Dragaera

Grateful Dead in Fenario

David Silberstein davids at kithrup.com
Fri Feb 7 17:02:10 PST 2003

I have the following Grateful Dead links, which I have been intending
to use for some time to research the Hungarian/Dead references.
Perhaps the current thread will motivate me to dig deeper.

   http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/
   http://www3.clearlight.com/~acsa/longlist.htm

And of course,

   http://grateful.dead.net/

I assume Grateful Dead fans caught Roaana referring to the Grateful
Dead folktale itself in Paths of the Dead (you know, I just realized
there may be a GD reference in the title itself.  Hmm.).  For those
who are not familiar with the story, it is in chapter 32, page 361
(the line about helping a spirit to Deathgate Falls, and then his
demon appears and grants the helpful person various good things), and
a more detailed version is here: 

   http://srogers.com/deadpage.htm

   GRATEFUL DEAD: The motif of a cycle of folk tales which begin
   with the hero coming upon a group of people ill-treating or
   refusing to bury the corpse of a man who had died without paying
   his debts. He gives his last penny, either to pay the man's debts
   or to give him a decent burial. Within a few hours he meets with a
   travelling companion who aids him in some impossible task, gets him
   a fortune or saves his life. The story ends with the companion
   disclosing himself as the man whose corpse the hero had befriended.
   (Funk & Wagnalls Dictionary.)

The motif is analyzed in much greater detail here:

   http://homepage.mac.com/thandoy/wolf/grateful_dead.html

and here:

   http://califia.hispeed.com/Folklore/thedead.htm   


If anyone is interested, by the way, one of the above sites has
the following essay about the song "Dark Star", which is also a
Grateful Dead/Dragaera ref: 

   http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/ds.html

Which may be a bit Too Much, but whatthehell.