The Dead Wife
The Dead Wife is an Iroquois fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Yellow Fairy Book.[1] It bears many similarities to the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.
Synopsis
A hunter who has lost his wife to an illness cannot bear to be alone without her. He decides to craft a wooden doll in her image and dresses it in her clothes. One night the hunter discovers that some of the chores are completed for him, and his supper is already waiting. The next day he returns from hunting early, and discovers his wife entering their home. She tells him that the Great Spirit had pitied him and sent her back, yet the hunter is forbidden to touch her until they have returned to their village and everyone has seen her. Two years later the couple sets off for their village. Along the journey they stop to rest for the night, and the hunter attempts to hold his wife in spite of her warning. As he does so, his wife changes into the wooden doll. He continues to the village and relates the tale to them. The tribe discovers two sets of footprints in the snow, with one set matching the feet of the wooden doll, verifying the hunter's story. The miserable hunter spends the rest of his life mourning his dead wife.
