Grateful dead (folklore)

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.Cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9037771/grateful-dead#23476.hook|title=Grateful dead|accessdate=2007-12-14|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Online|year=2007|work=Encyclopædia Britannica] Cite web|url=http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mleone/gdead/faq/name.html|title=Dead FAQ: How did they get the name?|accessdate=2007-12-14|format=html] 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.

The "grateful dead" story is Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 505. [Citeweb|url=http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0505.html|title=The Grateful Dead: folktales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 505|author=D.L. Ashliman|accessdate=2008-05-20

One example of the story is the Book of Tobit. Others include the Italian fairy tale "Fair Brow" and the Swedish "The Bird 'Grip'".

References in popular culture

*The folktale was the inspiration for the name of the American rock band, the Grateful Dead.

References

ee also

* Bunbuku Chagama

External links

[http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0505.html "The Grateful Dead: folktales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 505"] , various folk tales