The Grateful Dead Part 16

[165] See Wunsche, p. 92.

[166] P. 71.

[167] "The Fountain of Youth," Journal of the American Oriental Society, xxvi. 1st half, 19 and 55.

[168] Hopkins, pp. 19, 42, 55, etc.

[169] Wunsche, p. iii: "Es sind altorientalische Mythen, die in alle Kulturreligionen ubergangen sind. Zeit und Ort haben ihnen ein sehr verschiedenes Geprage gegeben, der Grundgedanke ist derselbe geblieben."

[170] P. 71. See also Hopkins, p. 55.

[171] Contes populaires de Lorraine, i. 213.

[172] Pp. 90 f.

[173] See pp. 125-127 below.

[174] Pp. 212-214. He regards the story in Wolf, Hausmarchen, p. 230, as linking the two.

[175] P. 91. Cosquin, it will be noted, makes the fruit an alternative of the water of life.

[176] For example, "The Baker's Three Daughters" in Mrs. M. Carey's Fairy Legends of the French Provinces, 1887, pp. 86 ff., unites the water of life with both the magical apples and the bird.

[177] The need of such a study may be shown by stating that, while Wunsche has treated about thirty variants, I know at present of something like four times that number.

[178] See p. 118 above.

[179] This well-known marchen has been treated by various scholars, most recently by G. L. Kittredge, in Arthur and Gorlagon (Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, viii.) 1903, pp. 226 f., from whom I take the liberty of transcribing the following references, some of which would otherwise be unknown to me. In note 2 to p. 226 he says: "See Benfey, Das Marchen von den 'Menschen mit den wunderbaren Eigenschaften,' Ausland, 1858, pp. 969 ff. (Kleinere Schriften II. iii. 94 ff.); Wesselofsky, in Giovanni da Prato, Il Paradiso degli Alberti, 1867, I. ii. 238 ff.; d'Ancona, Studj di Critica e Storia Letteraria, 1880, pp. 357-358; Kohler-Bolte, Ztsch. des Ver. f. Volkskunde, vi. 77; Kohler, Kleinere Schriften, i. 192 ff., 298 ff., 389-390, 431, 544; ii. 591; Cosquin, Contes pop. de Lorraine, i. 23 ff.; Crane, Italian Popular Tales, p. 67; Nutt, in MacInnes, Folk and Hero Tales, pp. 445 ff.; Laistner, Ratsel der Sphinx ii. 357 ff.; Steel, Tales of the Punjab, pp. 42 ff.; Jurkschat, Litauische Marchen, pp. 29 ff.; etc." A peculiarly interesting specimen is that in Blade, Contes pop. de la Gascogne, 1886, iii. 12-22. See also Luzel, Contes pop. de Ba.s.se-Bretagne, 1887, iii. 296-311; Carnoy and Nicolaides, Traditions pop. de l'Asie Mineure, 1889, pp. 43-56; and Goldschmidt, Russische Marchen, 1883, pp. 69-78.

[180] So I venture to call the story of the woman, who through enchantment or her own bad taste is the mistress of an ogre or some other monster. She is rescued by a hero, who is able to solve the extraordinary riddles or to accomplish the apparently impossible tasks which she sets him at the advice of the monster, after other suitors have perished in the attempt. See Kittredge, Arthur and Gorlagon, p. 250 (note to p. 249); Wesselofsky, Arch. f. slav. Phil. vi. 574. A good specimen tale is "The Magic Turban" in R. Nisbet Bain's Turkish Fairy Tales, 1901, pp. 102-111.

[181] Kittredge thus summarizes the tale (work cited, p. 226): "Three or more brothers (or comrades) are suitors for the hand of a beautiful girl. While her father is deliberating, the girl disappears. The companions undertake to recover her. One of them, by contemplation (or by keenness of sight), finds that she has been stolen by a demon (or dragon) and taken to his abode on a rock in the sea. Another builds a s.h.i.+p by his magic (or possesses a magic s.h.i.+p) which instantly transports them to the rock. Another, who is a skilful climber, ascends the castle and finds that the monster is asleep with his head in the maiden's lap. Another, a master thief, steals the girl without waking her captor. They embark, but are pursued by the monster. One of the companions, an unerring shot, kills the pursuer with an arrow. The girl is restored to her parents." This a.n.a.lysis would not hold for all variants, even when uncompounded (e.g. Grimm, Kinder- und Hausmarchen, No. 71, "Sechse kommen durch die ganze Welt") but a better could scarcely be made without a systematic study of the type. As Kittredge notes, the companions are not at all constant in number and function.

[182] Hungarian I., Rumanian II., Straparola II., Sicilian, and Treu Heinrich.

[183] Thus Hungarian I. and Rumanian II. with Polish, Sicilian with Harz II.

[184] Possibly a trace of some such story as The Quest of the Sword of Light discussed by Kittredge, Arthur and Gorlagon, pp. 214 ff.

[185] Since twelve brothers set out to win twelve sisters, there is probably a union here with the widespread tale of The Brothers and Sisters.

[186] The s.h.i.+p that will travel equally well on land and water is seemingly a common trait in forms of The Skilful Companions. See the variant cited from Blade on p. 125, note 3. It occurs in a curious tale from Mauritius, given by Baissac, Le Folk-lore de l'ile-Maurice, 1888, p. 78.

[187] For examples of stories in which a king's son liberates one or more prisoners, and has the service returned in an emergency, see Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v. 42-48.

[188] See Jonckbloet, ii. 131 ff.

[189] Paris, Hist. litt. de la France, x.x.x. 82.

[190] The only instance known to me where such transformation occurs with reference to the hero.

[191] Walewein and Lotharingian.

[192] Like the wolf in Guillaume de Palerne, which is likewise a transformed prince.

[193] Lotharingian comes from a region farther north than any other, since the Dutch romance is merely a translation from Old French. Simrock IX. is from Tyrol.

[194] See pp. 133-135.

[195] I include all the tales treated in this chapter.

[196] See pp. 58-73.

[197] See p. 126, note 1.

[198] See p. 134.

[199] See p. 133, note 2.

[200] See pp. 92 ff. above, and pp. 156-158 below.

[201] With the form The Grateful Dead + The Water of Life simply.

[202] Pp. 107 f., 111-115.

[203] See pp. 133 f.

[204] See pp. 145-147.

[205] See pp. 146 f.

[206] P. 143.

[207] The date of Treu Heinrich. This gives the date a quo.

[208] The compound existed before the fourteenth century certainly. See pp. 117 f.

[209] The date is here determined by the existence of Walewein.

[210] Brazilian.

[211] Venetian has, however, united with other material, which may account for this in the one case.

[212] The date of Straparola, one of whose stories belongs to this cla.s.s.

[213] The compound The Grateful Dead + The Poison Maiden had been in existence since the end of the first century, as Tobit proves.

[214] See pp. 89 f.