Image by Joseph-Louis-Hippolyte Bellangé – [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Stories of
The Grateful Dead which tell of the gratitude of a dead person to someone alive who has helped them to a proper burial are found in many parts of the world. Under the
Aarne–Thompson–Uther classification system used by many folklorists they are classified as type 505. Many of these tale types share a basic structure where a debtor dies leaving their debts unpaid and are refused a proper burial or in this case absurdly intended to dig up a dead person expecting them to pay the debt. In some cultures dying in debt or not getting a proper funeral prevented the dead from moving on to heaven. Along comes someone who out of the goodness of their heart pays off the debts allowing a proper burial to take place and allowing the soul of the dead person to enter heaven. The ghost, or soul, then returns to Earth to reward that person, often helping them find their heart’s desire. Presented here is a retelling of a Danish folktale called
The Three Pennies that is classified as being of the Grateful Dead Type 505 tale. Although it is fairly short it is rather a strange story having some rather curious motifs and dark undertones that echo a fertility rite and the idea of the dying and rising god.
The Three Pennies
The story begins with a soldier who had faithfully served his king and country for many years and on a count of his age was given a discharge. As a thank you for his bravery, commitment and service he was given a small loaf of rye bread and three pennies. On receiving these tokens of the King’s gratitude he was set free from service to go where he would and so set off into the world to see what providence would bring.
As he set off along his way, savoringdbt, his new found freedom, he met three men walking in the opposite direction to him. In their hands they each carried some kind of digging implement. One carried a spade. Another carried a shovel and the third carried a pickaxe. All three seemed to be in an agitated state of mind.
Curious as to what they may be up to the soldier stopped them and asked their what they were up to saying, “Where are you going with all of those tools?”
One of them replied, “This I will tell you as you ask. Today a man died and was buried owing us all money. We are determined that we should be paid and we are going to dig him up,”
“What a shocking notion!” exclaimed the soldier. “Can you not see that he is incapable of making a payment. The dead should not be disturbed, he cannot pay you so leave him in peace!”
“That we will not do,” said another, “ He owes us each one penny and we must have our payment, so he must be dug up!”
On seeing that the men would not listen to reason the soldier said, “If I pay you two pennies will you then leave the dead undisturbed?”
“Two pennies will only pay two of us what we are owed. What about the third?” said on of the other men. “How then is the third man to be compensated?”
Seeing that the men would only accept full payment the soldier said in disgust, “Since your greed has taken over your reason I will also give a third penny. Take these three pennies and be happy that you have now got that which is so dear to you. Take it and go but leave the dead in peace!”
So content with being paid in full debt owed each of them they went on their way leaving the dead man undisturbed. The soldier walked upon his way reflecting on the greed and foolishness of some people and as he walked he noticed that a pale stranger was now walking by his side. He was somewhat puzzled as he had not noticed when he had joined his company. As the soldier turned to look at him the pale stranger turned and saluted him and continued to walk alongside him without saying a single word. They continued to walk throughout the evening and as midnight approached they came to a church. The pale stranger said, “Come my friend, let us visit this holy place tonight.”
The soldier looked at him in bemusement and asked, “Surely that would be improper at this hour? What would we be doing in a church at midnight?”
However, the pale stranger was most insistent saying, “We have to go inside! We must do this!”
After much argument the soldier and the pale stranger entered the church and walked down the aisle to the altar where there sat an old woman holding a light burning in her hand.
They walked up to her and the pale stranger said, “You must take a hair from her head and smell it.”
Puzzled, the soldier did as he was told but nothing happened. The pale stranger again told him to pull a hair from her head. Again the soldier compiled but again nothing happened. A third time the pale stranger told him to take a hair from her head and smell it. This time the soldier pulled a tuft of hair from the woman’s head to smell, but this enraged her and she marched out of the church carrying the lead vault with her.
The two followed her out of the church and down to the beach where they found the lead vault on the waterside. Then the pale stranger said, “Come, we will go to sea therefore take your seat”
“Where is the ship?” said soldier who was now completely bewildered.
“You must have faith in me, just sit yourself in this lead vault and we will sail over the sea to a land where there is a princess, who it is told, is destined to marry a man who sails to her land in a lead ship. This will make your fortune,” said the pale stranger.
So the soldier got in and sat himself down and the pale stranger sat next to him. The tide came in and the lead vault rose in the water and floated out to sea. It floated on and on for many days across the wide open water and eventually came to rest on a beach on the other side of the sea. People soon gathered around to welcome them and there was great joy and happiness that someone had arrived across the sea in a lead vault to claim the princess as the prophecy had foretold. The soldier and the princess were married with such splendour and magnificence as had never been seen before and was never seen thereafter.
After the ceremony the bride and groom left the church and entered into a carriage that was waiting for them and the pale stranger followed them and also got in. The coachman asked where they would like to be taken and the pale stranger quickly said, “Drive with all possible speed to the other side where the sun rises!” In obedience the coachman whipped up the horse and drove off wildly heading for the other side.
On their way to the other side the soldier looked out of the carriage window and saw a herdsman and he called upon the coachman to stop. The coachman quickly stopped the carriage and the soldier leaned out and asked the herdsman who he was. The herdsman then replied, “I am the Count of Ravensburg and there in the distance is my castle.”
The pale stranger then urged the coachman to drive on as quickly as possible and presently they arrived at Ravensburg Castle. The coachman drove through the gates which shut behind them. As they were climbing out of the carriage they heard a knocking at the castle gates and went to see who it was. Looking through a window in the gate they saw it was the herdsman who appeared anxious to come in. The pale stranger asked what he wanted and the herdsman, who was also a conjuror, told him that he had every right to enter the castle as it belonged to him. The pale stranger thought about this for a minute or two and then said, “To be allowed in he must suffer the whole fate of the rye.”
Conjuror looked at him puzzled and suspicious and asked, “And what is the fate of the rye?”
The pale stranger then told him,
“To suffer the fate of the rye, when autumn comes you must be scattered and sown in the ground and lay under the cold earth through the dark days of winter. When spring comes you will burst through the earth and grow and ripen in the sunshine and rain. When you are ready you will be harvested. You will be cut and dried and placed in a barn and then you will be threshed. That is part of the fate of the rye”
“I am to be threshed?” cried the conjuror aghast.
“You will be threshed first and then ground in the mill,” replied the the pale stranger.
“Threshed and ground!” shouted the conjuror becoming angry.
“Yes and then sifted,” the pale stranger told him calmly.
On hearing he was also to be sifted the conjuror became so enraged that he burst into flint-stones.
The pale stranger then turned to the bride and groom and bid them goodbye saying,
“My friend, now you are married to the beautiful princess who loves you and you her. The troll of Ravensburg Castle is dead forever and now all his treasures and his castle are all yours. I have been as good and generous with you as you were to me when you gave away those three pennies to pay my debts purely out of the goodness of your heart.”
“I have no I regrets about giving away those pennies and have not once mourned their loss. Why, I would do the same again to provide the dead with proper burial!” replied the soldier.
“That, I well know now, or I could never have been able to help you, but now having helped you attain your heart’s desire I have repaid you and can no longer stay. I go now to where I belong, therefore farewell!” With that he shook his hand and dissolved into nothingness before his very eyes and was gone.
Motifs and Themes
The number three crops up a number of times. There are the three gifts from the king, his freedom, a rye loaf and three pennies,There are three pennies, three creditors, three debts, three different garden implements and the curious behaviour of pulling hair from the old woman’s head and smelling it.
What was the purpose of this this bizarre act? The two appear before her like ghosts and she gives no indication she knows of their presence until her hair is pulled a third time. This provokes her into a superhuman effort of picking up the lead vault, box or probably coffin and carrying it to the seashore ready for them to use as a boat.
The herdsman claims he is also the Count of Ravensburghand a conjuror making three identities. He is told if he wants to pass through the gates of the castle he claims as his own he must undergo the fate of the rye. A herdsman, or shepherd is a euphemism sometimes used to describe someone such as a king or religious leader who had followers. The herdsman provides, food, security, shelter and leadership to their herd or flock.
There is a Ravensberg Castle in Germany and there were Counts of Ravensberg. There is also a town named Ravensburg which was a great trading center that did have a castle but was destroyed, but it really is not clear if these are anything to do with the story.
John Barleycorn
Those familiar with the British folk song John Barleycorn will notice the similarity of the fate the rye that the conjuror is offered to that of John Barleycorn in the song. It is also noticeable that the old soldier is given a loaf of rye bread when discharged from the King’s service. Rye (Secale cereale) is a a grain closely related to barley (genus Hordeum) and has many uses including rye bread, flour, crisp bread, animal fodder, beer, and some types of vodka and whiskeys.
In British folklore John Barleycorn is the personification of barley, or corn and the alcoholic drinks such as whiskey and beer that are made from it. The violence, abuse and disrespect John Barleycorn has to endure before being reborn, regrown in a never ending cycle correspond to the different stages of barley or corn cultivation, harvesting and malting.
The figure of John Barleycorn may be derived from early pagan Norse deities such as Kvasir or Mímir band is associated with Beowa from Anglo-Saxon paganism who is associated with barley and agriculture. This ritual is also associated with the very ancient idea of vegetation deities and the dying and rising god that is symbolic of the natural dying and regeneration seen in vegetation that is essential to human existence. Jesus Christ is seen by some people as a dying and rising god.
The idea of a dying and rising god is not universally accepted or rejected by scholars and many have an open mind on the subject. Although its meaning to this story cannot be proved for certain it is curious to find it present. Certainly, the conjuror’s bad tempered rejection of the fate of the rye causes him to turn into flint-stones, of all things.
Flint-stones are found naturally in many parts of the world and were a natural material that was used to make tools and implements in very ancient times such as arrowheads, and axes and knives. These were sometimes found fields were ploughed or holes dug and were called thunderstones having thought to be thunderbolts from the gods. Flints also produce a spark when struck with steel that can light fires and in some cultures were believed to ward against the return of the dead.
The Grateful Dead Theme
The gratitude of the dead who have been given a proper burial thanks to the generosity and goodness of a person in stark contrast to the greed of the creditors of the dead is the underlying theme of the tale. The soldier, although by no means rich, readily gives up his three pennies earned for long loyal service to the King to give to the creditors to pay the debt of a dead man he did not know. Despite the poverty this will leave him in he never once regrets his act seeing it more as a duty than an act of generosity even though all he is left with is a loaf of rye and that is the key to achieving his heart’s desire as explained by the pale stranger. The implication of the story is that the living affect the transition of the dead to the afterlife while the dead can return and influence the lives of the living.
This short, strange story has generated more words in discussion that it consists of and probably a lot more could be written. Is it just a rather bizarre, obscure fairy or folktale or is there some hidden purpose to its telling as suggested above?
© 09/05/2018 zteve t evans
References, Attributions and Further Reading
Copyright May 9th, 2018 zteve t evans
Under the influence! 
![Image from Original German text by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translation by Bayard Taylor, illustrations by Harry Clarke. [Public domain] – File:Page 004 (Faust, 1925).png From Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Page_004_(Faust,_1925).png){kind=link}
