THE GRATEFUL DEAD THE HISTORY OF A FOLK STORY BY GORDON HALL GEROULD B. LITT. (OXON.) PRECEPTOR IN ENGLISH IN PRINCETON UNIVERSITY Published for the Folk-Lore Society by DAVID NUTT, 57-59 LONG ACRE LONDON [1908] Scanned, proofed and formatted at sacred-texts.com, October 2007 by John Bruno Hare. This text is in the public domain because it was published prior to 1923. These files may be used for any purpose. Click to enlarge Title Page Click to enlarge Verso [p. vii] GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD. [p. viii] TO PROFESSOR A. S. NAPIER IN GRATITUDE AND FRIENDSHIP [p. x] TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE INTRODUCTION I. A REVIEW II. BIBLIOGRAPHY III. TALES WITH THE SIMPLE THEME AND MISCELLANEOUS COMBINATIONS IV. THE GRATEFUL DEAD AND THE POISON MAIDEN V. THE GRATEFUL DEAD AND THE RANSOMED WOMAN VI. THE GRATEFUL DEAD AND THE WATER OF LIFE OR KINDRED THEMES VII. THE RELATIONS OF THE GRATEFUL DEAD TO THE SPENDTHRIFT KNIGHT, THE Two FRIENDS, AND THE THANKFUL BEASTS VIII. CONCLUSION INDEX [p. ix] INTRODUCTION. THE combination of narrative themes is so frequent a phenomenon in folk and formal literature that one almost forgets to wonder at it. Yet in point of fact the reason for it and the means by which it is accomplished are mysteries past our present comprehension. If we could learn how and where popular tales unite, if we could formulate any general principle of union or severance, we should be well on the way to an understanding of the riddle which has hitherto baffled all students of narrative, namely, the diffusion of stories. We have theories enough; our immediate need is for more studies of individual themes, careful and, if it must be, elaborate discussions of many well-known cycles. Happily, these are accumulating and give promise of much useful knowledge at no distant day. One principle has become clear. Since motives are so frequently found in combination, it is essential that the complex types be analyzed and arranged, with an eye kept single nevertheless to the master-theme under discussion. Collectors, both primary and subsidiary, have done such valiant service that the treasures at our command are amply sufficient for such studies, so extensive, indeed, that the task of going through them thoroughly has become too great for the unassisted student. It cannot be too strongly urged that a single theme in its various types and compounds must be made predominant in any useful comparative study. This is true when the sources and analogues of any literary work are treated; it is even truer when the bare motive is discussed. The Grateful Dead furnishes an apt illustration of the necessity of such handling. It appears in a variety of different [p. x] combinations, almost never alone. Indeed, it is so widespread a tale, and its combinations are so various, that there is the utmost difficulty in determining just what may properly he regarded the original kernel of it, the simple theme to which other motives were joined. Various opinions, as we shall see, have been held with reference to this matter, most of them justified perhaps by the materials in the hands of the scholars holding them, but none quite adequate in view of later evidence. The true way to solve the riddle appears to be this: we must ask the question,--what is the residuum when the tale is stripped of elements not common to a very great majority of the versions belonging to the cycle? What is left amounts to the following,--the story reduced to its lowest terms, I take it. A man finds a corpse lying unburied, and out of pure philanthropy procures interment for it at great personal inconvenience. Later he is met by the ghost of the dead man, who in many cases promises him help on condition of receiving, in return, half of whatever he gets. The hero obtains a wife (or some other reward), and, when called upon, is ready to fulfil his bargain as to sharing his possessions. Nowhere does a version appear in quite this form; but from what follows it will be seen that the simple story must have proceeded along some such lines. The compounds in which it occurs show much variety. It will be necessary to study these in detail, not merely one or two of them but as many as can be found. Despite the bewildering complexities that may arise, I hope that this method of approach may throw some new light on the wanderings of the tale. Of my debt to various friends and to many books, though indicated in the body of the work, I wish to make general and grateful acknowledgment here. My thanks, furthermore, are due to the librarians of Harvard University for their courteous hospitality; to Professor G. L. Kittredge for his generous encouragement to proceed with this study, though he himself, as I found after most of my material was collected, had undertaken it several years before I began; and to Professor R. K. Root for his help in reading the proofs. [p. 1] CHAPTER I. A REVIEW. To Karl Simrock is due the honour of discovering the importance of The Grateful Dead for the student of literature and legend. In his little book, Der gute Gerhard and die dankbaren Todten, [*1] he called attention to the theme as a theme, and treated it with a breadth of knowledge and a clearness of insight remarkable in an attempt to unravel for the first time the mixed strands of so wide-spread a tale. Using the Middle High German exemplary romance, Der gute Gerhard, as his point of departure, he examined seventeen other stories, all but two of which have the motive well preserved. [*2] Unhappily, the versions which he found came from a limited section of Europe, most of them from Germanic sources. Thus he was led to an interpretation of the tale on the basis of Germanic mythology. This, though ingenious enough and very erudite, need not detain us. It was done according to a fashion of the time, which has long since been discarded. Simrock took the essential traits of the theme to be the burial of the dead and the ransom from captivity. [*3] "Wo nur noch eine von beiden das Thema zu bilden scheint," he said, "da hat die Ueberlieferung gelitten." Here again he was misled by the narrow [p. 2] range of his material, as later studies have shown. Nearly all the versions he cited have the motive of a ransomed princess, though the majority of the stories now known to be members of the cycle do not contain it. Three years after the publication of Simrock's monograph Benfey treated some features of the theme in a note appended to his discussion of The Thankful Beasts in the monumental Pantschatantra. [*1] Though he named but a few variants, he found an Armenian tale which he compared with the European versions, coming to the conclusion not only that the motive proceeded from the Orient but also that the Armenian version had the original form of it. That is, he took the ransom and burial of the dead, the parting of a woman possessed by a serpent, and the saving of the hero on the bridal night as the essential features. This was a step in advance. George Stephens in his edition of Sir Amadas [*2] held much the same view. He added several important versions, and scored Simrock for admitting Der gute Gerhard, saying that he could not see that it had "any direct connection" with The Grateful Dead. [*3] He was at least partly in the right, even though his statement was misleading. According to his opinion, [*4] "the peculiar feature of the Princess (Maiden) being freed from demonic influence by celestial aid, is undoubtedly the original form of the tale." In a series of notes beginning in the year 1858 Kohler [*5] supplied a large number of variants, which have been invaluable for succeeding study of the theme. Nowhere, [p. 3] however, did he give an ordered account of the versions at his command or discuss the relation of the elements--a regrettable omission. The contributions of Liebrecht, [*1] though less extensive, were of the same sort. In his article published in 1868 he said that he thought The Grateful Dead to be of European origin, [*2] but he added nothing to our knowledge of the essential form of the story. The following decade saw the publication by Sepp of a rather brief account of the motive, [*3] which was chiefly remarkable for its summary of classical and pre-classical references concerning the duty of burial. Like Stephens he assumed that the release of a maiden from the possession of demons was an essential part of the tale. In 1886 Cosquin brought the discussion one step further by showing [*4] that the theme is sometimes found in combination with The Golden Bird and The Water of Life. He did not, however, attempt to define the original form of the story nor to trace its development. By all odds the most adequate treatment that The Grateful Dead has yet received is found in Hippe's monograph, Untersuchungen zu der mittelenglischen Romanze von Sir Amadas, which appeared in 1888. [*5] Not only did he gather together practically all the variants mentioned previous to that time and add some few new ones, but he studied the theme with such interpretative insight that anyone going over the same field would be tempted to offer an apology for what may seem superfluous labour. Such a follower, and all followers, must gratefully acknowledge their indebtedness to his labours. [p. 4] Yet one who follows imperfectly the counsels of perfection may discover certain defects in Hippe's work. He neglects altogether Cosquin's hint as to the combination of the theme with The Water of Life and allied tales, thus leaving out of account an important element, which is intimately connected with the chief motive in a large number of tales. Indeed, his effort to simplify, commendable and even necessary as it is, brings him to conclusions that in some respects, I believe, are not sound. Though he states the essential points of the primitive story in a form [*1] which can hardly be bettered and which corresponds almost exactly to the one that I have been led to accept from independent consideration of the material, [*2] he fails to see that he is dealing in almost every case, not with a simple theme with modified details but with compound themes. Thus he starts out with the "Sage vom dankbaren Toten und der Frau mit den Drachen im Leibe" [*3] and explains all variations from this type either by the weakening of this feature and that or by the introduction of a single new motive, the story of The Ransomed Woman. He would thus make it appear [*4] that we have a well-ordered progression from one combined type to various other combined and simplified types. Such a series is possible without doubt, but it can hardly be admitted till the interplay of all accessible themes, which have entered into combination with the chief theme, is investigated. Hippe passes these things [p. 5] over silently and so gives the subject a specious air of simplicity to which it has no right. I should be the last to deny the necessity of treating narrative themes each for itself, and I have nothing but admiration for the general conduct of Hippe's investigation; but I wish to show that his methods, and therefore his results, are at fault in so far as he does not recognize the nature of the combinations into which The Grateful Dead enters. Traces of other stories, unless their presence is obviously artificial, must be carefully considered, since in dealing with cycles of such fluid stuff as folk-tales it is certainly wise to give each element due consideration. Certain minor errors in Hippe's article will be mentioned in due course, though my constant obligations to it must be emphasized here. Since the appearance of Hippe's study no one has treated The Grateful Dead with such scope as to modify his conclusions. Perhaps the most interesting work in the field has been that of Dr. Dutz [*1] on the relation of George Peele's Old Wives' Tale to our theme. He follows Hippe's scheme, but gives some interesting new variants. Of less importance, but useful within its limits, is the section devoted to the saga by Dr. Heinrich Wilhelmi in his Studien uber die Chanson de Lion de Bourges. [*2] Though he added no new versions, the author studied in detail the relationship of some of the mediaeval forms to one another, basing his results for the most part on careful textual comparison. His gravest fault was the thoroughly artificial way in which he mapped out the field as a whole, a method which could lead only to erroneous conclusions, since he classified according to a couple of superficial traits. An English study by Mr. F. H. Groome on Tobit and Jack the Footnotes ^1:1 1856. ^1:2 Guter Gerhard, as will be seen later, does not follow the theme at all. ^1:3 P. 114. ^2:1 1859, i. 219-221. ^2:2 Ghost-Thanks or The Grateful Unburied, A Mythic Tale in its Oldest European Form, Sir Amadace, 1860. ^2:3 P. 9. ^2:4 P. 7. ^2:5 Germania, iii. 199-210, xii. 55 ff.; Or. u. Occ. ii. 322-329, iii. 93-103; Arch. f. slav. Phil. ii. 631-634, v. 40 ff.; Gonzenbach, Sicilianische Marchen, 1870, ii. 248-250. ^3:1 Heidelberger Jahrbucher der Lit. 1868, lxi. 449-452, 1872, lxv. 894 f.; Germania, xxiv. 132 f. ^3:2 P. 449. ^3:3 Altbayerischer Sagenschatz zur Bereicherung der indogermanischen Mythologie, 1876, pp. 678-689. ^3:4 Contes populaires de Lorraine, i. 214, 215. ^3:5 Archiv f. d. Stud. d. neueren Sprachen, lxxxi. 141-183. ^4:1 P. 167. "Ein Jungling zeigt sich menschenfreundlich gegen die Leiche eines Unbekannten (indem er dieselbe vor Schimf bewahrt, bestattet, etc.). Der Geist des Toten gesellt sich darauf zu ihm und erweist sich ihm dankbar, indem er ihm zu Reichtum und zum Besitze des von ihm zur Frau begehrten Madchens verhilft, jedoch unter der Bedingung, dass er dereinst alles durch ihn Gewonnene mit ihm teile. Der Jungling geht auf diesen Vertrag ein, und der Geist stellt sich nach einer gewissen Zeit wieder ein, um das Versprochene entgegenzunehmen, verlangt aber nicht die Halfte des gewonnene Gutes, sondern die der Frau. (Schluss variabel.)" ^4:2 See . above. ^4:3 P. 180. ^4:4 See his scheme on p. 181. ^5:1 Der Dank des Todten in der englischen Literatur, Jahresbericht der Staats-Oberrealschule in Troppau, 1894. ^5:2 Marburg diss. 1894, pp. 43-63. [p. 6] [paragraph continues] Giant-Killer [*1] unhappily was written without regard to the previous literature of the subject, and simply rehearses a number of well-known variants. In this brief review I have touched only on such studies of The Grateful Dead as have materially enlarged the knowledge of the subject or have attempted a discussion of the theme in a broad way. In the following chapter reference will be made to other works, in which particular versions have been printed or summarized. ^6:1 Folk-Lore, ix. 226-244 (1898). [p. 7] CHAPTER II. BIBLIOGRAPHY. THE following list of variants of The Grateful Dead includes only such tales as have the fundamental traits. as sketched above, either expressed or clearly implied, Thus Der gute Gerhard, for example, is not mentioned because it has only the motive of The Ransomed Woman, while one of the folk-tales from Hungary is admitted because it follows in general outline one of the combined types to be discussed later, even though the burial of the dead is obscured. I cite by the short titles which will be used to indicate the stories in the subsequent discussion. The arrangement is roughly geographical. TOBIT. In the apocryphal book of Tobit. According to Neubauer, The Book of Tobit, a Chaldee Text from a unique MS. in the Bodleian Library, 1878, p. xv, Tobit was originally written in Hebrew, although the Hebrew text preserved was taken from Chaldee. Neubauer (p. xvii) quotes Graetz, Geschichte der Juden, (2nd ed.) iv. 466, as saying that the book was written in the time of Hadrian, and he concludes that it cannot be earlier because it was unknown to Josephus. The correspondence with Sir Amadas, and thus with The Grateful Dead generally, seems to have been first noted by Simrock, p. 131 f., again by Kohler, Germania, iii. 203, by Stephens, p. 7, by Hippe, p. 142, etc. [p. 8] ARMENIAN. A. von Haxthausen, Transkaukasia, 1856, i. 333 f. A modern folk-tale. Reprinted entire by Benfey, Pantschatantra, i. 219, note, and by Kohler, Germania, iii. 202 f. A somewhat inadequate summary is given by Hippe, p. 143; a better one is found in Arch. f. slav. Phil. v. 43, by Kohler, who mentioned the tale again in Or. und Occ. ii. 328, and iii. 96. Summarized also by Sepp, p. 681, Groome, Folk-Lore, ix. 228 f., and mentioned by Wilhelmi, p. 45. JEWISH. Reischer, Schaare Jeruschalajim, 1880, pp. 86-99. Summarized by Gaster, Germania, xxvi. 200-202, and from him by Hippe, pp. 143, 144. A modern folk-tale from Palestine. ANNAMITE. Landes, Contes et legendes annamites, 1886, pp. 162, 163, "La reconnaissance de l'etudiant mort." A modern folk-tale. SIBERIAN. Radloff, Proben der Volkslitteratur der turkischen Stamme Sud-Siberiens, 1866, i. 329-331. See Kohler, Arch. f. slav. Phil. v. 43, note. SIMONIDES. Cicero, De Divinatione, i. 27, referred to again in ii. 65 and 66. Retold by Valerius Maximus, Facta et Dicta, i. 7; after him by Robert Holkot, Super Libras Sapientie, Lectio 103; and again by Chaucer in the Nun's Priest's Tale, Cant. Tales, B, 4257-4294. For the relationship of Chaucer's anecdote to those in Latin see Skeat, note in his edition, Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, 1892, ii. 274, and Petersen, On the Sources of the Nonne Prestes Tale, 1898, pp. 106-117. Connected with The Grateful Dead by Freudenberg in a review of Simrock in Jahrbucher des Vereins von Alterthumsfreunden im Rheinlande, xxv. 172. See also Kohler, Germania iii. 209, Liebrecht in Heidelberger Jahrbucher der Lit. lxi. 449, 450, and Sepp. p. 680. Not treated by Hippe. GYPSY. A. G. Paspati, Etudes sur les Tchinghianes ou Bohemiens de l'Empire Ottoman, 1870, pp. 601-605, Translated from Paspati [p. 9] by F. H. Groome, Gypsy Folk-Tales, 1899, pp. I-3. Summarized by Kohler, Arch. f. slav. Phil. v. 43 and carelessly by Hippe, p. 143. This tale was heard near Adrianople. Cited by Foerster, Richars li Biaus, p. xxviii, and by Wilhelmi, p. 45. GREEK. J. G. von Hahn, Griechische und albanesische Marchen, 1864, no. 53, pp. 288-295, "Belohnte Treue." Summarized in part by Hippe, p. 149. See also Liebrecht, Heid. Jahrbucher, lxi. 451, and by Groome, Folk-Lore, ix. 243. This tale was found in northern Euboea. MALTESE. Hans Strummed, Maltesische Marchen, Gedichte und Ratsel, 1904, no. 12, pp. 39-45. RUSSIAN I. Afansjew, Russische Volksmarchen, Heft 6, p. 323 f. Analyzed by Schiefner, Or. und Occ. ii. 174, 175, and after him by Hippe, p. 144, with some omissions. See Kohler, Or. und Occ. 93-103, and Sepp, p. 684. RUSSIAN II. Chudjakow, Grossrussische Marchen, Heft 3, pp. 165-168. Translation by Schiefner, Or. und Occ. iii. 93-96 in article by Kohler. In English by Groome, Folk-Lore, ix. 229 ff. Summarized by Kohler, Arch. f. slav. Phil. v. 43, and (with an important omission) by Hippe, pp. 144, 145. See Kohler's notes in Gonzenbach, Sicilianische Marchen, ii. 250. RUSSIAN III. Reproduced from an illustrated folk-book in the Publications of the Society of Friends of Old Literature in St. Petersburg, 1880, no. 49. Summarized by V. Jagi###263###, Arch. f. slav. Phil. v. 480, and by Hippe, p. 145. Jagi###263### remarks that the tale must have been widely known in Russia in the eighteenth century, though clearly of foreign origin. RUSSIAN IV. Dietrich, Russische Volksmarchen in den Urschrift gesammelt, 1831, no. 16, pp. 199-207. English translation, Russian Popular Tales. Translated from the German Version of Anton Dietrich, [p. 10] [paragraph continues] 1857, pp. 179-186. "Sila Zarewitsch und Iwaschka mit dem weissen Hemde." Like other tales in the collection this was taken from a popular print bought at Moscow. Mentioned by Benfey, Pantschatantra, i. 220, and by Kohler, Or. u. Occ. ii. 328. RUSSIAN V. [*1] P. V. ###352###ejn, Materialien zur Kenntniss der russischen Bevolkerung von Nordwest-Russland, 1893, ii. 66-68, no. 33. Cited by Polivka in Arch. f. slav. Phil. xix. 251. RUSSIAN VI. P. V. ###352###ejn, work cited, ii. 401-407, no 227. Cited by Polivka, Arch. f. slav. Phil. xix. 262. SERVIAN I. Vuk Stefanovi###263### Karad###372###i###263###, 2nd ed. of his Servian folk-tales, 1870. Translated by Madam Mijatovies (Mijatovich), Serbian Folk-Lore, 1874, p. 96. Summarized from Servian by Kohler, Arch. f. slav. Phil. ii. 631, 632, and from him by Hippe, p. 145. SERVIAN II. Summarized from Gj. K. Stefanovi###263###'s collection, 1871, no. 15, by Jagi###263### in Arch. f. slav. Phil. v. 40 f. with the title "Vlatko und der dankbare Todte." Thence by Hippe, p. 145. SERVIAN III. Jagi###263### in Arch. f. slav. Phil. v. 41 f, from Stojanovi###263###'s collection, no. 31. Hippe's summary, p. 146, is exceedingly brief and faulty. SERVIAN IV. Jagi###263###, Arch. f. slav. Phil. v. 42, from Matica, B. 105 (A.D. 1863, St. Novakovi###263###). Summary of this by Hippe, p. 146. Jagi###263### calls the tale "Ein Goldfisch." SERVIAN V. Krauss, Sagen und Marchen der Sudslaven, 1883, I. 385-388, "Der Vilaberg." Summarized by Dutz, p. 11. [p. 11] SERVIAN VI. Krauss, work cited, i. 114-119. "Fuhrmann Tueguts Himmelswagen." From the manuscript collection of Valjavec. Summarized by Dutz, p. 18, note 2. BOHEMIAN. [*1] Waldau, Bohmisches Marchenbuch, 1860, pp. 213-241. Mentioned by Kohler, Or. und Occ. ii. 329, and by Hippe, p. 146. Summarized by the former, iii. 97 f. POLISH. K. W. Wojcicki, Klechdy, Staro.zytne podania i powie###337###ci ludowe, 2nd ed., Warsaw, 1851. Translated into German by F. H. Lewestam, Polnische Volkssagen und Marchen, 1839, pp. 130 ff; into English by A. H. Wratislaw, Sixty Folk-Tales from exclusively Slavonic Sources, 1889, pp. 121 ff.; and into French by Louis Leger, Recueil de contes populaires slaves, 1882, pp. 119 ff. Summarized by Kohler, Germania, iii. 200 f., and by Hippe, pp. 146 f. See also Sepp, p. 684, Dutz, p. 11, Groome, Gypsy Folk-Tales, p. 3, note, and Arivau, Folk-Lore de Proaza, 1886, p. 205. BULGARIAN. Lydia Schischmanoff, Legendes religieuses bulgares, 1896, no. 77, pp. 202-209, [*2] "Le berger, son fils, et l'archange." LITHUANIAN I. L. Geitler, Litauische Studien, 1875, pp. 21-23. Analyzed by Kohler, Arch. f. slav. Phil. ii. 633, and after him briefly by Hippe, [*3] p. 147, as his "Lithuanian II." LITHUANIAN II. Kohler, Arch. f. slav. Phil. ii. 633 f. From Prussian Lithuania. Summarized by Hippe, p. 147, as his "Lithuanian III." [p. 12] HUNGARIAN I. G. Stier, Ungarische Sagen und Marchen, 1850, pp. 110-122. Mentioned by Kohler, Germania, iii. 202, and by Hippe, p. 147. HUNGARIAN II. G. Stier, Ungarische Volksmarchen, 1857, pp. 153-167. Summarized by Kohler, Germania, iii. 199 f., and too briefly by Hippe, p. 148. RUMANIAN I. Arthur Schott, Neue walachische Marchen, in Hacklander and Hoefer's Hausblatter, 1857, iv. 470-473. Mentioned by Stephens, p. 10, Hippe, p. 147, and Benfey, Pantschatantra, ii. 532. RUMANIAN II. F. Obert. Romanische Marchen und Sagen aus Siebenburgen, in Das Ausland, 1858, p. 117. Mentioned by Kohler, Germania, iii. 202, and by Hippe, p. 147. TRANSYLVANIAN. Haltrich, Deutsche Volksmarchen aus dem Sachsenlande in Siebenburgen, 1856, pp. 42-45. Analyzed by Kohler, Or. und Occ. ii. 326, and incompletely by Hippe, p. 148. Mentioned by Stephens, p. 10, and Sepp, p. 684. ESTHONIAN I. Schiefner, Or. und Occ. ii. 175 f., whence the analysis by Hippe, p. 148. ESTHONIAN II. Reisen in mehrere russische Gouvernements in den fahren 1801, 1807 und 1815, 1830, v. 186-192, from Ein Ausflug nach Esthland im Junius 1807. Reprinted by Kletke, Marchensaal, 1845, ii. 60-62. Summarized by Dutz, p. 18, note 3. FINNISH. Liebrecht, Germania, xxiv. 131, 132. Communicated by Schiefner from Suomen, Kansan Satuja, Helsingfors, 1866. Summarized by Hippe, pp. 148 f. CATALAN. F. Maspons y Labros, Lo Rondollayre: Quentos populars catalans, Segona Serie, 1872, no. 5, pp. 34-37. Analyzed by [p. 13] [paragraph continues] Liebrecht, Heid. Jahrbucher der Lit. lxv. 894 (1872), and after him by Hippe, p. 151. Mentioned by d'Ancona, Romania, iii. 192, and by Foerster, Richars li Biaus, p. xxviii. SPANISH. Duran, Romancero general, 1849-51, u. 299-302, nos. 1291, 1292. Summarized by Kohler, Or. und Occ. ii. 323 f. and after him by Cosquin, Contes populaires, i. 215, and by Hippe, p. 151. [*1] Mentioned by Sepp, p. 686. LOPE DE VEGA. Comedy in two parts, Don Juan de Castro. According to J. R. Chorley, Catalogo de comedias y autos de Frey Felix de Vega Carpio, p. 5, this play is to be found in Part xix. of the Comedias published in 1623 (later issues 1624, 1625, and 1627). A. Schaeffer, Geschichte des spanischen Nationaldramas, 1890, i. 141, says that the second part, called Las aventuras de don Juan de Alarcos, is in Part xxv. of Lope's comedies. The entire play is edited by Hartzenbusch, Comedias Escogidas de Lope de Vega, iv. 373 ff. and 395 ff. in the Biblioteca de autores espanoles, lii. Schaeffer, pp. 141, 142, gives a careful summary of the play, and Kohler, Or. und Occ. iii. too f., gives another. The latter is followed by Hippe, p. 151. Mentioned by Duran, Romancero general, ii. 299, by Sepp, p. 686, and by Wilhelmi, pp. 45 ff. and 60. CALDERON. El Mejor Amigo el Muerto, by Luis de Belmonte, Francisco de Rojas, and Pedro Calderon de la Barca, in Biblioteca de autores espanoles, xiv. 471-488, and in Comedias escogidas de los mejores ingenios de Espana, 1657, ix. 53-84. Analyzed by Kohler, Or. und Occ. iii. 100 f., and briefly after him by Hippe, p. 151. Mentioned by Sepp, p. 686, and by Wilhelmi, pp. 60 f. Schaeffer, work cited, ii. 283 f., says that a play of this name was written by Belmonte alone in 1610, which was revised about 1627 with the aid of Rojas and Calderon. [p. 14] TRANCOSO. [*1] Contos e historias de proveito e exemplo, by Goncalo Fernandez Trancoso, Parte 2, Cont. ii., first published in 1575 and frequently re-issued during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the edition published at Lisbon in 1693, our tale is found on pp. 45r.-60r.; and in that published at the same place in 1710, on pp. 110-177. Menendez y Pelayo, Origenes de la Novela (Nueva Biblioteca de autores espanoles vii.), 1907, ii. lxxxvii ff., gives a bibliography, the table of contents, and a description of the work on the basis of seventeenth century editions; on p. xcv. he connects the tale above-mentioned with The Grateful Dead. See T. Braga, Contos tradicionaes do povo portuguez, 1883, ii. 63-128, who prints nineteen of the tales in abbreviated form, but not ours. NICHOLAS. Johannes Junior (Gobius), Scala Celi, 1480, under Elemosina. Gobius was born in the south of France and lived about the middle of the fourteenth century. [*2] Summary by Simrock, pp. 106-109. Mentioned by Hippe, p. 169. RICHARS. Richars li Biaus, ed. W. Foerster, 1874. A romance written in Picardy or eastwards in the thirteenth century (Foerster, p. xxi). Analyzed by Kohler, Revue critique, 1868, pp. 412 ff., and Hippe, p. 155. Compared in detail with Lion de Bourges by Wilhelmi, pp. 46 ff. LION DE BOURGES. An Old French romance known to exist in two manuscripts, the earlier dating from the fourteenth century, [*3] the later from [p. 15] about the end of the fifteenth. [*1] It has never been edited, but the portion which concerns us was analyzed in detail by Wilhelmi, pp. 18-38. This summary I have made the basis of my discussion. The romance was mentioned by P. Paris, Foerster, and Suchier (as cited in note below), Gautier, Les epopees francaises, 1st ed. 1865, i. 471-493, Ebert, Jahrbuch f. rom. und engl. Lit. iv. 53, 54, and Benfey, Pantschatantra, i. 220. A prose translation into German is found in manuscripts of the fifteenth century, which does not differ materially from the original. [*2] This was printed in 1514, and summarized by F. H. von der Hagen, Gesammtabenteuer, 1850, i. xcvii-xcix, Simrock, pp. 104-106, and Hippe, p. 154. See E. Muller, Uberlieferung des Herpin von Burges, 1905, who analyzes the work and treats its relations to Lion. OLIVER. Olivier de Castille et Artus d'Algarbe, a French prose romance composed before 1472, according to Foulche-Delbosc (Revue hispanique, ix. 592). The first and second editions were printed at Geneva, the first in 1482, the second before 1492. [*3] There exist at least three manuscripts of the work from the fifteenth century: MS. Bibl. nat. fran. 12574 (which attributes the romance to a David Aubert, according to Grober, Grundriss der rom. Phil. ii. 1, 1145); MS. Brussels 3861; and Univ. of Ghent, MS. 470. The designs of the last have been reproduced, together with a summary of the text, by Heins and Bergmans, Olivier de Castille, 1896. An English translation was printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1518. A translation from the second French edition into Castilian was made by Philippe Camus, which was printed thirteen times between 1499 and 1845. [*4] The edition of 1499 has lately been reproduced in facsimile by A. M. Huntington, La historia de los nobles caualleros Oliueros de castilla y artus dalgarbe, 1902. A German translation from the French was made by Wilhelm Ziely in 1521, and this was translated into English by Leighton and Barrett, The History of Oliver and Arthur, 1903. From the [p. 16] [paragraph continues] German prose Hans Sachs took the material for his comedy on the theme (publ. 1556). A summary of Ziely's work is given by Frolicher, Thuring von Ringoltingen's "Melusine," Wilhelm Ziely's "Olivier und Artus" und "Valentin und Orsus," 1889, pp. 65 f., which is used by Wilhelmi, pp. 55, 56, in his comparison of the romance with Richars and Lion de Bourges. An Italian translation, presumably from the French, was printed three or four times from 1552 to 1622. [*1] A summary of the story is given in Melanges tires d'une grande bibliotheque, by E. V. 1780, pp. 78 ff., with an incorrect note about the romance, reproduced by Hippe, pp. 155 f., with an analysis from the same source of the part of the tale belonging to our cycle. Robert Laneham in his list of ballads and romances, made in 1575, mentions Olyuer of the Castl. See Furnivall, Captain Cox, his Ballads and Books, Ballad Soc. 1871, vii. xxxvii and 30. JEAN DE CALAIS. I. Mme. Angelique de Gomez, Histoire de Jean de Calais, 1723. Sketched in the Bibliotheque universelle des romans, Dec. 1776, pp. 134 ff. Kohler, Germania, iii. 204 ff., gives a summary of the work, which Mme de Gomez stated was "tire d'un livre qui a pour titre: Histoire fabuleuse de la Maison des Rois de Portugal." A later anonymous redaction of this Jean de Calais exists in prints of 1970, 1776, and 1787, and it continued to be issued in the nineteenth century. Summarized by Hippe, pp. 156 f., and by Sepp, pp. 685 f. Mentioned by Kohler in Gonzenbach, Sicil. Marchen, ii. 250. II. Blade, Contes populaires de la Gascogne, 1886, ii. 67-90. This and the following folk-versions of Jean deserve careful consideration because of the interesting character of their variations. III. J. B. Andrews, Folk-Lore Record, iii. 48 ff., from Mentone. See Liebrecht, Engl. Stud. v. 158, and Hippe, p. 157. IV. and V. J. B. Andrews, Contes ligures, traditions de la Riviere, 1892, pp. 111-116, no. 26, and pp. 187-192, no. 41. These two versions differ slightly from one another, but more from the preceding. [p. 17] VI. P. Sebillot, Contes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne, 3me. serie, 1882, pp. 164-171. VII. Wentworth Webster, Basque Legends, 1877, pp. 151-154. See Luzel, Legendes chretiennes, p. 90, note. VIII. A. Le Bras, La legende de la mort chez les Bretons armoricains, nouv. ed., 1902, ii. 211-231. IX. L. Giner Arivau, Folk-Lore de Proaza (Asturia), in Biblioteca de las tradiciones populares espanolas, viii. 194-201 (1886). X. Gittee and Lemoine, Contes populaires du pays Wallon, 1891, pp. 57-61. WALEWEIN. Roman van Walewein, ed. Jonckbloet, 1846. Analyzed by G. Paris, Hist. litt. de la France, xxx. 82-84, and by W. P. Ker, The Roman van Walewein (Gawain) in Folk-Lore, V. 121-127 (1894). My analysis is a combination made from these two summaries. LOTHARINGIAN. Cosquin, Contes populaires de Lorraine, 1886, i. 208-212 (no. xix). Noted by Hippe, p. 157. GASCONIAN. Cenac Moncaut, Contes populaires de la Gascogne, 1861, pp. 5-14, "Rira bien qui rira le dernier." Summarized by Kohler, Or. und Occ. ii. 329. Mentioned by Hippe, p. 157, and by Groome, Folk-Lore, ix. 239. DIANESE. Novella di Messer Dianese e di Messer Gigliotto, ed. d'Ancona and Sforza, 1868. Analyzed by Liebrecht, Heid. Jahrbucher der Lit. lxi. 450 (1868), by d'Ancona, Romania, iii. 191, (reprinted in his Studj di critica e storia, 1880, p. 353), and by Hippe, p. 152. D'Ancona's summary is from Papanti, nov. xxi. The variant is of the fourteenth century, according to the writer of the introduction of the edition of 1868, p. 5. See also Foerster, Richars li Biaus, p. xxiv, and Wilhelmi, pp. 44 and 57. STELLANTE COSTANTINA. D'Ancona, Romania, iii. 192, mentions the popular poem Istoria bellissima di Stellante Costantina figliuola del gran turco, la quale fu rubata da certi cristiani che teneva in torte suo padre e fu venduta [p. 18] a un mercante di Vicenza presso Salerno, con molti intervalli e successi, composta da Giovanni Orazio Brunetto. I have not been able to find this poem and do not know how closely it accords with Dianese. STRAPAROLA I. Notti piacevoli, notte xi, favola 2. Analyzed by Grimm, Kinder- und Hausmarchen, 1856, iii. 289; and rather too briefly by Simrock, pp. 98-100, and Hippe, p. 153. See Benfey, Pant. i. 221, Kohler in Gonzenbach, Sicil. Marchen, ii. 249, and Groome, Tobit and Jack, Folk-Lore, ix. 226 f., and Gypsy Folk-Tales, p. 3, note. STRAPAROLA II. Notti piacevoli, notte v, favola 1. See Benfey, Pant. ii. 532. TUSCAN. G. Nerucci, Sessanta novelle popolari, 1880, pp. 430-437, no. lii. A folk-tale from the neighbourhood of Pistoia. See Webster, Basque Legends, pp. 182-187, Crane, Italian Popular Tales, p. 350, and Cosquin, Contes populaires, i. 215. ISTRIAN. Ive, Novelline popolari rovignesi, 1877, p. 19. See d'Ancona, Studj di critica, 1880, p. 354, and the summary by Crane, Italian Popular Tales, 1885, no. xxxv. pp. 131-136, from whom, as Ive's collection has been inaccessible to me, I derive my knowledge of the story. Crane gives the title of Ive as Fiabe, etc., d'Ancona as above. VENETIAN. G. Bernoni, Tradizioni populari veneziane, 1875, pp. 89-96. Referred to by Crane, Italian Popular Tales, p. 350. SICILIAN. Laura Gonzenbach, Sicilianische Marchen, 1870, ii. 96-103. Summarized briefly by Hippe, pp. 153 f., and by Groome, Folk-Lore, ix. 239 f. BRAZILIAN. Romero and Braga, Contos populares do Brazil, 1885, no. x. pp. 215. See Cosquin, Contes populaires, i. 215. [p. 19] BASQUE I. Wentworth Webster, Basque Legends, 1877, pp. 182-187. See Cosquin, Contes populaires, i. 215, and Luzel, Legendes chretiennes, p. 90, note. BASQUE II. Webster, work cited, pp. 146-150. See Crane, Italian Popular Tales, p. 351. GAELIC. Campbell, Popular Tales of the West Highlands, new ed. 1890, 11. 121-140, no. 32, "The Barra Widow's Son." Summarized by Kohler, Or. und Occ. ii. 322 f., by Sepp, p. 685, by Hippe, p. 150, and by Groome, Folk-Lore, ix. 235. See Kohler in Gonzenbach, Sicil. Marchen, ii. 249, and Groome, Gypsy Folk-Tales, p. 3, note. IRISH I. W. Larminie, West Irish Folk-Tales and Romances, 1893, pp. 155-167, "Beauty of the World." Mentioned by Kittredge, Harvard Notes and Studies, viii. 250, note. IRISH II. Douglas Hyde, Beside the Fire. A Collection of Irish Gaelic Folk-Stories, 1890, pp. 18-47, "The King of Ireland's Son." [*1] Mentioned by Kittredge, place cited. IRISH III. P. Kennedy, Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts, 1866, pp. 32-38, "Jack the Master and Jack the Servant." BRETON I. Souvestre, Le foyer breton, contes et recits populaires, nouv. ed. 1874, ii. 1-21. Analyzed by Simrock, pp. 94-98, by Sepp, p. 685, and in part by Hippe, p. 149. See Luzel, Legendes chretiennes, i. 90, note. BRETON II. F. M. Luzel, Legendes chretiennes de la Basse-Bretagne, 1881, i. 68-90, "Le fils de Saint Pierre." Cited by von Weilen, Zts. f. [p. 20] vergl. Litteraturgeschichte, N.F. i. 105. Analyzed in part by Hippe, pp. 149 f. BRETON III. Luzel, work cited, ii. 40-58. Mentioned by von Weilen, place cited, and analyzed by Hippe, p. 150. The title, slightly misquoted by Hippe, is "Cantique spirituel sur la charite que montra Saint-Corentin envers un jeune homme qui fut chasse de chez son pere et sa mere, sans motif ni raison." BRETON IV. P. Sebillot, Contes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne, 1880, pp. 1-8. Noted by Luzel, work cited, p. 90, note, and by Cosquin, Contes populaires, i. 215. BRETON V. F. M. Luzel, Contes populaires de Basse-Bretagne, 1887, ii. 176-194, "La princesse Marcassa." BRETON VI. F. M. Luzel, work cited, ii. 209-230, "La princesse de Hongrie." BRETON VII. F. M. Luzel, work cited, i. 403-424, "Iouenn Kermenou, l'homme de parole." OLD SWEDISH. Stephens, pp. 73 f., reprinted with translation from his Ett Forn-Svenskt Legendarium, 1858, ii. 731 f. This variant from 1265-1270 is analyzed by Hippe, pp. 158 f. SWEDISH. P. O. Backstrom, Svenska Folkbocker, 1845-48, ii. 144-156, from H--d (Hammarskold) and I--s (Imnelius), Svenska Folksagor, 1819, i. 157-189. Backstrom also cites several editions of the folk-book, which he says is of native origin. Mentioned by Stephens, p. 8. Summarized by Liebrecht, Germania, xxiv. 130 f., and by Hippe, p. 158. DANISH I. S. Grundtvig, Gamle Danske Minder i Folkemunde, 1854, pp. 77-80, "Det fattige Lig." Mentioned by Stephens, p. 8, by [p. 21] [paragraph continues] Hippe, p. 160, and by Wilhelmi, p. 45. Summarized by Kohler, Or. und Occ. iii. 99. DANISH II. Grundtvig, work cited, pp. 105-108, "De tre Mark." Summarized by Kohler, Or. und Occ. iii. too. Cited by Hippe, p. 160, and Wilhelmi, p. 45. DANISH III. Andersen, "Reisekammeraten," in Samlede Skrifter, xx. 54 ff. (1855). Found in most English editions of Andersen's tales as "The Travelling Companion." Based on Norwegian II. Analyzed by Sepp, p. 678. Cited by Kohler, Or. und Occ. ii. 327, by Hippe, p. 159, and by Groome, Gypsy Folk-Tales, p. 3, note. NORWEGIAN I. Asbjornsen, Iuletraeet, 1866, no. 8, and Norske Folke-Eventyr, 1871, no. 99, pp. 198-201. Summarized by Liebrecht, Heid. Jahrbucher der Lit. lxi. 451 (1868), and by Hippe, p. 159. See Liebrecht, Germania, xxiv. 131. NORWEGIAN II. Asbjornsen, Illustreret Kalender, 1855, pp. 32-39, Iuletraeet, no. 9, and Norske Folke-Eventyr, no. 100, pp. 201-214. Translated by Dasent, Tales from the Fjeld, 1874, pp. 71-88. Cited by Stephens, p. 8, Liebrecht, Germania, xxiv. 131, and Groome, Gypsy Folk-Tales, p. 3, note. Somewhat inadequate summaries by Liebrecht, Heid. Jahrbucher der Lit. lxi. 452, Hippe, p. 159, and Groome, Folk-Lore, ix. 230. ICELANDIC I. Arnason, Islenzkar yjodsogur og Aefintyri, 1864, ii. 473-479. English translation in Powell and Magnusson, Legends Collected by Jon. Arnason, 1866, pp. 527-540. German translation in Poestion, Islandische Marchen, 1884, p. 274. Cited by Liebrecht. Heid. Jahrbucher, lxi. 451, and Germania, xxiv. 131, and by Wilhelmi, p. 45. Summary by Kohler, Or. und Occ. iii. 101 f., and by Hippe, p. 159. ICELANDIC II. A. Ritterhaus, Die neuislandischen Volksmarchen, 1902, no. 57, pp. 232-235. From MS. 537, Landesbibliothek, Reykjavik. [p. 22] RITTERTRIUWE. F. H. von der Hagen, Gesammtabenteuer, 1850, i. 105-128, no. 6. A poem of 866 lines from the fourteenth century. Summaries in Benfey, Pant. i. 221, in Simrock, pp. 100-103, and, with a rather bad error, in Hippe, p. 264. See Foerster, Richars li Biaus, p. xxiv. Compared with Richars, Oliver, and Lion de Bourges by Wilhelmi, pp. 56 f. TREU HEINRICH. Der Junker und der treue Heinrich, ed. K. Kinzel, 1880. Previously edited and analyzed by von der Hagen, Gesammtabenteuer, iii. 197-255, no. 64. Summary by Simrock, pp. 103 f. Cited by Hippe, p. 165. SIMROCK I. J. W. Wolf, Deutsche Hausmarchen, 1858, pp. 243-250, contributed by W. von Plonnies. Summary by Simrock, pp. 46-5i, by Kohler, Or. und Occ. iii. 98, and by Sepp, p. 683. Cited by Hippe, p. 165. SIMROCK II. W. von Plonnies in Zts. f. deutsche Myth. ii. 373-377. From the Odenwald. Summary by Simrock, pp. 51-54. See Hippe, p. 165. This is the story analyzed by Sepp, p. 688 f., though he also refers to Wolf's and Zingerle's tales. SIMROCK III. E. Meier, Or. und Occ., 1852, no. 42. pp. 243-153. Summarized by Simrock, pp. 54-58, Kohler, Or. und Occ. iii. 99, and Sepp, pp. 686 f. See Hippe, p. 165. SIMROCK IV. H. Prohle, Kinder- und Volksmarchen, 1853, pp. 239-246. Summary by Simrock, pp. 58-62. See Hippe, p. 165. SIMROCK V. Simrock, pp. 62-65, contributed by Zingerle, who afterwards printed it in the Zts. f. deutsche Myth. ii. 367 ff., in Sagen, Marchen und Gebrauche aus Tirol, 1859, pp. 444 f., and in Kinder- und Hausmarchen aus Tirol, 2nd ed., 1870, pp. 261-267. Analyzed without mention of source by Sepp, pp. 687 f. See Hippe, p. 165. [p. 23] SIMROCK VI. Simrock, pp. 65-68, from Xanten. See Hippe, p. 165. SIMROCK VII. Simrock, pp. 68-75, from Xanten. See Hippe, p. 165. SIMROCK VIII. F. Woeste, Zts. f. deutsche Myth. iii. 46-50, from Grafschaft Mark. Given by Simrock, pp. 75-80. Analyzed by Sepp, p. 685, who inadvertently speaks of it as "nach irischer Sage." See Hippe, p. 165. SIMROCK IX. Simrock, pp. 80-89, contributed by Zingerle, who afterwards printed it in Sagen, Marchen und Gebrauche aus Tirol, 1859, pp. 446-450, and in Kinder- und Hausmarchen aus Tirol, 2nd ed., 1870, pp. 254-260. See Stephens, p. 9, Hippe, pp. 165 f., and Wilhelmi, p. 45. SIMROCK X. Simrock, pp. 89-94, from the foot of the Tomberg. Summarized by Kohler, Or. und Occ. ii. 326. See Hippe, p. 166, and Wilhelmi, P. 45. OLDENBURGIAN. L. Strackerjan, Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogtum Oldenburg, 1867, ii. 308 ff. Cited by Hippe, p. 166, and by Foerster, Richars li Biaus, p. xxviii. HARZ I. A. Ey, Harzmarchenbuch, 1862, pp. 64-74. Summary by Kohler, Or. und Occ. iii. 96. Cited by Hippe, p. 166. HARZ II. A. Ey, work cited, pp. 113-118. Summary by Kohler, Or. und Occ. iii. 97. Cited by Hippe, p. 166. SIR AMADAS. Ed. Weber, Metrical Romances, 1810, iii. 241-275, Robson, Three Early English Metrical Romances, 1842, pp. 27-56, Stephens, Ghost-Thanks, 1860. Stephens seems to have been the first to note the connection of Sir Amadas with The Grateful Dead. The romance, as it is preserved in two manuscripts of the fifteenth [p. 24] century, must accordingly have been composed as early as the second half of the preceding century. It contains 778 verses in the tail-rhyme stanza. Summarized by Kohler, Or. und Occ. ii. 325, by Foerster, Richars li Biaus, pp. xxiv-xxvi, by Groome, Folk-Lore, ix. 236, and by Hippe (with great care), pp. 160-164. Compared with Oliver by Wilhelmi, pp. 58 f. JACK THE GIANT KILLER. Found without essential difference in several chapbooks, the earliest owned by the British Museum being entitled: The Second Part of | Jack and the Giants. | Giving a full Account of his victorious Conquests over | the North Country Giants; destroying the inchanted | Castle kept by Galligantus; dispersed the fiery Grif- | fins; put the Conjuror to Flight; and released not | only many Knights and Ladies, but likewise a Duke's | Daughter, to whom he was honourably married. Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1711. [*1] Other editions with the story are: The History of Jack and the Giants, Aldermary Churchyard, London; same title, Bow Church Yard, London; same title, Cowgate, Edinburgh; The Pleasant and delightful History of Jack and the Giants, Nottingham, Printed for the Running Stationers, and The Wonderful History of Jack the Giant-Killer, Manchester, Printed by A. Swindells; all without date. The Newcastle edition was reprinted by Halliwell-Phillipps in Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales, 1849, in which our tale appears at pp. 67-77. Apparently the British Museum copy dated 1711 is that owned by Halliwell-Phillipps. From his edition it has been reprinted by Groome, Folk-Lore, ix. 237 f., and summarized by Kohler, Or. und Occ. ii. 327 f., and Sepp, p. 685. See also Stephens, p. 8. Hippe, p. 164, and Wilhelmi, p. 45. FACTORS' GARLAND. [*2] The Factor's Garland or The Turkey Factor, a tale in English verse, which may be regarded as a popular ballad, though by no [p. 25] means as a primitive one. It has often been reprinted as a chapbook or broadside. The library of Harvard University possesses copies of no less than eight different editions (see W. C. Lane, Catalogue of English and American Chap-Books and Broadside Ballads in Harvard College Library, 1905, nos. 809-815, 2420). An examination of these shows that they differ from each other in no essential point, though they vary considerably in statements of time. The British Museum Catalogue of Printed Books lists seven editions, all different from those at Harvard, with one possible exception. The popularity of the story, at one time at least, is thus strikingly illustrated. Another variant, reported from oral tradition, has been found in North Carolina. See the paper read by J. B, .Henneman before the Modern Language Association of America on Dec. 29, 1906. OLD WIVES' TALE. George Peele, The Old Wives' Tale (1590), published in 1595, Ed. by Dyce, 1828 and 1861, by Bullen, 1888, and by Gummere in Gayley's Representative English Comedies, 1903, pp. 349-382. See H. Dutz for an elaborate discussion of the connection of the play with our theme. FATAL DOWRY. Philip Massinger (and Nathaniel Field), The Fair Penitent. First printed in 1632. Ed. A. Symons, Mermaid Series, 1889, ii. 87-182. FAIR PENITENT. Nicholas Rowe, The Fair Penitent, The Dramatick Works of Nicholas Rowe Esq., 1720, vol. i. Footnotes ^10:1 I have to thank the kindness of Professor Leo Wiener for my knowledge of the content of Russian V. and VI., which he was good enough to translate for me from the dialect of White Russia. ^11:1 What the two Bohemian variants contain, which are mentioned by Benfey, Pantschatantra, i. 221, note, by Stephens, p. 10, by Kohler, Germania, iii. 199-209, and Or. und Occ. ii. 328, note, and by Hippe, p. 146, I have been unable to ascertain. ^11:2 On pp. 194-201 is found a curious "Echo de l'histoire de Tobie." ^11:3 Hippe's first Lithuanian tale is a variant of The Water of Life and will be treated in another connection. ^13:1 Hippe speaks of "zwei spanische Romanzen." Had he consulted the Spanish text or read Kohler's note more attentively, he would have seen that a single story runs through nos. 1291 and 1292 of the Romancero. ^14:1 My attention was called to this variant by the kindness of Professor F. De Haan, and I was supplied with a first summary from the 1693 edition by the friendly aid of Professor G. T. Northup. ^14:2 See Crane, Exempla of Jacques de Vitry, 1890, p. lxxxvi. ^14:3 P. Paris, Manuscrits francois, 1840, iii. I, and Foerster, Richars li Blazes, 1874, p. xxvii, date it from the fifteenth century; Suchier, Oeuvres poetiques de Philippe de Beaumanoir, 1884, p. lxxxiv, and Wilhelmi, p. 15, from the fourteenth century. ^15:1 P. Paris, place cited, and Foerster, place cited, say the sixteenth century, but Wilhelmi, place cited, the fifteenth. ^15:2 See Wilhelmi, p. 43. ^15:3 Foulche-Delbosc, pp. 589, 590. ^15:4 Work cited, pp. 587, 588. ^16:1 Place cited. ^19:1 My attention was first called to this story by the kindness of Professor A. C. L. Brown. ^24:1 An edition with an almost identical title "Printed and sold by Larkin How, in Petticoat Lane," of which a copy is in the Harvard College Library, does not contain our story. ^24:2 My attention was called to this variant by the kindness of Professor Kittredge. [p. 26] CHAPTER III. TALES WITH THE SIMPLE THEME AND MISCELLANEOUS COMBINATIONS. OF the tales enumerated in the previous chapter, over one hundred in number, all but seventeen fall into well-defined categories as having The Grateful Dead combined with one or more of three given themes: The Possessed Woman, The Ransomed Woman, and The Water of Life. Of these seventeen variants, moreover, only four can be regarded as having the simple motive of The Grateful Dead; and they are in part doubtful members of the family. The first of them is Simonides, thus related by Cicero: "Unum de Simonide: qui cum ignotum quendam proiectum mortuum vidisisset eumque humavisset haberetque in animo navem conscendere, moneri visus est ne id faceret ab eo, quem sepultura adfecerat; si navigavisset, eum naufragio esse periturum; itaque Simonidem redisse, perisse ceteros, qui tum navigavissent." The source of Cicero's story we do not know, but in all probability it was Greek. Whether it really belongs to our cycle, being so simple in form and nearly two centuries earlier in date than any other version yet unearthed, is a matter for very great doubt. It may have arisen quite independently of other similar tales in various parts of the world, and have no essential connection with our tale; but it deserves special consideration, not only from its antiquity, but also from its subsequent history in lineal descent through Valerius [p. 27] [paragraph continues] Maximus, and possibly Robert Holkot [*1] to Chaucer. We are at least justified in looking for some influence of so well-known an anecdote upon better-authenticated members of the cycle. The three other variants with the simple theme are all folk-tales of recent gathering. The first of them is Jewish, [*2] which runs as follows: The son of a rich merchant of Jerusalem sets off after his father's death to see the world. At Stamboul he finds hanging in chains the body of a Jew, which the Sultan has commanded to be left there until his co-religionists shall have repaid the sum that the man is suspected of having stolen from his royal master. The hero pays this sum, and has the corpse buried. Later during a storm at sea he is saved by a stone on which he is brought to land, whence he is carried by an eagle back to Jerusalem. There a white-clad man appears to him, explaining that he is the ghost of the dead, and that he has already appeared as stone and eagle. The spirit further promises the hero a reward for his good deed in the present and in the future life. The second variant is the Annamite tale. Two poor students were friends. One died and was buried by the other, whose fidelity was such that he remained three years by the tomb. He dreamed that his friend came to him and said that he should gain the title of tr###7841###ng nguyen. So he built a chapel by the tomb, where the dead friend often appeared to him. When the king heard of his loyalty, he was praised and rewarded with a title. After his [p. 28] death the two friends appeared to their son and daughter, bidding them marry. [*1] The third story is Servian VI. An uncle of Adam, who honoured God and the "Vile," [*2] was so good a man that God came to him in human form one day. After a battle between the good and evil in the world, the latter would not bury the slain. The Vile told Tuegut that this would not do, so he hitched up his wagon and carried the slain to their graves. Then God came to earth, told him to put all he possessed in his wagon, and carried him on a cloud to heaven, where he was made the constellation now called Driver Tuegut's Heavenly Wagon. Of these three tales the Annamite does not fulfil the usual condition that the dead man shall be a stranger to the one who does the good action. Together with Simonides, all of them vary widely in the reward given the hero. In Simonides he is warned against embarkation, and thus saved from shipwreck; in the Jewish he is actually rescued from a storm-tossed vessel by the ghost, which masquerades as a rock and an eagle, and afterward promises him further rewards here and hereafter; in the Annamite he is provided with earthly glory; and in Servian VI. he becomes a part of the galaxy of heaven. Only the underlying idea is the same,--that the burial of the dead is a pious act and a sacred duty, which will meet a fitting reward. [*3] This belief is so widespread and ancient that it is not difficult to surmise how stories inculcating the duty might have grown up independently in many lands. At the same time, the very diversity of reward in these simple tales allies them to one or another of the compound types, which, though [p. 29] multiform and widespread, are yet unmistakably the offspring of a single parent form, or better, of a chance union between two motives. [*1] Thus Simonides and Jewish recall the combination of The Grateful Dead with The Ransomed Woman, since they have the hero rescued from drowning by the ghost, and they suggest one point of union between the two themes. It therefore seems best to include them in our list, not only for the sake of completeness, but because they point to the reason which sometime and somewhere gave rise to a more developed form of the motive,--to the marchen as we shall study it. A consideration of these basal principles can be undertaken, however, only after the story theme in its various ramifications and modifications has been thoroughly discussed. The probability that The Grateful Dead once existed in a simple, uncompounded form, which became the parent on one side of the more important combined types, is strengthened by the minor compounds in which it is found. How can the correspondences of detail seen in a considerable number of different compounds, as far as they run parallel, he otherwise explained? Surely it is more reasonable to believe in the existence of such a parent form than to suppose that an originally complicated form was hacked and hewn asunder to produce new compounds. This will become clearer, I hope, as we proceed. In Greek, a boy was sold to a pasha, who betrothed him to his daughter. Because of the mother's objections, however, he was sent away as a shepherd, while the girl was promised to another pasha's son. The hero fed his flock under the shelter of the castle, and was summoned by the maiden, who gave him her betrothal ring in a [p. 30] beaker, though pretending not to know him. The next day she asked her parents to let the two suitors go into the world with a thousand piasters apiece, and see which came back with the most money. So they were sent forth. The pasha's son remained in a city enjoying his money, while the shepherd went on till he met an old man, to whom he told his story. The man gave him a thousand piasters more, and told him to buy an ape in a town hard by. He succeeded in doing this, and brought the ape back to the old man, who cut it in pieces, much to the youth's disgust, and made eye-salve of the brain. With this he sent the hero away after exacting a promise of half of what was obtained. The youth won a thousand piasters by curing the blind, and later a great sum, besides thirty ships, by healing a very rich man. With this wealth he returned to the old man, and with him to the city where the pasha's son had sojourned. The latter agreed to let the shepherd's seal be burned on his arm in return for the payment of his debts; but, while the hero and the old man sailed home, he rode fast by land with the story that his rival was dead. The shepherd arrived at home just in time for his rival's wedding, and at the end of it showed the bride her ring. She recognised her lover, called her parents, and, after the hero had told his story and proved it by the seal on his rival's arm, married him. That night the old man knocked on the door of their chamber, and demanded that the bride be divided. According to his promise, the hero prepared to cut her in twain, when the intruder said that he wished only to test his fidelity, explaining that he was God, Who had taken him under His protection because his father had sold him in order to keep the lamp burning in honour of his saint. In this variant the elements of The Grateful Dead have been merged with a story about how a young man of low birth won a princess by overcoming another suitor in spite of the treachery of the latter. As I have met with but one [p. 31] example of this, from Lesbos, [*1] I will summarise it briefly. A princess becomes enamoured of the son of her father's gardener, and refuses to marry the son of the first minister. So the two suitors are sent out to a far country with the understanding that the one who returns first shall have the princess. On the way the gardener's son helps an old beggar-woman, whom his rival has spurned, and is told by her how to cure a sick king (by boiling him and sprinkling him with a certain powder). For this service the youth obtains a ring of bronze, which has the virtue of giving whatever its possessor desires. By means of this he gets a wonderful ship, and sails to the city where the minister's son, through extravagance, has fallen into poverty. He provides him with a wretched ship, in which to return home, on condition that he may mark him with his ring. The minister's son reaches home in his crazy vessel, and is about to marry the princess, when the hero appears on his beautiful ship of gold, exposes his rival, and weds the lady. The remainder of the story, which tells how the magical ring was lost and afterward recovered, does not concern us. It will be seen that Greek has preserved only the later part of The Grateful Dead at all clearly, though that combination with a tale of the type of the Lesbian narrative has actually taken place is evident from the part which the helper plays. He not only obtains a promise of division, but calls for its fulfilment. His first appearance is, however, quite unmotivated, while the old woman of the Lesbian story serves the purpose, according to a common formula, of showing the hero's kindness in contrast to his rival's hard heart. The point common to the two tales, which led to their combination, is without doubt this helping friend. In Servian V. a youth on a journey pays his all to rescue a debtor from hanging. By his new-found friend [p. 32] the youth is led to the wondrous Vilaberg, where he is left with the admonition that he must not speak. He disobeys, and is made dumb and blind by an enchantress; but he is cured by the man whom he rescued, who plays on a pipe and gives him a healing draught. So he dwells for some years in the mountain with one of the ladies as his wife, but afterward goes home, though every summer he returns to his friends in the Vilaberg. Here we have our theme combined with a form of The Swan-Maiden, [*1] which occurs in only one other case, as far as I am able to discover. The reason for the combination is not far to seek. The latter part of the tale represents the reward of the rescuer by the rescued. That the benefit does not take the form of actual burial need not disturb us. The man was at least far gone towards death, and he was a debtor--a trait found in about two-thirds of the variants known to me. Moreover, the supernatural character of the comrade is indicated by the adventure into which he leads the youth. The tale has been partly rationalised, that is all. Esthonian I. [*2] shows a different combination, which is unique as far as I know. In a gorge not far from the village of Arukala (near Wesenberg) a howling was heard every night for years. Finally a bold man went by night to the place and found the skeleton of a murdered king, which told him that it had howled thus for a hundred years because it had not been buried with holy rites. The next day the man took the bones to a priest, and, while burying them, discovered an enormous treasure. As Schiefner said, [*3] when he first printed the story, it recalls the Grimms' Der singende Knochen, [*4] which in turn is [p. 33] a compound of The Water of Life, with the idea of murder discovered by means of a dead man's bones. The Esthonian tale has, however, only the latter circumstance, combined with a simple form of The Grateful Dead. The hero's reward is immediate--he finds gold in the earth while digging the grave; and the ghost does not appear. The variant is thus of no great significance. The group of tales that must next be considered furnishes rather more important evidence as to the development of the theme. It is a compound of The Grateful Dead with the motive which we may call The Spendthrift Knight. As far as I know, the type is purely mediaeval. The group includes Richars, Lion de Bourges, Dianese, Old Swedish, Rittertriuwe, and Sir Amadas. The plot of Richars, as far as it concerns us, runs thus: Richars, in the pursuit of knightly exercises, wastes all his father's property as lord of Mangorie. When he hears that the King of Montorgueil has promised the hand of his daughter to the victor in a tourney, he is sad at the thought of his inability to engage. Through the generosity of a provost, however, he is enabled to set out with a horse, three attendants, and a supply of gold. At the city of Osteriche he spends part of his money in giving a great feast. In the roof of the house where he stays he is astonished to see a corpse lying on two beams, and he learns that it is the body of a knight, who died owing the householder three thousand pounds. Richars gives everything he has, even to his armour, to secure the release and burial of the dead man. He then proceeds to the tourney on a poor horse that his host gives him, and quite alone, since his attendants have deserted him. On the way he is joined by a White Knight, who offers him help in the tourney and places at his disposal his noble steed. Richars wins the tourney [p. 34] and obtains the hand of the Princess Rose. He now offers the White Knight his choice of the lady or the property. The stranger, however, refuses any division, explains that he is the ghost of the indebted knight, and disappears. [*1] Lion de Bourges runs thus: Lion, son of Duke Harpin de Bourges, was found by a knight in a lion's den and reared as his son. When he grew up, he wasted his foster-father's property in chivalry. Finally, he heard that King Henry of Sicily had promised the hand of his daughter to the knight who should win a tourney that he had established. So Lion started for the court, and on the way ransomed the body of a knight, which he found hanging in the smoke, on account of unpaid debts. At Montluisant the hero won the favour of the Princess Florentine, and, before the tourney, obtained from a White Knight the charger which he still lacked, on condition of sharing his winnings, the princess excepted. With the help of this knight Lion was victorious and obtained the princess. He was then asked by his helper to give up either the lady or the whole kingdom, and did not hesitate to do the latter. At this, the stranger explained that he was the ghost of the ransomed knight and disappeared, though he afterwards returned to assist the hero at need. [p. 35] According to Dianese, [*1] the knight of that name has wasted his substance. When he hears that the King of Chornualglia (Cornwall) has promised his daughter and half of his kingdom to the knight who wins the tourney that he has called, Dianese gets his friends to fit him out and sets forth. On the way he passes through a town where the traffic is diverted from the main street because of a corpse which has long been lying on a bier before a church. He learns that it is the body of a knight, who cannot be buried till his creditors have been paid. At the cost of everything he possesses, save his horse, the hero satisfies the creditors and has the knight buried. When he has gone on two miles, he is joined by a merchant, who promises him money, horses, and weapons if he will give in return half of what he wins in the tourney. Dianese agrees, is fitted out anew, and succeeds in overcoming all corners in the contest. Thus he obtains the hand of the princess and half the kingdom. With his bride, the merchant, and his followers he starts for home; but, when they are only a day's journey from their destination, he is required by the merchant to fulfil his promise--to choose between his bride as one half, his possessions as the other. Dianese takes the lady and rides on. Soon, however, he is joined by the merchant, who praises his faithfulness, gives up the treasures, explains that he is the ghost of the debtor knight, and disappears. In Old Swedish [*2] the daughter and heiress of the King of France promises to marry whatever knight is victor in a tourney which she announces. Pippin, the Duke of Lorraine, hears of this and sets out for France. At the end of his first day's journey he finds lodging at the house of a widow, who is lamenting because her husband, once in good circumstances, has died so poor that she cannot bury him properly. Pippin takes pity [p. 36] on her, and pays for the man's funeral. On his further journey he falls in with a man on a noble steed, who gives him the horse on condition of receiving half of whatever he shall win. Unthinkingly Pippin agrees and wins the tourney with the help of the horse. After he has married the princess, he is asked by the helper to fulfil his promise. He offers at first half, then the whole of his kingdom, in order to keep his bride, and is finally told by the man that he is the ghost of the dead, while the horse was an angel of God. Rittertriuwe is of the same romantic character. When Graf Willekin von Montabour had spent his substance in chivalrous exercises, he learned that a beautiful and rich maiden had promised her hand to the knight, who should win a tourney, which she had established. Thereupon he set forth and came to the place announced for the combats. There he found lodging in the house of a man, who would only receive him if he would promise to pay the debts of a dead man, whose body lay unburied in the dung of a horse-stall. [*1] Willekin was moved by this story and paid seventy marks, almost all his money, to ransom the corpse and give it suitable burial. He then had to borrow from his host in order to indulge in his customary generosity. On the morning of the jousting he obtained from a stranger knight a fine horse on condition of dividing everything that he won. He succeeded in the tourney above all the other contestants, and so wedded the maiden. On the second night after the marriage the stranger entered his room and demanded a share in his marital rights. After he had offered instead to give all his possessions, the hero started from the room in tears, when the stranger called him back and explained that he was the ghost of the dead, then disappeared. [p. 37] A brief summary of Sir Amadas, [*1] the last of the six variants, must now be given. Amadas finds himself financially embarrassed, and sets forth for seven years of errantry with only forty pounds in hand. This he pays to release and bury the body of a merchant who has died in debt. When thus reduced to absolute penury, Amadas meets a White Knight, who tells him that he will aid him on condition of receiving half the gains. The hero finds a rich wreck on the seacoast, and so with new apparel goes to the court, where he wins wealth in a tourney and the princess's heart at a feast. After he marries her and has a son born to him, the White Knight reappears and demands that the accepted conditions be complied with. Hesitatingly Amadas prepares to divide first his wife and afterwards his son, but he is stayed by the stranger, who explains that he is the ghost of the dead merchant. So Amadas is at last released from misfortune and lives in happiness. In all six of these stories we have a knight, who sets out to win a tourney in which the victor's prize is to be the hand of a princess. In all of them save Old Swedish he is represented as being impoverished by previous extravagance, in Richars, Lion de Bourges, and Rittertriuwe it being expressly stated that he had wasted his fortune by over-indulgence in his passion for jousting. On his way to the place appointed for the contest the hero pays for the burial [*2] of a man whose corpse is held for debt. [*3] He goes on and is approached either before (Richars, Lion de Bourges, Dianese, Old Swedish, and Sir [p. 38] [paragraph continues] Amadas) or after (Rittertriuwe) he reaches the lists by a man, who provides him with a horse, by the aid of which he wins the tourney and the princess. In Dianese the hero is a merchant, in Old Swedish his estate is not mentioned, but in the other four variants he appears, as a knight (a white knight in Richars, Lion de Bourges, and Sir Amadas). In Dianese the hero is also provided with armour; in Richars and Lion de Bourges he is assisted in his jousting by the White Knight; and in Sir Amadas he finds a wreck on the coast from which he obtains all things needful. In Richars we find the somewhat inept conclusion that the hero asks his friendly helper whether he will take the princess or the property [*1] as his share. The latter responds that he wishes only his horse, explains who he is, and vanishes. In all the other variants, however, the condition is made that the hero divide whatever he shall gain. [*2] With reference to Richars and Lion de Bourges, Wilhelmi's careful discussions has made it clear that, though they agree in many points as against all the other related versions, not only in respect to The Grateful Dead, but to the further course of a complicated narrative, neither one could have been taken from the other. The difference in the matter of the division between Richars and all the other variants he neglects, though it strengthens his position. Back of Richars and Lion de Bourges, earlier than the thirteenth century, there must have existed a literary work which was their common source. This hypothetical French romance may be considered as the foundation of the whole group which we are discussing. Since Old Swedish agrees with most of the other variants with regard to the division, and furthermore [p. 39] with Rittertriuwe, in stating that the hero offered all his property in order to keep his wife, there seems to be no doubt that it belongs to this particular group, despite the fact that it says nothing about the hero's poverty. The connection is not improbable on the score of chronology, if we suppose that the source of Richars and Lion de Bourges, or some similar tale, found its way into the North by translation in the first half of the thirteenth century, a time when translations into Icelandic at anyrate were made in great numbers. Indeed, the names Pippin, Lorraine, etc., immediately suggest a French source; and the story is not really a legend at all, though it appears in a legendary, but a narrative quite in the style of the romans d'aventure. With reference to Sir Amadas, two points of special interest appear. The hero is provided the wherewithal for his successful courtship by means of a wreck to which he is directed by the White Knight; and he is required to divide his child as well as his wife with his helper. These peculiarities, together with the different opening, make it improbable that Richars, as preserved, was the direct source of the romance, though its author may have known some text either of that romance, or of Lion de Bourges. It seems more likely, however, that the source of Sir Amadas was rather the common original of both those versions. In the present state of the evidence it is impossible to do more than to show, as I have attempted to do, that the fourteenth-century Sir Amadas is a member of the little group under discussion. The proposed division of the son is peculiarly important in that it connects the group with the stories in which The Grateful Dead is compounded with the theme of Amis and Amiloun. Indeed, the general relationship of The Spendthrift Knight to that theme must be considered in a later chapter [*1] after more important compounds have been [p. 40] discussed. It will be noted that the group just considered is purely literary and purely mediaeval. Though it has representatives in Italy, Germany, Sweden, and England, it is to all intents and purposes French in source and character. Five of its members are the only variants treated in this chapter where the question of dividing the hero's prize is brought up. The group thus stands by itself, and may be considered as an entity when we come to a discussion of the larger matters of relationship. A solitary folk-tale now demands attention--my Breton II. The Grateful Dead in a simple form is here combined with a story told of Gregory the Great, [*1] as Luzel, to whom the tale was recounted by a Breton peasant, indeed briefly noted. [*2] The Breton tale runs as follows: A rich lord and lady had no children. While the lady was praying to St. Peter in a chapel that was being repaired, she fell a victim to a young painter, and had by him a son, who was named after St. Peter. When the boy was twelve years of age, he carried St. Peter across a stream one day, while his shepherd companion [p. 41] carried Christ. The companion died soon after. Pierre then set forth to visit his patron in Paradise. On his way he stopped overnight at the house of an old woman, whose husband lay unburied because there was no money to pay the priest. Pierre gave all his money for the interment, and went on. When he came to the sea, a naked man, who said that he was the dead, carried him across to a point near the gates of Paradise. There he found Peter, and was shown the glories of heaven by the Saviour, as well as Purgatory and Hell. In the last he saw a chair reserved for his mother, but by his entreaties induced the Lord to grant her a release on condition of doing penance himself for her. So he was told to put on a spiked girdle, to throw the key of it into the sea, and not to take it off till the key should be found. After donning this instrument Pierre was carried by the ghost back to his own land, where he lived on alms--first on the public ways, and later, without discovering himself, in his father's castle. During his father's absence he was killed at the command of his mother, but was dug up alive by his father and treated with respect. One day at a feast he found the key in the head of a fish. When the girdle was opened, he died, and his soul was borne to heaven by angels. Two Danish variants present a curious but not inexplicable combination of The Grateful Dead with Puss in Boots, as was noted by Kohler. [*1] Danish I. relates how a youth pays three marks, which is his all, to bury the body of a dead man, for whose interment the priest has demanded payment in advance. He is then joined by another youth, who is the ghost of the dead, and goes to a certain city. There, by giving himself out as a prince at the advice of his companion, who provides him with proper trappings, he wins the hand of a princess. In Danish II. an old soldier pays his last three marks to [p. 42] prevent three creditors from digging up a corpse. He is joined by a pale stranger, who takes him in a leaden ship to a land where he marries a princess, who is fated to marry no one save a man who comes in this way. The stranger secures, by a lying ruse, a troll's castle for the hero, and, after explaining that he is the ghost of the buried debtor, disappears. The traces of the Puss in Boots motive [*1] are, I think, sufficiently clear, especially in the first of the two variants, since the point of that familiar tale is certainly that the hero marries a woman of high estate by making himself out as of equal rank, substantiating his statements by a succession of clever ruses. That the grateful dead enables him to fulfil the required conditions is an introduction that could easily replace the ordinary one, especially since a helper of some sort is necessary to the story. Just what the relation of these two variants is to other Puss in Boots stories does not here concern us. From the side of The Grateful Dead, however, it is possible to see how the combination--found only in two folk-tales from a single country, it will be observed--may have arisen. The benefits bestowed on the hero show an essential likeness to those found in a widespread compound type to be studied in a later chapter, [*2] where the thankful dead helps his friend to obtain a wife by the performance of some feat. Since the combination now in consideration seems to be confined to the region about Denmark, while mediaeval and modern examples of the other are found in many lands, it may be regarded as a mere variation on the better-known compound type, produced by the similarity of the two endings. Yet [p. 43] it has to be treated separately, because it involves an independent theme. An echo of the simple theme of The Grateful Dead is found in two English plays--Massinger's Fair Penitent and Rowe's Fair Penitent. In the former young Charalois goes to prison to release his father's body from the clutch of creditors, who wish to keep it unburied for vengeance. [*1] He is rescued by Rochfort, who pays the debts and gives him his daughter in marriage. The intrigues of love and vengeance that follow do not concern us. In Rowe's play, which was based on Massinger's, this part has been curtailed to a few slight references. Altamont gives himself as ransom for his father's body to the greedy creditors, who will not allow burial to take place. He is rewarded by the care and bounty of Sciolto, who becomes a second father to him. Stephens was certainly right in connecting [*2] the story in The Fair Penitent with The Grateful Dead, though it is only a fragment and lacks some of the most essential features of the complete theme. The ghost, indeed, does not appear at all, but the part played by Rochfort may be regarded as a greatly sophisticated reminiscence of that trait, especially since he not only rescues the hero, but provides him with a wife. The echo of the theme is too vague for us to distinguish the form in which it was found by Massinger, though I think that we should not go far wrong in supposing that he had in mind some narrative, either popular or literary, nearly approaching the compound type treated in chapter vi. below. As one of the comparatively few traces that the motive has left in England this double dramatic use is not without interest. [*3] Footnotes ^27:1 Miss Petersen's conclusion, Sources of the Nonne Prestes Tale, p. 109, note, is not altogether convincing, since the vogue of Valerius Maximus was so great that other authors than Holkot are likely to have quoted Cicero's stories from him. The book may yet be found in which the one follows the other "right in the nexte chapitre." ^27:2 Given by Hippe, pp. 143 f. Wherever Hippe's summaries are adequate and careful, I shall refer the reader to his monograph for comparison. ^28:1 This story has nothing in common with the mediaeval tale of the compact between two friends that the first to die shall appear to the other. See the writer's North-English Homily Collection, 1902, pp. 27-31. ^28:2 Apparently beneficent spirits, whose nature is half fairy and half angel. See Servian V. below. ^28:3 See chapter viii. and Sepp, pp. 678-680 for illustrations of the belief. ^29:1 One can conceive of separate generation of a very simple story under similar conditions, but not, I think, that a series of events showing combination of themes or detailed correspondence would so arise. ^31:1 Carnoy and Nicolaides, Traditions populaires de l'Asie Mineure, 1889, pp. 57-74. ^32:1 See Baring-Gould's Curious Myths, 2nd ed. 1869, pp. 561 ff. for a popular account. The philosophical basis of the tale is discussed by Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, 1879, pp. 54 ff. (from Germania, xiii. 161 ff.), and by Hartland, Science of Fairy Tales, 1891, pp. 255-332, 337-347. ^32:2 See Hippe, p. 148. ^32:3 Or. und Occ. ii. 176. ^32:4 Kinder- and Hausmarchen, no. 28. See notes (ed. 1856), iii. 55, 56; also Kohler, Kleinere Schriften, 1. 49, 54. ^34:1 See Hippe, p. 155. This analysis includes only the second of two well-defined parts. The first section is related to the English Sir Degarre (ed. from Auchinleck MS. for the Abbotsford Club, 1849; from Percy Folio, Hales and Furnivall, Percy Folio MS., 1868, iii. 16-48; early prints by Wynkyn de Worde, Copland, and John King; see G. Ellis, Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, 1811, iii. 458 ff., J. Ashton, Romances of Chivalry, 1887, pp. 103 ff., Paul's Grundriss, ii. i. 643). This connection was pointed out by Foerster, p. xxiii. The same material was used also in a Dutch chapbook, Jan wt den vergiere, of which a copy printed at Amsterdam is preserved at Gottingen. See the article "Niederlandische Volksbucher," by Karl Meyer, in Sammlung bibliothekswissenschaftlicher Arbeiten, ed. Dziatzko, viii. 17-22, 1895. I am indebted for this last reference to the kindness of Dr. G. L. Hamilton. ^35:1 See Hippe, pp. 152 f. ^35:2 See Hippe, pp. 158 f. ^36:1 This trait recalls the first of Chaucer's two stories in the Nun's Priest's Tale, Cant. Tales, B. 4174-4252, where the comrade is found buried with dung on a cart. ^37:1 For a fuller analysis see Hippe, pp. 160-164. ^37:2 In Richars, Lion de Bourges, Dianese, and Sir Amadas he pays his all, even to his equipment for war, the most logical and, on the whole, probably the earlier form of the story. ^37:3 In all except Old Swedish and Sir Amadas the man was a knight; in these he was a merchant, the husband of the woman at whose house the hero lodges. ^38:1 "V le femme u l'auoir ares," v. 5316. ^38:2 Though in Lion de Bourges he excepts the lady specifically. 'See Uber Lion de Bourges, particularly pp. 46-54. ^39:1 See chapter vii. ^40:1 The Trentall of St. Gregory. The Old French text has been edited by P. Meyer, Romania, xv. 281-283. The English versions, of which the first seems to be taken from this, are found in the following MSS.: (A) Vernon MS. fol. 230, ed. Horstmann, Engl. Stud. viii. 275.277, and The Minor Poems of the Vernon MS. i., E.E.T.S. 98, 1892, pp. 260-268; Vernon MS. fol. 303, variants given in Horstmann's ed. for E.E.T.S.; MS. Cotton Caligula A II., ed. Furnivall, Political, Religious, and Love Poems, E.E.T.S. 15, 1866, pp. 83-92, reprinted by Horstmann, E.E.T.S. pp. 260-268; MS. Lambeth 306, variants given by Furnivall; a critical text with variants of the four was made by A. Kaufmann, Trentalle Sancti Gregorii, Erlanger Beitrage, iii. 29-44, 1889. (B) MS. 19, 3, 1, Advocates' Libr., Edinburgh, ed. Turnbull, The Visions of Tundale, 1843, pp. 77 ff., and Bulbring, Anglia, xiii. 301-308; MS. Kk. I, 6, Camb. Univ. Libr., ed. Kaufmann, pp. 44-49. Kaufmann in his introduction discusses the relations of the versions. See further Varnhagen, Anglia, xiii. 505 f. Another legend of Gregory in popular fiction is treated by Bruce in his edition of De Ortu Waluuanii, Publications Mod. Lang. Ass. xiii. 372-377. The story in the Gesta Romanorum to which Luzel, i. 83, note, refers is this rather than our tale. ^40:2 i. 83 and 90, notes. ^41:1 Or. und Occ. iii. 99 f. ^42:1 See Das Marchen vom gestiefelten Kater, Leipzig, 1843; Benfey, Pantschatantra, i. 222; Grimm, Kinder- and Hausmarchen, iii. 288; Liebrecht, Dunlop's Geschichte der Prosadichtungen, 1851, p. 286; Polivka, Arch. f. slav. Phil. xix. 248; etc. ^42:2 Chapter vi. ^43:1 An unnecessarily nauseating reason is given by one of them (Act i. sc. i.), but this seems to be of Massinger's invention. ^43:2 P.8. ^43:3 It is interesting also to note that a Viennese dramatist of our own day has adapted Massinger's drama, retaining a vague reminiscence of the thankful dead. The curious may see Der Graf von Charolais by Richard Beer-Hofmann, 1905. [p. 44] CHAPTER IV. THE GRATEFUL DEAD AND THE POISON MAIDEN. ONE of the most prevalent types of The Grateful Dead is that in which it has combined with The Poison Maiden, a theme almost world-wide in distribution and application. From the time of Benfey and Stephens [*1] the connection between the two themes has been regarded as vital. Though Hippe recognised that the stories were perhaps originally independent, [*2] he took the compound as his point of departure and derived all other forms from it. As will be seen in the course of our study, such a filiation is exceedingly improbable, if the essential features of The Grateful Dead and The Poison Maiden be closely examined. Hippe went wrong, I should say, in failing to differentiate between what traits belong to the former and what to the latter theme. As a matter of fact, The Poison Maiden exists in a cycle of its own. Any doubt about this and any necessity of studying the theme in detail here is removed by the valuable monograph of Wilhelm Hertz, Die Sage vom Giftmadchen, [*3] in which the literature of the subject has been marshalled with masterly skill. Starting with the [p. 45] stories of how a maiden, who had been fed with snake-poison, was sent to Alexander the Great from India by an enemy, and how the plot to kill the emperor through her embraces was foiled by the cunning of Aristotle, [*1] Hertz shows [*2] that the central idea of the tale is the belief that a man could be killed by sexual connection with a woman who had been nourished on poison. In most of the variants, to be sure, it is the bite of the woman that is venomous, while in others it is her glance or her breath; but these are natural modifications. Without following the study into details, the important fact to remember is that there has existed from early times a tale relating how a man was saved by a watchful friend on his bridal night from a maiden whose embraces were certain death. [*3] With this in mind we can safely proceed to a consideration of the variants of The Grateful Dead which have similar features. Twenty-four of the stories in my list fall into this category, viz.: Tobit, Armenian, Gypsy, Siberian, Russian [p. 46] I., II., III., and IV., Servian II., III., and IV, Bulgarian, Esthonian II., Finnish, Rumanian I., Irish I., II., and III., Breton I., Danish III., Norwegian II., Simrock X., Harz I., Jack the Giant Killer, and Old Wives' Tale. All but three of them [*1] are folk-tales, a fact that considerably simplifies the discussion. According to the apocryphal story, Tobit buries by night the dead who lie in the street. He is thrown into prison, and later becomes blind and poverty-stricken. He sends his son Tobias to his brother Gabael for the return of a loan. The youth is accompanied by the angel Raphael in disguise, who calls himself Azarias. On the journey Tobias catches a fish and preserves the heart, liver, and gall at the bidding of his companion. When they arrive at their journey's end, the angel, as go-between, asks Gabael's daughter Sara in wedlock for Tobias, though seven men have died while consummating their marriage with her. By burning the heart and liver of the fish at the command of the angel, and by prayer, Tobias escapes; for the demon Asmodeus is driven out of the maiden and bound by Raphael. With his bride and companion Tobias goes home, where he cures Tobit's blindness by means of the gall of the fish. After being offered half of the wealth that he has brought the family, Raphael explains his identity and disappears. This variant is peculiar in that the father does the good action, while the son is chiefly rewarded. Indeed, it is the son whose life is saved from the possessed woman whom he marries. Moreover, the grateful dead is replaced by an angel, who indeed commends Tobit for his good deed, but is certainly a substitute for the ghost. Obviously Tobit with such peculiarities as these cannot be regarded as the general source of the widespread folk-tale. At the same time we must not forget that it has been, perhaps, the best-loved story in the [p. 47] [paragraph continues] Apocrypha, [*1] and that its influence on details of the narrative may be looked for almost anywhere in Christendom. In the Armenian story from Transcaucasia [*2] a man finds a corpse hanging in a tree and being beaten by his late creditors. The man pays the debt and buries the body. Some years later he becomes poor. A rich man offers him in marriage his daughter, with whom five bridegrooms have already met death on the wedding night. While thinking over the proposition, he is approached by a man who offers to become his servant for half of his future possessions, and counsels him to marry the woman. On the night of the marriage the servant stands with a sword in the chamber, cuts off the head of a serpent that comes from the bride's mouth, and pulls out its body. Later he asks for his share of his master's gains. When he is about to split the woman through the middle, a second snake glides from her mouth. The servant then says that he is the ghost of the corpse long ago rescued, and disappears. Here the story appears in a very normal form, except that the hero is not taking a journey at the time of his kind deed, and that he waits several years for his reward. Moreover, the second snake appears to be due to reduplication. In Gypsy a youth gives his last twelve piasters for the release of a corpse, which is being maltreated by Jews. The ghost of the dead man follows him and promises to get him a bride if he will share her with him. The youth consents and marries a woman whose five bridegrooms have died on the wedding night. The companion keeps watch in the chamber and cuts off the head of a dragon that comes from the bride's mouth. [p. 48] [paragraph continues] Later he demands his half of the woman, and takes a sword to cut her asunder, when she screams and disgorges the dragon's body. The ghost then explains the situation and disappears. [*1] With the Siberian variant some very important modifications enter. A soldier buys a picture of the Saviour from a peasant and maltreats it. A merchant's son then buys it out of reverence and takes it to his mother. Later he helps an old man on a raft and goes with him to market. There he meets the daughter of a priest and, by the advice of his friend, marries her. When the old man strikes her with a whip, she splits open, and the devil comes out. She is put together again by the mysterious companion, and accompanies them home, where the old man asks for a division of the gains they have made together. Again he divides the woman. After she has been burned, she is found living and purified. Then the old man says that he is God and departs. This tale, found among the Turkish race of southern Siberia, has transformed the opening incident altogether. For the burial of the corpse it substitutes a good deed, which is entirely different from the original trait. Yet it is evident that we have to do with The Grateful Dead, after all, since the divine image is rescued from senseless contumely and God himself appears in the role of the thankful ghost. It is evident also that the theme is combined with The Poison Maiden. Though we do not hear of any misadventures of other men with the priest's daughter, the marvels which attend her purification indicate the danger in which the hero stood. Russian I. is likewise peculiar in several respects. The younger of two brothers angers his parents by going [p. 49] to the wars without their permission. He is killed. Later he appears to his brother, asking him to implore pardon of their mother, whose anger prevents him from resting quietly in his grave. The elder brother thus succeeds in giving peace to the ghost. Later, when he marries a merchant's daughter, whose first two husbands have been killed by a dragon on the wedding night, he is saved by the ghost of the dead, which keeps watch in the chamber with a sword and kills the nine-headed dragon. This tale stands almost alone [*1] in giving the two chief characters personal relations, since it is nearly always a total stranger whom the hero benefits. That actual burial of the dead does not come in question is not so remarkable, as various changes have been made in this trait. One story, [*2] indeed, which otherwise has no likeness, similarly makes the dead man uneasy in his grave. The beginning of Russian I. has thus suffered considerable modification. The ending is also different from the normal type in that the division of the property and the woman has entirely disappeared. Russian II. has also some peculiarities, though none which is difficult to explain. A youth named Hans receives three hundred rubles from his uncle, who has taken his inheritance, and goes into the world. In another province he ransoms with his whole stock of money an unbeliever, who is being bled by the people. He has the poor man baptised, but is not able to save his life, so sorely has he been wounded. The people, however, pay for proper burial. Hans goes on and is joined by an angel, who proposes that he take him as uncle and divide with him whatever they get while in one another's company. They come to a city where [p. 50] the king proposes that Hans marry his daughter, and to this the hero agrees at his companion's advice, despite the protests of the citizens, who say that the princess has already strangled six bridegrooms. On the wedding night the uncle keeps watch, and slays a dragon which is approaching to kill the young man. After two months the pair set out for home with the uncle. On the way they are saved by the old man from robbers, and get a store of gold. When they arrive at the place where the uncle first appeared, he calls for a fulfilment of their agreement, and saws the bride asunder. Young dragons come out of her; but, when she has been washed and sprinkled with water, she is made whole. The angel thereupon parts with the couple. For the burial of the dead we have in this tale the interesting substitution of an unsuccessful attempt of the hero to save a man's life by paying his entire inheritance as ransom. That the man dies and is buried shows how the change probably arose, Strangely enough, as in the case of Tobit, an angel appears in the role of the grateful dead, and, even more oddly, takes the form of the hero's uncle, who gave him the money with which he set forth on his journey. The recurrence of the angel in this and in one other variant [*1] inclines me to the belief that the essential feature of the reward in the original story was that it came from heaven. The remainder of Russian II. has no characteristic unusual in the tales where the woman is actually divided to get rid of the snakes or dragons. In Russian III. [*2] the youngest of three brothers rescues a swimming coffin from the sea and takes it on his ship. From the coffin comes a man clothed in a white shirt, who enters the service of his rescuer, and helps him win a beautiful princess as wife. A six-headed dragon has hitherto killed all her bridegrooms on the wedding night, [p. 51] but it is overcome by the hero through his obedience to the advice of his servant. The latter cleanses the bride's body of the dragon brood and goes away. Here the opening has been modified, though not beyond recognition, since the rescued man is clearly enough the grateful dead. Russian IV., taken like the preceding from a folk-book, differs from that in only minor points, though the ampler form in which I have found it makes it of more importance. The three sons of a czar go out in separate ships to see the world. The youngest, named Sila, rescues a swimming coffin, which his brothers have not heeded, and buries it on shore. There he leaves his companions, and goes on alone till joined by a man dressed in a shroud, who says that he is the rescued corpse and proposes that Sila win a certain Princess Truda as wife by his aid. The hero is dismayed when he sees the walls of her city decorated with the heads of countless former suitors, but he is told by his servant not to fear. On the bridal night he is counselled to keep silence, and, when his wife presses her hand on his breast, to beat her, as she is in league with a six-headed dragon. Sila obeys, the dragon appears, and the servant cuts off two of its heads. Two more heads are cut off on the second night, and the remaining two on the third. The bride is not completely cleansed, however, till the end of a year, when the servant cuts her in two, burns the evil things that emerge from her body, and sprinkles her with living water to make her well again. He then disappears. Here the grateful dead appears with perfect clearness, as he did not in Russian III. The course of events by which the lady is won does not differ materially from that of Russian II. Presumably III. would follow the same procedure, had we an adequate summary. III. and IV. are like I., and different from II., in omitting [p. 52] all mention of any division of property or of the woman between hero and assistant. The division for the sake of cleansing in IV. is, however, actual. Not without contamination from another source, Russian V. and VI. still belong to the class containing variants with The Poison Maiden. In Russian V. the only son of a rich man went out into the world to seek his fortune. On the road he gave a large sum of money for two horses. Later he stopped at an inn, where the widow of the landlord was weeping because she had no money to pay the debts of her husband, who was cursed by all the people, though he had been dead two years. The hero gave all his money to save the memory of the dead man, and proceeded. Soon he met two unsatisfied creditors, who still cursed the dead landlord, and to them he gave his two horses. Not long afterward he was joined by a man, who accompanied him on condition of receiving half of what they might win together. They came to a place where a lord offered a thousand rubles to anyone who would watch his daughter's corpse over night in a chapel. The hero undertook the adventure, and received payment in advance. At dark his companion came to him, and gave him a cross as protection. At midnight the lady came out of her coffin, but could not find the man because he held the cross. The same adventure was repeated the next night. On the third night the hero, according to his companion's advice, got into the coffin when the vampire rose, and would not get out for all her entreaties, being protected by the cross. So in the morning both were found alive, and were betrothed. Then came the companion, cut the maiden into halves, took out her entrails, and put her together again, when she became very beautiful. Next day he called the hero aside, explained his identity with the dead landlord, and disappeared. Russian VI. differs from the above in several points, [p. 53] but is closely allied to it. There were two brothers, one good and the other stingy. The former expended in benevolence all his wealth, save a hundred rubles, while the latter grew richer and richer. A poor man borrowed a hundred rubles from the miser, calling St. George as witness that he would pay; but he died in debt. The rich brother came to the widow, and said that he would get his money from St. George if not from the dead man. He pulled down an image of the saint from the wall, dug up the corpse, and spat upon them both. At this juncture the good brother came by, and gave his last hundred rubles to put the matter right. He then went to a large city, where the king's daughter had eaten all the deacons who watched with her dead body. So when volunteers were called for to stay with her, the hero offered to undertake the task at the advice of an old man, who promised to pray for his safety on condition of receiving half his winnings. He received payment in advance from the king, and divided with the old man, by whom he was given a sanctified coal, a taper, a cross, and a scapulary, together with advice how to act. So he entered the chapel, lighted his taper, closed his eyes, made the sign of the cross, and enclosed himself in a circle marked with the coal near the head of the bier. At cockcrow the vampire came out all blue and grinning; but, though she yelled horribly, she could not touch the man in the circle, who put the cross in the coffin. At the second cockcrow she tried to get into the coffin, and unavailingly begged him to take out the cross. At the third cockcrow he put the scapulary on her, whereupon she rose and thanked him, promising to be his wife and servant. So in the morning the hero married her and received the kingdom from her father. To their chamber that night came the old man, and recalled the agreement to divide. He cut the lady into halves, minced her flesh on the table, and blew on the bits, whereupon she came [p. 54] together more beautiful than ever. The helper then threw off his gaberdine, and showed himself to be St. George. In the two stories just summarized The Grateful Dead is clear enough, though in VI. St. George has ousted the ghost from part of its proper functions, just as the angel does in Tobit, Russian II., and Simrock IV., God in Siberian, and various saints elsewhere. The introduction in VI. is a unique trait, as far as I know. In both the variants the main features of the theme appear without distortion, including the picturesque cleansing of the woman by actual division. The Poison Maiden, however, has been replaced by a story of similar character, but of different content, which I have not elsewhere found compounded with The Grateful Dead. A vampire infests a church (or a churchyard). A soldier is sent to watch nights, and to try to dislodge her. He successfully counters her tricks, and finally gets hold of something belonging to her, which he refuses to return. Thereupon she is reduced to submission, promises him happiness, and is married to him with the consent of the king. [*1] This tale, it will be evident, bears a strong likeness to The Poison Maiden in the figure of the [p. 55] heroine, though it certainly is independent. The vital difference between the two is the absence of any helping friend in the story of the vampire. Because of the lack of this figure it seems improbable that the tale was compounded with The Grateful Dead without the intermediary stage in which The Poison Maiden appears. I regard the vampire as usurping the place of the possessed maiden, and the two Russian variants as a secondary growth. Given the normal form of the compound as it appears in Russian II., for instance, there would be no difficulty in substituting an even more gruesome figure for that of the heroine there depicted, and in making the hero's danger lie in a prenuptial attack on her part. The three Servian tales, which fall in this section, differ widely in their characteristics. The first of them, Servian II., [*1] is the most nearly normal. Vlatko goes into the world to trade, but pays all his money to free from debt a corpse, which creditors are digging up in order to vent their spite upon it. He returns home, and is sent out again by his parents, receiving a greater sum of money and, from his mother, an apple by means of which he can tell the intentions of anyone who desires his friendship by the way. [*2] He is joined by a man, who cuts the apple into two exact halves, and so is accepted as a friend. After Vlatko has prospered in trade, the friend proposes that he marry the emperor's daughter, with whom ninety-nine men have already died on the wedding night. Arrangements are made, and the friend keeps watch in the bridal chamber. During the night he cuts off the heads of three snakes, which come from the lady's mouth. Sometime afterwards all three set out for Vlatko's home; and on the way the hero divides his property with his friend. [p. 56] [paragraph continues] Jestingly the latter proposes that they divide the wife, and, after blindfolding the husband, shakes her three times, when three dead snakes come out of her. Thereupon he disappears. Like Armenian and Gypsy, this variant has the ghost cut off the head of the monster (here three snakes) that possesses the maiden. The actual division of the woman as it appears in those tales occurs here as a mere jest, which is the case with most of the European versions. [*1] Servian III. has a more romantic character. The daughter of an emperor had been married thirteen times, but each of her bridegrooms had died on the wedding night. A certain prince, who had fallen in love with her through a dream, set out for her castle. On the way he paid the debts of a poor man, whose corpse was held by creditors, and buried him. Soon after, he was met by a man who became his servant, and won a castle for him by a wonderful adventure. After the wedding this man killed the snakes that came out of the bride, and also caused her to disgorge three snake eggs by threatening her with his drawn sword. He then disappeared. This variant shows traces of foreign substance in the dream and the winning of the castle by the unrevealed companion. Possibly the latter trait unites it with the combined type of which The Water of Life is one of the elements. It will be noticed that the division of the property and of the woman is not brought into question, though the sword is used somewhat incongruously for the removal of the last traces of the heroine's snaky infestation. Thus, by an evident change in structure, [p. 57] the identity of the hero's companion is never explained. With Servian IV. [*1] we encounter a most serious problem, which must receive special treatment later on, [*2] the relation of The Grateful Dead to The Thankful Beasts theme. A poor youth three times set free a gold-fish which he had three times caught. Later he was cast out of his father's house and sent into the world. He was joined by a man, who swore friendship with him on a sword, and accompanied him to a city where many men had been mysteriously slain while undertaking to pass a night with the king's daughter. The hero undertook the adventure, and was saved by his companion, who cut off the head of a serpent that came from the princess's mouth. In the morning the youth was married to the lady, and divided all his property with his helper. On their way home the latter demanded half of the bride, and, while she was held by two servants, swung a sword above her. With a shriek she cast first two sections, and finally the tail, of a serpent from her mouth. Thereupon the friend leaped into the sea, for he was the gold-fish. The burial of the dead has here been ousted by a good deed which the hero does to a gold-fish. That the trait is foreign to the type, however, seems clear. From the time when the companion appears to the hero, the story follows the normal course until the very end, when the man unexpectedly leaps into the sea. The thankful dead has been replaced by the thankful beast, but the tale really belongs to the present category, since otherwise it has all the characteristics of the type. Thus the division of the woman is almost precisely similar to that of Armenian and Gypsy--that is, the sword is raised, and the woman disgorges the serpent with a scream. That it comes out piecemeal may be a faulty recollection [p. 58] of the actual division. As so often, it is not stated that the companion made a share of the gains a condition of his help. Bulgarian is in some respects very primitive, though fragmentary. A father sends his son out into the world to gain experience. The youth is joined by an archangel, who promises him assistance on condition that he will pay their joint expenses and will be obedient. The companion kills a negro and a serpent, and goes with the hero into their den, where the adventurers find, but leave, great treasure. They come to a city where the king's daughter has been thrice married, each time only to have her bridegroom die on the wedding night. Now she is to be given to any man who can live with her one night; and many wooers have died in the attempt. The youth offers himself as a suitor, and is saved by the archangel, who draws a serpent out of the woman. Later he helps the hero to get the wealth previously found in the cave, and demands the division of everything, even the wife. When he cuts her in two, many little snakes fall out of her body. He then unites her, and gives the hero all the riches they have obtained. The burial of the dead has entirely disappeared, as will be observed, though the other traits of the story show that we must regard it as of the type now under consideration. The appearance of the archangel as companion, and the plunder which they take by the way, suggest the influence of Tobit, which indeed appears as a folk-tale in the same collection. [*1] The conditions made by the angel are only slightly altered from the normal form, while every other feature is found intact, even to the actual division of the woman. Esthonian II. has altogether lost the essential features of our theme; and it has besides put in several traits from a marchen, which, as we shall soon see, is joined [p. 59] to ours with considerable frequency. The inclusion of this variant here is justified only by some vague traces indicating that the extraneous parts of the narrative have replaced others which, if preserved, would make it an ordinary representative of The Grateful Dead. A certain couple had a weak-minded son, who could not learn. Wishing to get rid of him, the father took the boy into a forest and gave him gladly to an old man whom he chanced to meet. From the man the youth received books in foreign tongues, which he learned to read in a day. He then wandered till he came to a city, where lived a princess who was in the power of devils and went to church with them every night. The hero watched in the church for three nights, with three, six, and twelve candles, successively. Thus on the third night he freed the princess and married her, receiving half the kingdom. He then sought the old man, who told him to cut the woman in halves and divide her. The old man halved her himself, when there sprang out a serpent, a toad, and a lizard. After this he gave her back to her husband. The obscurity of motivation in this tale makes apparent the extensive revision that it has undergone. The introduction is nowhere else found combined, as far as I know, with the stories of our cycle. The characteristics of The Poison Maiden are sufficiently evident in the conclusion; but there seems to be no way to account for the peculiar form of demonic possession, together with the actual division of the woman, except by supposing, with Dutz, [*1] that the variant has lost the part concerning the burial of the dead man. If this be true, the story belongs in the category where it is here placed. The Finnish variant [*2] presents difficulties of a somewhat different sort. A merchant's son, to whom it has been foretold that he will marry a three-horned maiden, [p. 60] goes abroad to escape this fate. There he sees the corpse of a debtor hanging nailed to a church wall, and insulted by the passers-by. He expends all but nine silver kopecks in rescuing the body, and turns homeward. He is joined by a companion, who makes the money last three days, and on the fourth arranges for him to marry the three-horned daughter of a king. On the wedding night the helper brings the hero fresh-cut twigs. By beating the maiden with these her blood is purified, the horns drop off, and she becomes very beautiful. No new material is here introduced; but the handling is considerably changed, and the narrative abridged. The woman in the case is three-horned instead of possessed by snakes, nor is there any hint of harm to the bridegroom. A reminiscence of the division of the woman, though not of the dowry, appears in the beating which the ghostly companion gives her, whereby she is freed from her horns and made very beautiful. The variant appears to be weakened by frequent retelling. Rumanian I. is more striking, since it has undergone both revision and addition. The only daughter of an emperor wears out twelve pairs of slippers every night, until her father offers her hand and the heirship of the kingdom to any man who can explain this extraordinary and costly habit. Many men of high birth and low make the attempt unsuccessfully. Meanwhile, a certain peasant, whose servant had died when his year of service was but half ended, had placed the body in a chest under the roof in revenge for his disappointment. The new servant had discovered this, and had given the corpse the rites due the dead, as far as permitted by his master. When he departs at the end of his year of service, the dead man comes from the earth, thanks him, and proposes that they swear on the cross to be brothers. So they do, and go on together till they come to an iron wood. The vampire breaks off a twig, and casts it to [p. 61] the earth in the place where the emperor's daughter comes at night with the sons of the dragon. When she appears, she sees the broken twig, and is afraid. So she goes to the copper wood, where she sees another twig broken by the vampire, and hastens on to the place where the sons of the dragon dwell. It is in going so far that she wears out her slippers. When she comes to the place, and is about to sit down at table, she drops her handkerchief. The vampire, who has followed her from the copper wood in the form of a cat, takes it away, as he does also the spoon that falls from her hand and the ring that falls from her finger. He goes back to the copper wood with them, and explains everything to his friend. The latter takes them to the emperor and wins the lady. This curious tale has several elements which make it difficult to classify. As far as the kindness to the dead goes, the matter is simple. Instead of an agreement between the companions to divide their gains, however, an oath of brotherhood is introduced. This is probably a local substitution, since it has long been a custom of the Slays of the south to swear brotherhood on the cross, [*1] but it necessitates the further loss of important features at the end of the narrative such as the saving of the bridegroom on the wedding night and the division of the maiden (or some modification of that feature) by the vampire. Indeed, the heroine is rather enchanted than possessed. The whole series of acts by which she is freed introduces traits into the narrative which we have hitherto met only in Esthonian II. Were it not that they are repeated in all the other members of the group save Breton I., which we have still to consider, there would be considerable doubt about placing [p. 62] this variant under the category of The Grateful Dead + The Poison Maiden. As it is, we can with security say that this and the following versions belong here. They have simply modified the normal form by the addition of certain elements from another theme. The three Irish versions all have this form. In Irish I. a king's son, while hunting, pays five pounds to the creditors of a dead man, so that he may be buried. Later the prince kills a raven, and declares that he will marry only that woman who has hair as black as the raven, skin as white as snow, and cheeks as red as blood upon the snow. [*1] On his way to find her he meets a red-haired youth, who takes service with him for half of what they may gain in a year and a day. The youth obtains for him from various giants by threats of what his master will do [*2] horses of gold and silver, a sword of light, a cloak of darkness, and the slippery shoes. When they come to the castle of the maiden, he helps the Prince to keep over night a comb and a pair of scissors in spite of enchantment, and he obtains at her bidding the lips of the giant enchanter, which are the last that she has kissed. He then tells the prince and the maiden's father to strike her three times, when three devils come from her mouth in fire. So the prince marries her, and is ready at the end of a year and a day to divide his child [*3] at the servant's command. But the latter explains that he is the soul of the dead man, and disappears. Irish II. differs little except in details from the above. The king of Ireland's son sets forth to find a woman with hair as black as the raven, skin as white as snow, [p. 63] and cheeks as red as blood. Ten pounds of the twenty which he takes with him he pays to release the corpse of a man on which writs are laid. He meets a short green man, who goes with him for his wife's first kiss; and he comes upon a gunner, a man listening to the growing grass, a swift runner, a man blowing a windmill with one nostril, and a strong man, all of whom accompany him for the promise of a house and garden apiece. After various adventures in the castles of giants, they arrive in the east, where the prince's lady dwells. She says that her suitor must loose her geasa from her before she can marry him. With the help of the short green man he gives her the scissors, the comb, and the King of Porson's head, which she requires. He is then told to get three bottles of healing water from the well of the western world. The runner sets out for them, and is stopped and put to sleep by an old hag on the way back; but the earman hears him snoring, the gunman sees him and wakes him up, and the windman keeps the hag back till he returns. Finally the strong man crushes three miles of steel needles so that the prince can walk over them. Thus the bride is won. The short green man claims the first kiss, and finds her full of serpents, which he picks out of her. He then tells the youth that he is the man who was in the coffin, and disappears with his fellows. In Irish III. three brothers set out from home with three pounds apiece. The youngest gives his all to pay a dead man's debts to three giants. He shares his food with a poor man, who offers to be his servant, saying that the corpse was his brother, and had appeared to him in a dream. [*1] Jack the servant frightens the first giant into giving up his sword of sharpness, the second giant his cloak of darkness, and the third giant his shoes [p. 64] of swiftness. The two Jacks come to the castle of a king, whose daughter has to be wooed by accomplishing three tasks. Jack the servant follows the princess in the cloak of darkness to the demon king of Moroco and rescues her scissors. Next day Jack the master runs a race with the king and beats him because shod with the shoes of swiftness. That night Jack the servant goes again to the demon king and cuts off his head with the sword of sharpness, thus accomplishing the third task. So Jack the master marries the princess. These three variants make evident the nature of the foreign material in Esthonian II. and Rumanian I. The whole sub-group, indeed, has in combination with The Grateful Dead + The Poison Maiden important elements from the themes of The Water of Life and The Lady and the Monster. These features will be considered in detail in a later chapter, [*1] when we study the general type The Grateful Dead + The Water of Life. For the present it is enough to indicate how the addition has affected the type with which we are immediately concerned. Of the three Irish tales, the first two have best preserved the characteristics of the compound as found in Asia and Eastern Europe. Irish I. has all the essential features of Armenian and Gypsy,--for example, the burial, the agreement to divide what is gained, and the removal of the evil things by which the woman is possessed. To be sure, the latter are devils, not serpents, and the woman is beaten, not divided. Yet the division appears in another form, since the hero is ready to share his child with the red-haired man, a trait connected with the theme of Amis and Amiloun. [*2] Irish II. is in some respects more changed, and in some respects less, than Irish I. The agreement to divide is changed to a promise that the green man shall have the first kiss of [p. 65] the bride. On the other hand, the serpents in the woman's body are retained, a trait which is very primitive and very important in enabling us to identify the position of these variants. Irish III. has lost most of the typical features of the compound. Kennedy's evidence shows that Jack the servant is to be regarded as really the thankful dead; but the agreement to divide the gains and the removal of the demons or serpents have entirely disappeared under pressure from the secondary theme, the essential idea of which is the accomplishment by the hero of certain unspelling tasks. In conjunction with the other two variants, however, the position of Irish III. is clear. Very different from the Irish tales is Breton I., since under the influence of a tendency very common in Brittany, the narrative has become a Mary legend and has lost its clearness of outline in the process. Yet it really belongs to this group, replacing by a dragon-fight and a rescue of the hero from the villain the cleansing of the bride. At least, I am led to the belief that such is the case by the fact that the story fits into no other category. Nor is it surprising that the position of the tale should be obscure in view of the grotesque transformation which it has undergone. A youth named Mao pays all his money to have the body of a beggar interred. The spirit of the dead man helps him win the daughter of a rich man after killing a dragon in the stables. The lady's treacherous cousin tries to burn him alive in an old mill, whence he is saved by the ghost. He forgives the man, and is tricked into promising him half of all his possessions in order to save his wife. When a son is born, the villain demands its division. At the hero's appeal, the Virgin comes with the ghost and takes Mao and his family to heaven, while the cousin is sent to hell. [p. 66] Norwegian II. and Danish III. stand together, since the relation of the latter (Andersen's Reisekammeraten) to the former is simply that of a literary redaction to its original. A brief analysis of each is, however, necessary. In Norwegian II. a young peasant on account of a dream sets forth to win the hand of a princess. On his way he gives most of his money to bury a dishonest tapster, who has been executed and left frozen in a block of ice outside a church for passers-by to spit upon. As he proceeds, the youth is joined by the ghost of the tapster, who accompanies him. They go to a hill, where they get a magic sword from one witch, a golden ball of yarn from another, and a magical hat from a third. Of the yarn they make a bridge, and so come to the princess's castle. The hero is told to keep her scissors overnight and loses them; but the companion rides behind the princess on her goat in the hat of invisibility, when she goes to her troll lover, and so rescues them. The hero is told to keep a golden ball overnight, and the same adventure is repeated. The hero is then told to bring what the princess is thinking of. The companion rides again with the princess and beats her with his sword, gets the troll's head for his master, and so enables him to win the lady. On the wedding night the hero flogs his wife at the advice of the companion, only just in time to save himself, indeed, as she is about to kill him with a butcher-knife. He dips her into a tub of whey, whence she comes out black as a raven, but after a rubbing with buttermilk and new milk she becomes very beautiful. The companion discovers his identity and disappears. In Danish III. poor John, whose father has died, dreams of a beautiful princess, and sets forth to find her. He does various kind deeds by the way, and one night takes refuge from the storm in a church. There [p. 67] he sees two evil men dragging a corpse from its coffin, and pays his all that it may be buried. He is joined by the ghost of the dead man, who accompanies him. They get three rods from an old woman, who is healed by the comrade's salve, and they come to a city, where they get a sword from a showman, whose puppets are made alive by the salve. They come to a mountain, where the companion cuts off the wings of a great white swan and carries them along. They come at length to the city of the beautiful princess, who is a witch. Anyone can marry her who guesses three things, but every man who has tried has failed and been killed. John tells the king that he will try to win her, and is told to come the next day. In the night the comrade puts on the wings of the swan, takes the largest of the rods, and follows the princess when she flies out to the palace of her wizard lover. There he hears that she is to think of her shoe when her suitor comes in the morning. All the way to the mountain and back the comrade beats her so that the blood flows. The next morning he tells John to guess her shoe when asked what she has thought of. Everyone save the princess rejoices when the youth guesses right. The next night the companion beats the princess with two rods as she flies, and learns that she is to think of her glove. Again everyone is pleased with John's answer. The third night the companion takes all three rods and the sword. He cuts off the wizard's head when he learns that the princess is to think of that, and he gives it to John, wrapped in a handkerchief. John produces this when asked by the Princess what she has thought about, and so he wins her. That night, at the bidding of the companion, he dips her three times in a tub of water, into which have been shaken three swan's feathers and some drops from a flask. The first time she becomes a black swan, the second a white swan, and the third a more [p. 68] beautiful princess than ever. The next day the comrade explains his identity and disappears. It will be seen that Andersen simply embroidered the Norwegian tale as was his wont, adding a good many picturesque details, and softening some features. The changes do not materially affect the course of the narrative, nor need they delay us here, interesting though they are of themselves, [*1] since the position of the variant with reference to the story-type under consideration is perfectly clear. Norwegian II. demands further attention. Like Esthonian II., Rumanian I., and Irish I., II., and III., it has the form The Grateful Dead + The Poison Maiden + The Water of Life. The burial of the dead is undisturbed, but the agreement between the companions to divide their gains has entirely disappeared, perhaps because the secondary theme takes so large a place. The removal of the poisonous habitants of the bride is clearly indicated, though it has been weakened into a flogging, which is given, however, only just in time to save the bridegroom from death. The subsequent milk bath seems to show a conflict between the conclusions of the two subsidiary motives--the end of The Poison Maiden being release from something like demonic possession, and that of The Water of Life in this form being release from a spell--though perhaps the bath is only a reduplication of the purifying process. Simrock X. is not unlike the two variants just cited. A king's son wastes his property, and is sent out to shift for himself. He pays the debts of a naked corpse, and has only enough money left to pay his reckoning at his inn. So he takes the body to a wood, and buries it there. As he goes his way, he is met by a man, who becomes his follower and secures three rods, a sword, and a pair of wings from a dead raven. They come to [p. 69] a castle, where to win the king's daughter the prince has to guess her thoughts for three days in succession. The companion flies with her each night when she goes to her wizard for counsel, and learns that the prince must say "bread," "the princess's jewels," and "the wizard's head" in turn. On the last night he cuts off the wizard's head and brings it to his master, who displays it at court and so breaks the spell. When the couple are married, the companion explains that he is the spirit of the dead man, and disappears. This variant obviously belongs to the same type as those preceding. As in Irish I. and II. the hero is a prince instead of a youth of low birth; but there is no general uniformity in this trait. The agreement of division and the violent dispossession of the heroine have disappeared. Indeed, so far has The Water of Life supplanted the other motives that the position of the tale is only evident when it is placed side by side with other versions of the same class. When so considered, however, the peculiar features of the succession of feats by which the bride is won appear very prominently, and establish the type. Harz I. stands closer to Norwegian II. than the preceding. A youth pays his all for the burial of a poor man, whose ghost joins him. They go to a city, where a bespelled princess kills all her suitors who cannot answer a riddle. The companion spirit tells the youth to save her, explaining his own identity. He gives wings and an iron rod to the hero, who flies with the princess to a mountain spirit, and hears that he must guess that she is thinking of her father's white horse. The next night the youth follows her with two rods and is thus enabled to guess that she is thinking of her father's sword. The third night he follows her with two rods and a sword, with which he cuts off the monster's head. This he shows her in the morning when asked [p. 70]