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)
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, 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. [94] 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 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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