The Bird 'Grip'

[1] It is Aarne-Thompson type 550, the quest for the golden bird/firebird; other tales of this type include The Golden Bird, The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener, How Ian Direach got the Blue Falcon, The Nunda, Eater of People, and Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire Bird and the Gray Wolf.

A girl told him that they came from a dead man, whom the innkeeper had beat and killed for not being able to pay the bill, and whom he refused to bury without the money for the funeral.

The prince paid his bill, but was afraid to stay longer, so he asked the girl to help him escape in the night.

The king offered to pardon him if he carried off the world's most beautiful princess, from the next kingdom.

The king offered to pardon him if he carried off the horse with the four golden shoes, from the next kingdom.

His brothers, jealous, threw him into a den of lions and took the bird, the horse, and the princess, threatening to kill her if she did not say they had won them.

But the bird did not sing, the horse would let no one in the stall, and the princess wept unceasingly.

He banished the older sons, but the youngest married the princess and lived happily ever after.

This is the grateful dead, a common folklore motif, found also in Fair Brow.