Page:The Grateful Dead.djvu/151

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The Water of Life.
135

into groups on the basis of the residuum left by subtracting traits belonging to The Grateful Dead.

Let us now consider the tales where a thankful beast plays the part of the grateful dead through at least a portion of the narrative, and where there is still no trace of either The Poison Maiden or The Ransomed Woman. The change of beast for ghost is so obvious and easy that the separation of these variants from the preceding appears at first sight to be of merely formal use. Yet thus considered, they may serve to define the subdivisions already noticed. Nine such versions have come to my knowledge: Walewein, Lotharingian, Tuscan, Brazilian, Basque I., Breton IV., V., and VI., and Simrock IX. All but one are folk-tales, and that, curiously enough, an episode in a thirteenth century[1] Dutch romance translated from the French.[2]

Walewein, the variant in question, has the following form: Walewein (or more familiarly Gawain) sets forth from Arthur's court to secure a magical chessboard. He is promised it by King Wonder if only he will get the sword of rings from King Amoris, who in turn will give that up if Walewein will bring him the princess of the Garden of India. On this quest the hero mortally wounds a certain Red Knight, who prays him for Christian burial and is properly interred. He then proceeds to the castle of King Assentin, whose daughter recognizes in him the ideal knight whom she has seen in a dream. He is led under the dark river which surrounds the castle by the Fox Rogés, and wins the princess. The lovers and the fox (a prince transformed) escape by the help of the Red Knight's ghost. After many adventures they come together to the court with a chessboard, which is given up by King Wonder in exchange for the sword. Walewein is able to keep the princess for his own because of the death of Amoris.

  1. See Jonckbloet, ii. 131 ff.
  2. Paris, Hist. litt. de la France, xxx. 82.