THE RELATIONS OF THE GRATEFUL DEAD TO THE SPENDTHRIFT KNIGHT, THE
TWO FRIENDS, AND THE THANKFUL BEASTS.
We have met at various points in our study with tales in which the
motive of the hero's fateful journey was his impoverishment through
extravagance; we have seen that many variants make the division of a
child part of the agreement between the ghost and the hero; and we have
noted the appearance of the ghost in the form of a beast in a large
number of instances. The bearing of these phenomena we shall do well
to investigate before proceeding to general conclusions. Occurring
as they do in versions which have been assigned on other accounts to
different categories, are they of sufficient importance to disturb
the classification already proposed? Furthermore, what cause can be
found for their introduction? Are they in reality sporadic, or are they
the result of some determinable factor in the history of the cycle?
Eleven variants, namely, Richars, Oliver, Lope de Vega, Dianese, Old
Swedish, Icelandic I., Icelandic II., Rittertriuwe, Treu Heinrich,
and Sir Amadas, have more or less clearly expressed the motive of a
knight who has exhausted his patrimony and goes out to recruit his
fortunes by winning a princess in a tourney. The figure of such a
knight or adventurer is not an uncommon one in the fiction of Europe,
and scarcely requires illustration. Of the variants just named all
except Oliver, Lope de Vega, and Old Swedish actually state that the
hero sets out from home on account of his poverty. In the two former
the motive of the incestuous stepmother is introduced in place of this,
and in Old Swedish the trait is obscured without any substitution,
implying that the hero is led merely by ambition to undertake the
tourney. On the other hand, the tourney occurs in all save Icelandic
I. and II., which are the only folk-tales in the list. The second
of these, moreover, makes the hero a merchant instead of a knight;
but since the two come from the same island and are in other respects
rather similar, [214] this is perhaps not very significant.
Looking at the matter from another point of view, we find that Richars,
Lion de Bourges, Dianese, Old Swedish, Rittertriuwe, and Sir Amadas
form a group by themselves, [215] and are uncompounded with any
one of the themes with which The Grateful Dead is most frequently
allied. Oliver and Lope de Vega are treated under the compound with
The Ransomed Woman, where on account of the rescue of the hero by
the ghost they probably belong; [216] and Icelandic I. and II. are
clearly of that type. Treu Heinrich [217] shows the combination of
the central theme with The Water of Life, and can in the nature of
the case have no direct connection with the other romance stories
under consideration, even though it belongs to a class in which The
Ransomed Woman sometimes appears. [218] In view of these discrepancies
of position with reference to compounds which are clearly established,
we are certainly not justified in assuming that The Spendthrift
Knight has had anything more than a superficial relationship to The
Grateful Dead. To make it a basis of classification or to attach
any considerable weight to its appearance here and there would be
contrary to the only safe method of procedure, which is to follow the
evidence of events in sequence rather than isolated traits. The very
fact that none of the compounds with The Poison Maiden contains any
such motive as this of the knight and the tourney shows that it must
be comparatively late and really an interloper in the family.
As to the way by which it entered the cycle, one must conclude that
it was afloat in Europe before the thirteenth century, [219] and
furnished a very natural opening for a tale in which a youth goes
into the world to seek adventure or profit. Were a lady to be won by
the help of the ghost, it would magnify the hero's part, if he were
given an opportunity to take some very direct share in the wooing. So
in the group of which Richars and Sir Amadas are members the new
theme supplied the means of winning a lady, which would otherwise be
lacking. In Oliver and Lope de Vega it has perhaps supplanted the
ransom of a maiden, which is the trait to be expected, if they are
rightly placed among the variants of the type The Grateful Dead +
The Ransomed Woman. It will be noted that in the two Icelandic tales,
which conform closely to the type, the tourney does not appear. There
seems to be reason, therefore, for supposing that the new material
touched our central theme at least twice, combining with the prototype
of the Amadas group and of the Icelandic folk-stories. The authors
of Oliver and Treu Heinrich may have adopted it consciously, and so
these variants should be left out of account.
Before leaving the matter, however, it must be noted that in Tobit the
hero leaves home on account of the poverty of his father to seek the
help of a relative. The ever-recurring possibility of a recollection
of Tobit on the part of the European story-tellers [220] should not be
forgotten. To argue that the suggestion of adapting The Spendthrift
Knight was due to a conscious or unconscious recollection of the
Apocrypha would be laying too much stress upon what can at best be
nothing more than conjecture, but there can be no harm in the surmise
that such may have been the case.
The matter of the division of his child or children by the hero to
fulfil the bargain made with his helper must next be discussed. This
occurs in twenty-five of the variants which we have considered, namely:
Lithuanian II., Transylvanian, Lope de Vega, Oliver, Jean de Calais
I.-X., Basque II., Gaelic, Irish I., Breton I., III., and VII., Simrock
I., II., and VIII., Sir Amadas, and Factor's Garland. With reference to
one group where the trait appears [221] I have already spoken at some
length of The Two Friends, and I have referred to the introduction
of the children as they have appeared in scattered variants. I now
wish to call the reader's attention to the general aspects of the
question. What relation has the use of this trait in versions of The
Grateful Dead to the theme which I call The Two Friends?
It must first be noted that the motive as it appears in Amis and
Amiloun requires [222] that the hero slay his children for the healing
of his foster-brother and sworn friend. Now of the twenty-five
variants of The Grateful Dead just named only Oliver and Lope de
Vega have this factor,--the others merely state that the helper
asked the hero to fulfil his bargain by giving up his only child,
[223] or giving up one of his two children, [224] or dividing his
only child, [225] or dividing his three children. [226] The query
at once suggests itself as to whether the simple division of the
child or children as part of the hero's possessions gave rise to
the introduction of the whole theme of The Two Friends in Oliver
and Lope de Vega, or whether the twenty-two folk-tales have merely
an echo of the theme as there found. To put the question is almost
equivalent to answering it. One sees at once that the former is the
case. Lope de Vega derives directly from Oliver, [227] and to the
author of that romance must be due the combination of the two themes
there presented. Reference to the earlier discussion of the variant
[228] will show that he was a conscious adapter of his material.
Yet it by no means follows that the suggestion for the combination
was not present in the version of The Grateful Dead, which was
used in making Oliver. Indeed, it seems probable that this source
or prototype had the division of the child in somewhat the form in
which it appears in so many tales. That such was the case is likely
from the fact that of the twenty-two folk variants which refer to the
child all but two are of the type The Grateful Dead + The Ransomed
Woman, to which Oliver is approximated. Considering the alterations
which the theme was likely to suffer at the hands of a writer who was
more or less consciously combining various material in a romance,
the wonder is that the type was not more changed than it seems to
have been. In point of fact, the position of Oliver and its literary
successors as examples of the compound comes out more clearly [229]
through this examination of their relationship to The Two Friends.
As to the introduction of the child, the trait by means of which,
according to my theory, the actual combination of motives came about,
the two folk-tales of the type The Grateful Dead + The Poison Maiden as
well as Sir Amadas, are of great importance. Since the great majority
of the variants which have the child belong clearly to the compound
type with The Ransomed Woman, it is only by reference to these three
that one can say with assurance that the modified trait indicates no
vital connection with The Two Friends. Yet with these in mind there
can be little doubt about the matter. The story-tellers have simply
extended the division of the hero's possessions from property and
wife to child, a process perhaps made easier by the existence of such
stories as The Child Vowed to the Devil [230] and some forms of the
Souhaits Saint Martin. [231] This might have happened to any particular
variant with equal facility. At the same time, the fact that the
change was made in only three cases outside the group, which has The
Ransomed Woman in combination, gives that family additional solidarity.
In Oliver, Lope de Vega, and Sir Amadas the motive of The Spendthrift
Knight appears together with the change or combination just referred
to. At first sight, it might appear that there was some essential
connection between these two elements foreign to the main theme. Such
does not seem to be the case, however, when the matter is further
considered. At any rate, I am unable to discover any such link,
and am inclined to ascribe the simultaneous appearance of these two
factors to chance pure and simple. Neither one is more than a rather
late and comparatively unimportant phenomenon as far as The Grateful
Dead is concerned.
Not infrequently in the course of this study attention has been called
to the substitution of a beast for the helping friend of the hero,
and in a few cases to the transference of the ghost's entire role to an
animal. While considering matters of greater importance, it seemed best
to ignore this in order to avoid unnecessary confusion. The matter is
of considerable importance, however, and must here be considered. The
question that concerns us is whether the appearance of the beast is
of any real moment in the development of the theme.
It is sufficiently clear that the well-known stories of grateful
animals and ungrateful men, which were first traced by Benfey,
[232] have general outlines different from that of The Grateful
Dead. Benfey's contention, however, that "konnte der Gedanke von der
Dankbarkeit der Thiere schon tief genug auch im Occident einwurzeln,
um auch in andere Maerchen einzudringen und vielleicht selbst sich
in Bildung von verwandten zur Anschauung zu bringen" [233] should be
kept in mind. This statement is truer than his later remark [234] that
fairies and other superhuman creations of fancy are substituted for
animals, instancing our theme as such a case. To argue relationship
from the entrance of either helpful beasts, fairies, or ghosts would
be dangerous unless the stories in question had the same motive,
since they are so frequently found in folk-literature. Indeed, as I
have already remarked, [235] one is scarcely called upon to explain
the intrusion of thankful or helpful animals at any given point, in
view of the fact that the device is almost universally known. Yet if
it does not require justification, it may well be of service in the
grouping of particular variants.
It is certainly worthy of notice that in eighteen forms of The
Grateful Dead a beast appears. That these are of several different
compound types would show, if it were not clear from what has been
said above, that the appearance of an animal furnishes of itself no
evidence of any actual amalgamation of narrative themes. It is rather
a case where one stock figure of imagination's realm is substituted
for another. The better-known character is perhaps more likely to
replace the less-known than vice versa, but the latter event may
happen if the obscurer figure will serve to enliven the tale.
Of the twenty variants in our cycle which have a thankful beast,
Jewish has the simple theme; Servian IV. the combination with The
Poison Maiden; Jean de Calais II., VII., and X., Simrock II., III., V.,
and VIII., and Oldenburgian the combination with The Ransomed Woman;
and Walewein, Lotharingian, Tuscan, Brazilian, Basque I., Breton IV.,
V., and VI., and Simrock IX. the combination with The Water of Life.
Now in Jewish [236] the hero is saved from shipwreck [237] by a
stone, carried home by an eagle, and there met by a white-clad man,
who explains the earlier appearances. This is mere reinforcement of
the tale by triplication, and implies nothing more than a certain
vigour of imagination on the part of the story-teller. In Servian IV.,
[238] where the hero spares a fish which he has caught, there appears,
on the contrary, to be actual combination with The Thankful Beasts
as a motive. The fish comes on the scene in human form, and fulfils
the part of the grateful dead till the very end, when it leaps back
into its element. As for the variants of the compound type with
The Ransomed Woman there is considerable diversity, yet all of them
have merely substitution, not combination. So in Jean de Calais II.,
VII. and X., [239] which are closely allied with other members of
the group so named, the beast appears, but in one case as a white
bird, in the second as a fox, and in the third as a crow. That
this is anything more than a substitution due to the story-teller's
individuality cannot be admitted, though knowledge of The Thankful
Beasts as a motive is not barred out. Simrock II. and VIII. [240]
are likewise nearly related to one another and to Jean de Calais,
and they have the same adventitious substitution. Simrock V. and
Oldenburgian are a similar pair, [241] while Simrock III., [242]
which is otherwise allied to Bohemian, cannot be shown to have any
vital connection with The Thankful Beasts as a motive. Of all these
tales it can be said that they show some influence from such a theme
without actual combination. Finally, all the variants of the type The
Grateful Dead + The Water of Life, which have the animal substituted,
[243] belong to a well-defined and centralized group [244] which
has had independent existence for centuries. Here the entrance of
the beast is of considerable importance to the classification and
development of the theme.
Of the part which The Thankful Beasts as a motive has played in
connection with The Grateful Dead it must be said that, on the whole,
it has been of very secondary importance. It illustrates, as do The
Spendthrift Knight and The Two Friends, how one current theme may
touch and even influence another at several different points without
becoming embodied with it. This trait or that may be absorbed as the
motives meet, yet the two waves may go their way without mingling.