MAN OR WOMAN BOY OR GIRL THAT READS WHAT FOLLOWS 3 TIMES SHALL FALL ASLEEP AN HUNDRED YEARS JOHN D BATTEN DREW THIS: AUG 29TH 1891 GOOD-NIGHT.MAN OR WOMANBOY OR GIRLTHAT READS WHAT FOLLOWS3TIMESSHALL FALL ASLEEPAN HUNDRED YEARSJOHN D BATTEN DREW THIS:AUG 29TH 1891GOOD-NIGHT.
It may be as well to give the reader some account of the enormous extent of the Celtic folk-tales in existence. I reckon these to extend to 2000, though only about 250 are in print. The former number exceeds that known in France, Italy, Germany, and Russia, where collection has been most active, and is only exceeded by the MS. collection of Finnish folk-tales at Helsingfors, said to exceed 12,000. As will be seen, this superiority of the Celts is due to the phenomenal and patriotic activity of one man, the late J. F. Campbell, of Islay, whosePopular Talesand MS. collections (partly described by Mr. Alfred Nutt inFolk-Lore, i., 369-83) contain references to no less than 1281 tales (many of them, of course, variants and scraps). Celtic folk-tales, while more numerous, are also the oldest of the tales of modern European races; some of them—e. g., "Connla," in the present selection, occurring in the oldest Irish vellums. They include (1) fairy tales properly so-called—i.e., tales or anecdotesaboutfairies, hobgoblins, etc., told as natural occurrences; (2) hero-tales, stories of adventure told of national or mythical heroes; (3) folk-tales proper, describing marvellous adventures of otherwise unknown heroes, in which there is a defined plot and supernatural characters (speaking animals, giants, dwarfs, etc.); and finally (4) drolls, comic anecdotes of feats of stupidity or cunning.
The collection of Celtic folk-tales began inIrelandas early as 1825, with T. Crofton Croker'sFairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland. This contained some 38 anecdotes of the first-class mentioned above, anecdotes showing the belief of the Irish peasantry in the existence of fairies, gnomes, goblinsand the like. The Grimms did Croker the honour of translating part of his book, under the title ofIrische Elfenmärchen. Among the novelists and tale-writers of the schools of Miss Edgeworth and Lever folk-tales were occasionally utilised, as by Carleton in hisTraits and Stories, by S. Lover in hisLegends and Stories, and by G. Griffin in hisTales of a Jury-Room. These all tell their tales in the manner of the stage Irishman. Chapbooks,Royal Fairy TalesandHibernian Tales, also contained genuine folk-tales, and attracted Thackeray's attention in hisIrish Sketch-Book. The Irish Grimm, however, was Patrick Kennedy, a Dublin bookseller, who believed in fairies, and in five years (1866-71) printed about 100 folk and hero-tales and drolls (classes 2, 3 and 4 above) in hisLegendary Fictions of the Irish Celts, 1866,Fireside Stories of Ireland, 1870, andBardic Stories of Ireland, 1871; all three are now unfortunately out of print. He tells his stories neatly and with spirit, and retains much that isvolkstümlichin his diction. He derived his materials from the English speaking peasantry of County Wexford, who changed from Gaelic to English while story-telling was in full vigour, and therefore carried over the stories with the change of language. Lady Wilde has told many folk-tales very effectively in herAncient Legends of Ireland, 1887. More recently two collectors have published stories gathered from peasants of the West and North who can only speak Gaelic. These are an American gentleman named Curtin,Myths and Folk-Tales of Ireland, 1890, and Dr. Douglas Hyde who has published inBeside the Fire, 1891, spirited English versions of some of the stories he had published in the original Irish in hisLeabhar Sgeulaigheachta, Dublin, 1889. Miss Maclintock has a large MS. collection, part of which has appeared in various periodicals; and Messrs. Larminie and D. Fitzgerald are known to have much story material in their possession.
But beside these more modern collections there exist in old and middle Irish a large number of hero-tales (class 2) which formed the staple of the oldollamhsor bards. Of these tales of "cattle-liftings, elopements, battles, voyages, courtships, caves, lakes, feasts, sieges, and eruptions," a bard of even the fourthclass had to know seven fifties, presumably one for each day of the year. Sir William Temple knew of a north-country gentleman of Ireland who was sent to sleep every evening with a fresh tale from his bard. TheBook of Leinster, an Irish vellum of the twelfth century, contains a list of 189 of these hero-tales, many of which are extant to this day; E. O'Curry gives the list in the Appendix to hisMS. Materials of Irish History. Another list of about 70 is given in the preface to the third volume of the Ossianic Society's publications. Dr. Joyce published a few of the more celebrated of these inOld Celtic Romances; others appeared inAtlantis(see notes on "Deirdre") others in Kennedy'sBardic Stories, mentioned above.
Turning toScotland, we must put aside Chambers'sPopular Rhymes of Scotland, 1842, which contains for the most part folk-tales common with those of England rather than those peculiar to the Gaelic-speaking Scots. The first name here in time as in importance is that of J. F. Campbell, of Islay. His four volumes,Popular Tales of the West Highlands(Edinburgh, 1860-2, recently republished by the Islay Association), contain some 120 folk and hero-tales, told with strict adherence to the language of the narrators, which is given with a literal, a rather too literal, English version. This careful accuracy has given an un-English air to his versions, and has prevented them attaining their due popularity. What Campbell has published represents only a tithe of what he collected. At the end of the fourth volume he gives a list of 791 tales, &c., collected by him or his assistants in the two years 1859-61; and in his MS. collections at Edinburgh are two other lists containing 400 more tales. Only a portion of these are in the Advocates' Library; the rest, if extant, must be in private hands, though they are distinctly of national importance and interest.
Campbell's influence has been effective of recent years in Scotland. TheCeltic Magazine(vols. xii. and xiii.), while under the editorship of Mr. MacBain, contained several folk and hero-tales in Gaelic, and so did theScottish Celtic Review. These were from the collections of Messrs. Campbell of Tiree, Carmichael, and K. Macleod. Recently Lord Archibald Campbellhas shown laudable interest in the preservation of Gaelic folk and hero-tales. Under his auspices a whole series of handsome volumes, under the general title ofWaifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition, has been recently published, four volumes having already appeared, each accompanied by notes by Mr. Alfred Nutt, which form the most important aid to the study of Celtic Folk-Tales since Campbell himself. Those to the second volume in particular (Tales collected by Rev. D. MacInnes) fill 100 pages, with condensed information on all aspects of the subject dealt with in the light of the most recent research on the European folk-tales as well as on Celtic literature. Thanks to Mr. Nutt, Scotland is just now to the fore in the collection and study of the British Folk-Tale.
Walesmakes a poor show beside Ireland and Scotland. Sikes'sBritish Goblins, and the tales collected by Prof. Rhys inY Cymmrodor, vols. ii.-vi., are mainly of our first-class fairy anecdotes. Borrow, in hisWild Wales, refers to a collection of fables in a journal calledThe Greal, while theCambrian Quarterly Magazinefor 1830 and 1831 contained a few fairy anecdotes, including a curious version of the "Brewery of Eggshells," from the Welsh. In the older literature, theIolo MSS., published by the Welsh MSS. Society, has a few fables and apologues, and the charmingMabinogion, translated by Lady Guest, has tales that can trace back to the twelfth century and are on the border-line between folk-tales and hero-tales.
CornwallandManare even worse off than Wales. Hunt'sPopular Romances of the West of Englandhas nothing distinctively Celtic, and it is only by a chance Lhuyd chose a folk-tale as his specimen of Cornish in hisArchæologia Britannica1709 (seeTale of Ivan). The Manx folk-tales published, including the most recent by Mr. Moore, in hisFolk-Lore of the Isle of Man, 1891, are mainly fairy anecdotes and legends.
From this survey of the field of Celtic folk-tales it is clear that Ireland and Scotland provide the lion's share. The interesting thing to notice is the remarkable similarity of Scotch and Irish folk-tales. The continuity of language and culture between these two divisions of Gaeldom has clearly brought about thisidentity of their folk-tales. As will be seen from the following notes, the tales found in Scotland can almost invariably be paralleled by those found in Ireland, andvice versâ. The result is a striking confirmation of the general truth that the folk-lores of different countries resemble one another in proportion to their contiguity and to the continuity of language and culture between them.
Another point of interest in these Celtic folk-tales is the light they throw upon the relation of hero-tales and folk-tales (classes 2 and 3 above). Tales told of Finn or Cuchulainn, and therefore coming under the definition of hero-tales, are found elsewhere told of anonymous or unknown heroes. The question is, were the folk-tales the earliest, and were they localised and applied to the heroes, or were they heroic sagas generalised and applied to an unknown τἱς? All the evidence, in my opinion, inclines to the former view, which, as applied to Celtic folk-tales, is of very great literary importance; for it is becoming more and more recognised, thanks chiefly to the admirable work of Mr. Alfred Nutt, in hisStudies on the Holy Grail, that the outburst of European Romance in the twelfth century was due, in large measure, to an infusion of Celtic hero-tales into the literature of the Romance-speaking nations. Now the remarkable thing is, how these hero-tales have lingered on in oral tradition even to the present day. (See a marked case in "Deirdre.") We may, therefore, hope to see considerable light thrown on the most characteristic spiritual product of the Middle Ages, the literature of Romance and the spirit of chivalry, from the Celtic folk-tales of the present day. Mr. Alfred Nutt has already shown this to be true of a special section of Romance literature, that connected with the Holy Grail, and it seems probable that further study will extend the field of application of this new method of research.
The Celtic folk-tale again has interest in retaining many traits of primitive conditions among the early inhabitants of these isles which are preserved by no other record. Take, for instance, the calm assumption of polygamy in "Gold-tree and Silver-tree." That represents a state of feeling that is decidedly pre-ChristianThe belief in an eternal soul, "Life Index," recently monographed by Mr. Frazer in his "Golden Bough," also finds expression in a couple of the tales (see notes on "Sea-Maiden" and "Fair, Brown, and Trembling"), and so with many other primitive ideas.
Care, however, has to be taken in using folk-tales as evidence for primitive practice among the nations where they are found. For the tales may have come from another race—that is, for example, probably the case with "Gold-tree and Silver-tree" (see Notes). Celtic tales are of peculiar interest in this connection, as they afford one of the best fields for studying the problem of diffusion, the most pressing of the problems of the folk-tales just at present, at least in my opinion. The Celts are at the further-most end of Europe. Tales that travelled to them could go no further, and must therefore be the last links in the chain.
For all these reasons, then, Celtic folk-tales are of high scientific interest to the folk-lorist, while they yield to none in imaginative and literary qualities. In any other country of Europe some national means of recording them would have long ago been adopted. M. Luzel,e. g., was commissioned by the French Minister of Public Instruction to collect and report on the Breton folk-tales. England, here as elsewhere, without any organized means of scientific research in the historical and philological sciences, has to depend on the enthusiasm of a few private individuals for work of national importance. Every Celt of these islands or in the Gaeldom beyond the sea, and every Celt-lover among the English-speaking nations, should regard it as one of the duties of the race to put its traditions on record in the few years that now remain before they will cease for ever to be living in the hearts and memories of the humbler members of the race.
In the following Notes I have done as in myEnglish Fairy Tales, and given, first, thesourceswhence I drew the tales, then,parallelsat length for the British Isles, with bibliographical references for parallels abroad, and finally,remarkswhere the tales seemed to need them. In these I have not wearied or worried the reader with conventional tall talk about the Celtic genius and its manifestations in the folk-tale; on that topic one can onlyrepeat Matthew Arnold when at his best, in hisCeltic Literature. Nor have I attempted to deal with the more general aspects of the study of the Celtic folk-tale. For these I must refer to Mr. Nutt's series of papers inThe Celtic Magazine, vol. xii., or, still better, to the masterly introductions he is contributing to the series ofWaifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition, and to Dr. Hyde'sBeside the Fireside. In my remarks I have mainly confined myself to discussing the origin and diffusion of the various tales, so far as anything definite could be learnt or conjectured on that subject.
Before proceeding to the Notes, I may "put in," as the lawyers say, a few summaries of the results reached in them. Of the twenty-six tales, twelve (i., ii., v., viii., ix., x., xi., xv., xvi., xvii., xix., xxiv.) have Gaelic originals; three (vii., xiii., xxv.) are from the Welsh; one (xxii.) from the now extinct Cornish; one an adaptation of an English poem founded on a Welsh tradition (xxi., "Gellert"); and the remaining nine are what may be termed Anglo-Irish. Regarding their diffusion among the Celts, twelve are both Irish and Scotch (iv., v., vi., ix., x., xiv.-xvii., xix., xx., xxiv.); one (xxv.) is common to Irish and Welsh; and one (xxii.) to Irish and Cornish; seven are found only among the Celts in Ireland (i.-iii., xii., xviii., xxii., xxvi.); two (viii., xi.) among the Scotch; and three (vii., xiii., xxi) among the Welsh. Finally, so far as we can ascertain their origin, four (v., xvi., xxi., xxii.) are from the East; five (vi., x., xiv., xx., xxv.) are European drolls; three of the romantic tales seem to have been imported (vii., ix., xix.); while three others are possibly Celtic exportations to the Continent (xv., xvii., xxiv.), though the last may have previously come thence; the remaining eleven are, as far as known, original to Celtic lands. Somewhat the same result would come out, I believe, as the analysis of any representative collection of folk-tales of any European district.
I. CONNLA AND THE FAIRY MAIDEN.
Source.—From the old Irish "Echtra Condla chaim maic Cuind Chetchathaig" of theLeabhar na h-Uidhre("Book of the Dun Cow"), which must have been written before 1106, when its scribe Maelmori ("Servant of Mary") was murdered. Theoriginal is given by Windisch in hisIrish Grammar. p. 120, also in theTrans. Kilkenny Archæol. Soc.for 1874. A fragment occurs in a Rawlinson MS., described by Dr. W. Stokes,Tripartite Life, p. xxxvi. I have used the translation of Prof. Zimmer in hisKeltische Beitrage, ii. (Zeits. f. deutsches Altertum, Bd. xxxiii., 262-4). Dr. Joyce has a somewhat florid version in hisOld Celtic Romances, from which I have borrowed a touch or two. I have neither extenuated nor added aught but the last sentence of the Fairy Maiden's last speech. Part of the original is in metrical form, so that the whole is of thecante-fablespecies, which I believe to be the original form of the folk-tale (Cf. Eng. Fairy Tales, notes, p. 240, andinfra, p. 257).
Parallels.—Prof. Zimmer's paper contains three other accounts of theterra repromissionisin the Irish sagas, one of them being the similar adventure of Cormac, the nephew of Connla, or Condla Ruad as he should be called. The fairy apple of gold occurs in Cormac Mac Art's visit to the Brug of Manannan (Nutt'sHoly Grail, 193).
Remarks.—Conn, the hundred-fighter, had the head-kingship of Ireland 123-157a. d., according to theAnnals of the Four Masters, i., 105. On the day of his birth the five great roads from Tara to all parts of Ireland were completed: one of them from Dublin is still used. Connaught is said to have been named after him, but this is scarcely consonant with Joyce's identification with Ptolemy'sNagnatai(Irish Local Names, i., 75). But there can be little doubt of Conn's existence as a powerful ruler in Ireland in the second century. The historic existence of Connla seems also to be authenticated by the reference to him as Conly, the eldest son of Conn, in the Annals of Clonmacnoise. As Conn was succeeded by his third son, Art Enear, Connla was either slain or disappeared during his father's lifetime. Under these circumstances it is not unlikely that our legend grew up within the century after Conn—i. e., during the latter half of the second century.
As regards the present form of it, Prof. Zimmer (l. c.261-2) places it in the seventh century. It has clearly been touched up by a Christian hand, who introduced the reference to the day ofjudgment and to the waning power of the Druids. But nothing turns upon this interpolation, so that it is likely that even the present form of the legend is pre-Christian—i. e., for Ireland, pre-Patrician, before the fifth century.
The tale of Connla is thus the earliest fairy tale of modern Europe. Besides this interest it contains an early account of one of the most characteristic Celtic conceptions, that of the earthly Paradise, the Isle of Youth,Tir na n-Og. This has impressed itself on the European imagination; in the Arthuriad it is represented by the Vale of Avalon, and as represented in the various Celtic visions of the future life, it forms one of the main sources of Dante'sDivina Commedia. It is possible, too, I think, that the Homeric Hesperides and the Fortunate Isles of the ancients had a Celtic origin (as is well known, the early place-names of Europe are predominantly Celtic). I have found, I believe, a reference to the conception in one of the earliest passages in the classics dealing with the Druids. Lucan, in hisPharsalia(i, 450-8), addresses them in these high terms of reverence:
Et vos barbaricos ritus, moremque sinistrum,Sacrorum, Druidæ, positis repetistis ab armis,Solis nôsse Deos et cœli numera vobisAut solis nescire datum; nemora alta remotisIncolitis lucis. Vobis auctoribus umbræ,Non tacitas Erebi sedes, Ditisque profundi,Pallida regna petunt:regit idem spiritus artusOrbe alio: longæ, canitis si cognita, vitæMors media est.
Et vos barbaricos ritus, moremque sinistrum,Sacrorum, Druidæ, positis repetistis ab armis,Solis nôsse Deos et cœli numera vobisAut solis nescire datum; nemora alta remotisIncolitis lucis. Vobis auctoribus umbræ,Non tacitas Erebi sedes, Ditisque profundi,Pallida regna petunt:regit idem spiritus artusOrbe alio: longæ, canitis si cognita, vitæMors media est.
The passage certainly seems to me to imply a different conception from the ordinary classical views of the life after death, the dark and dismal plains of Erebus peopled with ghosts; and the passage I have italicised would chime in well with the conception of a continuance of youth (idem spiritus) in Tir na n-Og (orbe alio).
One of the most pathetic, beautiful, and typical scenes in Irish legend is the return of Ossian from Tir na n-Og, and his interview with St. Patrick. The old faith and the new, the old orderof things and that which replaced it, meet in two of the most characteristic products of the Irish imagination (for the Patrick of legend is as much a legendary figure as Oisin himself). Ossian had gone away to Tir na n-Og with the fairy Niamh under very much of the same circumstances as Condla Ruad; time flies in the land of eternal youth, and when Ossian returns, after a year, as he thinks, more than three centuries had passed, and St. Patrick had just succeeded in introducing the new faith. The contrast of Past and Present has never been more vividly or beautifully represented.
II. GULEESH.
Source.—From Dr. Douglas Hyde'sBeside the Fire, 104-28, where it is a translation from the same author'sLeabhar Sgeulaighteachta. Dr. Hyde got it from one Shamus O'Hart, a game-keeper of French-park. One is curious to know how far the very beautiful landscapes in the story are due to Dr. Hyde, who confesses to have only taken notes. I have omitted a journey to Rome, paralleled, as Mr. Nutt has pointed out, by the similar one of Michael Scott (Waifs and Strays, i., 46), and not bearing on the main lines of the story. I have also dropped a part of Guleesh's name; in the original he is "Guleesh na guss dhu," Guleesh of the black feet, because he never washed them; nothing turns on this in the present form of the story, but one cannot but suspect it was of importance in the original form.
Parallels.—Dr. Hyde refers to two short stories, "Midnight Ride" (to Rome) and "Stolen Bride," in Lady Wilde'sAncient Legends. But the closest parallel is given by Miss Maclintock's Donegal tale of "Jamie Freel and the Young Lady," reprinted in Mr. Yeats'Irish Folk and Fairy Tales, 52-9. In theHibernian Tales, "Mann o' Malaghan and the Fairies," as reported by Thackeray in theIrish Sketch-Book, c., xvi., begins like "Guleesh."
III. FIELD OF BOLIAUNS.
Source.—T. Crofton Croker'sFairy Legends of the South of Ireland, ed. Wright, pp. 135-9. In the original the gnome is aCluricaune, but as a friend of Mr. Batten's has recently heard the tale told of a Lepracaun, I have adopted the better known title.
Remarks.—Lepracaunis from the Irishleith bhrogan, the one shoemaker (cf.brogue), according to Dr. Hyde. He is generally seen (and to this day, too) working at a single shoe,cf.Croker's story, "Little Shoe,"l. c.pp. 142-4. According to a writer in theRevue Celtique, i., 256, the true etymology isluchor pan, "little man." Dr. Joyce also gives the same etymology inIrish Names and Places, i., 183, where he mentions several places named after them.
IV. HORNED WOMEN.
Source.—Lady Wilde'sAncient Legends, the first story.
Parallels.—A similar version was given by Mr. D. Fitzgerald in theRevue Celtique, iv., 181, but without the significant and impressive horns. He refers toCornhillfor February, 1877, and to Campbell's "Sauntraigh," No. xxii.,Pop. Tales, ii., 52-4, in which a "woman of peace" (a fairy) borrows a woman's kettle and returns it with flesh in it, but at last the woman refuses, and is persecuted by the fairy. I fail to see much analogy. A much closer one is in Campbell, ii., p. 63, where fairies are got rid of by shouting, "Dunveilg is on fire." The familiar "lady-bird, lady-bird, fly away home, your house is on fire and your children at home," will occur to English minds. Another version in Kennedy'sLegendary Fictions, p. 164, "Black Stairs on Fire."
Remarks.—Slievenamon is a famous fairy palace in Tipperary according to Dr. Joyce,l. c.i., 178. It was the hill on which Finn stood when he gave himself as the prize to the Irish maiden who should run up it quickest. Grainne won him with dire consequences, as all the world knows or ought to know (Kennedy,Legend Fict., 222, "How Fion selected a Wife").
V. CONALL YELLOWCLAW.
Source.—Campbell,Pop. Tales of West Highlands, No. v. pp. 105-8. "Conall Cra Bhuidhe." I have softened the thirdepisode, which is somewhat too ghastly in the original. I have translated "Cra Bhuide" Yellowclaw on the strength of Campbell's etymology,l. c.p. 158.
Parallels.—Campbell's vi. and vii. are two variants showing how wide-spread the story is in Gaelic Scotland. It occurs in Ireland where it has been printed in the chapbook,Hibernian Tales, as the "Black Thief and the Knight of the Glen," the Black Thief being Conall, and the knight corresponding to the King of Lochlan (it is given in Mr. Lang'sRed Fairy Book). Here it attracted the notice of Thackeray, who gives a good abstract of it in hisIrish Sketch-Book, ch. xvi. He thinks it "worthy of the Arabian Nights, as wild and odd as an Eastern tale." "That fantastic way of bearing testimony to the previous tale by producing an old woman who says the tale is not only true, but who was the very old woman who lived in the giant's castle is almost" (why "almost," Mr. Thackeray?) "a stroke of genius." The incident of the giant's breath occurs in the story of Koisha Kayn, MacInnes'sTales, p. 241, as well as the Polyphemus one,ibid.265. One-eyed giants are frequent in Celtic folk-tales (e. g., inThe Pursuit of Diarmaidand in theMabinogiof Owen).
Remarks.—Thackeray's reference to the "Arabian Nights" is especially apt, as the tale of Conall is a framework story likeThe 1001 Nights, the three stories told by Conall being framed, as it were, in a fourth which is nominally the real story. This method employed by the Indian story-tellers and from them adopted by Boccaccio and thence into all European literatures (Chaucer, Queen Margaret, &c.), is generally thought to be peculiar to the East, and to be ultimately derived from the Jatakas or Birth Stories of the Buddha who tells his adventures in former incarnations. Here we find it in Celtdom, and it occurs also in "The Story-teller at Fault" in this collection, and the story ofKoisha Kaynin MacInnes'sArgyllshire Tales, a variant of which, collected but not published by Campbell, has no less than nineteen tales enclosed in a framework. The question is whether the method was adopted independently in Ireland, or was due to foreign influences. Confining ourselves to"Conall Yellowclaw," it seems not unlikely that the whole story is an importation. For the second episode is clearly the story of Polyphemus from the Odyssey which was known in Ireland perhaps as early as the tenth century (see Prof. K. Meyer's edition ofMerugud Uilix maic Leirtis, Pref. p. xii). It also crept into the voyages of Sindbad in theArabian Nights. And as told in the Highlands it bears comparison even with the Homeric version. As Mr. Nutt remarks (Celt. Mag.xii.) the address of the giant to the buck is as effective as that of Polyphemus to his ram. The narrator, James Wilson, was a blind man who would naturally feel the pathos of the address; "it comes from the heart of the narrator;" says Campbell (l. c., 148), "it is the ornament which his mind hangs on the frame of the story."
VI. HUDDEN AND DUDDEN.
Source.—From oral tradition, by the late D. W. Logie, taken down by Mr. Alfred Nutt.
Parallels.—Lover has a tale, "Little Fairly," obviously derived from this folk-tale; and there is another very similar, "Darby Darly." Another version of our tale is given under the title "Donald and his Neighbours," in the chapbookHibernian Tales, whence it was reprinted by Thackeray in hisIrish Sketch-Book, c., xvi. This has the incident of the "accidental matricide," on which see Prof. R. Köhler on GonzenbachSicil. Märchen, ii., 224. No less than four tales of Campbell are of this type (Pop. Tales, ii., 218-31). M. Cosquin in hisContes populaires de Lorraine, the storehouse of "storiology," has elaborate excursuses in this class of tales attached to his Nos. x. and xx. Mr. Clouston discusses it also in hisPop. Tales, ii. 229-88. Both these writers are inclined to trace the chief incidents to India. It is to be observed that one of the earliest popular drolls in Europe,Unibos, a Latin poem of the eleventh, and perhaps the tenth, century, has the main outlines of the story, the fraudulent sale of worthless objects and the escape from the sack trick. The same story occurs in Straparola, the European earliest collection of folk-tales in the sixteenth century. On the otherhand, the gold sticking to the scales is familiar to us inAli Baba. (Cf.Cosquin,l. c., i., 225-6, 229).
Remarks.—It is indeed curious to find, as M. Cosquin points out, a cunning fellow tied in a sack getting out by crying, "I won't marry the princess," in countries so far apart as Ireland, Sicily (Gonzenbach, No. 71), Afghanistan (Thorburn,Bannu, p. 184), and Jamaica (Folk-Lore Record, iii., 53). It is indeed impossible to think these are disconnected, and for drolls of this kind a good case has been made out for the borrowing hypotheses by M. Cosquin and Mr. Clouston. Who borrowed from whom is another and more difficult question which has to be judged on its merits in each individual case.
This is a type of Celtic folk-tales which are European in spread, have analogies with the East, and can only be said to be Celtic by adoption and by colouring. They form a distinct section of the tales told by the Celts, and must be represented in any characteristic selection. Other examples are xi., xv., xx., and perhaps xxii.
VII. SHEPHERD OF MYDDVAI.
Source.—Preface to the edition of "The Physicians of Myddvai;" their prescription-book, from the Red Book of Hergest, published by the Welsh MS. Society in 1861. The legend is not given in the Red Book, but from oral tradition by Mr. W. Rees, p. xxi. As this is the first of the Welsh tales in this book it may be as well to give the reader such guidance as I can afford him on the intricacies of Welsh pronunciation, especially with regard to the mysteriousw's andy's of Welsh orthography. Forwsubstitute doubleo, as in "fool" and fory, the shortuin but, and as near approach to Cymric speech will be reached as is possible for the outlander. It may be added that doubledequalsth, and doublelis something likeFl, as Shakespeare knew in calling his Welsh soldier Fluellen (Llewelyn). Thus "Meddygon Myddvai" would beAnglicè"Methugon Muthvai."
Parallels.—Other versions of the legend of the Van Pool are given inCambro-Briton, ii., 315; W. Sikes,British Goblins, p. 40. Mr. E. Sidney Hartland has discussed these and others in a setof papers contributed to the first volume ofThe Archæological Review(now incorporated intoFolk-Lore), the substance of which is now given in hisScience of Fairy Tales, 274-332. (See also the references given inRevue Celtique, iv., 187 and 268). Mr. Hartland gives there an ecumenical collection of parallels to the several incidents that go to make up our story—(1) The bride-capture of the Swan-Maiden, (2) the recognition of the bride, (3) the taboo against causeless blows, (4) doomed to be broken, and (5) disappearance of the Swan-Maiden, with (6) her return as Guardian Spirit to her descendants. In each case Mr. Hartland gives what he considers to be the most primitive form of the incident. With reference to our present tale, he comes to the conclusion, if I understand him aright, that the lake-maiden was once regarded as a local divinity. The physicians of Myddvai were historic personages, renowned for their medical skill for some six centuries, till the race died out with John Jones,fl.1743. To explain their skill and uncanny knowledge of herbs, the folk traced them to a supernatural ancestress, who taught them their craft in a place still called Pant-y-Meddygon ("Doctors' Dingle"). Their medical knowledge did not require any such remarkable origin, as Mr. Hartland has shown in a paper "On Welsh Folk-Medicine," contributed toY Cymmrodor, vol. xii. On the other hand, the Swan-Maiden type of story is wide-spread through the Old World. Mr. Morris's "Land East of the Moon and West of the Sun," inThe Earthly Paradise, is taken from the Norse version. Parallels are accumulated by the Grimms, ii., 432; Köhler on Gonzenbach, ii., 20; or Blade, 149; Stokes'sIndian Fairy Tales, 243, 276; and Messrs. Jones and Koopf,Magyar Folk-Tales, 362-5. It remains to be proved that one of these versions did not travel to Wales, and become there localised. We shall see other instances of such localisation or specialisation of general legends.
VIII. THE SPRIGHTLY TAILOR.
Source.—Notes and Queriesfor December 21, 1861, to which it was communicated by "Cuthbert Bede," the author ofVerdant Green, who collected it in Cantyre.
Parallels.—Miss Dempster gives the same story in her Sutherland Collection, No. vii. (referred to by Campbell in his Gaelic list, at end of vol. iv.); Mrs. John Faed, I am informed by a friend, knows the Gaelic version, as told by her nurse in her youth. Chambers's "Strange Visitor,"Pop. Rhymes of Scotland, 64, of which I gave an Anglicised version in myEnglish Fairy Tales, No. xxxii., is clearly a variant.
Remarks.—The Macdonald of Saddell Castle was a very great man indeed. Once, when dining with the Lord-Lieutenant, an apology was made to him for placing him so far away from the head of the table. "Where the Macdonald sits," was the proud response, "there is the head of the table."
IX. DEIRDRE.
Source.—Celtic Magazine, xiii., p. 69,seq.I have abridged somewhat, made the sons of Fergus all faithful instead of two traitors, and omitted an incident in the house of the wild men called here "strangers." The original Gaelic was given in theTransactions of the Inverness Gaelic Societyfor 1887, p. 241,seq., by Mr. Carmichael. I have inserted Deirdre's "Lament" from theBook of Leinster.
Parallels.—This is one of the three most sorrowful Tales of Erin, (the other two,Children of LirandChildren of Tureen, are given in Dr. Joyce'sOld Celtic Romances), and is a specimen of the old heroic sagas of elopement, a list of which is given in theBook of Leinster. The "outcast child" is a frequent episode in folk and hero-tales: an instance occurs in myEnglish Fairy Tales, No. xxxv., and Prof. Köhler gives many others inArchiv f. Slav. Philologie, i., 288. Mr. Nutt adds tenth century Celtic parallels inFolk-Lore, vol. ii. The wooing of hero by heroine is a characteristic Celtic touch. See "Connla" here, and other examples given by Mr. Nutt in his notes to MacInnes'sTales. The trees growing from the lovers' graves occurs in the English ballad ofLord Loveland has been studied inMélusine.
Remarks.—The "Story of Deirdre" is a remarkable instance of the tenacity of oral tradition among the Celts. It has been preserved in no less than five versions (or six, including Macpherson's "Darthula") ranging from the twelfth to the nineteenth century. The earliest is in the twelfth century,Book of Leinster, to be dated about 1140 (edited in facsimile under the auspices of the Royal Irish Academy, i., 147,seq.). Then comes a fifteenth century version, edited and translated by Dr. Stokes in Windisch'sIrische TexteII., ii., 109,seq., "Death of the Sons of Uisnech." Keating in hisHistory of Irelandgave another version in the seventeenth century. The Dublin Gaelic Society published an eighteenth century version in theirTransactionsfor 1808. And lastly we have the version before us, collected only a few years ago, yet agreeing in all essential details with the version of theBook of Leinster. Such a record is unique in the history of oral tradition, outside Ireland, where, however, it is quite a customary experience in the study of the Finn-saga. It is now recognised that Macpherson had, or could have had, ample material for hisrechaufféof the Finn or "Fingal" saga. His "Darthula" is a similar cobbling of our present story. I leave to Celtic specialists the task of settling the exact relations of these various texts. I content myself with pointing out the fact that in these latter days of a seemingly prosaic century in these British Isles there has been collected from the lips of the folk a heroic story like this of "Deirdre," full of romantic incidents, told with tender feeling and considerable literary skill. No other country in Europe, except perhaps Russia, could provide a parallel to this living on of Romance among the common folk. Surely it is a bounden duty of those who are in a position to put on record any such utterances of the folk-imagination of the Celts before it is too late.
X. MUNACHAR AND MANACHAR.
Source.—I have combined the Irish version given by Dr. Hyde in hisLeabhar Sgeul., and translated by him from Mr. Yeats'sIrish Folk and Fairy Tales, and the Scotch version given in Gaelic and English by Campbell, No. viii.
Parallels.—Two English versions are given in myEng. Fairy Tales, No. iv., "The Old Woman and her Pig," and xxxiv., "The Cat and the Mouse," where see notes for other variants in theseisles. M. Cosquin, in his notes to No. xxxiv., of hisContes de Lorraine, t. ii., pp. 35-41, has drawn attention to an astonishing number of parallels scattered through all Europe and the East (cf., too, Crane,Ital. Pop. Tales, notes. 372-5). One of the earliest allusions to the jingle is inDon Quixote, pt. 1, c. xvi.: "Y asi como suele decirseel gato al rato, el rato á la cuerda, la cuerda al palo, daba el arriero á Sancho, Sancho á la moza, la moza a él, el ventero á la moza." As I have pointed out, it is used to this day by Bengali women at the end of each folk-tale they recite (L. B. Day,Folk-Tales of Bengal, Pref.).
Remarks.—Two ingenious suggestions have been made as to the origin of this curious jingle, both connecting it with religious ceremonies: (1) Something very similar occurs in Chaldaic at the end of the JewishHagada, or domestic ritual for the Passover night. It has, however, been shown that this does not occur in early MSS. or editions, and was only added at the end to amuse the children after the service, and was therefore only a translation or adaptation of a current German form of the jingle; (2) M. Basset, in theRevue des Traditions populaires, 1890, t. v., p. 549, has suggested that it is a survival of the old Greek custom at the sacrifice of the Bouphonia for the priest to contend thathehad not slain the sacred beast, the axe declares that the handle did it, the handle transfers the guilt further, and so on. This is ingenious, but fails to give any reasonable account of the diffusion of the jingle in countries which have had no historic connection with classical Greece.
XI. GOLD-TREE AND SILVER-TREE.[1]
Source.—Celtic Magazine, xiii. 213-8, Gaelic and English from Mr. Kenneth Macleod.
Parallels.—Mr. Macleod heard another version in which "Gold-tree" (anonymous in this variant) is bewitched to kill her father's horse, dog, and cock. Abroad it is the Grimms'Schneewitchen(No. 53), for the Continental variants of which see Köhler on Gonzenbach,Sicil. Märchen, Nos. 2-4, Grimm's notes on 53, and CraneItal. Pop. Tales, 331. No other version is known in the British Isles.
[1]Since the first issue Mr. Nutt has made a remarkable discovery with reference to this tale, which connects it with Marie de France'sLai d'Eliduc(c. 1200), and renders it probable that the tale is originally Celtic. Mr. Nutt thinks that the German version may be derived from England.
[1]Since the first issue Mr. Nutt has made a remarkable discovery with reference to this tale, which connects it with Marie de France'sLai d'Eliduc(c. 1200), and renders it probable that the tale is originally Celtic. Mr. Nutt thinks that the German version may be derived from England.
Remarks.—It is unlikely, I should say impossible, that this tale, with the incident of the dormant heroine, should have arisen independently in the Highlands: it is most likely an importation from abroad. Yet in it occurs a most "primitive" incident, the bigamous household of the hero: this is glossed over in Mr. Macleod's other variant. On the "survival" method of investigation this would possibly be used as evidence for polygamy in the Highlands. Yet if, as is probable, the story came from abroad, this trait may have come with it, and only implies polygamy in the original home of the tale.
XII. KING O'TOOLE AND HIS GOOSE.
Source.—S. Lover'sStories and Legends of the Irish Peasantry.
Remarks.—This is a moral apologue on the benefits of keeping your word. Yet it is told with such humour and vigour, that the moral glides insensibly into the heart.
XIII. THE WOOING OF OLWEN.
Source.—TheMabinogiof Kilhwch and Olwen from the translation of Lady Guest, abridged.
Parallels.—Prof. Rhys,Hibbert Lectures, p. 486, considers that our tale is paralleled by Cuchulain's "Wooing of Emer," a translation of which by Prof. K. Meyer appeared in theArchæological Review, vol. i. I fail to see much analogy. On the other hand in hisArthurian Legend, p. 41, he rightly compares the tasks set by Yspythadon to those set to Jason. They are indeed of the familiar type of the Bride Wager (on which see Grimm-Hunt, i., 399). The incident of the three animals, old, older, and oldest, has a remarkable resemblance to theTettira Jataka(ed. Fausbôll, No. 37, transl. Rhys-Davids, i., p. 310seq.) in which the partridge, monkey, and elephant dispute as to their relative age, and the partridge turns out to have voided the seed of the Banyan-tree under which they were sheltered, whereas the elephant only knew it when a mere bush, and the monkey had nibbled the topmost shoots. This apologue got to England at the end of the twelfth century as the sixty-ninth fable, "Wolf, Fox, and Dove," of a rhymed prose collection of "Fox Fables" (Mishle Shu'alim), of an Oxford Jew, Berachyah Nakdan, known in the Records as "Benedict le Puncteur" (see myFables of Æsop, i., p. 170). Similar incidents occur in "Jack and his Snuff-box" in myEnglish Fairy Tales, and in Dr. Hyde's "Well of D'Yerree-in-Dowan." The skilled companions of Kulhwych are common in European folk-tales (Cf.Cosquin, i., 123-5), and especially among the Celts (see Mr. Nutt's note in MacInnes'sTales, 445-8), among whom they occur very early, but not so early as Lynceus and the other skilled comrades of the Argonauts.
Remarks.—The hunting of the boar Trwyth can be traced back in Welsh tradition at least as early as the ninth century. For it is referred to in the following passage of Nennius'sHistoria Britonum, ed. Stevenson, p. 60, "Est aliud miraculum in regione quæ dicitur Buelt [Builth, co. Brecon] Est ibi cumulus lapidum et unus lapis super-positus super congestum cum vestigia canis in eo. Quando venatus est porcum Troynt [var. lec.Troit] impressit Cabal, qui erat canis Arthuri militis, vestigium in lapide et Arthur postea congregavit congestum lapidum sub lapide in quo erat vestigium canis sui et vocatur Carn Cabal." Curiously enough there is still a mountain called Carn Cabal in the district of Builth, south of Rhayader Gwy in Breconshire. Still more curiously a friend of Lady Guest's found on this a cairn with a stone two feet long by one foot wide in which there was an indentation 4 in. x 3 in. x 2 in. which could easily have been mistaken for a paw-print of a dog, as may be seen from the engraving given of it on opposite page (Mabinogion, ed. 1874, p. 269).
The stone and the legend are thus at least one thousand years old. "There stands the stone to tell if I lie." According to Prof. Rhys (Hibbert Lect.486-97) the whole story is a mythological one, Kulhwych's mother being the dawn, the clover blossoms that grow under Olwen's feet being comparable to the roses that sprang up where Aphrodite had trod, and Yspyddadon beingthe incarnation of the sacred hawthorn. Mabon, again (l. c.pp. 21, 28-9), is the Apollo Maponus discovered in Latin inscriptions at Ainstable in Cumberland and elsewhere (Hübner,Corp. Insc. Lat. Brit.Nos. 218, 332, 1345). Granting all this, there is nothing to show any mythological significance in the tale, though there may have been in the names of thedramatis personæ. I observe from the proceedings of the recent Eisteddfod that the bardic name of Mr. W. Abraham, M.P., is "Mabon." It scarcely follows that Mr. Abraham is in receipt of divine honours nowadays.