan act of treachery, a rescue by the ghost, and a happy reunion\nof the lovers. The agreement between the hero and the ghost, which\nis found in Servian I., and very frequently elsewhere, is lacking,\nhowever. A peculiarity of the variant is the change in status of the\nhero. He is a prince, but becomes a merchant, thus uniting the two\ncharacters given him in the other tales of this class.\n\nHungarian II. is in some respects more interesting than the variant\njust cited. A merchant's son while in Turkey pays the debts and for\nthe burial of a mistreated corpse. After returning home, he goes to\nEngland and rescues a French princess with her two maids, but by his\ncunning saves the gold that he has agreed to pay for them. At her\nbidding he goes to Paris and tells the king that she is safe. On\nhis return to bring her to her home, where he is to marry her,\nhe is placed on a desert island by a general who is enamoured of\nthe princess. Thence he is rescued by an old man, the ghost of the\ndead, who takes him to the Continent. He goes to Paris, where he is\nrecognized by the princess, when he drops a ring that she has given\nhim into a beaker. When she comes to him in his room, he threatens to\nkill her if she does not go away; but when she agrees that he has the\nright to do so since he has saved her life, he says that his threat\nwas only a test of loyalty. So the story ends happily.\n\nThe course of events is not very different from that of Lithuanian\nI., since the variant has all the normal elements save the agreement\nbetween the ghost and the hero. A peculiarity is the final scene\nin which the hero tests his lady. It will be evident, I think,\nthat this is an obscured and modified form of the test to which\nthe ghost elsewhere submits the hero, a test of fidelity likewise,\nthough different in its nature.\n\nIn the Transylvanian variant, a merchant's son while on a journey pays\nfifty florins, half of his capital, for the burial of a dead man. On\na second journey he pays one hundred florins, again one-half of his\nstore, for the ransom of a princess who has been imprisoned while\nout doing charity incognito. She gives him a ring and sends him to\nthe castle, where her father turns him out of doors. He then meets\nan old man--the ghost--and promises him one-half of his gains after\nseven years for his help. He is then enabled to marry the princess, who\nrecognizes him, at the castle by his ring. They have two children. When\nthe old man comes back at the end of seven years, the hero gives\nup one of his children, and, after offering her whole, is ready to\ndivide his wife. The old man renounces his claim, and disappears.\n\nEvery step in the narrative is here clearly marked, even to the\nconditional agreement with the ghost, which so frequently is\nwanting. The variant thus appears to be entirely normal as far as\nThe Grateful Dead goes, though it does not have the rescue by the\nghost--an important feature of The Ransomed Woman.\n\nIn Catalan [114] a young man on a journey has a poor man buried at\nhis expense, and ransoms a princess. Later he goes to the court of\nher parents with a flag on which she has embroidered her name. They\nrecognize this, and send the youth back for the lady. On the way he\nis cast into the sea by the sailors, but is saved by the thankful\ndead and brought to the court again, where he espouses the princess.\n\nIn Spanish [115] a young Venetian merchant pays the debts of a\nChristian at Tunis, and has him buried. At the house of the creditor\nhe also buys a Christian slave girl. He takes her back to Venice and\nmarries her. At the wedding a sea-captain recognizes the lady, and\nlures the couple aboard his ship. The young man is cast into the sea,\nbut by clinging to a plank reaches land, where he lives seven months\nwith a hermit. At the end of that time he is sent to the coast,\nwhere he finds a ship, and is transported to Ireland. There he is\nentrusted by the captain with two letters to the king. The one says\nthat he is a great physician, who will heal the sick princess; the\nother that the plank, the hermit, and the captain who has brought him\nto Ireland are one and all the ghost of the man whom he buried. The\nhero is recognized at court by the princess, who has been brought\nthither by the traitor, and has explained all to her father.\n\nIn these tales the theme of The Grateful Dead is somewhat abbreviated\nfor the sake of the romantic features of the secondary motive. In\nboth, the agreement with the ghost and every trace of a division\nhave disappeared, though they differ in the details of the treachery\nby which the lovers are separated. In the former [116] much is\nmade of the manner by which the hero gets a favourable reception\nat the court of the princess's father, while in the latter this is\nsuppressed. Recognition by some such means, it will appear, is an\nimportant feature of the majority of the variants in this section. It\nmust be remembered, of course, that Spanish is a semi-literary version,\neven though popular in origin.\n\nTrancoso, the work of a sixteenth century Portuguese story-teller,\nis even more consciously literary. It shows, besides, the tendency of\nthe narrative to take on a religious colouring. The son of a Lusitanian\nmerchant, while in Fez on a trading expedition, buys the relics of a\nChristian saint. In spite of his father's anger, he does this a second\ntime, and is so successful in retailing the bones that he is sent out\na third time with instructions to buy as many relics as possible. On\nthis expedition, however, he succeeds merely in ransoming a Christian\ngirl, whom he takes home. At her request he carries to the King of\nEngland a piece of linen, on which she has embroidered the story of\nher adventures. He learns that she is the king's daughter, and restores\nher to her father. Subsequently he wanders over Europe in despair, for\nhe has hoped to marry the princess, till he meets with two minstrels,\nwho accompany him to the English court. There he makes himself known\nto the princess by a song; and, by the aid of the two minstrels, he\nwins her hand in a tournament. Later the two friends reveal themselves\nas the saints whose bones he had rescued from the Moors.\n\nThough this version clearly belongs in the category now under\ndiscussion, it has certain features that can be explained only on\nthe supposition that Trancoso altered his source to suit his personal\nfancy. The clever substitute for actual burial, the duplication of that\ntrait (which occurs nowhere else), the humorous touch with reference\nto the hero's success in selling relics, and the appearance of the\nghosts as minstrels, are all strokes of individual invention. The\nwanderings of the hero and his manner of revealing himself to the\nprincess are doubtless reminiscences from the popular romances of\nSpain, while the tournament probably comes, as Menendez y Pelayo hints,\n[117] from an earlier version of our theme, Oliver, which will be\ntreated below. In spite of these peculiarities, the ordinary features\nof the combined theme are not more obscured than in the two preceding\nvariants. The agreement, the division, and the rescue are the only\nones that disappear.\n\nIn the fourteenth century variant from Scala Celi, Nicholas, our\nstory is altogether transformed into a legend. The only son of a widow\n[118] of Bordeaux is sent as a merchant to a distant city with fifty\npounds. He gives it all to help rebuild a church of St Nicholas, and\nreturns home empty-handed. Much later he is sent out with one hundred\npounds, and buys the Sultan's daughter. His mother disowns him, and\nhe is supported by the embroidery which the princess makes. With her\nwares he goes to a festival at Alexandria, but, at her bidding, keeps\naway from the castle. When he journeys to Alexandria a second time,\nhowever, he goes to the castle and is imprisoned, as the handiwork\nof the princess is recognized. She is sent for, while the hero is\nreleased and goes home. Since he does not find the maiden there, he\nreturns to Alexandria with a piece of embroidery which she has sent\nhim, meets her, and elopes by the aid of St. Nicholas, who sends them\na ship opportunely.\n\nBecause of its legendary character the variant has been materially\ntransformed, but not beyond recognition. The thankful dead is replaced\nby the saint throughout, so that the burial is altered into church\nbuilding, and both the agreement and the division of the gains\ndisappear. The various elements of The Ransomed Woman fare better:\nthe act of treachery done the hero is the only one lacking, and that\nperhaps is replaced by his imprisonment in the Sultan's castle. It\nis remarkable that the details of the narrative have been so little\naltered in spite of its complete change of purpose.\n\nIn the Gasconian folk-tale Jean du Boucau, the son of a mariner, goes\nto fight the corsairs. On the shore of the sea he rescues a man named\nUartia, who is pretending death to escape from his creditors. Later\nthis man becomes a prosperous freebooter, and is sailing with a load\nof captives when met again by Jean. The latter is so shocked by his\nevil deeds that he encloses him in the coffin prepared for him on\nthe previous occasion, and throws him into the sea. Jean then marries\nthe most beautiful of the captives, who is the daughter of the King\nof Bilbao.\n\nThe variant is excessively rationalized, it will be observed, and\nmost traces of The Grateful Dead have disappeared. Though various\nsubstitutions for the burial are found in each of the groups, this\nis the only case that I know where the man plays 'possum to escape\nhis creditors. The story is likewise unique in making the hero take\nvengeance on the man whom he has helped earlier, and accordingly in\nmaking him rescue the maiden from the hands of the person who is in\nthe character of the thankful dead. The variant has been modified by\na free fancy; yet its position in the group remains perfectly clear\nin spite of the loss of such traits as the agreement, the act of\ntreachery, the rescue of the hero, and the division of the gains.\n\nStraparola I., one of the Italian novelist's two renderings of\nour theme, is far more normal than the above, and is probably based\ndirectly on a folk-story. Bertuccio pays one hundred ducats to free a\ncorpse from a robber and bury it, greatly to his mother's disgust. He\ngoes out again with two hundred ducats, and pays them for the ransom\nof the daughter of the King of Navarre. His mother is still more\nangry. The princess is taken home to Navarre by officers of the court\nwho have been searching for her, but first she tells Bertuccio to come\nto her, and to hold his hand to his head as a sign when he hears that\nshe is to be married. On his way to Navarre he meets a knight who\ngives him a horse and clothing on condition of his returning them,\ntogether with half of his gains. He marries the princess, and is\nreturning home, when he meets the knight again and offers to give up\nhis wife whole rather than kill her by division. Whereupon the knight\nexplains that he is the spirit of the dead, and resigns his claim.\n\nAll the traits previously mentioned are here evident save the act\nof treachery by which the hero comes near losing his bride. The\nsign appears as a means of communication between the lovers, as in\nTransylvanian and elsewhere. The question of division is simply a\nmatter of fulfilling a bargain, but it shows how easily by a slight\nshift of emphasis the test of loyalty could be made the important\nelement.\n\nNone of the Italian folk variants, which I know, conforms to the above\nclosely enough to be regarded as a near relative. Istrian, however,\nbelongs in the same category. A youth called Fair Brow sets out to\ntrade with six thousand scudi, which he pays to bury a debtor on\nthe shore, for whom passers-by are giving alms. On his return home,\nhe tells his father that he has been robbed, and again is sent\nout with six thousand scudi. He pays these for a maiden, who has\nbeen stolen from the Sultan, and he is consequently disowned by his\nfather. After his marriage to the girl, the young couple live by the\nsale of the wife's paintings. Some sailors of the Sultan see these,\nand carry the lady off home. Fair Brow goes fishing with an old man\nwhom he meets by the sea. They are driven by a storm to Turkey, and\nare sold to the Sultan as slaves, but they escape with the wife and\nconsiderable treasure. The old man then asks for a division of the\nproperty, even of the woman. When the hero offers him three-quarters\nof the wealth in order to keep the woman, the old man declares that\nhe is the ghost, and disappears.\n\nAll of the essential traits, except the preliminary agreement and\nthe rescue of the hero, are here clearly marked. The latter is,\nindeed, probably accounted for by the storm which the hero and the\nghost encounter together. The fact that the young couple live by\nthe sale of the wife's handiwork, and that this in some way or other\nleads to her restoration to her parents or earlier connections, is\nan important feature of The Ransomed Woman, being found clearly in\nthe Wendish tale as well as in many variants of the compound type.\n\nGaelic is an interesting example of the theme. Iain, the son of a\nBarra widow, becomes the master of a ship and goes to Turkey, where\nhe pays the debts of a dead Christian and buries the corpse. He\nransoms a Christian maiden, the daughter of the King of Spain, with\nher servant, on the same journey, and takes her back to England,\ntogether with much gold. At her advice he goes to Spain and attends\nchurch, where the king recognizes by his clothing, his ring, his\nbook, and his whistle that he has news of the lost princess. Iain\nthen returns to England for the maiden, whom he is to marry. While\ngoing with her to Spain he is left on a desert island by a general,\nwho has secreted himself on the ship; but after a time he is rescued\nby a man in a boat, to whom he promises half of his wife and of his\nchildren, if he shall have any. In Spain the princess, who has gone\nmad, recognizes him when he plays his whistle. So they are married,\nand the general burned. When three sons have been born, the rescuer\nappears and asks for his share; but as soon as Iain accedes he declares\nhimself to be the ghost, and disappears.\n\nApart from the dressing of the story, which is unusually good, the\nvariant follows the normal course. The several signs by which the\nhero is recognized by the king and the princess mark the imaginative\nwealth of the Celt, though the appearance of a ring, and the fact\nthat the hero is left on a desert island by an infatuated general,\nshow a close correspondence with Hungarian II. The introduction of\nthe children as part of the property to be divided is interesting,\nsince it shows the connecting link by which the simple compound now\nunder consideration passed into combination with the theme of The\nTwo Friends. [119] Gaelic, however, clearly belongs where it is here\nplaced. The healing of the princess at the hero's coming reminds one\nof the similar trait in Spanish.\n\nBreton III. [120] is peculiar in several ways. A young man, who had\nbeen unjustly cast off by his parents, put himself under the protection\nof St. Corentin and the Virgin. To an old woman he gave all his stock\nof money that she might bury her husband and have masses said for\nhis soul. The saint and the Virgin then led the hero to a nobleman,\nwhose daughter he married. On a hunt he was cast into the sea by\nan envious uncle of his wife, at a time when she was pregnant; but\nhe was brought to an island by some mysterious power and nourished\nthere for five years by St. Corentin. Finally an old man appeared and\ntook him home after he had promised half of his possessions to the\nrescuer. When a year had passed, the old man came back and demanded\nhalf of the child; but just as the mysterious stranger was about to\ndivide the child St. Corentin and the Virgin appeared and explained\ntheir identity, together with that of the old man, who was the saint\nhimself. They told the hero, furthermore, that God was well pleased\nwith him, and would take his son and himself to Paradise. Father and\nson fell dead immediately, while the wife went into a convent.\n\nThis tale, like Nicholas, has been dressed up as a legend, chiefly\nin the praise of St. Corentin, with the result that the elements\nare confused. The burial, however, persists, though the ransoming of\nthe woman has been feebly replaced by the aid of the saint and the\nVirgin. The hero is cast into the sea by an avaricious uncle of the\nbride, again a weakened trait. The rescue and the agreement to divide\nare normal in essentials, though adorned with superfluous miracles,\nas is again the conclusion of the tale. It illustrates how easily\nsuch a narrative may be adapted, whether consciously or not, to a\nreligious purpose. The division of the child, which comes in question,\nis of precisely the same character as in Gaelic; it does not imply\nthe presence of a new motive, though it indicates the possibility of\na new combination.\n\nSwedish [121] is a somewhat abbreviated form of the normal type. Pelle\nBatsman, while on a journey, pays the debts of a dead man, and so\nbrings repose to him; for he has been hunted from his grave and soundly\nbeaten every night by his creditors, who are likewise dead. Pelle\nthen falls in with robbers, with whom he finds the daughter of the\nKing of Armenia. He escapes with her, and goes on board a ship to seek\nher father, but he is thrown overboard by the envious captain. He is\nsaved by the thankful dead and brought to Armenia, where he marries\nthe princess. Here the burial is peculiar in that the dead man is\nharassed by creditors who are already dead. This is a marvel, which\nneed excite no surprise in view of the modifications of the trait\nfound elsewhere. The ransom in this case does not imply a money\npayment, since the hero escapes from robbers with the maiden. The\nway in which the hero is left behind by the master of the vessel\non which the lovers sail is a trait similar to the one in Catalan\nand Spanish. The agreement between the hero and the ghost, the sign\nemployed by the hero, and the division of gains are all lacking;\nbut no new feature replaces them.\n\nNorwegian I. [122] is not very different from the preceding tale. A man\nin the service of a merchant pays all he has, while on one voyage,\nto bury the body of a dead man. On his next voyage he ransoms a\nprincess, and sets out with her for England. On the way she is\ncarried off by her brother and a former suitor. The hero overtakes\nthem and is given a ring by the lady, but is cast into the sea by the\nsuitor. For seven years he lives on a desert isle, till an old man\nappears, tells him that it is the princess's bridal day, carries him\nto England, and gives him a flask. This the hero sends to his lady,\nis thus recognized, and is married. The agreement with the ghost and\nthe division of the woman are entirely lacking, though the burial, the\nransom, the treachery of the suitor, and the aid of the ghost appear\nin normal fashion. The sign enters only as a means of communication\nbetween the lovers. The tale thus has no very unusual traits.\n\nIcelandic I. [123] is a fuller, and, for our purpose, more interesting\nvariant than the last. Thorsteinn, a king's son, who has wasted his\nsubstance, sells his kingdom and sets forth into the world. He pays\ntwo hundred rix-dollars to free from debt a dead man, whose grave is\nbeaten every day by a creditor to destroy his rest. The prince goes on,\nand in the castle of a giant finds a princess hanging by the hair. He\nfrees her, and is taking her home when he meets Raudr, a knight to\nwhom her hand has been promised if he can find her. Raudr puts the\nprince to sea alone in a boat and carries the lady home. Thorsteinn,\nhowever, is brought thither also by the ghost and is recognized by\nthe princess, when she is about to be married to the traitor. So\nRaudr is punished, and Thorsteinn obtains the princess.\n\nHere, again, the agreement, the sign, and the division do not appear,\nthough the version is otherwise normal. To be sure, the ransom of the\nlady is replaced by a rescue, as in Swedish, and the beating of the\ngrave preserves a bit of northern superstition, which is interesting\neven though not primitive as far as our tale is concerned. [124]\n\nIcelandic II. is similar to the variant just cited in several\nparticulars, though it has important differences. Vilhjalmur,\na merchant's son, loses his property and becomes the servant of\ntwelve robbers. In their den he finds a princess named Asa hanging\nby the hair. He escapes with her by sea, taking along the thieves'\ntreasure. This he pays to have the body of a debtor buried. To the\nhaven where this happens comes Rauethur in search of the princess,\ntakes the couple on his ship, but puts the hero to sea in a rudderless\nboat. A man appears to Vilhjalmur in a dream, saying that he is the\nghost of the man whom he has buried, and that he will bring him to\nland and show him treasure. So the hero is brought to the land of\nthe princess and tells his story at the wedding of the traitor with\nthe princess. Thus the bride is won for him.\n\nThe hero, it will be observed, is a merchant instead of a prince,\nas in Icelandic I., and the burial of the dead is customary in form\nthough exceptionally placed in the narrative. Otherwise the two\nvariants correspond rather closely, even in such a detail as the name\nof the traitor. There is the same omission of elements peculiar to The\nGrateful Dead, the same preponderance of the secondary motive, found in\nall the northern versions of this particular group. The two Icelandic\nvariants seem to be perfectly distinct, though they are nearly related.\n\nThe two German folk-tales which fall into this group are not very\ndifferent from one another. In Simrock IV. a merchant's son pays the\ndebts of a man who is being devoured by dogs, but does not succeed\nin saving his life. He goes on, finds two maidens exposed on a rock,\nand takes them home. In spite of his father's objections, he marries\none of them. He goes to sea again, wearing a ring that his wife has\ngiven him, and carrying a flag marked with her name. Coming to the\nroyal court of her father, he is sent back for the princess with a\nminister. On his voyage to court again he is put overboard by the\nminister, who hopes thus to win the princess. However, he is cast up\non an island, where the ghost of the dead man appears to him in sleep\nand transports him miraculously to court. There he is recognized by\nhis ring and reunited to his wife.\n\nDetails such as those concerning the burial, the rescue of the lady,\nand the help given miraculously by the ghost mark the independence\nof the variant, though they do not alter the normal course of the\nnarrative. As so often in this group, the agreement with the ghost\nand the division are entirely lacking.\n\nIn Simrock VI. the variations from the normal are even\nslighter. Heinrich of Hamburg buys a beautiful maiden in a foreign\nland. On the sea-coast, when he is returning home with her, he pays\nthe debts of a corpse and has it buried. He wishes to marry the girl,\nbut she asks that he delay the wedding for a year and make a journey\nfirst. So she gives him two coffers, with which he crosses the sea. By\nthe help of a shipman he finds his betrothed's royal father, but on\nhis way back to fetch her home is cast overboard by the mariner, who\nis the original kidnapper of the maiden. This man gets her and carries\nher to the court with the hope of marrying her. The hero is saved\nfrom the sea, however, by the ghost of the dead man, who brings him\nto the garden of the princess's palace, where he is found by his bride.\n\nThe order of the burial and the ransoming [125] is here reversed,\nbut the facts are given in the ordinary form. Otherwise the variant\ndoes not differ essentially from the preceding.\n\nIn Transylvanian, [126] and more clearly in Gaelic and Breton III.,\n[127] a tendency has been remarked to introduce the children of the\nhero as part of the gains which he is asked to divide with the thankful\nghost. In a series of tales belonging to the general type The Grateful\nDead + The Ransomed Woman this tendency has been accentuated so far\nthat it seems best to group them together, because of their approach\nto the theme of The Two Friends. Since an actual combination of this\nmotive with The Grateful Dead in its simple form is found in only\nthree variants, all of them literary, it will perhaps be best to\ndiscuss the relationship of the main to the minor theme at this point.\n\nThe Two Friends is the chief motive of Amis and Amiloun, which in its\nvarious forms [128] is the mediaeval epic of ideal friendship. Its\nessential feature, as far as the present study is concerned, is the\nsacrifice of his two sons by Amis to cure the leprosy of Amiloun. They\nare actually slain, but are miraculously brought to life again by\nthe power of God. This story, which exercised a powerful influence\non the imagination of European peoples, easily became connected with\nthe sacrifice of his wife by the hero of The Grateful Dead.\n\nThe three variants with the simple compound, or forming a group on\nthat basis, are those entered in the bibliography as Lope de Vega,\nCalderon, and Oliver.\n\nThe plot of Oliver runs as follows [129]: Oliver, the son of the\nKing of Castille, becomes the close friend of Arthur of Algarbe,\nthe son of his stepmother. When he has grown up, he flees from home\nbecause of the love which the queen declares for him, leaving to\nArthur a vial in which the water would grow dark, were he to come\ninto danger. He is shipwrecked while on his way to Constantinople,\nbut, together with another knight, is saved miraculously by a stag,\nwhich carries them to England. Talbot, the other knight, is ill,\nand asks Oliver to take him to his home at Canterbury, where he\ndies. Because of debts that his parents will not pay he cannot be\nburied in consecrated ground till Oliver himself attends to the\nmatter. The hero then starts for a tourney where the hand of the\nking's daughter is the prize. On the way he loses his horse and\nmoney, but is supplied anew by a mysterious knight, on condition of\nreceiving half of what he gets at the tourney. Here he is victor,\nand after a further successful war in Ireland marries the princess,\nwho bears him two children. While hunting he is taken prisoner by\nthe King of Ireland and placed in a dungeon. Arthur, who is acting\nas regent in Spain, notices that the vial has grown dark, and sets\nout to rescue his brother. In Ireland he is wounded by a dragon,\nbut is healed by a white knight, who notices his resemblance to\nOliver, and takes him to London to solace the princess. He only\nescapes her embraces by the pretence of a vow, and sets forth to\ndeliver Oliver. On their way back he tells of his visit at London,\nand so excites Oliver's jealousy, who leaves him. At home, however,\nOliver discovers his mistake, and determines to find his brother, who,\nafter a punitive expedition into Ireland, falls gravely ill. Oliver\nlearns in a dream that Arthur can only be cured by the blood of his\nchildren, whom he slays accordingly. On his return home, however,\nhe finds them as well as ever. Later appears the mysterious knight\nto demand his share of wife and children, as well as of all his\nproperty. As Oliver raises his sword to divide his wife, he is told\nto desist, since his loyalty is proved. The knight then explains that\nhe is the ghost of Talbot. Later Arthur marries Oliver's daughter,\nand eventually unites the kingdoms of England, Castille, and Algarbe.\n\nOliver has certain elements not to be accounted for by the combination\nof The Two Friends with The Grateful Dead. Such are the motive of\nthe hero's journey, for example, which allies it with the tales of\nincestuous step-mothers; and the tourney in which the hero wins\nhis bride. Yet the burial of the dead man (here a knight and a\nfriend of the hero's) [130] corresponds to the normal form of the\nepisode in that Oliver pays the creditors and the sum necessary\nfor the man's interment. So, too, the demand made by the ghost for\nhalf of all that has been won runs true to the original form. The\ndistinctive trait of Amis and Amiloun, at the same time, comes out\nmore clearly than in the case of such folk-tales as Gaelic--the\nhero actually kills his little children to save the life of his old\nfriend and foster-brother. One factor leads me to think that the\nromance and the two romantic plays are to be regarded as forms of\nthe general type treated in this chapter, with additions from other\nstories. The ghost rescues the hero from imprisonment A rescue of\nthe sort--normally after the hero has been cast into the sea or left\nbehind by his rival--is characteristic of The Grateful Dead + The\nRansomed Woman. In Oliver this rescue takes place, to be sure, after\nthe marriage instead of before, which is the normal order, yet it is\na factor of considerable importance. The romance takes a position\nsomewhat apart; and even though this is partly due to the literary\nhandling which it has undergone, it must remain doubtfully classed\nwith the immediate circle of variants belonging to the compound type.\n\nThe position of the play by Lope de Vega is involved with that of\nOliver. Don Juan de Castro flees to England because of the unlawful\nlove of his stepmother, the Princess of Galicia. His ship is wrecked\non the English coast, and the captain, Tibaldo, is cast ashore in\na dying condition. To free the latter's mind from unrest, Don Juan\npays his debts of two thousand ducats, though this is half of the\nhero's possessions. He hears that the princess Clarinda is promised\nto anyone of princely blood who wins an approaching tournament. While\nhe is sorrowful that he cannot enter the contest, because of his\npoverty, the ghost of Tibaldo appears to him one night and promises the\nnecessary equipment on condition of receiving one-half the gains. The\nnext morning he finds everything ready and wins the princess. He is\nlater taken prisoner by one of the contestants through a ruse, and\nis carried off to Ireland. By the ghost's advice, his stepbrother\nand double comes to London and takes his place, while Don Juan is\nfreed by force of arms and restored to his wife. After some years,\nwhen the couple have two children, the stepbrother falls ill of a\ndreadful malady, which can only be cured, Don Juan learns in a dream,\nby the blood of his children. So he slays them and gives their blood\nto the sick man to drink. They are found alive by a miracle; but Don\nJuan is troubled, and does not find rest till the ghost appears and\ntells him that the only remedy for his affliction is to fulfil his\npromise of a division. The hero prepares to divide his wife, when\nthe ghost stops him and explains that the demand was only a test.\n\nAs Schaeffer pointed out, [131] Lope's plot is clearly taken from\nOliver, probably from the Spanish translation issued in 1499. Indeed,\nthe drama follows the romance with far more fidelity than could have\nbeen expected of such an adaptation. The various elements of the\nmotive appear without essential alteration.\n\nThe play El mejor amigo el muerto, listed for convenience as Calderon,\nhas suffered, in contrast to Lope's play, from many changes. Prince\nRobert of Ireland and Don Juan de Castro are wrecked on the English\ncoast. The former finds the sea-captain Lidoro in a dying condition,\nand refuses to give him aid. Don Juan, on the other hand, finds\nLidoro's body, which a creditor keeps from interment, and pays for\nhis burial out of his scanty savings from the wreck. He then goes\nto London, where there is trouble because Queen Clarinda will not\nmarry Prince Robert. Don Juan is cast into prison on a false charge,\nhis identity being unknown to the queen, though he is recognized\nby Robert. He is saved by the aid of Lidoro's ghost, nevertheless,\nlays siege for Clarinda's hand, overcomes Robert, and so becomes king\nof England.\n\nThe correspondence of names and details makes it clear that the source\nof this play is Lope de Vega, though the plot has been modified in\nseveral features. In the process of adaptation all trace of The Two\nFriends has dropped out, a fact which would make the position of the\nvariant difficult to ascertain, had the authors not left most of the\ncharacters their original names. The change in the position of the\nrescue of the hero from prison, indeed, gives a specious resemblance\nto the normal type The Grateful Dead + The Ransomed Woman, which is\nquite unjustified by the real state of the case.\n\nAll the other variants in which there is question of dividing a child,\nsave one, [132] are folk-tales; and all of them save three [133]\nclearly belong in the category now under discussion. If they did not\ngroup themselves in this way, I should be unwilling even to consider\nthe possibility of any general influence from The Two Friends upon\nthese tales, since the only trait borrowed by any of them is precisely\nthe division. Only in Oliver and Lope de Vega is this sacrifice\nmade for the healing of a friend; and we have seen in the case of\nTransylvanian, Gaelic, and Breton III. how naturally the division of\nthe child grows out of the division of the wife. As the matter stands,\nhowever, the case for the influence of The Two Friends is sufficiently\nstrong to warrant the grouping of these tales together. The general\nrelationship of the theme may be deferred to a later chapter. [134]\n\nLithuanian II. [135] is a characteristic specimen of the class of\ntales just referred to. A prince, while travelling, sees a corpse\ngnawed by swine in a street. He pays the man's creditors for his\nrelease and has the body buried. Later, on the same journey, he\nbuys two maidens, one of whom is a king's daughter, and takes them\nhome. After a year he goes on a second journey with the princess's\npicture for a figure-head on his ship, and a ring, which she has\ngiven him. The picture is recognized by the maiden's father, and\nthe prince is sent back in the company of certain nobles to fetch\nher. While they are returning to her home with the princess, one of\nthe nobles pushes the prince overboard. He lives on an island for two\nyears, until a man comes to him and promises to bring him to court\nbefore the princess marries the traitor, on condition of receiving\nhis first-born son. The agreement is made, and the prince wins his\nbride. After a son has been born to them, the man appears and demands\nthe child. He is put off for fifteen years, and at the end of that\ntime explains that he is the ghost of the rescued dead man.\n\nAll the traits of the compound type, as it has already been analyzed,\nare here apparent, save that the sacrifice of the child is substituted\nfor that of the wife. The variant does not demand any further comment.\n\nWe come now to the various forms of Jean de Calais, which make up\na little group by themselves. The ten examples of the story that I\nhave been able to find differ from one another sufficiently to make\nseparate analyses of most of them necessary.\n\nThe version by Mme. de Gomez (I.) runs as follows: [136] Jean,\nthe son of a rich merchant at Calais, while on a journey, comes to\nthe city of Palmanie on the island of Orimanie. There he pays the\ndebts and secures the burial of a corpse which is being devoured by\ndogs. He also ransoms two slave girls, one of whom he marries and takes\nhome. The woman is the daughter of the King of Portugal. While taking\nher to her father's court, Jean is separated from her by a treacherous\ngeneral, but is saved by the grateful dead, and enabled to rejoin his\nwife. Later the ghost, who appears in the form of a man, demands half\nof their son according to the agreement of division which they have\nmade. When Jean gives him the child to divide, the stranger praises\nhis loyalty and disappears.\n\nThis story has all the characteristics of the type The Grateful Dead\n+ The Ransomed Woman + the demand that the hero's son be divided. In\ngeneral outline it is scarcely distinguishable from Lithuanian II.,\nsave that the hero Jean is a merchant's son instead of a prince. In\ndetails, however, it differs considerably. For example, Jean marries\none of the captive maidens as soon as he buys her; there is no question\nof signs by which the hero is recognized by his wife's father or by the\nprincess herself; and the ghost is less dilatory in his demands. Some\nof these differences are doubtless to be accounted for through the\nunfaithfulness of the rendering, which is semi-literary.\n\nAt all events, Jean de Calais III., IV., and V., all three of which\nwere heard on the Riviera, have several changes from I., though they\nvary from one another only in very minor matters. [137] A single\nanalysis will suffice for the three. Jean de Calais, the son of a\nmerchant, on his first voyage gives all his profits to bury the corpse\nof a deceased debtor. On his second he ransoms a beautiful woman (with\nor without a companion), and lives with her in poverty because of his\nfather's displeasure. On a subsequent voyage he bears her portrait on\nthe prow of the ship, where it is seen by her father. A former suitor\nmeets him on his return to court with his wife (in III. goes with\nhim) and throws him into the sea either by violence or by a ruse. He\nis cast up on an island (in III. is carried thither in a boat by the\nghost in human form), whence he is conveyed by the ghost, on condition\nof receiving half of his first son, or half of what he loves best,\nto the court just as the princess is to marry the traitor. By a ruse\nhe enters the palace and is recognized. Later the ghost appears,\nbut stays Jean when he is about to sacrifice his son.\n\nJean de Calais VI., though from Brittany instead of southern France,\ndoes not differ greatly from the above, nor from I. Jean buries the\ndead man and ransoms two women on a single voyage, as in I. He is\nkindly received at home in spite of his extravagance, in which the\nvariant differs from III., IV., and V., and he marries one of the\nmaidens there. On his next voyage the King of Portugal (as in I. and\nIII.) recognizes his daughter's portrait and that of her maid, which\nthe hero has displayed on his ship. He brings his wife to the court,\nafter which they go back, together with a former suitor, for their\npossessions. On the voyage Jean is thrown overboard, but is washed up\non an island, whither the ghost comes, announces himself immediately,\nand bargains rescue for half of the hero's child. Jean is transported\nto court miraculously, and there meets with the customary adventures\nat the close of the tale.\n\nThe variant is chiefly peculiar, it will be remarked, in placing the\ntreachery of the former suitor after the marriage has been recognized\nby the king, and in making the ghost announce himself at once. Jean\nmakes no blind bargain, a fact which detracts somewhat from the\ninterest.\n\nJean de Calais II. and VII. differ from the other forms of the story in\nseveral ways. In the former [138] Jean is the son of a rich merchant,\nand has wasted much money. He is sent out to seek his fortune on land\nwith seven thousand pistoles, but he pays his all for the debts and\nburial of a poor man. On his return, he is commended by his father,\nbut again falls into evil ways. Once more he is sent forth with\nseven thousand pistoles, and passes the cemetery where he buried\nthe debtor. As he does so, a great white bird speaks from the cross,\nsaying that it is the soul of the dead man and will not forget. Jean\nbuys the two daughters of the King of Portugal from a pirate and\ntakes them home, where, with his complaisant father's approval, he\nmarries the elder. Later he journeys to Lisbon with the portraits\nof the sisters, which are recognized by the king. [139] He is sent\nback for his wife, but is pushed overboard by a traitor, being driven\non a rock in the sea, where he is fed by the white bird. Meanwhile,\nthe traitor goes to Calais and remains there seven years as a suitor\nfor the princess's hand. He is about to be rewarded, when Jean,\nafter promising half of what he loves best to the white bird, is\nmiraculously transported to Calais, whither the King of Portugal comes\nat the same time. The white bird bears witness to the hero's identity,\nand demands half of his child. When Jean is about to divide the boy,\nhowever, it stops him and flies away.\n\nVersion VII. has certain characteristics in common with the above. It\nis a Basque tale. Juan de Kalais, the son of a widow, sets off as a\nmerchant, but sells his cargo and ship to pay the debts of a corpse,\nwhich is being dragged about on a dung-heap. On his return, his mother\nis angry. Again he goes on a voyage, but with a very poor ship, and\nis compelled by an English captain to ransom a beautiful maiden with\nall his cargo. The hero's mother is again angry at this seemingly bad\nbargain, but she does not forbid his marrying the girl. Juan is now\nsent to Portugal by his wife with a portrait on a flag, a handkerchief,\nand a ring. At the same time she tells him that she has been called\nMarie Madeleine. When the King of Portugal sees the portrait, he sends\nthe hero back with a general to fetch Marie, who is his daughter. The\ngeneral pitches Juan overboard and goes for the princess, whom he\npersuades to marry him after seven years. At the end of that time,\na fox comes to Juan on an island, where he has lived, and bargains to\nrescue him for half of all he has at present and will have later. The\nhero arrives in Portugal, is recognized by the king, tells his story,\nand has the general burned. After a year the fox appears and demands\npayment, but, when Juan is going to divide his child, it says that\nit is the soul of the dead man whom he buried long before.\n\nThe two variants are chiefly peculiar in that they introduce a new\nelement into the compound,--The Thankful Beast. This substitution\nof some beast for the ghost has been encountered twice before [140]\nin connection with Jewish and Servian IV., and must receive special\ntreatment later on. [141] For the present it is sufficient to remark\nthe variation from all other forms of Jean de Calais except X. [142]\nIn both II. and VII. Jean makes two journeys, [143] as in III., IV.,\nand V., as against I. and VI. The attitude of the parent differs\nwidely in the two. The maiden whom the hero marries is a Portuguese\nprincess, which is the prevailing form of the tale. The portrait is\nalso found in each, and both state the time of Jean's exile as seven\nyears. II. differs from all the other versions in placing the later\nadventures of the story at Calais rather than at the court of the\nheroine's father. In II., as in VI., the ghost announces himself at\nthe first meeting, which is undoubtedly a modification of the original\nstory. Thus the two forms are sufficiently independent of one another,\nin spite of their common use of an animal as the hero's friend.\n\nJean de Calais VIII., though like VI. from a Breton source, differs\nfrom all the other variants, chiefly in transposing the burial and the\nransom. Jean Carre, sent out by his godmother as a sea-captain, ransoms\nan English princess with her maid, and marries the former. After two\nyears, when a son has been born to them, Jean goes on another voyage,\nand adorns the stern of his vessel with portraits of his wife, the\nchild, and the maid, which he is begged to show while anchored at\nLondon. He does so, and is received by the king as a son-in-law. One\nday he sees a poor debtor's body dragged along the street, pays the\ndebts, and has it buried. He then sets out with a fleet to seek his\nwife, and is cast overboard by a Jew, who is the pilot; but he is\nsaved by a supernatural man, who carries him to a green rock in the\nsea. The princess refuses to go to England when the fleet arrives, and\nis wooed by the Jew so persistently that after two years she promises\nhim marriage. At this juncture Jean, who has been asleep during the\nwhole interval, is awakened by his rescuer and carried over the sea,\nwhere the man explains that he is the ghost of the debtor. Jean is\nfirst recognized by his little son, the Jew is burned by the gendarmes,\nand all ends well.\n\nThe transposition mentioned above is clearly a change due to the\nindividual narrator or some local predecessor, since everywhere else\nthe burial takes place before the ransom. The mention of a Jew as\ntraitor is also peculiar and unreasonable, since no motive for his\naction appears until later, and then incongruously. The variant is\nlikewise defective in not having any bargain between the ghost and\nthe hero. In other respects it is normal save in minor details. As\nin V., the heroine is made an English princess, which occurs nowhere\nelse. On the whole the version is picturesque, but defective.\n\nJean de Calais IX. is unique in certain features, though in most\nrespects normal. It is from Asturia in Spain. Juan de Calais goes\nout into the world to seek his fortune with a single peseta as his\nstore. This he gives to bury a corpse, and proceeds. In a certain\nkingdom he attracts the notice of a princess, who marries him after\nconsiderable opposition. When the wedding is over, he takes his\nwife to seek his father's blessing, but is cast off the ship by a\nformer suitor of the lady, her cousin. He is carried to an island by\ninvisible hands, where he lives until a phantom bargains to take him\nto court for half of what he gets by his marriage. He arrives on the\nday of the princess's wedding. He is recognized by the king, who puts\nto his guests a parable of an old key found just when a new one has\nbeen made, while the suitor flees. On the following night, when Juan\nis dejected at the thought of giving up half his son, the phantom\nappears and releases him from his agreement, explaining its identity.\n\nJuan wins the gratitude of the dead man, and obtains his bride\nin this version on a single journey, as in I. and VI., but its\nchief peculiarity is the manner in which he gets his wife, with\nthe sequel that the couple set out to seek his father instead of\nhers. The ransom is replaced by a romantic but more natural wooing,\nwhile the ghost appears somewhat unusually in propria persona. One\nof the oddest traits in the whole version is the parable of the key,\nby which the king introduces the hero to the assembled guests. This\nwill be encountered again in Breton VII.\n\nIn Jean de Calais X., finally, a Walloon variant, appear certain\ninteresting changes in the fabric. The King of Calais sent his son\nJean to America to trade, but the prince was shipwrecked on the coast\nof Portugal, and there ransomed and rescued a corpse, which was being\ndragged through the streets because the man had died in debt. The king\nscolded his son for wasting so much money, but the next year sent him\nto Portugal to trade. There he encountered brigands, who had captured\nthe king's daughter with her maid, and ransomed them. On returning to\nCalais with his bride, he was ill received, and resolved to go back\nto Portugal. A young lord of Calais accompanied them and threw Jean\ninto the sea, while he took the princess onward and obtained from\nher a promise of marriage in a year. Happily Jean found a plank by\nwhich he reached an island, where a crow fed him every day. At the\nend of a year he promised the crow half his blood for rescue, and\nwas taken to Portugal by a flock of crows. There he was recognized,\nand the traitor hanged. One day the crow appeared and demanded the\nfulfilment of the promise. Jean was about to slay his son, when the\nbird explained its identity with the ghost of the dead man.\n\nThis is the only version which makes Jean a prince; and it is curious\nthat the change should occur in a tale from a region not very remote\nfrom Calais. Most of the events of the tale take place in Portugal,\nhowever, which is an extension of the ordinary appearance of that\ncountry as the home of the heroine. The most striking peculiarity of\nthe version is the home of the traitor, who is a lord of Calais instead\nof Portugal. All mention of signs is lacking, which is doubtless due\nto the changes just mentioned. In the matter of the appearance of\nthe ghost as an animal the variant allies itself with II. and VII.,\nthough it has no special likeness to them in other respects.\n\nBasque II. is like Gaelic [144] in general outline. Juan Dekos is sent\nout with a ship to complete his education. He pays all that he gets for\nhis cargo to ransom and bury the corpse of a debtor. His father is not\npleased, but sends him out again. This time he uses all his money to\nransom eight slaves, seven of whom he sends to their homes, but carries\none home with him. His father is still more angry, and casts him off;\nbut Juan has a portrait of Marie Louise painted for the figure-head of\nhis ship, and sets off with her for her own land. The lame mate pitches\nhim overboard, and carries the lady to her father's dwelling-place,\nwhere he is to marry her after a year and a day. Juan is saved by an\nangel and placed on a rock. On Marie's wedding-day the angel returns,\nand offers to take the hero to his bride for half of the child that\nwill be born. The angel was the soul of the dead man. So Juan arrives\nin time, is recognized by a handkerchief, and tells his story, which\ncauses the burning of the mate. After a year the angel comes for his\nhalf of the babe, but when Juan starts to divide it stays his hand.\n\nWebster, the collector of this tale, noticed [145] its similarity\nto Gaelic, especially in the name of the hero, and surmised that\nthe Basques must have borrowed it from the Celts in some way. The\ntheory is tenable, though a comparison of the two variants shows\nthat the Basques must either have borrowed it in a form considerably\ndifferent from the Highland tale as we have it, or have altered the\ndetails largely. The first part of the story is entirely different;\nthe hero goes on two voyages in Basque II., one only in Gaelic;\nthe lady goes with the hero immediately in the former, he returns\nfor her in the latter; the treachery and the signs are different;\nthe ghost appears as an angel instead of a human being in Basque;\nand the promised division concerns the wife and three sons in Gaelic,\na single babe in Basque. Thus, apart from the title, there is little\nto substantiate Webster's theory. The differences are certainly more\nimportant than those between any two versions of Jean de Calais. In\nsome particulars, like the voyages and the portrait on the ship,\nBasque is more nearly normal, while in others, like the account of\nthe treachery and the appearance of the ghost, Gaelic conforms to\nthe ordinary form. Certainly Basque II. is to be regarded as a fairly\nclose relative of Lithuanian II. and Jean de Calais.\n\nIn Breton VII. a normal form appears, though with some embroidery of\ndetails. A merchant's son, Iouenn Kermenou, goes out with his father's\nship to trade. He pays the greater part of the proceeds of the cargo to\nransom and bury the corpse of a debtor, which dogs are devouring. On\nhis way home he gives the rest of his money to ransom a princess,\nwho is being carried to a ravaging serpent, which has to be fed with\na royal princess every seven years. He is cast off by his father when\nhe reaches home, but is supported by an aunt and enabled to marry\nhis lady. After a son has been born to them, he is sent out by an\nuncle on another ship, which by his wife's counsel has the figure of\nhimself and herself with their child carved on the prow. He comes to\nher father's realm, and after some misunderstanding is sent back with\ntwo ministers of state for the princess. While returning with her, he\nis pushed overboard by the first minister, who is an old suitor for\nthe lady's hand, but swims ashore on a desert island. The wife goes\nto court, and after three years consents to marry the minister. All\nthis time Iouenn lives alone on his rock, but at the end is greeted\nby the ghost of the man whose body he buried, which appears in a\nvery horrible form. On condition of giving in a year and a day half\nof what he and his wife possess, he is taken to court by this being,\nwhere he is recognized by means of a gold chain, which the princess\nhad given him. At the wedding feast, which takes place that day,\nthe wife recounts a parable of how she has found the old key of a\ncoffer just as a new one was ready, brings in Iouenn, and has the\nminister burned. At the end of a year and a day comes the ghost,\nand demands half of the child (the older one has died) that has been\nborn to them. As the hero reluctantly proceeds to divide the child,\nthe ghost stops him, praises his fidelity, and disappears.\n\nIt will be seen that this variant does not differ in essentials from\nthose previously summarized, though its details exactly coincide\nwith none of them. The order of events is normal, very like that of\nLithuanian II., for example, yet it has marks of peculiarity. Chief\namong these are the events connected with the ransom of the lady and\nthe parable by which she introduces her long lost husband to court. The\nfirst is a trait borrowed from the Perseus and Andromeda motive,\n[146] the second is the same as the riddle in Jean de Calais IX. [147]\nHow this latter feature should happen to appear in these two widely\nseparated variants and nowhere else I am not wise enough to explain.\n\nSimrock I. introduces still another complication in the way of\ncompounds. A merchant's son on a journey secures proper burial for a\nblack Turkish slave, thereby using all his money. His father is angry\nwith him on his return. On his second voyage he ransoms a maiden and\nis cast off by his father when he reaches home. The young couple live\nfor a time on the proceeds from the sale of the wife's handiwork, but\nafter a little set off to the court of her father, who is a king. On\nthe way they meet one of the king's ships, and go aboard. The hero is\ncast into the sea by the captain, but is saved by a black fellow and\nbrought back to the ship. Again he is cast overboard. When the princess\narrives at home, she agrees to marry whoever can paint three rooms to\nher liking. The hero, meanwhile, is again saved by the black man, and\nin return for the promise of his first child on its twelfth birthday he\nis given the power of obtaining his wishes. After a year and a day he\nis taken to court by his friend, where by wishing he paints the three\nrooms, the third with the story of his life. So he is recognized. On\nthe twelfth birthday of his first child the black man comes to him and\nis offered the boy, but instead of taking him explains his identity.\n\nAs far as The Grateful Dead, The Ransomed Woman, and the sacrifice of\nthe child are concerned, this follows the normal course of events,\nexcept perhaps as to the child, of actually dividing which there is\nno question. Like Lithuanian II., Jean de Calais III., IV., V., and\nX., Basque II., and Norwegian I., it makes the hero and heroine set\nout for her father's court together and of their own free will. [148]\nThe colour of the thankful dead is a peculiar trait. Yet the element\nwhich complicates the question, as mentioned above, is the feat by\nwhich the hero obtains his wife. If I am not mistaken, this allies\nthe variant on one side with stories of the type of The Water of\nLife, where the bride is gained by the performance of some task\nobviously set as impossible. The questions involving the relations\nof such motives with The Grateful Dead will occupy the next chapter,\nso that it needs simply to be mentioned at this point.\n\nIn Simrock II. a miller's son goes with merchandise to England. In\nLondon he pays all his money for the debts and the burial of a poor\nman. He is again sent to England by his father, and this time he gives\nhis whole ship to ransom a beautiful maiden. When he returns with her,\nhe is cast off by his father, marries the girl, and lives on what\nshe makes by her needle. He takes a piece of her embroidery with him\nto England, where it is seen by the king and queen, whose daughter\nhas become his wife. He is sent for her in company with a minister,\nwho pitches him overboard and goes on for the princess, hoping to\nmarry her. The hero swims ashore, in the meantime, and communicates\nwith his wife by means of a dove, which also feeds him. Finally a\nspirit conveys him to London, after receiving the promise of half of\nhis first child. He obtains work in the kitchen of the castle, and\nsends a ring to his wife, by means of which they are reunited. At the\nbirth of their child he refuses to give the spirit half, but offers\nthe whole instead, [149] whereupon ensues an explanation.\n\nThis variant is of the same type as Jean de Calais II. and VII., [150]\nresembling the latter more than the former in details. The three are\nsufficiently unlike, however, to make any immediate relationship quite\nout of the question, even did not geography forbid. As in Hungarian\nII., Oliver, Lope de Vega, Calderon, Jean de Calais V. and VIII.,\nand Norwegian I., the heroine is an English princess, a point of\ninterest, but not of much importance.\n\nSimrock VIII. differs from the above in only two points. The beginning\nstates that a merchant while in Turkey pays the debts and burial\nexpenses of a poor man. On his next voyage he buys three hundred\nslaves from the Emperor of Constantinople. Three of them he keeps at\nhis home, one of whom he marries. The further adventures of the hero\nagree with Simrock II. even in names and most details, except that the\nhero is recognized at the court by dropping his ring in a cup of tea,\nwhich the princess gives him to drink. It will be evident that the\ntwo tales are nearly related.\n\nLast, but not least interesting of the versions in which the child\nappears, is the Factor's Garland or Turkey Factor, which must have\nbeen almost as well known in England at one time as the form of the\nstory in Jack the Giant-Killer. It has no very remarkable features in\nits outline. A young Englishman, while acting as a factor in Turkey,\npays fifty pounds to have the body of a Christian buried. A little\nlater he pays one hundred pounds to ransom a beautiful Christian\nslave, and takes her back to his home, where he makes her his\nhouse-keeper. Later he sets out again, and is told by the woman to\nwear a silk waistcoat that she has embroidered, when he comes to\nthe court whither he is bound. The work is recognized by her father,\nthe emperor, and the factor sent back to fetch her. While returning\nwith the princess, he is pushed overboard in his sleep by the captain,\nbut swims to an island, whence he is rescued by an old man in a canoe,\nwho bargains with him for his first-born son when three (or thirty)\nmonths old. The hero is recognized at court and marries the princess,\nwhile the captain dies by suicide. In two (or three) years the old man\nreturns, just when the couple's son is three (or thirty) months old,\nand demands the child. On the hero's yielding, he explains that he\nis the ghost, and disappears.\n\nLike Gaelic [151] and Simrock VIII.--the latter just discussed--this\nversion makes the hero undergo his early adventures in Turkey. Indeed,\nthe similarity to Gaelic throughout is very notable, far more so than\nin the case of Basque II. [152] The only point in which it differs\nmaterially is the division of property, which in Gaelic concerns the\nwife and the three children, in the Factor's Garland one son only. In\nthis matter there is agreement between the present variant, Basque II.,\nand Simrock VIII. Despite the likeness to Gaelic, there is no good\nreason for arguing any immediate connection with that version. They\nstand close to one another geographically and in content, that is\nall; they cannot be proved to be more than near relatives in the\nsame generation.\n\nThe variants which introduce the division of the child have now all\nbeen considered. It is necessary to turn to a few scattered specimens\nin which the compound, The Grateful Dead + The Ransomed Woman, has\nbeen joined with other material.\n\nBohemian is a curious and instructive example of the confusion\nwhich has resulted from welding various themes together. Bolemir,\na merchant's son, is sent to sea, where he is robbed by pirates\nand imprisoned. He finds means to help an old man, who gives him\na magic flute, and a princess, who gives him half of her veil and\nring. By the aid of the flute he succeeds in winning the chief's\npermission to leave the island in the company of his friends. He\nsails with them to another island. There, at the old man's request,\nhe strikes him on the head and buries him. He then goes home with\nthe princess. On his second voyage he displays from his mast-head\na golden standard, which the princess has made. He reaches the city\nof the lady's father, tells his story, and returns for the princess\nwith the chamberlain. While they are all returning together, he is\ncast into the sea by the chamberlain, who takes the woman to court\nand obtains a promise of marriage, when a church has been built to\nher mind. Bolemir is saved from the sea by the ghost of the old man,\nand is given a wishing ring. He turns himself into an eagle and flies\nto court, into an old man and becomes a watchman at the church. By\nmeans of his ring he builds the structure, and paints it with the\nstory of his life. At the wedding breakfast of the princess, who\ncannot longer delay the bridal, he tells his story, and so marries her.\n\nThe peculiar form of the burial in this variant will be at once\nevident, though the reason for it is not clear to me. Disenchantment\nby decapitation is a common phenomenon in folk-lore and romance;\n[153] but though the blow on the head, which the hero gives the old\nman in our tale, surely stands for beheading, it is hard to see where\nany unspelling process comes in. It is perhaps best to suppose the\ntrait a confused borrowing, without much meaning as it stands. The\nransoming of the woman is closely connected with the benefits done\nthe old man. That it occurs on the same journey has been shown by the\nvariations in Jean de Calais to be a matter of little consequence. With\nrespect to the standard and the ring, by which the hero restores his\nwife to her father, and later to himself, the tale is perfectly in\naccord with the prevalent form of the compound type; and so also in\nregard to the rescue of the hero by the ghost. No hint is given of\nany agreement of division between the hero and the ghost. The chief\npeculiarity of the variant, however, is the means by which the heroine\nis won. The feat recalls Simrock I., [154] even in details like the\ndemand on the part of the bride for mural decoration. It again shows\nthe combination of the present type with a theme akin to The Water\nof Life.\n\nSimrock III. has several points of contact with the above. Karl, the\nson of an English merchant, on his first voyage to Italy pays the\ndebts of a merchant who has died bankrupt. On his way home he buys\ntwo sisters from some pirates at an inn. His father casts him off,\nso he marries the older of the maidens, who tells him that she is\na princess. They start for Italy together, and on the way meet an\nItalian prince, who is a suitor for the wife's hand. The hero is cast\noverboard, but is brought to land by a great bird, which tells him\nthat it is the ghost of the man whom he has buried. It directs him to\ngo to court and give himself out as a painter. The bird again comes\nto him there with a dagger in its beak, and tells him to cut off its\nhead. Unwillingly Karl obeys, and sees before him the spirit of the\ndead man. The ghost paints the room in which they are standing with the\nhero's history. So on the wedding-day of the princess with the traitor,\nKarl explains the meaning of the pictures and wins his bride again.\n\nThis Swabian story has preserved the decapitation [155] in much better\nform than Bohemian, though the reason for its introduction is still\nhard to understand. The ghost is obviously released from some spell\nwhen it is beheaded, and is thus enabled to help the hero to better\nadvantage than before. The episode also occurs in a more logical\nposition than in Bohemian. It replaces the more ordinary and normal\ntest of the hero by the ghost. Probably the introduction of it in\nthe two cases is sporadic, though some connection between the two is\nconceivable. As far as The Grateful Dead and The Ransomed Woman proper\nare concerned, the variant has no peculiarities of special importance,\nbeing of the type in which the hero and heroine set out for court\ntogether. [156] It contains, however, the feat by which the bride is\nwon, in the same form as in Simrock I. and Bohemian, which is due to\nan alliance with the type of The Water of Life. Yet it differs from\nthem in making the ghost appear first as a bird, which connects it\nwith Jean de Calais II., VII., and X., and with Simrock II. and VIII.,\nvariants that have the thankful beast playing the role of ghost. [157]\n\nSimrock VII., together with some other peculiarities, again has the\nfeat of winning the bride, though it is a feat of another sort. Wilhelm\ncatches a swan-maiden, and later releases her from an enchanted\nmountain by hewing trees, separating grain, and finding his wife among\nthree hundred women. Thus by her help he breaks the spell, and carries\nher back home. Later they journey together to her father's court. On\nthe way Wilhelm pays the debts of a corpse, and has it buried. They\nmeet two officers of the king, who toss Wilhelm overboard from the\nship in which they sail, but he is saved by the ghost of the dead man\nand brought to court. He is recognized by the princess, and proves\nhis identity to her father by means of a ring and a handkerchief.\n\nThe most salient point here is the fact that the maiden is not ransomed\nat all, but instead is captured like any other swan-maiden. We have\nalready met with the theme of The Swan-Maiden in combination with\nThe Grateful Dead in simple form; [158] but Servian V. has evidently\nnothing to do with Simrock VII., since the part played by the borrowed\nmotive is different in each. In the former it is introduced as the\nreward bestowed on the hero by the ghost, while in the latter the\nswan-maiden simply replaces the ransomed maiden, as is shown by the\nsubsequent events of the story, which follow the normal order as far\nas she is concerned. The feats by which the hero disenchants her are\nessentially like those in Bohemian, Simrock I., and Simrock III.,\nthough they are differently placed. Probably the introduction of this\nnew material accounts for the transposition of the ransoming and the\nburial, as the latter is in other respects regular. It is curious\nto observe that the process of changing about various features, thus\nbegun, continued in other ways, as in the matter of the signs by which\nthe hero is recognized by his father-in-law and his wife. These things\ngo to show, however, that back of the variant must have existed the\ncompound type in a normal form.\n\nIn Simrock V. the thankful beast again appears, but in a less\ncomplicated setting than in the case of Jean de Calais II., VII., and\nX., or Simrock II., III., and VIII. A widow's son on his way home from\nmarket pays the debts of a corpse and buries it, thus using all his\nmoney. The next time he goes to market, he gives all his proceeds to\nransom a maiden, whom he marries. She does embroidery to gain money,\nand one day holds out a piece of it to the king, who is passing. He\nrecognizes her as his daughter, and accepts the hero as son-in-law. The\nyoung couple start back home for the widow, but on the way the servants\ncast the young man into the sea. He escapes, however, to an island,\nwhere he is fed by an eagle. Later the eagle declares itself to be\nthe ghost of the dead man, and brings its benefactor to court.\n\nOldenburgian is a similar tale. A merchant's son while on a voyage pays\nthirty dollars to bury a man, and also buys a captive princess with\nher maid. Though ill-received by his father on his return, he marries\nthe girl. Later he goes on another voyage, with his wife's portrait\nas the figure-head of his ship. This is recognized by the king, who\nsends him back for the princess in the company of a minister. The\nlatter pitches him overboard, goes on for the princess, and does not\ntell her of her loss till they arrive at court. She finally consents\nto marry the traitor after five years. Meanwhile, the hero lives on an\nisland, whither on the day appointed for the princess's bridal comes\nthe ghost of the dead in the form of a snow-white dove. It takes him\nto the court, where he is recognized by a ring, a gift from his bride,\nwhich he drops into a cup that she offers him.\n\nOf these two variants, Oldenburgian is much better preserved than the\nTyrolese story (Simrock V.). The latter is dressed in a homely fashion,\nwhich probably accounts for some of the changes, since the gap between\nthe visits to market and the romantic or miraculous features of the\ncouple's later adventures was too wide to be easily bridged. The\ndisappointed suitor is not mentioned, which leaves the attempt on the\nhero's life without motivation, and clearly indicates some loss. [159]\nThe trait is distinctly marked in Oldenburgian, as are all the other\nevents connected with The Ransomed Woman, though Simrock V. provides\nan entirely original reason for the voyage of the young couple,--their\nwish to get the hero's mother. The features concerning the rescue by\nthe ghost and the hero's return to court are better preserved again\nin Oldenburgian, though both lack the agreement to divide, which is\nprobably obscured as elsewhere by the prominence given the rescued\nwoman. The most striking similarity between the two, however, lies in\nthe fact that the ghost first appears as a bird. This clearly shows\nthe existence of a type of The Grateful Dead + The Ransomed Woman,\non which The Thankful Beasts has had some influence.\n\nIt remains to consider the general relations of the variants discussed\nin this chapter. The wide variety in detail of the incidents\nconcerned with the history of the hero's wife, yet the essential\nuniformity which they show, would indicate clearly, for one thing,\nthat The Ransomed Woman is a motive originally quite independent\nof The Grateful Dead,--that the type of story which is our present\nconcern is a true compound. It would even be possible to reconstruct\nthe independent theme in a form not unlike the Wendish folk-tale\ncited in the beginning of the chapter. The hero, while on a journey,\nransoms a princess, takes her home, goes on another journey with some\nsign that attracts her father's notice, goes back to her and is cast\ninto the sea by some man who hopes to marry her himself, is rescued,\nand returns to court to claim his bride, usually by means of a token.\n\nThe points of contact between this motive and The Grateful Dead would\nseem to be, first, the journey which the hero undertakes at the opening\nof the plot. It will be noted that in the compound he usually makes\ntwo voyages, burying the dead on the first and ransoming the maiden on\nthe second, though the two are sometimes welded. The second point of\ncontact, I take it, was the rescue of the hero. In each story he did\na good act for which he was rewarded in some way. It has been shown\nthat this reward sometimes took the form of a rescue in the simple\nform of The Grateful Dead [160] and in the compound with The Poison\nMaiden. [161] What more natural than that it should lead to another\ncombination with a story where the hero was saved from death? The\ndifference in the case of the latter, of course, would be that the\nagency of rescue was of little importance. Could Simonides be shown\nto have anything more than a literary life in mediaeval Europe, I\nshould be inclined to think that the rescue in that tale, even though\nthe tale itself is not necessarily connected with The Grateful Dead\nas we know the theme, might have had some influence on the union. As\nthe matter stands, however, it is probably better to believe that the\ntwo motives were united in eastern Europe, the one being Oriental\nand the other of uncertain derivation. That each motive had a wife\nas part of the hero's reward must be taken for granted, and it must\nhave helped to combine them.\n\nIt follows from this that the compound The Grateful Dead + The Ransomed\nWoman is quite independent of the one discussed in the previous\nchapter, and could not have proceeded from it as Hippe thought. [162]\nIt would have been next to impossible for that combined type to divest\nitself of the features peculiar to The Poison Maiden, and to absorb\nin their place those of The Ransomed Woman without leaving some trace\nof the process. Thus the existence of the compound as an independent\ngrowth is assured. In this connection it is interesting to note that\nthe rescue of the hero from drowning in consequence of an act of\ntreachery (or from an island) occurs in all the variants of the type\nsave four, Transylvanian, Trancoso, Gasconian, and Straparola I.,\n[163] but in no other version of The Grateful Dead as far as I know.\n\nFrom this general type developed minor varieties with traits borrowed\nfrom The Water of Life, The Thankful Beasts, and The Two Friends,\nor some such tale. Thus very complex variants arose. The question of\nthe connection which these subsidiary elements sustain to the central\ntheme cannot properly be discussed until they have been seen in other\ncombinations. The part they play in the development of the story, it is\nevident, must have been a secondary one both in importance and in time.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nTHE GRATEFUL DEAD AND THE WATER OF LIFE OR KINDRED THEMES.\n\n\nThe maerchen known in its various forms as The Water of Life [164]\nis based on the myth which goes by the same name. [165] The myth,\nas has been shown quite independently by two recent investigators,\nDr. Wuensche [166] and Dr. E. W. Hopkins, [167] is of Semitic origin,\nand is found among the traditions of the Assyrio-Babylonian cycle. It\nis to be distinguished from the very similar myth of The Fountain of\nYouth, which apparently originated in India. [168] The latter concerns\nthe magic properties of the \"water of rejuvenation\"; the former in\nits uncontaminated form, at least, deals with water which cures,\nrevivifies, or revitalizes. The two have been frequently confused,\nnot only in popular tradition of all ages, but in critical writings of\ncontemporary date as well. It is the great merit of Professor Hopkins'\narticle, to which reference has been made, that their essential\ndifference in origin and character is clearly marked. Though he makes\nno pretence that his study of The Fountain of Youth is definitive,\nhe has broken ground which sadly needed the plough, and incidentally\nhas thrown light upon The Water of Life.\n\nThe myth which is properly known by this name is intimately connected\nin origin and development with that of The Tree of Life, [169]\nwhich finds expression in the legends of the Cross. In the words of\nDr. Wuensche: [170] \"Wie wir aus den kosmogonischen und theogonischen\nMythen und Sagen der Voelker das Rauschen des Lebensbaumes vernehmen,\ndurch dessen Fruechte sich Goetter und Menschen ihre ungeschwaechte\nLebenskraft und ewige Jugendfrische erhalten, so nicht minder das\nSprudeln einer Quelle des Lebenswassers, die Leben schafft und\nzu Ende gehendes oder bereits erloschenes Leben wieder zu neuem\nSein erweckt.\" Both myths are Semitic, and both have profoundly\ninfluenced Christian doctrine. It is with the \"water of life,\"\nhowever, that we are immediately concerned, and with that only as it\nhas found embodiment in a widely disseminated and variously modified\ntale. Whence this maerchen came we must presently inquire, in order\nto reach some conclusion as to the point in space and time where it\njoined The Grateful Dead, but we must first fix its essential traits.\n\nOwing to the complex variations which the tale presents in its\nvarious combinations with really foreign themes, there is great\ndifficulty in getting at the outline of the original story or even\nthe characteristics common to all the known variants. To do this\nsatisfactorily would require a searching and detailed study, which\nit is impossible to undertake here,--an examination with The Water\nof Life as the point of attack. It is possible, however, to arrive\nat a rough sketch of the theme.\n\n\"Dans tous ces contes,\" says Cosquin, in his notes on The Water of\nLife, [171] \"trois princes vont chercher pour leur pere l'eau de la\nvie ou un fruit merveilleux qui doit le guerir, et c'est le plus\njeune qui reussit dans cette entreprise. Dans plusieurs ... les\ndeux aines font des dettes, et ils sont au moment d'etre pendus,\nquand leur frere paie les creanciers (dans des contes allemands et\ndans les contes autrichiens, malgre l'avis que lui avait donne un\nhermite, un nain ou des animaux reconaissants, de ne pas acheter de\n'gibier de potence'). Il est tue par eux ou, dans un conte allemand\n(Meier, no. 5), jete dans un grand trou; mais ensuite il est rappele\na la vie dans des circonstances qu'il serait trop long d'expliquer.\"\n\nDr. Wuensche's summary is somewhat different: [172] \"Gewoehnlich handelt\nes sich um einen Koenig und seine drei Soehne. Der Koenig leidet an einer\nschlimmen Krankheit, von der ihn kein Arzt zu heilen vermag. Da wird\nihm durch irgendeine Gelegenheit die Kunde, dass er von seinem Siechtum\ndurch das Lebenswasser eines fernen Landes befreit werden koenne. Aus\nLiebe zu ihrem Vater machen sich die drei Soehne nacheinander auf den\nWeg, das Lebenswasser zu holen. Doch die beiden aeltesten erliegen\nden auf dem Wege ihnen begegnenden Versuchungen, nur der juengste\nist wegen seiner Standhaftigkeit und Bescheidenheit so gluecklich,\nes zu erhalten. Ein Riese, ein Zwerg, ein alter Mann oder ein alte\nFrau sind ihm zur Auffindung der Wunderquelle behilflich, indem sie\nihm guten Rat erteilen und ihm sagen, wie er es anzufangen und wovor\ner sich in acht zu nehmen habe. Hier und da greifen auch dienstbare\nTiere, Vierfuessler, Voegel und Fische hilfreich ein, indem sie dem\nJuenglinge genau die Oertlichkeit des Wassers angeben, oder auch selbst\nihn mit Schnelligkeit dahin bringen. Die Lebensquelle sprudelt in\neinem Berge, der sich nur zu gewissen Zeiten, gewoehnlich gegen Mittag\noder Mitternacht von 11-12 Uhr oeffnet. Im berge steht in der Regel\nin einem praechtigen Garten ein versunkenes Schloss, das die grossen\nSchaetze und Kostbarkeiten birgt, durch deren Anblick der Eintretende\ngeblendet wird. In einem Gemache des Schlosses wieder ruht auf einem\nBett eine Jungfrau von wunderbarer Schoenheit, die spaeter als Prinzessin\nhervortritt und den Prinzen, der durch das Schoepfen des Lebenswassers\nsie von ihrem Zauber geloest hat, zum Gemahle heischt. Der Prinz hat\nnur kurze Zeit bei ihr geruht oder ihr einen fluechtigen Kuss auf die\nLippen gedrueckt. In vielen Faellen wird der Eingang zur Quelle von\neinem Drachen oder einem anderen Ungeheuer bewacht, die erst aus dem\nWege geraeumt werden muessen. Es kostet einen schweren Kampf. Auf dem\nHeimweg trifft der juengste Koenigssohn gewoehnlich mit seinen aelteren\nBruedern wieder zusammen, die ihr Leben durch tolle Streiche verwirkt\nhaben und die er vom Tode loskauft. Zuweilen sind aber die Brueder\ndurch ihre Unbedachtsamkeit in schwarze Steine verwandelt worden und\nliegen am Abhange des Zauberberges, oder stehen als Marmorsaeulen\nauf demselben, oder sind infolge ihres Hochmutes in einen tiefen\nAbgrund eingeschlossen. Auch in diesem Zustande werden sie durch den\njuengsten Bruder bald durch das geschoepfte Wasser des Lebens, bald auf\nseine Bitten hin wieder ins Leben gerufen. Vereint reisen sie nun mit\nihrem Bruder nach Hause zum Koenige. Unterwegs aber erfasst die Beiden\nFalschen Neid und Missgunst, weil ihr Bruder allein in den Besitz\ndes Lebenswasser gelangt ist und sie sich vergeblich darum gemueht\nhaben. Daher vertauschen sie das Lebenswasser, waehrend der Bruder\nschlaeft, mit gewoehnlichem Wasser und eilen nun voraus und machen mit\ndem erbeuteten Trank den kranken Koenig gesund, oder sie erscheinen\nnach der Ankunft des Bruders, dessen vertauschtes Wasser den Koenig nur\nnoch elender gemacht hat. Dabei raunen sie dem Koenige heimlich ins Ohr,\ndass der juengere Bruder ihn habe vergiften wollen, infolgedessen dieser\nvom Koenige verbannt oder gar zum Tode verurteilt wird. Derselbe lebt\nnun laengere Zeit zurueckgezogen in einer untergeordneten Stellung,\nbis endlich durch die von ihm entzauberte Prinzessin seine Unschuld\nan den Tag kommt.\"\n\nDr. Wuensche gives as subsidiary types stories where a princess\nwishes the magic water for herself, and, when her two brothers fail\nto return with it, goes on a quest which results in obtaining the\nwater and releasing the enchanted brothers; where a mother and son\nare the chief actors; where a bird, or fruit, or the water of death\nis substituted for the water of life; and where thankful beasts\nappear. All of these elements and more appear in the accessible\nvariants, yet not all of them can be said rightly to represent The\nWater of Life as such. The basal traits of the story are much more\nsimple than Dr. Wuensche would have us believe. They do not include,\nfor example, the wonderful companions whom the hero finds nor the\nadventures with the enchanted princess, since these are in reality\ntraits of originally separate themes, as will presently be shown. [173]\n\nOn the other hand, Cosquin's outline seems to me defective in two\nways. First, he does not recognize that there existed in the original\ntheme some reward due the hero for his constancy and intelligence in\nthe pursuit of his quest. A priori this conclusion would be expected\nfrom the general manner of folk-tales, and as a matter of fact it\nappears in all the versions which have come to my attention. The reward\nalmost always takes the form of a princess, though the manner in which\nshe is won varies very greatly. In the second place, Cosquin seems to\nregard The Golden Bird as a theme quite independent of The Water of\nLife. [174] This, I think, is to lose sight of the essential likeness\nbetween the two tales, despite their difference of introduction. As\nDr. Wuensche notes, [175] not only a bird, but a fruit or the water of\ndeath may be substituted for the usual object of the quest. Indeed,\ncertain variants have more than one of these magical forces. [176]\nTo be sure, this superfluity of riches doubtless results from the\nfusion of subsidiary types, but none the less it points to the original\nunity of the central theme, which is all that I wish to suggest.\n\nFrom this discussion we emerge with an outline of The Water of Life in\nsomething like the following form: A sick king has three sons, who go\nout to seek some magical water (or bird, or fruit) for his healing. The\ntwo older sons fall by the way into some misfortune due to their own\nfault; but the youngest, not without aid of one sort or another from\nbeings with supernatural powers, succeeds in the quest and at the\nsame time wins a princess as wife. While returning, he rescues his\nbrothers, and is exposed by their envy and ingratitude to the loss of\nall he has gained (sometimes even of his life). In the end, however,\nhe comes to his own either because the cure cannot be completed\nwithout him or because his wife brings the older princes to book.\n\nThis summary I should be unwilling to have considered as anything more\nthan a tentative sketch, since a systematic study of the material\nmay bring to light certain features which I have overlooked. [177]\nIt will, however, serve its purpose here.\n\nThis simple form of The Water of Life is not that with which The\nGrateful Dead has combined. Indeed, the opinion that this union was\nsecondary to that of The Grateful Dead with The Poison Maiden and\nThe Ransomed Woman [178] is strengthened by the fact that it is found\nwith both of these compound types, and that The Water of Life almost\ninvariably appears in a somewhat distorted form. In point of fact,\nthe latter tale seems to have lent itself with remarkable facility\nto combination with other themes. Thus it is frequently found mixed\nwith The Skilful Companions [179] (both with and without The Grateful\nDead), The Lady and the Monster, [180] and The Thankful Beasts.\n\nThe reason for the existence of the compounds just mentioned is\nnot far to seek. With The Skilful Companions [181] there is a ready\npoint of contact in the hero's need for aid in the accomplishment of\nhis quest, another in the circumstance that three or more companions\nset out together with a common end in view, and still another in the\nfact that a maiden is rescued by them. To The Lady and the Monster,\nat least in those variants where The Grateful Dead appears, The Water\nof Life has the necessary approach in the role of the lady herself. As\nfor The Thankful Beasts, their appearance at opportune moments when\nthe heroes of folk-tales need assistance is too frequent to require\njustification in any particular case. It is with such combinations\nas these, intricate and involved, that many variants of The Grateful\nDead are found joined. Sometimes one element, sometimes another,\npredominates, so that the threads which unite them are hopelessly\nsnarled. Sometimes The Water of Life is lost in the entanglement,\nor only appears as a distorted trait, while The Skilful Companions\nor The Lady and the Monster come out more clearly. Through this\nlabyrinth we must painfully take our way, exercising what caution\nwe can. The present guide recognizes the danger of losing the road\nand does not pretend to more than a rough and ready knowledge of the\nwilderness. Accordingly, he undertakes only to conduct the curious\nwayfarer by the least difficult of the paths that traverse it.\n\nLet us first consider the tales into which The Poison Maiden and The\nRansomed Woman do not enter, which have only The Grateful Dead + The\nWater of Life or some kindred theme. These include Maltese, Polish,\nHungarian I., Rumanian II., Straparola II., Venetian, Sicilian,\nTreu Heinrich, and Harz II. They are as widely different in their\ncharacteristics as in their sources.\n\nMaltese has the following form: The three sons of a king successively\ngo out in search of a bird, the song of which will make their father\nyoung. The elder two lose their all by gambling with a maiden in a\npalace by the way. The youngest brother pays four thousand pounds\nsterling to bury properly a man who has been dead eight months. He\nis warned against the maiden by a ghost, and so wins all from her (by\nusing his own cards), thus rescuing his brothers. When he comes to the\ncastle, the ghost again appears, and tells him to take the bird that\nhe finds in a dirty cage. On the way back he is thrown overboard from\nthe steamboat by his brothers, but is saved by the ghost, who appears\nin the form of a rock with a tree on it. He is rescued by another\nsteamer, and comes home in rags, where he is recognized by the bird,\nwhich has hitherto refused to sing. The brothers are banished.\n\nAccording to the Polish story, a poor scholar pays his all for the\nburial of a corpse lying maltreated by the way. Later he goes to\nsleep under an oak, and on awaking finds his purse full of gold. He is\nrobbed of this while crossing a stream, by some scoundrels who cast\nhim into the water; but he is rescued by the ghost of the dead man,\nwho appears in the form of a plank and gives him the power of turning\nhimself into a crow, a hare, or a deer. He becomes a huntsman to a\nking, whose daughter lives on an inaccessible island. In her castle\nis a sword with which a man could overcome the greatest army. When\nwar threatens, the king offers the princess to any man who can obtain\nthe sword. By means of his power of metamorphosis the hero carries\nher a letter and wins her love. When he exhibits his magical powers,\nshe cuts off a bit of the fur, or a feather, from each creature into\nwhich he turns. With the sword he then starts back to court, but on\nthe way he is shot by a rival and robbed of the sword and a letter\nfrom the princess. He lies in the way in the form of a dead hare\ntill the war is ended and the rival is about to marry the princess,\nwhen he is revived and warned by the ghost. At court he is recognized\nby the princess, who proves his tale by having him turn into various\nshapes and fitting the samples which she has taken.\n\nIn Hungarian I. a soldier gave all he had to an old beggar, who in\nturn gave him the power to change at will into a dove, a fish, or a\nhare. He took service with a king, and one day was sent back to the\ncastle for a magic ring. There he met the princess, and exhibited to\nher his powers of metamorphosis, permitting her to pull two feathers,\ntake eight scales, and cut off his tail. While running back to the king\nin the form of a hare, he was shot by an envious comrade, who took the\nring and was rewarded. The hero was restored to life by the old beggar,\nand returned to the castle, where he was brought to the princess. She\nsucceeded in proving the truth of his story by means of the feathers,\nthe scales, and the tail, which she had so fortunately preserved.\n\nRumanian II., though changed into legendary form, does not differ\ngreatly from the two variants just cited. A shepherd boy gave his\none sheep to Christ, when He asked for food. In return, he received\na knife with three blades. Later he took service with a man, with\nwhom he entered the army of the emperor. One day the monarch found\nthat he had forgotten his ring, and promised half his kingdom to\nanybody who could bring it to him from the palace within twenty-four\nhours. By means of his magical knife the hero changed into a hare,\nobtained the emperor's ring as well as one from the princess's own\nhand, and returned to the army. There he was met by his master, who\nplundered him, threw him into a spring, and went to the emperor for\nreward. When the battle was over and all had returned to the capital,\nthe princess said that the man who was presented as her bridegroom\nwas not he to whom she gave the ring. Meanwhile, Christ had rescued\nthe hero from the spring and sent him to the palace in the form of\na fox with his ring in a basket. The princess recognized from the\ntoken that he was her true bridegroom, and brought him to the emperor.\n\nStraparola II. introduces certain new elements to our notice. A king's\nson releases a wild man, whom his father has incarcerated, in order to\nget back an arrow that the man has taken from him. The man is really\na disappointed lover, who had given himself up to a savage life. The\nboy's mother, in fear of the king, sends him away in the care of\ntwo faithful servants, with whom he lives in obscurity till he is\nsixteen years old. Covetous of his wealth, they are about to kill him,\nwhen the wild man, transformed into a splendid knight by a grateful\nfairy, joins them. They go to a beautiful city called Ireland, which\nis devastated by a ferocious horse and an equally savage mare. The\ntraitorous servants plot to destroy the prince by giving out, first,\nthat he has boasted that he can overcome the horse, and, second,\nthe mare. By the advice of his unknown friend and the help of the\nlatter's fairy horse, he accomplishes these labours. He is told by\nthe king that he may have one of his daughters in marriage, if he\ncan tell which has hair of gold. He is told by his companion that a\nhornet, which he has released, will appear at the test and fly three\ntimes around the head of the princess whom he is to choose. The man\nexplains at the same time the cause of his benevolence,--gratitude\nbecause by him he has been delivered from death. The prince is thus\nenabled to pick out the princess with golden hair, and is married to\nher, while his companion receives the sister.\n\nIn the Venetian tale, again a peculiar variant, twelve brothers\nseek twelve sisters as wives. Eleven of them go out at first, and\nare turned to stone. The youngest brother sets out after a year, and\non the way has a poor dead man buried. Later, when he has saved his\neleven brothers, they become envious, and throw him into a well. The\nthankful dead man then comes, draws him out with a cord, and explains\nwho he is. The hero proceeds to his home and tells his story.\n\nSicilian is more extended but less difficult to place. The three\norphaned sons of a rich man try to win the daughter of a certain\nking, who has announced that he will marry the princess to anyone\nwho can make a ship that will travel alike on land and water. The\neldest and middle brothers are unsuccessful because they are unkind\nto the poor who ask for work. The youngest brother gives work to both\nold and young, and, when an old man (St. Joseph) appears, makes him\noverseer. After the work is done, he agrees to give half of what he\nobtains to the old man, and goes with him in the ship to court. On\nthe way he takes in a man who is found putting clouds in a sack,\nanother who is bearing half a forest on his back, another who has\ndrunk half a stream, another who is aiming his bow at a quail in\nthe underworld, and another who stands with one foot at Catania and\nthe other at Messina. At the court the king refuses to give up his\ndaughter till the hero can send a message to the underworld and get\nan answer in an hour, which he does by means of the long-strider\nand the shooter; and till he can find a man who will drink half\nthe contents of his cellar in one day, which the drinker easily\naccomplishes. The king then offers as dowry only what one man can\ncarry away, but he is foiled by the man who bore half the forest on\nhis back, who now takes all the contents of the palace and departs\nwith the hero, the princess, and their companions. The king pursues\nthem, but is befogged by the man with the clouds. When they arrive\nat home, the saint demands his half, even of the king's daughter;\nbut when the hero takes his sword to divide her, he cries out that\nhe merely wished to test his faithfulness.\n\nIn Treu Heinrich a noble youth lost his property through prodigality\nin tournaments. Finally he sold his all to enter a tourney for the\nhand of the daughter of the King of Cyprus, but he gave half to his\nfaithful follower Heinrich. After they set out for Cyprus, they were\njoined by a knight, who shared the hero's hospitality for fourteen\ndays, agreeing to do the same in return, but at last riding away. In\ndestitution they arrived at Famagust in Cyprus. While Heinrich was in\nthe city, the hero found a clear stone left by a bird, through which\nhe obtained power to become a bird. He then established himself in\nthe city, met the princess with the result that they fell in love,\nand flew to her chamber as a bird. He obtained from her not only his\ndesire but an ornament which he gave to the strange knight, who had\nagain joined him. Later he overcame this knight in the tourney, but\nthe latter was mistaken for himself. Again he flew to the princess,\nwho gave him a crown, and again, after giving it to the stranger,\nhe overcame him in a fight. The princess now gave him a helmet,\nwhich he kept; and he was proclaimed victor of the jousting. Once\nmore he flew to the princess, and obtained from her an ornament for\nhis helmet, made by herself. Thus he won her as wife.\n\nIn Harz II. our primary motive is far less obscure than in the version\njust summarized. A youth pays his all, thirty-eight dollars, to free a\ndead man from indebtedness. He goes his way, and meets a young fellow,\nwho accompanies him. They fall in with a man bearing two trees, a man\nwith a hat on one side, a man with a wooden leg, and a man with a blind\neye. The six go together to a city, where the princess can be won only\nby performing feats, with the penalty of death attached to failure. The\ncompanions aid the hero by bringing water from a distant spring and\nby keeping a fiery furnace habitable, so that he wins the princess.\n\nThese nine variants are, it will be seen, related in very different\ndegrees to The Grateful Dead. What a debased type of the maerchen they\nrepresent is shown by the fact that in no less than five [182] the\nburial of the corpse, which is the most fundamental trait of the theme,\nhas been lost. Yet for two reasons it is clear that they are really\nscions of the stock. In the first place, wherever the burial has been\ncut away, other elements of the motive in its simple form have been\nretained. Thus in Hungarian I. and Rumanian II. the deeds of the old\nbeggar (or Christ) make his identity with the ghost unquestionable;\nin Straparola II., despite its sophistication, the wild man fills the\nsame role, while his explanations at the end show that the burial\nhas been merely blurred; in Sicilian both the agreement to divide\nand the division of the woman as a test are introduced; and in Treu\nHeinrich there is double division in a way, since the hero divides\nhis property with his faithful follower to begin with and afterwards\nagrees to an exchange of hospitality with the helpful knight, going\nso far as actually to give him two of the four gifts received from\nthe princess. In the second place, certain variants without the\nburial are very closely allied with others which retain it, [183]\nas will be seen in a moment. Thus all those treated here may safely\nbe admitted to the group.\n\nThe reader must, however, have been struck, while examining the\nsummaries just given, with the great diversity of the residuum which\nwould be left if the parts properly belonging to The Grateful Dead\nwere taken away. Indeed, they may be separated on this score into\nfour categories with a couple of minor divisions. Polish, Hungarian\nI., and Rumanian II. are very similar in respect to these matters,\nhaving a princess who is won by the feat of obtaining something left\nat home by her father (this feat made possible by the power given\nthe hero to change his form) and a treacherous rival. Polish has the\npeculiarity that the article to be obtained by the hero is a magical\nsword. [184] Treu Heinrich stands a little apart from these, since\nthe rival does not appear and the princess is won by a tourney; yet it\nhas the curious metamorphosis, and must be considered as having some\nconnection. Maltese and Venetian fall together. Venetian has retained\nfrom The Water of Life only the misfortune and the treachery of the\nolder brothers, [185] while Maltese keeps also the magical bird\nand the features naturally connected therewith. The introduction\nof two steamboats in the latter is a curious illustration of the\nease with which popular tales change details without altering\nessentials. Sicilian and Harz II. again are alike, both being\ncompounded with The Skilful Companions, [186] and making the winning\nof the princess depend on feats really accomplished by the helpers\ncharacteristic to that tale. Straparola II. must be placed alone,\nhaving nearly all trace of The Water of Life lost in the traits of\nThe Lady and the Monster, with a princess won by the hero's happily\ndirected choice. [187]\n\nAll of these features will appear again when we come to discuss\nvariants which combine the compound types The Grateful Dead + The\nPoison Maiden or The Ransomed Woman with The Water of Life. They may,\ntherefore, be passed over for the present, together with the question\nas to whether such a simple combination as The Grateful Dead + The\nWater of Life may be regarded as being the original from which the\nmore complicated types have sprung. It is sufficient for the moment\nto recognize the tendency of the simpler variants to fall into groups\non the basis of the residuum left by subtracting traits belonging to\nThe Grateful Dead.\n\nLet us now consider the tales where a thankful beast plays the part\nof the grateful dead through at least a portion of the narrative,\nand where there is still no trace of either The Poison Maiden or The\nRansomed Woman. The change of beast for ghost is so obvious and easy\nthat the separation of these variants from the preceding appears at\nfirst sight to be of merely formal use. Yet thus considered, they may\nserve to define the sub-divisions already noticed. Nine such versions\nhave come to my knowledge: Walewein, Lotharingian, Tuscan, Brazilian,\nBasque I., Breton IV., V., and VI., and Simrock IX. All but one are\nfolk-tales, and that, curiously enough, an episode in a thirteenth\ncentury [188] Dutch romance translated from the French. [189]\n\nWalewein, the variant in question, has the following form: Walewein\n(or more familiarly Gawain) sets forth from Arthur's court to secure\na magical chessboard. He is promised it by King Wonder if only he\nwill get the sword of rings from King Amoris, who in turn will give\nthat up if Walewein will bring him the princess of the Garden of\nIndia. On this quest the hero mortally wounds a certain Red Knight,\nwho prays him for Christian burial and is properly interred. He then\nproceeds to the castle of King Assentin, whose daughter recognizes\nin him the ideal knight whom she has seen in a dream. He is led\nunder the dark river which surrounds the castle by the Fox Roges,\nand wins the princess. The lovers and the fox (a prince transformed)\nescape by the help of the Red Knight's ghost. After many adventures\nthey come together to the court with a chessboard, which is given up\nby King Wonder in exchange for the sword. Walewein is able to keep\nthe princess for his own because of the death of Amoris.\n\nLotharingian runs as follows: A king has three sons. He sends them\nsuccessively to seek the water of life. Two of them refuse to help a\nshepherd on the way, and rest from their search in Pekin. The third,\nwho is deformed, aids the shepherd, and receives from him some arrows,\nwhich will pierce well whatever they strike, and a flageolet, which\nwill make everyone dance within hearing of it. Arrived at Pekin, the\nhumpback pays the debts of a corpse, and has it buried. He goes on till\nhis money is exhausted. When he is about to shoot a fox one day, he is\nstayed by pity, and is directed by the creature to the castle where\nthe water of life is to be found. There he is detained by an ogre,\nand wins battles for him by the aid of the magical arrows. There\nis a princess in the castle, who refuses to marry the ogre. The\nhero makes her dance, and obtains from the ogre as recompense the\npromise of whatever he wishes. He asks for the most beautiful thing\nthere and the right to circle the castle three times. So he takes\nthe princess, a phial of the water of life, as well as the uglier of\nthe two mules and of the two green birds, as the fox has told him,\nand flees away. He meets the fox again, and is warned not to help\nany one in trouble. Nevertheless, he rescues his two brothers from\nthe scaffold in Pekin, and is cast into a well by them. They go home,\nbut are not able to heal the king. Meanwhile, the prince is saved by\nthe fox, and is made straight of body. He goes home, and at his coming\nthe king becomes young again, while the brothers are burned. So the\nprince marries the lady.\n\nIn Tuscan we learn that the youngest of three princes, while wandering,\npaid the debts of a man whose corpse was being insulted. When he had\nburied the man, he found himself without a farthing, and so slept in\nthe forest. In the morning he was greeted by a hare (lieprina) with\na basket of food in its mouth. He took this gladly, and reflected\nthat the creature must be the soul of the man whom he had buried. He\nthen came to an inn, and took service with the host, whose beautiful\ndaughter he soon discovered to be a princess, who had been bought while\nan infant. After winning her love, the hero went on into two kingdoms,\nwhere he obtained a magical purse and a wonderful horse from two ugly\ndaughters of innkeepers. With these possessions he returned to the\nprincess, and started with her for his home. On the way he saved from\ndeath his two older brothers, who had gone out to seek adventures at\nthe same time as himself. They repaid the kindness by trying to drown\nhim and by carrying the princess off home, where only by feigning\nillness could she frustrate their plan that she choose one of them as\nhusband. Meanwhile, the hero was rescued from drowning by the hare,\nand came home. By pretending to be a physician he obtained access to\nthe princess, was recognized, and then revealed himself to his father.\n\nThe Brazilian tale is brief but not unusual in type. A prince, while\nseeking a remedy for his father, passes through a town and sees a\ncorpse, which is held for debt. He pays the creditors, and has the\ncorpse buried. Later he is met by a fox, which helps him obtain not\nonly the remedy for his father but in addition a princess as his\nwife. On its last appearance the beast declares that it is the soul\nof the man whom he buried.\n\nBasque I. has the following form: Three sons go out to seek a white\nblackbird by which their father can be healed. Two of them get into\ndebt to the same three ladies, and, according to the custom of the\nland, are imprisoned. The third son resists the sirens, ransoms\nhis brothers, and also pays the debts of a dead man, whose corpse\nis being maltreated. He arrives at the house of the king who has the\nwhite blackbird, and is told to get a certain young woman from another\nking. He goes far on till he comes near the castle, where he meets a\nfox and is instructed by it to enter a certain room, in which he will\nfind the lady dressed in poor clothing. He must have her put on good\nclothes, and she will sing. He follows the advice, but is interrupted,\nwhile the lady is singing, by the king of the castle, who tells him\nthat he must get a white horse from still another king. He meets the\nfox again, and is instructed that, when he finds the horse with an old\nsaddle on it, he must put on a good one, so that it will neigh. Again\nhe follows the fox's advice, and is interrupted by people who rush in\nwhen they hear the horse neigh. From them he obtains the steed, and\nretraces his steps, eloping with the lady at the second king's castle\nand at the first king's carrying off the blackbird. On his arrival\nat home he is thrown into a cistern by his treacherous brothers,\nwho take his spoil to the king. He is saved by the fox, however,\nwhich draws him out with its tail. When he comes into the presence\nof his father, and not till then, is the healing accomplished.\n\nIn Breton IV. we find again three sons of a king, who set forth to get\nthe white blackbird and also the lady with locks of gold. Jeannot, the\nyoungest of them, pays for the interment of a beggar on the way. Later\na fox comes to him, saying that it is the soul of the poor man. It\nhelps him procure the youth-giving blackbird and afterward the lady\nwith the marvellous hair. He then meets his brothers, who for envy push\nhim over a precipice, but he is saved and sent homeward by the fox.\n\nBreton V. does not differ materially from the preceding, though it\nhas interesting minor variations. The three sons of a king seek the\nbird Dredaine in its golden cage in order to cure their father. The\ntwo elder brothers go to England, and there meet jolly companions,\nbut find no trace of the bird. The third brother, the ugly one, comes\nthither, is mocked and robbed by them, but goes his way. One night\nhe lodges in a forest hut, and there finds a man's body, which the\nwidow cannot bury for lack of money to pay the priest. He is now poor,\nbut pays for the interment of the corpse, and proceeds. He is followed\nby a white fox, which instructs him how to achieve his quest. He soon\nreaches the castle, traverses three courts, comes to one chamber where\nhe finds a piece of inexhaustible bread, enters a second where he\ngets an unfailing pot of wine and makes love to a sleeping princess,\nand goes on to a third where he finds a magical sword and the bird. He\nhastens away with his booty, guided for a time by the fox, sells his\nbread and his wine to innkeepers on condition that they be given up to\nthe princess if ever she comes for them, and arrives at the city where\nhis brothers are now in prison. He ransoms them by helping the king,\nand pays their debts by selling his sword. On their way home he is\nthrown into a well by his brothers, who take the bird to their father,\nbut do not succeed in curing him. Meanwhile, the hero is saved by the\nfox, which now explains that it is the soul of the man whom he has\nburied, and definitely disappears. He arrives at his home as a beggar,\nand takes service with his father. Later the princess comes thither\nwith the son that is the fruit of their union, and brings with her\nthe bread, wine, and sword which she has found on the way. The bird\nsings, the king is healed, and the wicked brothers are executed.\n\nBreton VI. lacks some of the interesting traits of the variant just\ngiven, but embroiders the theme with considerable grace. The three sons\nof a king set out to find the princess of Hungary, who has the only\nremedy that will cure their father. The eldest forgets his purpose, and\nwastes his money in rioting. The second finds him just as he is being\nled to death on account of debt, ransoms him, and shares his riotous\npleasures. The third brother, a humpback, goes out with little money,\nbut on his way procures burial for a man's corpse, which the widow has\nbeen unable to do because of lack of money to pay the priest. The next\nday a fox with a white tail meets him, and in return for a bit of cake\nleads him to the castle of a princess. There the prince resists the\nlady's advances, which he suspects are derisive, and is sent to her\nsister's castle, where he has the same experience. When he arrives\nat the castle of the third sister, he yields to her proposals,\nis given the remedy for his father and a magical sword, and is\ntold how to go home. On the way he rescues his brothers from the\nscaffold by waving his sword, and is robbed and thrown into a well\nby them. Thence he is rescued by the fox, which comes at his call,\nand before it disappears explains that it is the ghost. Meanwhile, the\nolder brothers have cured the king by the water of life in a phial;\nso when the hero comes home he is not believed. In a year and a day\nthe princess arrives there according to her promise, and with a little\nson. At a feast she proclaims the truth, cuts her husband into bits,\nsprinkles the heap of fragments with the water of life, and marries\nthe handsome youth who at once arises--the humpback transformed. [190]\n\nAccording to Simrock IX., finally, the three sons of a king seek\nthe bird phoenix to cure their blind father. The two elder enter the\ncastle of a beautiful maiden, and are lost; but the youngest resists\nthe temptation, and takes lodging at an inn. There at night he is\nstartled by a ghost, which tells him that it is the spirit of a man\nwhom the host has buried in the cellar for non-payment of a score,\nand which implores his help. The youth arranges for payment of the\ndebt and for proper burial, then goes his way. In the wood he meets a\nwolf, which instructs him how to find the bird phoenix in a cage in the\nmagical castle, and carries him thither. Because he fails to take the\nworse-looking bird according to instructions, he has to get a steed\nas swift as wind for the lord of the castle. Again he is disobedient\nwhen told to take the worst-looking horse only, and so has to get the\nmost beautiful woman in the world for the lord of this castle. Again\nhe is brought by the wolf to a castle, where he obediently chooses a\nblack maiden instead of one who is apparently beautiful. With maiden,\nhorse, and bird he turns home. The wolf in parting from him explains\nthat it is the ghost of the dead man, and warns him not to buy gallows\nflesh. When he meets his brothers on their way to be hanged, however,\nhe forgets this, and ransoms them. In return he is nearly murdered\nby them and left for dead, but is rescued and healed by the wolf,\nand so at last reaches his destination.\n\nIn none of these nine stories is the burial of the dead, one of\nthe two most fundamental features of our leading motive, in any way\nobscured. They are thus less difficult to treat than was the preceding\ngroup, in spite of the added complications introduced by the advent\nof the helpful animal. This creature should naturally take the role\nof the ghost, appear as the embodiment of the dead man's soul indeed;\nand with but two exceptions [191] it actually fulfils the part. In\nthose two there has been, apparently, imperfect amalgamation, so that\nthe helper is duplicated, and the motivation obscured. In Walewein,\na literary version, consciously adapted to the requirements of a\nroman d'aventure, this need excite no wonder. The ghost does its\npart properly, and the fox is merely an additional agency in the\nservice of the hero, acting out of pure kindness of heart [192]\nas far as one can see. Lotharingian, not contented with duplicating\nthe trait, triplicates it. The fox, as in the ordinary form of The\nThankful Beasts, helps the hero because of a benefit received; the\nshepherd bestows magical gifts, as in a common type of The Water of\nLife, because of the hero's kindness; while the dead debtor remains\ninactive after the burial, and plays no further part in the narrative.\n\nAs for The Water of Life, there are fewer complications in this\ngroup than in that where the thankful beast does not appear. In all\nof the variants some of the fundamental traits of the theme remain\nintact. In all save Walewein and Brazilian (which is a degenerate\nform presumably carried across the sea by Spaniards or Portuguese)\nthe three brothers set out from home in quite the normal way. Walewein\nagain lacks the water of life, which Brazilian retains. All the other\nversions, save Tuscan, keep this water or replace it by some other\nrestorative agency. Two variants only fail to make the older brothers\nact treacherously towards the hero, these being again Walewein and\nBrazilian. The former thus lacks three of the essentials of the theme,\nthe latter two. Yet since Walewein makes the hero win his princess\nby going on from adventure to adventure quite in the normal manner,\nand since Brazilian makes him obtain both water of life and princess,\nthough with loss of interesting details, we are surely justified in\nplacing both in this category.\n\nIt is worth our while to note in this connection that all these nine\nvariants come from southern Europe, directly or by derivation. [193]\nGeographical proximity, though not sufficient in itself as a basis of\nclassification, adds welcome confirmation to other proof in cases like\nthis, where a small group of highly complicated tales is found to exist\nin neighbouring countries only. That Walewein can be connected with\nthis specialized sub-division has important bearings on the question\nwhence the material for that romance was taken. In view of the limited\nterritory which this form of the story has covered as a folk-tale\nin six hundred years, and the fact that France would be the centre\nof the region, it seems fair to assume that some thirteenth century\nFrench writer took a maerchen of his own land as the basis for his work,\nthus elaborating with native material the adventures of a Celtic hero.\n\nThe question now arises as to what light the group just considered\nthrows upon the variants which combine the simple theme of The Grateful\nDead with The Water of Life or some such motive. It appeared, the\nreader will remember, that according to the elements foreign to the\nmain motive they must be separated into four classes. Reference to\nthese classes [194] will show that the variants with The Thankful\nBeasts are in many respects different from any one of them as far\nas the features peculiar to The Water of Life, or kindred themes,\nare concerned. Yet because Maltese and the brief Venetian, though\notherwise transformed, are the only tales aside from these [195] that\npreserve the treachery of the hero's brothers, it is safe to class\nthem together. Both Maltese and Venetian come, it will be observed,\nfrom the same general region as all the other members of the group.\n\nSince the elements left by subtracting The Grateful Dead from the\nvariants of the four categories thus discovered are very diverse,\nwe cannot postulate a parent form from which all four classes might\nhave sprung. Indeed, the evidence thus far obtained all points to a\nseparate combination of already developed themes with The Grateful\nDead. The test of this will be found in an examination of those\nvariants of those larger compounds, which have also traces of The\nWater of Life or some allied motive.\n\nTurning first to such versions of the combination The Grateful Dead\n+ The Poison Maiden, we find eleven on our list, all of which have\nalready been summarized and discussed in connection with the simple\ncompound. [196] These are Esthonian II., Rumanian I., Irish I., Irish\nII., Irish III., Danish III., Norwegian II., Simrock X., Harz I., Jack\nthe Giant-Killer, and Old Wives' Tale. Since we know definitely that\nDanish III. (the tale by Christian Andersen) was taken from Norwegian\nII., it may be left out of account. Ten variants thus remain to be\nstudied with reference to the subsidiary elements.\n\nIn Esthonian II. the hero releases a princess, who goes with devils\nevery night to church, by watching in the church for three nights\nwith three, six, and twelve candles on successive nights. In Rumanian\nI. the hero wins a princess by explaining why she wears out twelve\npairs of slippers every night; and he accomplishes this by the aid\nof his helper, who follows the lady in the form of a cat, and picks\nup the handkerchief, spoon, and ring which she drops in the house of\nthe dragons. According to Irish I. the helper obtains for the hero\nhorses of gold and silver, a sword of light, a cloak of darkness,\nand a pair of slippery shoes; he helps him keep over night a comb\nand a pair of scissors, in spite of enchantment, and finally gets the\nlips of the giant enchanter, so that the hero unspells and wins the\nlady of his quest. In Irish II. the hero is joined by a green man\n(the grateful dead), a gunner, a listener, a blower, and a strong\nman. By the aid of the first he gives his princess a pair of scissors,\na comb, and the enchanter's head; by the aid of the others he obtains\nwater from the well of the western world, and is enabled to walk over\nthree miles of needles. Irish III. has a helper who obtains for the\nhero a sword, a cloak of darkness, and swift shoes, rescues a pair\nof scissors, and obtains the enchanter's head, while the hero wins\na race by the aid of the shoes. According to Norwegian II. the hero\nand helper get a sword, a ball of yarn, and a hat, while the latter\nfollows the princess and rescues a pair of scissors and a ball,\nfinally obtaining the troll's head. In Simrock X. the helper secures\nthree rods, a sword, and a pair of wings, follows the princess, and\nlearns how to answer her riddles, emphasizing his knowledge by getting\nthe wizard's head. Harz I. has the helper give wings and a rod to the\nhero, who flies with the princess and learns to guess her riddles,\ncutting off the monster's head. In Jack the Giant-Killer Jack obtains\ngold, a coat and cap, a sword, and a pair of slippers for his master,\nfollows the princess, and secures the handkerchief and the demon's\nhead, which are requisite to the unspelling. Finally, according to\nOld Wives' Tale, the helper, while invisible, slays the conjuror,\nand so obtains the princess for his master.\n\nIt will at once be recognized that all of these variants are of one\ntype as far as the traits just specified are concerned. The basal\nelement is the hero's success in winning an enchanted princess either\nby accomplishing difficult feats or answering riddles. The water of\nlife, as such, appears in only one story, Irish II., and there not\nas the prime goal of the hero's quest, but merely as the object of\na subsidiary labour. Clearly these tales not only form a group by\nthemselves, but have in combination with The Grateful Dead and The\nPoison Maiden a theme which is not properly The Water of Life. This\ntheme is as clearly The Lady and the Monster, [197] which is closely\nallied to The Water of Life, but is essentially distinct. It has\nalready been found compounded with the simple form of The Grateful\nDead in the somewhat degenerate and literary Straparola II., [198]\nthough the method by which the enchanted princess was won in that\nvariant was different from that given in the present group.\n\nWithin the group there are minor differences with reference to the\nmanner of unspelling the princess, which resolve themselves either, on\nthe one hand, into the hero's keeping or obtaining something for her,\nor, on the other, into his guessing the object of her thoughts. These\ndetails are not, however, of much importance for the purpose in hand,\nthough they might become so if an attempt were made to sub-divide the\ngroup. Thus Esthonian II. is decidedly unusual in its treatment of\nthe matter just mentioned. Irish I. has traces of the Sword of Light\n[199] and of The Two Friends. [200] In Harz I. the hero himself follows\nthe princess instead of leaving the actual work of unspelling to the\nhelper, as is elsewhere the case. Irish II., finally, is peculiar not\nonly in bringing in The Water of Life, as mentioned above, but also\nthe motive of The Skilful Companions, which we have already met with\nin Sicilian and Harz II. [201]\n\nIrish II. is, indeed, of great importance to our study at this\npoint. It is in some way a link between Sicilian and Harz II. and the\nsubdivision now under discussion. Furthermore, the fact that Straparola\nII. has some traits of The Lady and the Monster in common with all the\nmembers of the group under consideration shows that it can safely be\nplaced in the same category as Sicilian and Harz II. Though the feats\nby which the princess is won are somewhat different in the last-named\nvariants from the feats in Straparola II. on the one hand and in the\ncompound The Grateful Dead + The Poison Maiden + The Water of Life\n(The Lady and the Monster) on the other, there can be little doubt,\nit seems to me, that all of them belong together. Irish II. by the\nintroduction of The Skilful Companions thus furnishes a clue by which\nthe tales having the compound just mentioned may be classed with two\nvarieties of the simple combination, and permits us to reduce the\ntotal number of categories with reference to The Water of Life from\nfour to three.\n\nBefore proceeding to a general discussion of the means by which this\ntheme was brought into connection with The Grateful Dead and the\ncomparative date of the combination or series of combinations, it is\nnecessary to examine four other versions,--those which have the form\nThe Grateful Dead + The Ransomed Woman + The Water of Life. Like the\ngroup just treated, all of them have been summarized and discussed\nwith reference to the prime features of the compound. [202] They are\nBohemian, Simrock I., Simrock III., and Simrock VII.\n\nThe elements of these variants, apart from those due to the main\ncompound, are as follows. In Bohemian the hero is given a flute\nand a captive princess by his helper, and escapes with them from\nprison. Later he is cast into the sea by a rival, but is rescued by\nthe helper and given a wishing ring. By means of this ring he turns\nfirst into an eagle and afterwards into an old man, and succeeds in\nwinning the princess by building and painting a church. In Simrock\nI. the hero is rescued by the helper after being cast overboard by\na rival, and is given the power of obtaining his wishes. Thereby he\npaints three rooms to the liking of the princess, and is recognized\nby her. Simrock III. differs from this only in making the helper\ndo the painting and in having one room painted instead of three. In\nSimrock VII., finally, the hero releases a princess by hewing trees,\nseparating grain, and choosing his mistress among three hundred women,\nall without aid. Later he is rescued from the sea and recognized by\nmeans of a ring and a handkerchief.\n\nThe first three of these variants clearly show in the subsidiary\nelements just enumerated their relationship to The Water of Life. They\nlack the quest for some magical fountain or bird, to be sure, but they\npreserve the quest for the lady, which is an important factor in the\nmaerchen. Of the three, Bohemian has the most extended and probably\nthe best presentation of the details of the difficult courtship;\nand it gives the hero that power of metamorphosis which was noted\nin four variants of the type The Grateful Dead + The Water of Life\nsimply. It may, therefore, on the basis of general and particular\nresemblance be classed with Polish, Hungarian I., Rumanian II., and\nTreu Heinrich. [203] Along with it, of course, go the briefer Simrock\nI. and Simrock III. There is this important difference between the\ntwo sets of tales, that in the simpler form the princess is won by\nthe hero's success in bringing something from a distance, in the more\ncomplicated form by building and decorating. Yet the resemblance is\nsufficient to warrant the classification proposed.\n\nWith Simrock VII. the case is altogether different. There the\nsubsidiary elements are connected with The Lady and the Monster rather\nthan The Water of Life proper, yet not with that theme as it appears in\ncombination with The Poison Maiden, [204] since in that group the hero\ndisenchants the princess by guessing some secret, here by performing\ntwo feats of prowess or discrimination and by choosing the proper\nlady from a host of maidens. With Straparola II., however, which has\nthe simpler combination The Grateful Dead + The Lady and the Monster,\nthe resemblance is very close, [205] as both have the happily directed\nchoice. The complicated Simrock VII. thus falls into the same category\nwith reference to this matter as Straparola II., Sicilian, and Harz\nII., and the group having the form The Grateful Dead + The Poison\nMaiden + The Water of Life (The Lady and the Monster specifically).\n\nA summary of our three categories will be of service in discussing\ntheir relations to one another and to the themes with which The Water\nof Life or The Lady and the Monster are combined.\n\n\n\nClass I.\n\n    Polish.\n    Hungarian I.\n    Rumanian II.\n    Treu Heinrich.\n    Bohemian.       |\n    Simrock I.      + (With The Ransomed Woman.)\n    Simrock III.    |\n\nClass II.\n\n    Sicilian.\n    Harz II.\n    Straparola II.\n    All recorded variants with The Poison Maiden.\n    Simrock VII. (With The Ransomed Woman.)\n\nClass III.\n\n    Maltese.\n    Venetian.\n    All variants with The Thankful Beasts.\n\n\n\nClass I. forms a territorially homogeneous group, all the members\nof it coming from eastern and central Europe. It is not altogether\nhomogeneous in content, but preserves the theme of The Water of\nLife proper in a form where the hero wins a princess by means, among\nother feats, of metamorphosis. Class II. is the most widespread of\nall territorially, as its members come from all parts of Europe. It\nhas instead of The Water of Life proper what must be regarded, in the\npresent state of the evidence, as the closely allied theme of The Lady\nand the Monster. Class III., the most compact of all in the region\nthat it inhabits, preserves The Water of Life better than any other\ngroup, though not without frequent admixture and, in many instances,\nthe loss of some elements.\n\nIt has been stated above [206] that it would be hard to imagine such\nvarious traits coming from a single type of story. This becomes\neven more evident from the tabulation just made. To suppose that\nThe Grateful Dead first united with The Water of Life, and that this\ncompound gave rise to the varieties, as enumerated, would involve us in\nthe direst confusion. If such were the case, how could Class II. with\nits introduction of The Lady and the Monster be explained? Why,\nmoreover, should one variant having The Ransomed Woman fall into\nClass II., while three others fall into Class I.? Such an assumption,\nit is clear, would be self-destructive.\n\nThe only alternative is to suppose that The Water of Life entered\ninto combination with simple or compound types of The Grateful Dead\nat more than one time and in more than one region. That The Grateful\nDead united with The Poison Maiden and The Ransomed Woman rather\nearly and quite independently abundant evidence goes to show; that\nThe Water of Life is an independent motive and that, like at least two\nof the other themes, it was of Asiatic origin has likewise been made\nclear; that the latter could not have united with The Grateful Dead\nso early as did The Poison Maiden and The Ransomed Woman is proved\nby the discrepancies noted above. If it be assumed, on the contrary,\nthat after the compounds The Grateful Dead + The Poison Maiden and\nThe Ransomed Woman had arisen, both they and the simple theme in one\nor another form came into connection with one or another form of The\nWater of Life our difficulties are in great measure resolved.\n\nWith this in mind let us consider the three categories. Sometime\nbefore the fourteenth century [207] The Water of Life, perhaps in\na rather peculiar form, came into contact with The Grateful Dead,\nboth simple and combined with The Ransomed Woman, [208] in eastern or\ncentral Europe. With each form it seems to have united, giving rise\nin the century named to the German romance of Treu Heinrich and the\nlegend of Nicholas by Gobius, as well as, sooner or later, to the\nfolk-tales with which it has been found combined in those regions\nwithin the past hundred years. The territorial limitation of the\nresulting type is a point in the favour of the proposed theory, though\nI cannot but be aware that this may be disturbed by a variant outside\nthe seemingly fixed circle. Yet even so, the relation of the variants\nof Class I. to the themes concerned appears to be pretty definitely\nestablished. With Class III. the matter is even simpler. According to\nmy view, some form of The Grateful Dead, more or less confused with\none of the countless versions of The Thankful Beasts met with a very\nclear type of The Water of Life in southern or south-western Europe\nby or before the thirteenth century. [209] With this it united and\ngave rise to an Old French romance (later turned into Dutch) and to\na considerable body of folk-tales, which have not strayed far from\nthe point of departure save in one instance, [210] where the means of\ntransmission is not difficult to ascertain. Apparently the thankful\nbeast was not absolutely in solution, since in Maltese and Venetian\nthe human ghost resumes its characteristic role. [211] With Class\nII. the case is different and more difficult of explanation. Here\nthe compound has no definite territorial limits, and it is besides\nof a very complicated character. We have to suppose that The Lady\nand the Monster, a maerchen allied to The Water of Life, was afloat\nin Europe somewhat before the early sixteenth century. [212] There\nit met and united with The Grateful Dead, in its simple form on the\none hand, giving rise to three of our variants, and on the other hand\nseparately with the compounds having The Poison Maiden and The Ransomed\nWoman. The former double compound must have been made fairly early,\n[213] since it has been found in such widely separated countries as\nRumania and Ireland, and furnished one of the most important elements\nto the making of a sixteenth century English play, Peele's Old Wives'\nTale. The second of the double compounds is unfortunately represented\non our list by a single folk-tale only, and may possibly be a later\nformation.\n\nSuch, then, seems to be the relationship of The Water of Life and\nallied motives to the main theme of our study,--purely subsidiary\nand relatively late. The theory which has been proposed involves\nthe necessity of placing the entrance of the Semitic maerchen into\nEurope not much earlier than the twelfth century, though such\nmatters of chronology must be left somewhat to speculation; it\nshows the points of contact between the various motives concerned;\nand it avoids contradictions of space and time. Writer and reader may\nperhaps congratulate themselves on finding so clear a road through the\nmaze. Should subsequent discovery of material necessitate modification\nof the views here expressed, it should be welcomed by both with\nequal pleasure.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nTHE RELATIONS OF THE GRATEFUL DEAD TO THE SPENDTHRIFT KNIGHT, THE\nTWO FRIENDS, AND THE THANKFUL BEASTS.\n\n\nWe have met at various points in our study with tales in which the\nmotive of the hero's fateful journey was his impoverishment through\nextravagance; we have seen that many variants make the division of a\nchild part of the agreement between the ghost and the hero; and we have\nnoted the appearance of the ghost in the form of a beast in a large\nnumber of instances. The bearing of these phenomena we shall do well\nto investigate before proceeding to general conclusions. Occurring\nas they do in versions which have been assigned on other accounts to\ndifferent categories, are they of sufficient importance to disturb\nthe classification already proposed? Furthermore, what cause can be\nfound for their introduction? Are they in reality sporadic, or are they\nthe result of some determinable factor in the history of the cycle?\n\nEleven variants, namely, Richars, Oliver, Lope de Vega, Dianese, Old\nSwedish, Icelandic I., Icelandic II., Rittertriuwe, Treu Heinrich,\nand Sir Amadas, have more or less clearly expressed the motive of a\nknight who has exhausted his patrimony and goes out to recruit his\nfortunes by winning a princess in a tourney. The figure of such a\nknight or adventurer is not an uncommon one in the fiction of Europe,\nand scarcely requires illustration. Of the variants just named all\nexcept Oliver, Lope de Vega, and Old Swedish actually state that the\nhero sets out from home on account of his poverty. In the two former\nthe motive of the incestuous stepmother is introduced in place of this,\nand in Old Swedish the trait is obscured without any substitution,\nimplying that the hero is led merely by ambition to undertake the\ntourney. On the other hand, the tourney occurs in all save Icelandic\nI. and II., which are the only folk-tales in the list. The second\nof these, moreover, makes the hero a merchant instead of a knight;\nbut since the two come from the same island and are in other respects\nrather similar, [214] this is perhaps not very significant.\n\nLooking at the matter from another point of view, we find that Richars,\nLion de Bourges, Dianese, Old Swedish, Rittertriuwe, and Sir Amadas\nform a group by themselves, [215] and are uncompounded with any\none of the themes with which The Grateful Dead is most frequently\nallied. Oliver and Lope de Vega are treated under the compound with\nThe Ransomed Woman, where on account of the rescue of the hero by\nthe ghost they probably belong; [216] and Icelandic I. and II. are\nclearly of that type. Treu Heinrich [217] shows the combination of\nthe central theme with The Water of Life, and can in the nature of\nthe case have no direct connection with the other romance stories\nunder consideration, even though it belongs to a class in which The\nRansomed Woman sometimes appears. [218] In view of these discrepancies\nof position with reference to compounds which are clearly established,\nwe are certainly not justified in assuming that The Spendthrift\nKnight has had anything more than a superficial relationship to The\nGrateful Dead. To make it a basis of classification or to attach\nany considerable weight to its appearance here and there would be\ncontrary to the only safe method of procedure, which is to follow the\nevidence of events in sequence rather than isolated traits. The very\nfact that none of the compounds with The Poison Maiden contains any\nsuch motive as this of the knight and the tourney shows that it must\nbe comparatively late and really an interloper in the family.\n\nAs to the way by which it entered the cycle, one must conclude that\nit was afloat in Europe before the thirteenth century, [219] and\nfurnished a very natural opening for a tale in which a youth goes\ninto the world to seek adventure or profit. Were a lady to be won by\nthe help of the ghost, it would magnify the hero's part, if he were\ngiven an opportunity to take some very direct share in the wooing. So\nin the group of which Richars and Sir Amadas are members the new\ntheme supplied the means of winning a lady, which would otherwise be\nlacking. In Oliver and Lope de Vega it has perhaps supplanted the\nransom of a maiden, which is the trait to be expected, if they are\nrightly placed among the variants of the type The Grateful Dead +\nThe Ransomed Woman. It will be noted that in the two Icelandic tales,\nwhich conform closely to the type, the tourney does not appear. There\nseems to be reason, therefore, for supposing that the new material\ntouched our central theme at least twice, combining with the prototype\nof the Amadas group and of the Icelandic folk-stories. The authors\nof Oliver and Treu Heinrich may have adopted it consciously, and so\nthese variants should be left out of account.\n\nBefore leaving the matter, however, it must be noted that in Tobit the\nhero leaves home on account of the poverty of his father to seek the\nhelp of a relative. The ever-recurring possibility of a recollection\nof Tobit on the part of the European story-tellers [220] should not be\nforgotten. To argue that the suggestion of adapting The Spendthrift\nKnight was due to a conscious or unconscious recollection of the\nApocrypha would be laying too much stress upon what can at best be\nnothing more than conjecture, but there can be no harm in the surmise\nthat such may have been the case.\n\nThe matter of the division of his child or children by the hero to\nfulfil the bargain made with his helper must next be discussed. This\noccurs in twenty-five of the variants which we have considered, namely:\nLithuanian II., Transylvanian, Lope de Vega, Oliver, Jean de Calais\nI.-X., Basque II., Gaelic, Irish I., Breton I., III., and VII., Simrock\nI., II., and VIII., Sir Amadas, and Factor's Garland. With reference to\none group where the trait appears [221] I have already spoken at some\nlength of The Two Friends, and I have referred to the introduction\nof the children as they have appeared in scattered variants. I now\nwish to call the reader's attention to the general aspects of the\nquestion. What relation has the use of this trait in versions of The\nGrateful Dead to the theme which I call The Two Friends?\n\nIt must first be noted that the motive as it appears in Amis and\nAmiloun requires [222] that the hero slay his children for the healing\nof his foster-brother and sworn friend. Now of the twenty-five\nvariants of The Grateful Dead just named only Oliver and Lope de\nVega have this factor,--the others merely state that the helper\nasked the hero to fulfil his bargain by giving up his only child,\n[223] or giving up one of his two children, [224] or dividing his\nonly child, [225] or dividing his three children. [226] The query\nat once suggests itself as to whether the simple division of the\nchild or children as part of the hero's possessions gave rise to\nthe introduction of the whole theme of The Two Friends in Oliver\nand Lope de Vega, or whether the twenty-two folk-tales have merely\nan echo of the theme as there found. To put the question is almost\nequivalent to answering it. One sees at once that the former is the\ncase. Lope de Vega derives directly from Oliver, [227] and to the\nauthor of that romance must be due the combination of the two themes\nthere presented. Reference to the earlier discussion of the variant\n[228] will show that he was a conscious adapter of his material.\n\nYet it by no means follows that the suggestion for the combination\nwas not present in the version of The Grateful Dead, which was\nused in making Oliver. Indeed, it seems probable that this source\nor prototype had the division of the child in somewhat the form in\nwhich it appears in so many tales. That such was the case is likely\nfrom the fact that of the twenty-two folk variants which refer to the\nchild all but two are of the type The Grateful Dead + The Ransomed\nWoman, to which Oliver is approximated. Considering the alterations\nwhich the theme was likely to suffer at the hands of a writer who was\nmore or less consciously combining various material in a romance,\nthe wonder is that the type was not more changed than it seems to\nhave been. In point of fact, the position of Oliver and its literary\nsuccessors as examples of the compound comes out more clearly [229]\nthrough this examination of their relationship to The Two Friends.\n\nAs to the introduction of the child, the trait by means of which,\naccording to my theory, the actual combination of motives came about,\nthe two folk-tales of the type The Grateful Dead + The Poison Maiden as\nwell as Sir Amadas, are of great importance. Since the great majority\nof the variants which have the child belong clearly to the compound\ntype with The Ransomed Woman, it is only by reference to these three\nthat one can say with assurance that the modified trait indicates no\nvital connection with The Two Friends. Yet with these in mind there\ncan be little doubt about the matter. The story-tellers have simply\nextended the division of the hero's possessions from property and\nwife to child, a process perhaps made easier by the existence of such\nstories as The Child Vowed to the Devil [230] and some forms of the\nSouhaits Saint Martin. [231] This might have happened to any particular\nvariant with equal facility. At the same time, the fact that the\nchange was made in only three cases outside the group, which has The\nRansomed Woman in combination, gives that family additional solidarity.\n\nIn Oliver, Lope de Vega, and Sir Amadas the motive of The Spendthrift\nKnight appears together with the change or combination just referred\nto. At first sight, it might appear that there was some essential\nconnection between these two elements foreign to the main theme. Such\ndoes not seem to be the case, however, when the matter is further\nconsidered. At any rate, I am unable to discover any such link,\nand am inclined to ascribe the simultaneous appearance of these two\nfactors to chance pure and simple. Neither one is more than a rather\nlate and comparatively unimportant phenomenon as far as The Grateful\nDead is concerned.\n\nNot infrequently in the course of this study attention has been called\nto the substitution of a beast for the helping friend of the hero,\nand in a few cases to the transference of the ghost's entire role to an\nanimal. While considering matters of greater importance, it seemed best\nto ignore this in order to avoid unnecessary confusion. The matter is\nof considerable importance, however, and must here be considered. The\nquestion that concerns us is whether the appearance of the beast is\nof any real moment in the development of the theme.\n\nIt is sufficiently clear that the well-known stories of grateful\nanimals and ungrateful men, which were first traced by Benfey,\n[232] have general outlines different from that of The Grateful\nDead. Benfey's contention, however, that \"konnte der Gedanke von der\nDankbarkeit der Thiere schon tief genug auch im Occident einwurzeln,\num auch in andere Maerchen einzudringen und vielleicht selbst sich\nin Bildung von verwandten zur Anschauung zu bringen\" [233] should be\nkept in mind. This statement is truer than his later remark [234] that\nfairies and other superhuman creations of fancy are substituted for\nanimals, instancing our theme as such a case. To argue relationship\nfrom the entrance of either helpful beasts, fairies, or ghosts would\nbe dangerous unless the stories in question had the same motive,\nsince they are so frequently found in folk-literature. Indeed, as I\nhave already remarked, [235] one is scarcely called upon to explain\nthe intrusion of thankful or helpful animals at any given point, in\nview of the fact that the device is almost universally known. Yet if\nit does not require justification, it may well be of service in the\ngrouping of particular variants.\n\nIt is certainly worthy of notice that in eighteen forms of The\nGrateful Dead a beast appears. That these are of several different\ncompound types would show, if it were not clear from what has been\nsaid above, that the appearance of an animal furnishes of itself no\nevidence of any actual amalgamation of narrative themes. It is rather\na case where one stock figure of imagination's realm is substituted\nfor another. The better-known character is perhaps more likely to\nreplace the less-known than vice versa, but the latter event may\nhappen if the obscurer figure will serve to enliven the tale.\n\nOf the twenty variants in our cycle which have a thankful beast,\nJewish has the simple theme; Servian IV. the combination with The\nPoison Maiden; Jean de Calais II., VII., and X., Simrock II., III., V.,\nand VIII., and Oldenburgian the combination with The Ransomed Woman;\nand Walewein, Lotharingian, Tuscan, Brazilian, Basque I., Breton IV.,\nV., and VI., and Simrock IX. the combination with The Water of Life.\n\nNow in Jewish [236] the hero is saved from shipwreck [237] by a\nstone, carried home by an eagle, and there met by a white-clad man,\nwho explains the earlier appearances. This is mere reinforcement of\nthe tale by triplication, and implies nothing more than a certain\nvigour of imagination on the part of the story-teller. In Servian IV.,\n[238] where the hero spares a fish which he has caught, there appears,\non the contrary, to be actual combination with The Thankful Beasts\nas a motive. The fish comes on the scene in human form, and fulfils\nthe part of the grateful dead till the very end, when it leaps back\ninto its element. As for the variants of the compound type with\nThe Ransomed Woman there is considerable diversity, yet all of them\nhave merely substitution, not combination. So in Jean de Calais II.,\nVII. and X., [239] which are closely allied with other members of\nthe group so named, the beast appears, but in one case as a white\nbird, in the second as a fox, and in the third as a crow. That\nthis is anything more than a substitution due to the story-teller's\nindividuality cannot be admitted, though knowledge of The Thankful\nBeasts as a motive is not barred out. Simrock II. and VIII. [240]\nare likewise nearly related to one another and to Jean de Calais,\nand they have the same adventitious substitution. Simrock V. and\nOldenburgian are a similar pair, [241] while Simrock III., [242]\nwhich is otherwise allied to Bohemian, cannot be shown to have any\nvital connection with The Thankful Beasts as a motive. Of all these\ntales it can be said that they show some influence from such a theme\nwithout actual combination. Finally, all the variants of the type The\nGrateful Dead + The Water of Life, which have the animal substituted,\n[243] belong to a well-defined and centralized group [244] which\nhas had independent existence for centuries. Here the entrance of\nthe beast is of considerable importance to the classification and\ndevelopment of the theme.\n\nOf the part which The Thankful Beasts as a motive has played in\nconnection with The Grateful Dead it must be said that, on the whole,\nit has been of very secondary importance. It illustrates, as do The\nSpendthrift Knight and The Two Friends, how one current theme may\ntouch and even influence another at several different points without\nbecoming embodied with it. This trait or that may be absorbed as the\nmotives meet, yet the two waves may go their way without mingling.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nCONCLUSION.\n\n\nIn considering the general development and relations of The Grateful\nDead, to which we must now turn, it is proper to inquire first of\nall as to its origin. Hitherto the existence of the story-theme as\nsuch has been taken well nigh for granted, though the discussion\nof variants in simple form necessitated some reference [245] to the\npoint of separation between the maerchen and whatever beliefs or social\ncustoms lie beyond. Now that the tale has been followed through its\nvarious modifications and has been proved by a systematic study of\nits forms to be, if I may use the expression, a living organism,\nthe debateable land outside can be entered with measurable security.\n\nThere can be no doubt that The Grateful Dead as a theme is based upon\nbeliefs about the sacred duty of burial and upon the customs incident\nto withholding burial for the sake of revenge or recompense. To study\nthese phenomena in detail is not necessary to the scheme of this book,\nbut belongs rather to the province of primitive religion and law. It\nis sufficient for our purpose to show the nature and extent of such\nobservances and beliefs for the sake of the light which they may\nthrow on the genesis of the tale itself.\n\nThe belief that no obligation is more binding on man than that he pay\nproper respect to the dead is as old as civilization itself. Indeed,\nit probably antedates what we ordinarily call civilization, since\notherwise it could not well be found so widely distributed over the\nearth in historical times. It evidently rests upon the notion that\nthe soul, when separated from the body, could find no repose. [246]\nHerodotus tells [247] of the Egyptian law, which permitted a man to\ngive his father's body in pledge, with the proviso that if he failed\nto repay the loan neither he nor any of his kin could be buried at\nall. The story, also related by Herodotus, [248] of Rampsinit and the\nthief which turns on the latter's successful attempt to rescue his\nbrother's body, illustrates again the value that the Egyptians set upon\nburial. Their notion seems to have been that the more honour paid the\ndead, the more bearable would be their lot, though it was regarded as\nunenviable at best. [249] Among the Magi of Persia, though both burial\nand burning were prohibited because of the sanctity of earth and fire,\nthe bodies of the dead were cared for according to the strictest of\ncodes, being left to the sun and air on elevated structures. [250]\nIn India the Rig-Veda [251] bears witness to similar carefulness in\nthe performance of this sacred duty.\n\nIn classical times belief in the necessity of proper burial was\nwidespread. Patroclus, it will be remembered, appears to his friend\nAchilles, and admonishes him that he should not neglect the dead, at\nthe same time giving a dire picture of the state of the unburied. [252]\nPausanias speaks [253] of the conduct of Lysander as reprehensible\nin not burying the bodies of Philocles and the four thousand slain at\nAegospotami, saying that the Athenians did as much for the Medes after\nMarathon, and even Xerxes for the Lacedaemonians after Thermopylae. The\nstory told by Cicero [254] of Simonides gives definite proof of\nthe concrete nature of the reverential feeling among both Greeks\nand Romans. Suetonius in his life of Caligula relates that when the\nemperor's body was left half burned and unburied, ghosts filled the\npalace and garden.\n\nAn example of the mediaeval belief is found in the Middle High German\nKudrun, written at the end of the twelfth century or the beginning\nof the thirteenth.\n\n\n    \"Daz hast wol geraten,\" sprach der von Sturmlant.\n    \"ja sol man verkoufen ir ros und ir gewant,\n    die da ligent tote, daz man der armen diete\n    nach ir libes ende von ir guote disen frumen biete.\"\n        Do sprach der degen Irolt: \"sol man ouch die begraben,\n    die uns den schaden taten, od sol man si die raben\n    und die wilden wolve uf dem werde lazen niezen?\"\n    do rieten daz die wisen, daz sie der einen ligen niht\n    enliezen. [255]\n\n\nThe Annamite tale cited in the third chapter [256] and Servian VI.,\nlikewise summarized in connection with variants having the story-theme\nin simple form, [257] bear witness to the effect that the widespread\nbelief has had upon folk-tales now in circulation. The connection\nof these two tales with the maerchen as such is so vague that\nthey serve the end of illustrating its growth from popular belief\nrather than the relationship of one form to another. So also the\nstory from Brittany, printed by Sebillot, [258] which tells how a\nghost came to workmen in a mill demanding Christian interment for\nits body then buried under the foundations, serves the same end,\nthough no reward is mentioned. Sometimes the neglect of burial by a\nperson brings unpleasant results to him, as is witnessed by a tale\nfrom Guernsey. [259] A fisherman neglected to bury a body which he\nencountered on the coast, and, when he reached his home, found the\nghost awaiting him. An Indian tale illustrates the belief that the\ndead become vampires when funeral rites are not performed. [260]\n\nIn most versions of The Grateful Dead a corpse is left unburied either\nbecause creditors remain unpaid or the surviving relatives cannot pay\nfor Christian burial. From sixteenth century Scotland we have evidence\nthat the latter trait is based on actual custom. Sir David Lyndesaye,\nin The Monarche, while describing the exactions of the clergy, says:\n\n\n            Quhen he hes all, than, vnder his cure,\n            And Father and Mother boith ar dede,\n            Beg mon the babis, without remede:\n            They hauld the Corps at the kirk style;\n            And thare it moste remane ane quhyle,\n            Tyll thay gett sufficient souerte\n            For thare kirk rycht and dewite. [261]\n\n\nThis evidence for the widespread belief in the pious duty of burial\nand for the custom of withholding burial in cases where the dead man\nwas poor, though it might easily be increased in bulk, makes very\nclear at least two matters. The tale of The Grateful Dead might have\narisen almost anywhere and in almost any age since the time of the\nEgyptians. Again, when once it had been formed, it was likely to be\nreinforced or changed by the beliefs and customs prevalent in the\nlands to which it came.\n\nThe first matter at once suggests the question as to whether,\nafter all, the maerchen has not been more than once discovered by the\nimagination of story-tellers,--whether it has not sprung up again and\nagain in different parts of the world like different botanical species,\ninstead of being a single plant which has propagated itself through\nmany centuries. In spite of the evident possibility that such sporadic\ndevelopment might have taken place, I cannot believe that it happened\nso. If we had to do with some vaguely outlined myth in which only\nthe underlying idea was the same in the several groups of variants,\nand if this vague tale were narrated among peoples of absolutely no\nkinship to one another, say by the Indians of North America and the\nZulus, one could have no reasonable doubt that similar conditions had\nproduced similar tales. Such stories exist in numbers sufficient to\nrender untenable the old hypothesis of Oriental origins in anything\nlike the form in which it was held by Benfey or even Cosquin.\n\nIn cases like that of The Grateful Dead, however, the matter is\nentirely different. The theme is comparatively a complicated one, and\nit is found only in lands whose inhabitants are connected either by\nblood or by social and political intercourse. [262] It has preserved\nits integrity for nearly a score of centuries, though suffering\nmany changes of details, and a variety of combinations with other\nthemes. To my mind such an involved relationship as that worked out\nin the preceding chapters proves conclusively that the story is one,\nthat the connection between variants is more than fortuitous. Inductive\nlogic makes the belief inevitable. Any other theory would involve\nus in a bewildering net of contradictions, from which escape could\nbe found only in the avowal that nothing whatever can be known about\nnarrative development.\n\nIf the seemingly inevitable conclusion be accepted that The Grateful\nDead is an organism with a life history of its own, the question at\nonce suggests itself as to when and where it came into being. As to\nits ultimate origin, however, only a very imperfect answer can be\ngiven. Surmise and theory are all that can aid us here. Liebrecht was\nof the opinion that the story was of European rather than Oriental\norigin, [263] even though he did not accept Simrock's theory that\nit was Germanic. Notwithstanding the fact that most variants are\nEuropean, this hypothesis seems to me very improbable. Tobit, the\nearliest variant which we possess, [264] is distinctly Semitic in\norigin and colouring. Other versions from Asia, like Jewish, Armenian,\nand Siberian, though modern folk-tales, add weight to the evidence of\nthe apocryphal story, especially since the one last named comes from\na somewhat remote region where European narratives could not without\ndifficulty have much direct influence. Of course it is possible to\nsuppose that the theme came to the Semites from the West, and was by\nthem disseminated in Asia; [265] but the early date of Tobit renders\nit unlikely that such was the case. Certainly it is more reasonable\nfrom the evidence at hand to believe in the Oriental origin of the\nmaerchen. As to the particular region of Asia where it was probably\nfirst related, nothing can be said with security. Yet since there\nis no evidence that it has ever been known in India, Western Asia,\nand perhaps the region inhabited by the Semites, may be considered,\nat least tentatively, its first home.\n\nThe age of the theme cannot definitely be measured. It is possible,\nhowever, to say that it must have existed at least as early as the\nbeginning of our era. Tobit is of assistance again here. As the\nbook is believed to have been written during the reign of Hadrian\n(76-138 A.D.) and as it has the motive in a compound form, which is\nunlikely to have arisen immediately after the simple story was first\nset afloat, there is little danger of over-statement in saying that\nthe latter must have been known at least as early as the first part of\nfirst century A.D., or more probably before the birth of Christ. Any\nstatement beyond this would rest on idle speculation.\n\nAfter The Grateful Dead was once established as a narrative, its\ndevelopment can be traced with some degree of precision, though\nnot without many gaps here and there. Its history is largely a\nmatter of combinations with originally independent themes, with an\noccasional landmark in the form of a literary version. The most notable\ncompounds into which it has entered are those with The Poison Maiden,\nThe Ransomed Woman, and certain types connected with The Water of\nLife. That it entered into other minor compounds at various stages\ngives evidence that it retained its independence long after the first\nunion took place, even though examples of the simple type are so hard\nto find and in some cases of such doubtful character.\n\nProbably the first combination of the theme was with The Poison Maiden,\nwhich the valuable evidence of Tobit enables us to date as taking place\nas early as the middle of the first century and in western Asia. The\nPoison Maiden probably came originally from India by way of Persia,\n[266] and was certainly widely distributed. Among the Semites it would\nnaturally first meet any tale which had other than Indian origin,\nso that the existence of Tobit at so early a date is only what one\nwould expect, looking at the matter in this retrospective fashion. The\namalgamation of these two themes, when once they had come into the\nsame region, was natural. They had the necessary point of contact\nin the treatment of the hero's wife by a helpful friend, who played\nan important part in each. In The Poison Maiden she received short\nshrift, being possessed of a poisonous glance or bite, or of snakes\nready to destroy the man who married her. [267] In The Grateful Dead\nshe was innocent, but had to be divided to satisfy the claims of a\nbeing who had helped her husband. [268] The part of the friend was\nless well motivated in The Poison Maiden than in The Grateful Dead,\nso that it was natural for the themes to unite at a common point\nand produce a compound at once more complete and more thrilling than\nwere the simpler forms. This combination must have been made not by a\nconscious literary worker, for, had it been, Tobit would surely stand\nless independent of the later versions than is actually the case,\nbut by the tellers of folk-tales, in a manner quite unconscious and\naltogether unstudied. The stories combined of themselves, so to say.\n\nFrom Semitic lands, if it was indeed there made, the compound seems to\nhave travelled into Europe as well as into other parts of Asia. [269]\nIt has spread during the intervening centuries throughout the length\nand breadth of Europe, always remaining a genuinely popular tale. As\nfar as my knowledge goes, it did not appear in literature from the time\nwhen the Hebrew book of Tobit was written till Peele's Old Wives' Tale\nwas presented some fifteen centuries later on the English stage. In\nthe nineteenth century it again appeared to the reading public in\nthe version which the Dane Andersen made from a Norse folk-tale. Yet\nthe story in all versions of the compound extant is unmistakably the\nsame, though it has suffered more changes in detail than would be\nworth while to enumerate here, since they have already been noted in\nthe chapter dealing with the type. The most important modification\nwhich it sustained was due to its meeting The Lady and the Monster\nand absorbing elements of that tale. How early this took place it\nis impossible to say, since George Peele's play is the only literary\nmonument that helps to fix any date. A considerable stretch of time\nmust, however, be allowed for the passage of a folk-tale from the\nextreme east of Europe to England. That the secondary combination\nwas indeed made in eastern Europe admits of definite proof. All\nthe known variants of The Grateful Dead + The Poison Maiden from\nthe west have The Lady and the Monster as well, while three Slavic\neast-European versions [270] are of this type. It follows that the\ncompound must have been formed in the east and carried to the west,\nsince otherwise the distribution should be precisely the opposite\nof that which obtains. Moreover, had the compound been made in Asia,\nit is improbable that it would have left such a comparatively feeble\ntrace in the eastern part of the continent of Europe and later have\nconquered all the west. Other combinations, primary and secondary,\nhave also arisen; but, if the collection of variants hitherto made\nis at all adequate, they are of inconsiderable importance.\n\nMeanwhile, the simple theme of The Grateful Dead passed into Europe\nby other paths. Once over the border, it met a tale with which it\nreadily combined, producing a type not less influential than the one\njust mentioned. This new motive was The Ransomed Woman, the origin of\nwhich is at present quite unknown. Though it is seemingly Oriental in\ncharacter, all versions yet unearthed come from Europe, so that its\nprovenance must be left in uncertainty. At all events, it was known\nin eastern Europe, and it was there in all probability that it became\namalgamated with The Grateful Dead. How early this took place cannot\nbe stated, but long enough before the fourteenth century to allow the\npassage of the compound type to France by that time, when it was retold\nby Gobius with a good deal of mutilation in his Scala Celi. [271] The\npoints of contact, which led to the combination, have already been\ndiscussed in the chapter dealing with the type. [272] Suffice it to\nsay at this point that they were, in brief, the journey of the hero,\nhis rescue, and the wife whom he gained at the end of the story. As\nin the case of The Poison Maiden, the compound seems to have arisen\nquite naturally by means of these correspondences, with the end of\nmaking a more romantic and satisfactory tale. That it took place\nquite unconsciously seems clear, but that the result was successful\nis proved by the solidarity of the type thus produced, though it has\nsubsequently been carried into every part of Europe. The relationship\nof versions, between thirty and forty in number, is unmistakable.\n\nThat the simple motive of The Grateful Dead was not exhausted by\nthe two remarkable combinations just treated, that it retained\nits individuality and independence, is shown by the various minor\ncombinations discussed in the third chapter. It is altogether probable\nthat other examples of such simple compounds as those containing\nThe Swan-Maiden, Puss in Boots, and a story like that told of Pope\nGregory [273] are in existence, and may be found by later study. One\ncan speak only with reference to material at command. Very likely\nother combinations than those treated here are in existence and\nmay also appear, either in sporadic cases or in groups. But, the\nreader may ask, if the motive is found in so many compounds, both\nwith and without The Poison Maiden and The Ransomed Woman, why does\nit not occur more frequently, at least in folk-literature, without\ncombination? To this I should reply that the story is an ancient\none, which has many points of correspondence with other themes. By\nreason of these traits it has absorbed, or has been absorbed by,\nthese other tales, until now it is difficult to find examples of the\nsimple form. A thousand years ago, or some such matter, they may,\nindeed, have been frequently retold by the firesides of Europe,\nthough now they are practically unknown. The constant tendency of\nfolk-tales to change from simplicity to complexity would in time\ncause the pure theme to be generally forgotten. Nevertheless, its\nexistence could be proved, even though no example still remained,\nfor the various independent compounds would be inexplicable on any\nother theory. In the case of The Grateful Dead, the tales, to which\nit has been joined, have been so interwoven with its substance that\nit is quite impossible to believe, for example, that the combination\nwith The Ransomed Woman proceeded from that with The Poison Maiden.\n\nBut these simple compounds with a single foreign theme do not complete\nthe tale. When once they were formed, they in turn had each a history\nof its own, with infinite possibilities of absorbing traits from other\nstories or even entire themes. In the case of the latter, a reason\ncould always be found in such points of contact as I have already\nmentioned, or so I believe, if the material were sufficient for proper\ncomparison. In this way arose the complicated types treated in chapter\nsix, where the manner of combination is readily seen. [274] Sometimes,\nit is probable, subtraction has taken place as well as addition,\nbut apparently only when it has not involved the disentangling of\nvarious traits. For example, many variants have been noted where one\nof the two most striking features of our central theme, the burial\nof the dead debtor, has disappeared; yet in every case the rest of\nthe plot has remained unimpaired. The more complicated the variant,\nthe better able is the investigator to place its kinship to other\nvariants, provided that he has the requisite material and the patience\nto follow up the clues that every such labyrinth affords.\n\nThe most striking facts of general import to the study of\nfolk-narrative that have developed in the course of this prolonged\nconsideration of The Grateful Dead may be briefly summarized in\nconclusion. It has been shown once again that the story has an organic\nlife of its own, whether it comes from the East or the West, whether\nit be founded upon some fact of social custom or belief, or on the\nimaginings of a moralist of antiquity. [275] Once started, it will\ngo its way through divers lands and ages, yet retain unaltered the\nessential features of its plot. Call it story-skeleton, or better,\nliving organism, it always keeps its structural integrity, no matter\nwhether told as a pious legend or a conte a rire. Of no less importance\nthan this is the fact that whatever serious changes take place in\nits form are not fortuitous, mere whimsical alterations due to the\nfancy of story-tellers, but are due to capabilities of expansion or\ncombination in the plot itself. Whenever two themes with points of\nresemblance, or contact come into the same region, they are in the\nlong run pretty certain to unite, each retaining its individuality,\nbut merging in the other. This principle is well illustrated in the\nhistory of The Grateful Dead. The marriages of stories seem never to\nbe merely for convenience, except in the hands of conscious writers,\nbut to be the result of attraction and real compatibility. That,\nI take it, is why and how narratives develop.\n\nWere it necessary to justify such studies as the present, one might\nadd that, apart from helping to the settlement of such more general\nquestions as those just mentioned, they throw light on the sources\nof particular literary works, better than does the haphazard search\nfor parallels, and they often enable the student to see the relations\nbetween the literatures of neighbouring countries more clearly than\nhe would be able to do without the perspective gained by a comparative\nconsideration of a single theme in many lands. In ways like these the\nauthor hopes that this history of The Grateful Dead may be serviceable.\n\n\n\n                                THE END.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNOTES\n\n\n[1] 1856.\n\n[2] Guter Gerhard, as will be seen later, does not follow the theme\nat all.\n\n[3] P. 114.\n\n[4] 1859, i. 219-221.\n\n[5] Ghost-Thanks or The Grateful Unburied, A Mythic Tale in its Oldest\nEuropean Form, Sir Amadace, 1860.\n\n[6] P. 9.\n\n[7] P. 7.\n\n[8] Germania, iii. 199-210, xii. 55 ff.; Or. u. Occ. ii. 322-329,\niii. 93-103; Arch. f. slav. Phil. ii. 631-634, v. 40 ff.; Gonzenbach,\nSicilianische Maerchen, 1870, ii. 248-250.\n\n[9] Heidelberger Jahrbuecher der Lit. 1868, lxi. 449-452, 1872,\nlxv. 894 f.; Germania, xxiv. 132 f.\n\n[10] P. 449.\n\n[11] Altbayerischer Sagenschatz zur Bereicherung der indogermanischen\nMythologie, 1876, pp. 678-689.\n\n[12] Contes populaires de Lorraine, i. 214, 215.\n\n[13] Archiv f. d. Stud. d. neueren Sprachen, lxxxi. 141-183.\n\n[14] P. 167. \"Ein Juengling zeigt sich menschenfreundlich gegen die\nLeiche eines Unbekannten (indem er dieselbe vor Schimpf bewahrt,\nbestattet, etc.). Der Geist des Toten gesellt sich darauf zu ihm\nund erweist sich ihm dankbar, indem er ihm zu Reichtum und zum\nBesitze des von ihm zur Frau begehrten Maedchens verhilft, jedoch\nunter der Bedingung, dass er dereinst alles durch ihn Gewonnene mit\nihm teile. Der Juengling geht auf diesen Vertrag ein, und der Geist\nstellt sich nach einer gewissen Zeit wieder ein, um das Versprochene\nentgegenzunehmen, verlangt aber nicht die Haelfte des gewonnene Gutes,\nsondern die der Frau. (Schluss variabel.)\"\n\n[15] See p. x. above.\n\n[16] P. 180.\n\n[17] See his scheme on p. 181.\n\n[18] Der Dank des Todten in der englischen Literatur, Jahresbericht\nder Staats-Oberrealschule in Troppau, 1894.\n\n[19] Marburg diss. 1894, pp. 43-63.\n\n[20] Folk-Lore, ix. 226-244 (1898).\n\n[21] I have to thank the kindness of Professor Leo Wiener for my\nknowledge of the content of Russian V. and VI., which he was good\nenough to translate for me from the dialect of White Russia.\n\n[22] What the two Bohemian variants contain, which are mentioned by\nBenfey, Pantschatantra, i. 221, note, by Stephens, p. 10, by Koehler,\nGermania, iii. 199-209, and Or. und Occ. ii. 328, note, and by Hippe,\np. 146, I have been unable to ascertain.\n\n[23] On pp. 194-201 is found a curious \"Echo de l'histoire de Tobie.\"\n\n[24] Hippe's first Lithuanian tale is a variant of The Water of Life\nand will be treated in another connection.\n\n[25] Hippe speaks of \"zwei spanische Romanzen.\" Had he consulted the\nSpanish text or read Koehler's note more attentively, he would have seen\nthat a single story runs through nos. 1291 and 1292 of the Romancero.\n\n[26] My attention was called to this variant by the kindness of\nProfessor F. De Haan, and I was supplied with a first summary from\nthe 1693 edition by the friendly aid of Professor G. T. Northup.\n\n[27] See Crane, Exempla of Jacques de Vitry, 1890, p. lxxxvi.\n\n[28] P. Paris, Manuscrits francois, 1840, iii. 1, and Foerster,\nRichars li Biaus, 1874, p. xxvii, date it from the fifteenth century;\nSuchier, Oeuvres poetiques de Philippe de Beaumanoir, 1884, p. lxxxiv,\nand Wilhelmi, p. 15, from the fourteenth century.\n\n[29] P. Paris, place cited, and Foerster, place cited, say the\nsixteenth century, but Wilhelmi, place cited, the fifteenth.\n\n[30] See Wilhelmi, p. 43.\n\n[31] Foulche-Delbosc, pp. 589, 590.\n\n[32] Work cited, pp. 587, 588.\n\n[33] Place cited.\n\n[34] My attention was first called to this story by the kindness of\nProfessor A. C. L. Brown.\n\n[35] An edition with an almost identical title \"Printed and sold by\nLarkin How, in Petticoat Lane,\" of which a copy is in the Harvard\nCollege library, does not contain our story.\n\n[36] My attention was called to this variant by the kindness of\nProfessor Kittredge.\n\n[37] Miss Petersen's conclusion, Sources of the Nonne Prestes Tale,\np. 109, note, is not altogether convincing, since the vogue of Valerius\nMaximus was so great that other authors than Holkot are likely to\nhave quoted Cicero's stories from him. The book may yet be found in\nwhich the one follows the other \"right in the nexte chapitre.\"\n\n[38] Given by Hippe, pp. 143 f. Wherever Hippe's summaries are adequate\nand careful, I shall refer the reader to his monograph for comparison.\n\n[39] This story has nothing in common with the mediaeval tale of the\ncompact between two friends that the first to die shall appear to\nthe other. See the writer's North-English Homily Collection, 1902,\npp. 27-31.\n\n[40] Apparently beneficent spirits, whose nature is half fairy and\nhalf angel. See Servian V. below.\n\n[41] See chapter viii. and Sepp, pp. 678-680 for illustrations of\nthe belief.\n\n[42] One can conceive of separate generation of a very simple story\nunder similar conditions, but not, I think, that a series of events\nshowing combination of themes or detailed correspondence would\nso arise.\n\n[43] Carnoy and Nicolaides, Traditions populaires de l'Asie Mineure,\n1889, pp. 57-74.\n\n[44] See Baring-Gould's Curious Myths, 2nd ed. 1869, pp. 561 ff. for\na popular account. The philosophical basis of the tale is discussed\nby Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, 1879, pp. 54 ff. (from Germania,\nxiii. 161 ff.), and by Hartland, Science of Fairy Tales, 1891,\npp. 255-332, 337-347.\n\n[45] See Hippe, p. 148.\n\n[46] Or. und Occ. ii. 176.\n\n[47] Kinder- und Hausmaerchen, no. 28. See notes (ed. 1856), iii. 55,\n56; also Koehler, Kleinere Schriften, i. 49, 54.\n\n[48] See Hippe, p. 155. This analysis includes only the second of two\nwell-defined parts. The first section is related to the English Sir\nDegarre (ed. from Auchinleck MS. for the Abbotsford Club, 1849; from\nPercy Folio, Hales and Furnivall, Percy Folio MS., 1868, iii. 16-48;\nearly prints by Wynkyn de Worde, Copland, and John King; see G. Ellis,\nSpecimens of Early English Metrical Romances, 1811, iii. 458 ff.,\nJ. Ashton, Romances of Chivalry, 1887, pp. 103 ff., Paul's Grundriss,\nii. i. 643). This connection was pointed out by Foerster, p. xxiii. The\nsame material was used also in a Dutch chapbook, Jan wt den vergiere,\nof which a copy printed at Amsterdam is preserved at Goettingen. See\nthe article \"Niederlaendische Volksbuecher,\" by Karl Meyer, in Sammlung\nbibliothekswissenschaftlicher Arbeiten, ed. Dziatzko, viii. 17-22,\n1895. I am indebted for this last reference to the kindness of\nDr. G. L. Hamilton.\n\n[49] See Hippe, pp. 152 f.\n\n[50] See Hippe, pp. 158 f.\n\n[51] This trait recalls the first of Chaucer's two stories in the\nNun's Priest's Tale, Cant. Tales, B. 4174-4252, where the comrade is\nfound buried with dung on a cart.\n\n[52] For a fuller analysis see Hippe, pp. 160-164.\n\n[53] In Richars, Lion de Bourges, Dianese, and Sir Amadas he pays his\nall, even to his equipment for war, the most logical and, on the whole,\nprobably the earlier form of the story.\n\n[54] In all except Old Swedish and Sir Amadas the man was a knight;\nin these he was a merchant, the husband of the woman at whose house\nthe hero lodges.\n\n[55] \"V le femme u l'auoir ares,\" v. 5316.\n\n[56] Though in Lion de Bourges he excepts the lady specifically.\n\n[57] See Ueber Lion de Bourges, particularly pp. 46-54.\n\n[58] See chapter vii.\n\n[59] The Trentall of St. Gregory. The Old French text has been edited\nby P. Meyer, Romania, xv. 281-283. The English versions, of which the\nfirst seems to be taken from this, are found in the following MSS.:\n(A) Vernon MS. fol. 230, ed. Horstmann, Engl. Stud. viii. 275-277, and\nThe Minor Poems of the Vernon MS. i., E.E.T.S. 98, 1892, pp. 260-268;\nVernon MS. fol. 303, variants given in Horstmann's ed. for E.E.T.S.;\nMS. Cotton Caligula A II., ed. Furnivall, Political, Religious, and\nLove Poems, E.E.T.S. 15, 1866, pp. 83-92, reprinted by Horstmann,\nE.E.T.S. pp. 260-268; MS. Lambeth 306, variants given by Furnivall;\na critical text with variants of the four was made by A. Kaufmann,\nTrentalle Sancti Gregorii, Erlanger Beitraege, iii. 29-44, 1889. (B)\nMS. 19, 3, 1, Advocates' Libr., Edinburgh, ed. Turnbull, The Visions\nof Tundale, 1843, pp. 77 ff., and Buelbring, Anglia, xiii. 301-308;\nMS. Kk. I, 6, Camb. Univ. Libr., ed. Kaufmann, pp. 44-49. Kaufmann in\nhis introduction discusses the relations of the versions. See further\nVarnhagen, Anglia, xiii. 105 f. Another legend of Gregory in popular\nfiction is treated by Bruce in his edition of De Ortu Waluuanii,\nPublications Mod. Lang. Ass. xiii. 372-377. The story in the Gesta\nRomanorum to which Luzel, i. 83, note, refers is this rather than\nour tale.\n\n[60] i. 83 and 90, notes.\n\n[61] Or. und Occ. iii. 99 f.\n\n[62] See Das Maerchen vom gestiefelten Kater, Leipzig, 1843; Benfey,\nPantschatantra, i. 222; Grimm, Kinder- und Hausmaerchen, iii. 288;\nLiebrecht, Dunlop's Geschichte der Prosadichtungen, 1851, p. 286;\nPolivka, Arch. f. slav. Phil. xix. 248; etc.\n\n[63] Chapter vi.\n\n[64] An unnecessarily nauseating reason is given by one of them\n(Act i. sc. i.), but this seems to be of Massinger's invention.\n\n[65] P. 8.\n\n[66] It is interesting also to note that a Viennese dramatist of our\nown day has adapted Massinger's drama, retaining a vague reminiscence\nof the thankful dead. The curious may see Der Graf von Charolais by\nRichard Beer-Hofmann, 1905.\n\n[67] See pp. 1 and 2.\n\n[68] P. 181.\n\n[69] Abhandlungen der k. bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften,\n1893, pp. 89-166. Reprinted, with some additional notes by the editor,\nin Gesammelte Abhandlungen von Wilhelm Hertz, ed. F. von der Leyen,\n1905, pp. 156-277.\n\n[70] The existing versions go back to the pseudo-Aristotelian De\nsecretis secretorum or De regimine principum, which was taken from\nthe Arabic in the twelfth century (Hertz, p. 92). It is probable,\nhowever, that the tale existed far earlier than this and came from\nIndia (Hertz, pp. 151-155).\n\n[71] Pp. 115 ff.\n\n[72] Two Asiatic parallels not cited by Hertz will serve to illustrate\nthe theme further. One of these is \"The Story of Swet-Basanta\" from\nLal Behari Day, Folk-tales of Bengal, 1883, pp. 100 f. The hero is\nfound by an elephant and made king of a land, where the successive\nsovereigns are killed every night mysteriously. He watches and sees\nsomething like a thread coming from the queen's nostrils. This proves\nto be a great serpent, which he kills, thus remaining as king. The\nother is from J. H. Knowles, Folk-tales of Kashmir, 1888, pp. 32 ff.,\n\"A Lach of Rupees for a Bit of Advice.\" A prince pays a lach of rupees\nfor a paper containing four rules of conduct. His father exiles him\nfor this extravagance. In his wanderings the prince finds a potter\nalternately laughing and crying because his son must soon marry a\nprincess, who has to be wedded anew each night. So the prince marries\nthe woman instead and kills two serpents that come from her nostrils,\nthus retaining the kingdom. In these two stories there is no question\nof aid coming to the hero; he is saved by his own watchfulness.\n\n[73] Tobit, Danish III. (Andersen's tale), and Peele's Old Wives' Tale.\n\n[74] For example, it appears in Schischmanoff's Legendes religieuses\nbulgares, 1896, pp. 194-201, side by side with our Bulgarian tale.\n\n[75] I summarize from Koehler's reprint in Germania, iii. pp. 202 ff.\n\n[76] Paspati's tale on pp. 605 ff. also has a dragon slain on a\nwedding night by a youth, who keeps watch. This single trait in a\ntotally different setting must be borrowed from a Gypsy form of the\nsimple or compound theme.\n\n[77] See Annamite, Greek, Oliver, and Walewein. There is something\napproaching it in Rumanian I.\n\n[78] Icelandic I.\n\n[79] Simrock IV.\n\n[80] See Hippe, p. 145.\n\n[81] References to this story have been collected by G. Polivka,\nand printed in Archiv f. slav. Phil. xix. 251, in citing our\nRussian V. He says: \"Vgl. Romanov, iv. S. 124, Nr. 65; Weryho,\nPod. bialoruskie, S. 46; Khudyakov, i. Nr. 11, 12;\nSadovnikov, S. 44, 310; Manzhura, 61; Dragomanov Mapor. Priep,\nS. 268 f.; Dowojna Sylwestrowicz, ii. 129 f.; Karlowicz, Nr. 19;\nKolberg, viii. S. 138 f., Nr. 55, 56; xiv. S. 72 f., Nr. 16, 17;\nCiszewski, i. Nr. 128; Kulda, iii. Nr. 14; Strohal, Nr. 18, 19;\nKres, iv. S. 350, Nr. 19; Th. Vernaleken, Oesterr. K.H.M. S. 44 f.;\nUl. Jahn, i. 92, 356; Proehle, Maerchen fuer die Jugend, S. 42; Wolf,\nD.H.M. 258 f.; Sebillot, Contes des marins, S. 38.\" As far as I have\nbeen able to ascertain, these references are all to the tale sketched\nabove, uncompounded with The Grateful Dead. I must thank Professor\nWiener for my knowledge of the Slavic forms, which he very generously\nexamined for me as far as the books were available, viz. Romanov,\nKhudyakov, Sadovnikov, Manzura, Dragomanov, Sylwestrowicz, and Kolberg.\n\n[82] See Hippe, pp. 145 f.\n\n[83] For the test of friendship with an apple, see Koehler's\nnotes in Gonzenbach, Sicil. Maerchen, ii. 259 f., and in\nArch. f. slav. Phil. v. 44 ff.\n\n[84] Hippe is in error, however, when he says (p. 178) that the\ndivision is everywhere modified in the European variants. See Russian\nII., IV., V. and VI., Bulgarian, and Esthonian II. Moreover, I believe\nthat Hippe's theory puts the cart before the horse--that the actual\ndivision is not so ancient a trait as it seems. See pp. 74, 75 below.\n\n[85] See Hippe, p. 146.\n\n[86] See chapter vii.\n\n[87] See p. 47, note, above.\n\n[88] P. 19.\n\n[89] See Hippe, pp. 148 f.\n\n[90] See note by Schott, p. 473, in which he gives evidence based\non personal knowledge, and Grimm, Geschichte der deutschen Sprache,\np. 92. I have touched on the matter in Engl. Stud. xxxvi. 195-201.\n\n[91] This trait is found not infrequently in other settings. See, for\nexample, Vernaleken, Oesterreichische Kinder- und Hausmaerchen, p. 141.\n\n[92] This trait recalls Puss in Boots, which is otherwise compounded\nwith The Grateful Dead. See preceding chapter, p. 42, and p. 70 below.\n\n[93] See chapter vii.\n\n[94] Kennedy says, p. 38: \"In some versions of 'Jack the Master,'\netc., Jack the servant is the spirit of the dead man.\"\n\n[95] Chapter vi.\n\n[96] See chapter vii.\n\n[97] The three rods with which the princess is flogged are found in\nHarz I. See pp. 69, 70 below.\n\n[98] See p. 62, note 2.\n\n[99] Pp. 10 f.\n\n[100] Gayley, Representative English Comedies, 1903, pp. 333-384.\n\n[101] P. 345.\n\n[102] Pp. 176-178.\n\n[103] Russian V. and VI. are, of course, exceptions, since the woman\nis there a vampire.\n\n[104] See his scheme on page 181.\n\n[105] See above, p. 1.\n\n[106] See above, pp. 2 and 5.\n\n[107] Pp. 170-175.\n\n[108] P. 173.\n\n[109] See also the school drama cited by Koehler, Germania III. 208\nf. The elements of Der gute Gerhard, foreign to The Ransomed Woman,\nI have treated in the Publications of the Modern Lang. Ass. 1905,\nxx. 529-545.\n\n[110] The same is true of the story related of St. Catharine,\nanalyzed by Simrock, pp. 110-113, and cited by Hippe, p. 166, from\nScala Celi, by Johannes Junior (Gobius), under Castitas. Hippe,\nas shown by his scheme on p. 181, places this under \"Legendarische\nFormen mit Loskauf.\" As a matter of fact, it is plainly a specimen\nof The Calumniated Woman.\n\n[111] Hippe's \"Lithuanian II.\"\n\n[112] Breton III., though placed here, has peculiar traits, which\nrequire special consideration.\n\n[113] Koehler, followed by Hippe, p. 145, makes the hero live for\nfifteen years on the island, while Mme. Mijatovich gives the time as\nstated. As I have no knowledge of Servian, I cannot tell which is in\nthe right. Hippe's analysis is otherwise faulty.\n\n[114] See Hippe, p. 151.\n\n[115] Ibid.\n\n[116] Hippe fails to note that the hero used all his money on the\nfirst journey in burying the dead, and that it was on a second trip\nthat he bought the king's daughter.\n\n[117] Origenes de la Novela, ii. xcv.\n\n[118] An odd inconsistency appears in the statement of the Latin\nthat after the hero's second voyage \"pater suus et mater\" were angry\nwith him.\n\n[119] So, too, with Transylvanian. See above, pp. 79f.\n\n[120] See Hippe, p. 150.\n\n[121] See Hippe, p. 158.\n\n[122] Hippe's brief analysis, p. 159, fails to give a satisfactory\noutline.\n\n[123] Hippe's analysis, p. 159, is not quite adequate.\n\n[124] Russian I. is the only other variant that I know which makes\nthe dead man uneasy in his grave.\n\n[125] So also in Servian I. and Icelandic II., cited above, as well\nas Bohemian and Simrock VII., for which see below.\n\n[126] See pp. 79 f.\n\n[127] See pp. 85-87.\n\n[128] See Amis et Amiles und Jourdains de Blaivies, ed. K. Hofmann, 2nd\ned. 1882; Amis und Amiloun zugleich mit der altfranzoesischen Quelle,\ned. E. Koelbing, 1884, with the comprehensive discussion of versions\nin the introduction; also Koelbing, \"Zur Ueberlieferung der Sage von\nAmicus und Amelius,\" in Paul und Braune's Beitraege iv. 271-314; etc.\n\n[129] Hippe's analysis, p. 156, is different from mine, and is taken\nfrom a less trustworthy source. I use the summary of the Ghent text.\n\n[130] See p. 49 for other tales in which the dead man is a friend of\nthe hero's.\n\n[131] Geschichte des spanischen Nationaldramas, i. 141.\n\n[132] Sir Amadas, for which see p. 37.\n\n[133] Irish I., for which see pp. 62 and 64, Breton I., p. 65, and\nSir Amadas.\n\n[134] vii.\n\n[135] Hippe's Lithauische III.\n\n[136] See Hippe, pp. 156 f.\n\n[137] Thus III. makes the princess a daughter of the King of Portugal,\nas in I.; IV. gives no names whatever; and V. makes the heroine's\nfather King of England.\n\n[138] From Gascony, like III., IV., and V.\n\n[139] The portraits are not displayed on the ship, but on Jean's\ncarriage,--a curious deviation.\n\n[140] See pp. 27 and 57.\n\n[141] See chapter vii.\n\n[142] See pp. 104 f.\n\n[143] II. is the only version which has Jean make his first two voyages\non land, a trait which contradicts the general testimony of the tales\nthroughout the chapter.\n\n[144] See pp. 85 f.\n\n[145] P. 146.\n\n[146] See The Legend of Perseus, E. S. Hartland, 1896, volume iii.\n\n[147] See p. 103 above.\n\n[148] In Jean de Calais IX. they set out together, but to the hero's\nhome.\n\n[149] So also in Transylvanian. Similarly the hero offers to give\nall of his wife, instead of dividing her, in Dianese, Old Swedish,\nand Old Wives' Tale.\n\n[150] See pp. 100-102.\n\n[151] See pp. 85 f.\n\n[152] See pp. 105 f.\n\n[153] See the paper by Kittredge, Journal of American Folk-Lore,\nxviii. 1-14, 1905.\n\n[154] See pp. 107 f.\n\n[155] In this connection it is cited by Kittredge in the study above\nmentioned, pp. 9 f.\n\n[156] See p. 108.\n\n[157] See p. 101.\n\n[158] See pp. 31 f.\n\n[159] The same loss is evident in Catalan, Spanish, Simrock I.,\nand Simrock VII.\n\n[160] See p. 27 for Jewish.\n\n[161] That is, the rescue of the bridegroom from the creatures which\npossess the bride.\n\n[162] See p. 4 above.\n\n[163] Of course this excludes the group connected with Oliver, which\nhas no proper connection with the compound type.\n\n[164] The most adequate treatment of the motive yet published\nis by August Wuensche, Die Sagen vom Lebensbaum und Lebenswasser,\n1905, pp. 90-104. This is the same study which had previously been\nprinted in the Zts. f. vergleichende Litteraturgeschichte, 1899,\nN.F. xiii. 166-180, but is furnished with a new introduction and a\nfew additional illustrations. Dr. Wuensche's monograph, thoroughgoing\nand conclusive as it is with reference to the myths of the Tree of\nlife and the Water of Life, leaves much to be desired as an account\nof the folk-tale based on the latter belief. He himself says in his\npreface, p. iv: \"Man sieht auch daraus, dass es sich um Wanderstoffe\nhandelt, an die sich immer neue Elemente ankristallisiert haben.\" These\nelements he has not studied with any degree of completeness. Thus,\nfor example, he does not use Cosquin's valuable contributions in\nContes populaires de Lorraine, i. 212-222, which would have given\nhim valuable assistance. The theme yet awaits definitive treatment.\n\n[165] See Wuensche, p. 92.\n\n[166] P. 71.\n\n[167] \"The Fountain of Youth,\" Journal of the American Oriental\nSociety, xxvi. 1st half, 19 and 55.\n\n[168] Hopkins, pp. 19, 42, 55, etc.\n\n[169] Wuensche, p. iii: \"Es sind altorientalische Mythen, die in\nalle Kulturreligionen uebergangen sind. Zeit und Ort haben ihnen ein\nsehr verschiedenes Gepraege gegeben, der Grundgedanke ist derselbe\ngeblieben.\"\n\n[170] P. 71. See also Hopkins, p. 55.\n\n[171] Contes populaires de Lorraine, i. 213.\n\n[172] Pp. 90 f.\n\n[173] See pp. 125-127 below.\n\n[174] Pp. 212-214. He regards the story in Wolf, Hausmaerchen, p. 230,\nas linking the two.\n\n[175] P. 91. Cosquin, it will be noted, makes the fruit an alternative\nof the water of life.\n\n[176] For example, \"The Baker's Three Daughters\" in Mrs. M. Carey's\nFairy Legends of the French Provinces, 1887, pp. 86 ff., unites the\nwater of life with both the magical apples and the bird.\n\n[177] The need of such a study may be shown by stating that, while\nWuensche has treated about thirty variants, I know at present of\nsomething like four times that number.\n\n[178] See p. 118 above.\n\n[179] This well-known maerchen has been treated by various scholars,\nmost recently by G. L. Kittredge, in Arthur and Gorlagon (Studies and\nNotes in Philology and Literature, viii.) 1903, pp. 226 f., from whom\nI take the liberty of transcribing the following references, some of\nwhich would otherwise be unknown to me. In note 2 to p. 226 he says:\n\"See Benfey, Das Maerchen von den 'Menschen mit den wunderbaren\nEigenschaften,' Ausland, 1858, pp. 969 ff. (Kleinere Schriften\nII. iii. 94 ff.); Wesselofsky, in Giovanni da Prato, Il Paradiso\ndegli Alberti, 1867, I. ii. 238 ff.; d'Ancona, Studj di Critica\ne Storia Letteraria, 1880, pp. 357-358; Koehler-Bolte, Ztsch. des\nVer. f. Volkskunde, vi. 77; Koehler, Kleinere Schriften, i. 192 ff.,\n298 ff., 389-390, 431, 544; ii. 591; Cosquin, Contes pop. de Lorraine,\ni. 23 ff.; Crane, Italian Popular Tales, p. 67; Nutt, in MacInnes, Folk\nand Hero Tales, pp. 445 ff.; Laistner, Raetsel der Sphinx ii. 357 ff.;\nSteel, Tales of the Punjab, pp. 42 ff.; Jurkschat, Litauische Maerchen,\npp. 29 ff.; etc.\" A peculiarly interesting specimen is that in Blade,\nContes pop. de la Gascogne, 1886, iii. 12-22. See also Luzel, Contes\npop. de Basse-Bretagne, 1887, iii. 296-311; Carnoy and Nicolaides,\nTraditions pop. de l'Asie Mineure, 1889, pp. 43-56; and Goldschmidt,\nRussische Maerchen, 1883, pp. 69-78.\n\n[180] So I venture to call the story of the woman, who through\nenchantment or her own bad taste is the mistress of an ogre or some\nother monster. She is rescued by a hero, who is able to solve the\nextraordinary riddles or to accomplish the apparently impossible tasks\nwhich she sets him at the advice of the monster, after other suitors\nhave perished in the attempt. See Kittredge, Arthur and Gorlagon,\np. 250 (note to p. 249); Wesselofsky, Arch. f. slav. Phil. vi. 574. A\ngood specimen tale is \"The Magic Turban\" in R. Nisbet Bain's Turkish\nFairy Tales, 1901, pp. 102-111.\n\n[181] Kittredge thus summarizes the tale (work cited, p. 226):\n\"Three or more brothers (or comrades) are suitors for the hand\nof a beautiful girl. While her father is deliberating, the girl\ndisappears. The companions undertake to recover her. One of them,\nby contemplation (or by keenness of sight), finds that she has been\nstolen by a demon (or dragon) and taken to his abode on a rock in the\nsea. Another builds a ship by his magic (or possesses a magic ship)\nwhich instantly transports them to the rock. Another, who is a skilful\nclimber, ascends the castle and finds that the monster is asleep with\nhis head in the maiden's lap. Another, a master thief, steals the\ngirl without waking her captor. They embark, but are pursued by the\nmonster. One of the companions, an unerring shot, kills the pursuer\nwith an arrow. The girl is restored to her parents.\" This analysis\nwould not hold for all variants, even when uncompounded (e.g. Grimm,\nKinder- und Hausmaerchen, No. 71, \"Sechse kommen durch die ganze Welt\")\nbut a better could scarcely be made without a systematic study of the\ntype. As Kittredge notes, the companions are not at all constant in\nnumber and function.\n\n[182] Hungarian I., Rumanian II., Straparola II., Sicilian, and\nTreu Heinrich.\n\n[183] Thus Hungarian I. and Rumanian II. with Polish, Sicilian with\nHarz II.\n\n[184] Possibly a trace of some such story as The Quest of the Sword\nof Light discussed by Kittredge, Arthur and Gorlagon, pp. 214 ff.\n\n[185] Since twelve brothers set out to win twelve sisters, there\nis probably a union here with the widespread tale of The Brothers\nand Sisters.\n\n[186] The ship that will travel equally well on land and water is\nseemingly a common trait in forms of The Skilful Companions. See the\nvariant cited from Blade on p. 125, note 3. It occurs in a curious\ntale from Mauritius, given by Baissac, Le Folk-lore de l'Ile-Maurice,\n1888, p. 78.\n\n[187] For examples of stories in which a king's son liberates one\nor more prisoners, and has the service returned in an emergency,\nsee Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v. 42-48.\n\n[188] See Jonckbloet, ii. 131 ff.\n\n[189] Paris, Hist. litt. de la France, xxx. 82.\n\n[190] The only instance known to me where such transformation occurs\nwith reference to the hero.\n\n[191] Walewein and Lotharingian.\n\n[192] Like the wolf in Guillaume de Palerne, which is likewise a\ntransformed prince.\n\n[193] Lotharingian comes from a region farther north than any\nother, since the Dutch romance is merely a translation from Old\nFrench. Simrock IX. is from Tyrol.\n\n[194] See pp. 133-135.\n\n[195] I include all the tales treated in this chapter.\n\n[196] See pp. 58-73.\n\n[197] See p. 126, note 1.\n\n[198] See p. 134.\n\n[199] See p. 133, note 2.\n\n[200] See pp. 92 ff. above, and pp. 156-158 below.\n\n[201] With the form The Grateful Dead + The Water of Life simply.\n\n[202] Pp. 107 f., 111-115.\n\n[203] See pp. 133 f.\n\n[204] See pp. 145-147.\n\n[205] See pp. 146 f.\n\n[206] P. 143.\n\n[207] The date of Treu Heinrich. This gives the date a quo.\n\n[208] The compound existed before the fourteenth century certainly. See\npp. 117 f.\n\n[209] The date is here determined by the existence of Walewein.\n\n[210] Brazilian.\n\n[211] Venetian has, however, united with other material, which may\naccount for this in the one case.\n\n[212] The date of Straparola, one of whose stories belongs to this\nclass.\n\n[213] The compound The Grateful Dead + The Poison Maiden had been in\nexistence since the end of the first century, as Tobit proves.\n\n[214] See pp. 89 f.\n\n[215] See pp. 33-40.\n\n[216] See pp. 92-96.\n\n[217] See pp. 131-134.\n\n[218] P. 149.\n\n[219] The date of Richars.\n\n[220] See pp. 50, 58.\n\n[221] See pp. 92-111.\n\n[222] See p. 92.\n\n[223] As in Lithuanian II., Breton VII., Simrock I., and Factor's\nGarland.\n\n[224] As in Transylvanian.\n\n[225] As in Jean de Calais I.-X., Basque II., Irish I., Breton I. and\nIII., Simrock II. and VIII., and Sir Amadas.\n\n[226] As in Gaelic.\n\n[227] See p. 95.\n\n[228] See pp. 93 f.\n\n[229] See p. 94.\n\n[230] See references in Publ. Mod. Lang. Ass. xx. 545.\n\n[231] See my article in Publ. Mod. Lang. Ass. xix. 427, 430-432.\n\n[232] Pantschatantra, i. Sec.71.\n\n[233] i. 207.\n\n[234] i. 219.\n\n[235] Pp. 126 f.\n\n[236] See p. 27.\n\n[237] So in Polish of the type The Grateful Dead + The Water of Life\nthe ghost appears as a plank. See p. 128.\n\n[238] See p. 57.\n\n[239] See pp. 100-102, 104 f.\n\n[240] See pp. 108 ff.\n\n[241] See pp. 115 f.\n\n[242] See pp. 112 f.\n\n[243] See pp. 135 ff.\n\n[244] See also p. 151.\n\n[245] See pp. 28 f.\n\n[246] See the comment of von der Leyen,\nArch. j. d. St. d. n. Spr. cxiv. 12.\n\n[247] ii. 136.\n\n[248] ii. 121. The story, however, belongs to the domain of general\nliterature.\n\n[249] See A. Wiedemann, Die Toten und ihre Reiche im Glauben der\nalten Aegypter, p. 21 (Der alte Orient, ii, 1900).\n\n[250] Zend-Avesta, Vendidad, chaps, v. xii.\n\n[251] x. 18. 1.\n\n[252] Iliad, xxiii. 71 ff.\n\n[253] ix. 32.\n\n[254] See pp. 26 f.\n\n[255] Ed. Bartsch, xviii. st. 910 and 911.\n\n[256] P. 27.\n\n[257] P. 28.\n\n[258] Traditions et superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne, 1882, i. 238 f.\n\n[259] MacCulloch, Guernsey Folk Lore, 1903, pp. 283 f.\n\n[260] See W. Crooke in Folk-Lore, xiii. 280-283.\n\n[261] Book iii. w. 4726 ff. of the whole poem (2nd ed. J. Small,\n1883, E. E. T. S. orig. ser. 11, p. 153).\n\n[262] Annamite is an exception, but it cannot be regarded as having\nany organic connection with the cycle.\n\n[263] See Heidelberger Jahrbuecher, 1868, p. 449.\n\n[264] Ruling out Simonides, of course, as not clearly belonging to\nthe cycle.\n\n[265] Siberian, it will be remembered, is of the same type as Tobit.\n\n[266] See Hertz, pp. 151-155.\n\n[267] For examples, see Hertz, pp. 106-115.\n\n[268] It is not clear whether she was actually divided in the primitive\nforms, or merely threatened. In either case the union would take\nplace as stated.\n\n[269] Armenian and Siberian give adequate evidence as to the truth\nof the latter statement, though more Asiatic variants of this type\nare to be desired.\n\n[270] Servian III., Esthonian II., and Rumanian I.\n\n[271] See p. 82.\n\n[272] See pp. 116 f.\n\n[273] See pp. 40 f.\n\n[274] See pp. 125-127, 151 f.\n\n[275] See the author's study, \"Forerunners, Congeners, and Derivatives\nof the Eustace Legend\" in Publ. Mod. Lang. Ass. xix. 335-448.","title":"The Grateful Dead: The History of a Folk Story","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":59018}