Note 9 — Chapter VII · The Relations of The Grateful Dead to The Spendthrift Knight, The Two Friends, and The Thankful Beasts.

It must first be noted that the motive as it appears in Amis and Amiloun requires9 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,10 or giving up one of his two children,11 or dividing his only child,12 or dividing his three children.13 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,14 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 variant15 will show that he was a conscious adapter of his material.