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)
Juan wins the gratitude of the dead man, and obtains his bride
in this version on a single journey, as in I. and VI., but its
chief peculiarity is the manner in which he gets his wife, with
the sequel that the couple set out to seek his father instead of
hers. The ransom is replaced by a romantic but more natural wooing,
while the ghost appears somewhat unusually in propria persona. One
of the oddest traits in the whole version is the parable of the key,
by which the king introduces the hero to the assembled guests. This
will be encountered again in Breton VII.
In Jean de Calais X., finally, a Walloon variant, appear certain
interesting changes in the fabric. The King of Calais sent his son
Jean to America to trade, but the prince was shipwrecked on the coast
of Portugal, and there ransomed and rescued a corpse, which was being
dragged through the streets because the man had died in debt. The king
scolded his son for wasting so much money, but the next year sent him
to Portugal to trade. There he encountered brigands, who had captured
the king's daughter with her maid, and ransomed them. On returning to
Calais with his bride, he was ill received, and resolved to go back
to Portugal. A young lord of Calais accompanied them and threw Jean
into the sea, while he took the princess onward and obtained from
her a promise of marriage in a year. Happily Jean found a plank by
which he reached an island, where a crow fed him every day. At the
end of a year he promised the crow half his blood for rescue, and
was taken to Portugal by a flock of crows. There he was recognized,
and the traitor hanged. One day the crow appeared and demanded the
fulfilment of the promise. Jean was about to slay his son, when the
bird explained its identity with the ghost of the dead man.
This is the only version which makes Jean a prince; and it is curious
that the change should occur in a tale from a region not very remote
from Calais. Most of the events of the tale take place in Portugal,
however, which is an extension of the ordinary appearance of that
country as the home of the heroine. The most striking peculiarity of
the version is the home of the traitor, who is a lord of Calais instead
of Portugal. All mention of signs is lacking, which is doubtless due
to the changes just mentioned. In the matter of the appearance of
the ghost as an animal the variant allies itself with II. and VII.,
though it has no special likeness to them in other respects.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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