The Grateful Dead: The History of a Folk StoryGerould, Gordon Hall
General
The Grateful Dead: The History of a Folk Story
Gerould, Gordon Hall
Dead -- Folklore; Folk literature -- Themes, motives; Grateful dead (Tale)
The three Servian tales, which fall in this section, differ widely
in their characteristics. The first of them, Servian II., [82] 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. [83]
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. 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. [84]
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, the identity of the hero's companion is never explained.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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