Note 36 — Chapter V · The Grateful Dead and The Ransomed Woman.

The two variants are chiefly peculiar in that they introduce a new element into the compound,—The Thankful Beast. This substitution of some beast for the ghost has been encountered twice before36 in connection with Jewish and Servian IV., and must receive special treatment later on.37 For the present it is sufficient to remark the variation from all other forms of Jean de Calais except X.38 In both II. and VII. Jean makes two journeys,39 as in III., IV., and V., as against I. and VI. The attitude of the parent differs widely in the two. The maiden whom the hero marries is a Portuguese princess, which is the prevailing form of the tale. The portrait is also found in each, and both state the time of Jean’s exile as seven years. II. differs from all the other versions in placing the later adventures of the story at Calais rather than at the court of the heroine’s father. In II., as in VI., the ghost announces himself at the first meeting, which is undoubtedly a modification of the original story. Thus the two forms are sufficiently independent of one another, in spite of their common use of an animal as the hero’s friend.