Grateful dead (folklore)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Grateful dead (or grateful ghost) is a folktale present in many cultures throughout the world.

The most common story involves a traveler who encounters a corpse of someone who never received a proper burial, typically stemming from an unpaid debt. The traveler then either pays off the dead person's debt or pays for burial. The traveler is later rewarded or has their life saved by a person or animal who is actually the soul of the dead person; the grateful dead is a form of the donor.[1][2] The grateful dead spirit may take many different physical forms including that of a guardian angel, animal, or fellow traveler.[3] The traveler's encounter with the deceased comes near the end of the traveler's journey.[3]

Classification[]

The "grateful dead" story is Aarne–Thompson–Uther type 505.[4] In French academia, the archetype of the Grateful Dead is known as Jean de Calais.

Folkloristic scholarship classify ATU types 505-508 under the umbrella term The Grateful Dead, each subtype referring to a certain aspect of the legend:[5][6]

ATU 505: Grateful Dead[]

ATU 507: The Monster's Bride[]

This type may also be known as "The Poisoned Maiden" or "The Dangerous Bride" (the killer monster in the nuptial chamber).[7] In this tale type, the hero is helped by a mysterious stranger in wooing a maiden whose suitors/bridegrooms have died in mysterious circumstances in her bedchamber, and the exorcising of the evil spirits that possessed her.[8]

Swedish folklorist Sven Liljeblad (sv), in his work about the tale type, tabulated two forms of the narrative: a type dubbed Asmodeus, wherein a dragon or serpent attacks the couple on the wedding night, and another named The Snake Maiden, wherein the snakes come out of the maiden's mouth.[9]

Folklorist Stith Thompson recognized three subtypes of ATU 507: 507A, "The Monster's Bride", wherein the princess possesses magical powers given by a monster; 507B, "The Monster in the Bridal Chamber", wherein a serpent or dragon enters the chamber to kill the bridegroom; and 507C, "The Serpent Maiden", wherein the monster (snakes) comes out of the maiden's mouth (although he thought that 507C was only a variation of subtype 507B).[10] Canadian folklorist Carmen Roy noted that type 507A was the "Scandinavian and Irish" form of "The Grateful Dead".[11]

In his own revision of the folktale index, German folklorist Hans-Jörg Uther subsumed previous subtypes 507A, 507B and 507C under one type, ATU 507, "The Monster's Bride".[12]

Analysis[]

In many cultures there is the belief that when a person dies their soul is separated from their body thus giving someone a proper burial allows their spirit to carry on into the next life.[13]

An ancient Egyptian text explains the principle of reciprocity in which the deceased calls for a blessing on the person who remembers his name and helps him into a happy afterlife:

But if there be a man, any one whomsoever, who beholdeth this writing and causeth my soul and my name to become established among those who are blessed, let it be done for him likewise after his final arriving (at the end of life's voyage) in recompense for what was done by him for me, Osiris.[14]

In ancient literature[]

Scholarship also recognizes the presence of the motif in the biblical Book of Tobit.[15][16][17][18] According to professor Dov Noy (de), the biblical story is the first register of the tale type in Hebrew literature.[19]

In medieval literature[]

Stith Thompson pointed that the type AT 508, "The Bride Won in a Tournament", harks back to medieval chivalry literature.[20] Ralph Steele Boggs listed occurrences of the AT 505 in the Spanish literature of Late Middle Ages.[21]

The chivalric romance Amadas has the title knight pay his last coins for such a burial.[15] Due to his chivalry the deceased is resurrected and aids the hero in recovering the riches that was used to provide him with a proper burial.[22]

In the italian tale La novella di Messer Dianese e di Messer Gigliotto, the knight, having spent his property, is given gifts by his friends, so that he may participate in a tournament that will give him the chance to become rich again. After selling the gifts for the burial, he meets the dead in the form of a rich merchant who offers to become his sponsor in the tournament in exchange for a share of the rewards.[23][24]

According to Ralph Boggs, the motif is also present in the 16th-century play The Old Wives' Tale, by George Peele.[25]

Spanish scholarship also argues that the theme was explored by Spanish author Lope de Vega in his play Don Juan de Castro.[26]

In folk and fairy tales[]

Folklorist Ralph Steele Boggs (de) stated that the story is widespread in Europe, Asia, Africa and America.[27]

The Grateful Dead motif also appears in various fairy tales as a type of Donor,[28] such as the Italian Fair Brow,[29] French Princess Marcassa and the Dreadaine Bird (a variant of The Golden Bird); the Swedish The Bird 'Grip'; H. C. Andersen's The Traveling Companion (Reisekamaraten),[30] Danish folktale Den hvide Mand og Kongesønnen ("The white man and the king's son")[31] or Norwegian The Companion.

The English tale of Jack the Giant Killer contains the subtype AT 507, "The Monster's Bride".[32]

Scholar George Stephens, in his edition of Medieval romance Amadace, lists other occurrences of the grateful dead in tales from Europe and Asia, as introduction to the book.[33]

In Irish fairy tale from Donegal, The Snow, the Crow, and the Blood, a grateful dead, in the form of a short red man, helps a prince against three giants and exorcizes the devil's thrall on a princess.[34]

References[]

  1. ^ "Dead FAQ: How did they get the name?". Retrieved 2007-12-14.
  2. ^ "Grateful dead". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b Galley, Micheline (2005). "Death in Folk Tales (A Brief Note)". Diogenes. 52 (1): 105–109. doi:10.1177/0392192105050613. ISSN 0392-1921.
  4. ^ D.L. Ashliman. "The Grateful Dead: folktales of Aarne–Thompson–Uther type 505". Retrieved 2008-05-20.
  5. ^ Bohler, Danielle. "Béances de la terre et du temps: la dette et le pacte dans le motif du Mort reconnaissant au Moyen Age". In: L'Homme, 1989, tome 29 n°111-112. Littérature et anthropologie. pp. 161-178. [DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/hom.1989.369155]; www.persee.fr/doc/hom_0439-4216_1989_num_29_111_369155
  6. ^ Thompson, Stith. The Folktale. University of California Press. 1977. pp. 50-53. ISBN 0-520-03537-2
  7. ^ Jacobs, Naomi S. S.. "“What About the Dog?” Tobit’s Mysterious Canine Revisited" In: Canonicity, Setting, Wisdom in the Deuterocanonicals. Edited by Géza G. Xeravits, József Zsengellér and Xavér Szabó. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2014. pp. 239 (footnote nr. 119), 240-241. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110367232.221
  8. ^ Jacobs, Naomi S. S.. "“What About the Dog?” Tobit’s Mysterious Canine Revisited" In: Canonicity, Setting, Wisdom in the Deuterocanonicals. Edited by Géza G. Xeravits, József Zsengellér and Xavér Szabó. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2014. pp. 239 (footnote nr. 119), 240-241. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110367232.221
  9. ^ Taylor, Archer. "A Theory of Indo-European Märchen". In: The Journal of American Folklore 44, no. 171 (1931): 58-59. Accessed August 11, 2021. doi:10.2307/535522.
  10. ^ Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale. University of California Press. pp. 51–52. ISBN 0-520-03537-2.
  11. ^ Roy, Carmen. La Littérature Orale En Gaspésie. Bulletin / [National Museum of Canada]. no. 13. Ottawa: 1955. pp. 201, 223.
  12. ^ Uther, Hans-Jörg. The types of International Folktales. A Classification and Bibliography, based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson. Volume 1: Animal tales, tales of magic, religious tales, and realistic tales, with an introduction. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia-Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2004. p. 291. ISBN 9789514109560.
  13. ^ Felton, D (2001). "The Grateful Dead: The History of a Folk Story (review)". Journal of American Folklore. 114 (454): 505–506. doi:10.1353/jaf.2001.0033. ISSN 1535-1882.
  14. ^ "The Burden of Isis, Being the Laments of Isis and Nephthys", James Teackle Dennis, Dutton & Co, 1910
  15. ^ Jump up to: a b Laura A. Hibbard, Medieval Romance in England p. 74. New York Burt Franklin, 1963.
  16. ^ Huet, G. "LE CONTE DU « MORT RECONNAISSANT » ET LE LIVRE DE TOBIE." Revue De L'histoire Des Religions 71 (1915): 1-29. Accessed June 18, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/23662846.
  17. ^ Jason, Heda. "Study of Israelite and Jewish Oral and Folk Literature: Problems and Issues". In: Asian Folklore Studies 49, no. 1 (1990): 88. Accessed May 18, 2021. doi:10.2307/1177950.
  18. ^ Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale. University of California Press. p. 52. ISBN 0-520-03537-2.
  19. ^ Noy, Dov. Folktales of Israel. University of Chicago Press. 1963. p. 126.
  20. ^ Thompson, Stith. The Folktale. University of California Press. p. 179. ISBN 978-0520035379.
  21. ^ Boggs, Ralph Steele. Index of Spanish folktales, classified according to Antti Aarne's "Types of the folktale". Chicago: University of Chicago. 1930. pp. 66-67.
  22. ^ Johnston, Michael (2008-08-23). "Knights and Merchants Unite: Sir Amadace, the Grateful Dead, and the Moral Exemplum Tradition". Neophilologus. 92 (4): 735–744. doi:10.1007/s11061-008-9107-y. ISSN 0028-2677.
  23. ^ La novella di Messer Dianese e di Messer Gigliotto
  24. ^ Novellino, Addendum IV tale XVII
  25. ^ Boggs, Ralph Steele; Adams, Nicholson Barney. Spanish Folktales. New York: F. S. Crofts & co., 1932. p. 113.
  26. ^ Chevalier, Maxime. "Comedia lopesca y cuento folklórico". In: Revista de Dialectología y Tradiciones Populares. Madrid Vol. 43, (Jan 1, 1988): 197-201.
  27. ^ Boggs, Ralph Steele; Adams, Nicholson Barney. Spanish Folktales. New York: F. S. Crofts & co., 1932. p. 113.
  28. ^ "The Grateful Dead, or Bertuccio and Tarquinia: LEONORA." In The Pleasant Nights - Volume 2, edited by Beecher Donald, by Straparola Giovan Francesco and Waters W.G., 446-74. Toronto; Buffalo; London: University of Toronto Press, 2012. Accessed June 18, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/9781442699533.35.
  29. ^ Italo Calvino, Italian Folktales p. 725 ISBN 0-15-645489-0
  30. ^ Andersen, Hans Christian. William A. Craigie; J. K. Craigie (transl.). "The Travelling Companion" In: Fairy Tales and Other Stories. London; Toronto: Oxford University Press. 1914. pp. 42-62.
  31. ^ Berntsen, Klaus. Folke-aeventyr, samlede og udgivne forskolen og hjemmet. 1ste Samlung. Odense: 1873. pp. 80-88. [1]
  32. ^ Baughman, Ernest Warren. Type and Motif-index of the Folktales of England and North America. Indiana University Folklore Series No. 20. The Hague, Netherlands: Mouton & Co. 1966. p. 12.
  33. ^ Stephens, George. Ghost-thanks: Or, The Grateful Unburied. Cheapinghaven: Michaelsen and Tillge, 1860. pp. 5-11.
  34. ^ MacManus, Seumas. Donegal Fairy Stories. Doubleday, Page and Co. 1900. pp. 153-174.

Further reading[]

  • The Grateful Dead Tales From Around the World (SurLaLune Fairy Tale Series). Heidi Anne Heiner (editor). CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; Annotated edition (April 14, 2015). ISBN 978-1453825235.
  • John S. P. Tatlock. "Levenoth and the Grateful Dead." Modern Philology 22, no. 2 (1924): 211–14. Accessed June 18, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/433838.
  • Felton, D. The Journal of American Folklore 114, no. 454 (2001): 505–06. Accessed June 18, 2020. doi:10.2307/542065.
  • Goldberg, Christine. Western Folklore 59, no. 3/4 (2000): 337–40. Accessed June 18, 2020. doi:10.2307/1500242.
  • Goryaeva B. B. "AT 508 "Grateful Dead Man" Plot in the Kalmyk Fairy Tradition". In: Dagestan State Pedagogical University. Journal. Social and Humanitarian Sciences. Vol. 10. No. 4. 2016. Pp. 78-83. URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/syuzhet-at-508-blagodarnyy-mertvets-v-kalmytskoy-skazochnoy-traditsii (дата обращения: 27.08.2021).(In Russian)
  • Groome, Francis Hindes. "Tobit and Jack the Giant-Killer." Folklore 9, no. 3 (1898): 226–44. Accessed June 18, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/1253058.
  • Liljeblad, Sven. Die Tobiasgeschichte und andere Märchen mit Toten Helfern. Lund: P. Lindstedts Univ.-Bokhandel, 1927.
  • Ó Duilearga, Séamas, and Séamus Ó Duilearga. "Buidheachas An Duine Mhairbh / The Dead Man's Gratitude." Béaloideas 1, no. 1 (1927): 46–48. Accessed June 18, 2020. doi:10.2307/20521421.
  • Jacobs, Melville. Northwest Sahaptin Texts. Vol. I. New York: Columbia University press, 1934. pp. 252–263.

External links[]

Retrieved from ""