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 Brazilian tale is brief but not unusual in type. A prince, while
seeking a remedy for his father, passes through a town and sees a
corpse, which is held for debt. He pays the creditors, and has the
corpse buried. Later he is met by a fox, which helps him obtain not
only the remedy for his father but in addition a princess as his
wife. On its last appearance the beast declares that it is the soul
of the man whom he buried.
Basque I. has the following form: Three sons go out to seek a white
blackbird by which their father can be healed. Two of them get into
debt to the same three ladies, and, according to the custom of the
land, are imprisoned. The third son resists the sirens, ransoms
his brothers, and also pays the debts of a dead man, whose corpse
is being maltreated. He arrives at the house of the king who has the
white blackbird, and is told to get a certain young woman from another
king. He goes far on till he comes near the castle, where he meets a
fox and is instructed by it to enter a certain room, in which he will
find the lady dressed in poor clothing. He must have her put on good
clothes, and she will sing. He follows the advice, but is interrupted,
while the lady is singing, by the king of the castle, who tells him
that he must get a white horse from still another king. He meets the
fox again, and is instructed that, when he finds the horse with an old
saddle on it, he must put on a good one, so that it will neigh. Again
he follows the fox's advice, and is interrupted by people who rush in
when they hear the horse neigh. From them he obtains the steed, and
retraces his steps, eloping with the lady at the second king's castle
and at the first king's carrying off the blackbird. On his arrival
at home he is thrown into a cistern by his treacherous brothers,
who take his spoil to the king. He is saved by the fox, however,
which draws him out with its tail. When he comes into the presence
of his father, and not till then, is the healing accomplished.
In Breton IV. we find again three sons of a king, who set forth to get
the white blackbird and also the lady with locks of gold. Jeannot, the
youngest of them, pays for the interment of a beggar on the way. Later
a fox comes to him, saying that it is the soul of the poor man. It
helps him procure the youth-giving blackbird and afterward the lady
with the marvellous hair. He then meets his brothers, who for envy push
him over a precipice, but he is saved and sent homeward by the fox.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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