Part 30 (1/2)

[91] It ic vessel which preserves to this enchanted folk the semblance of life passes into the hero's possession when he asks about it, and that deprived of it their existence comes to an end, as would that of the Anses without the Apples of Iduna I put this into a note, as I have no evidence in support of the theory But read in the light of this conjecture soend may supply the necessary link of testiested in the text nition of the extent to which the two forled, but there is one which see of the land which I have looked upon as belonging to the unspelling for La Urlain, a story which, as we have seen, is very siroundwork of one at least of the models followed by the Conte du Graal in its version of the feud quest It does not seem likely that the Queste story is a mere echo of that found in the Conte du Graal, nor that the fusion existed so far back as in a model common to both But the second alternative is possible

[93] I do not follow M Hucher upon the (as it seeround of Gaulish nuured in pre-Christian coins may be a cauldron--and it nificance as he ascribes to it

[94] _Cf_ as to Lug D'Arbois de Jubainville, Cycle Mythologique Irlandais; Paris, 1884, p 178 He was revered by all Celtic races, and has left his trace in the na-dunum = Lyons In so far as the Celts had departmental Gods, he was the God of handicraft and trade; but _cf_ as to this Rhys, Hibb Lect, p 427-28

[95] _Cf_ D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op cit_, p 269-290 The Dagda--the good God--seeend anterior to the eleventh century, and belonging probably to the oldest stratum of Celtic myth, ascribes to him power over the earth: without his aid the sons of Miledh could get neither corn nor milk It is, therefore, no wonder to find hiic cauldron, which may be looked upon as a symbol of fertility, and, as such, akin to siy of nearly every people

[96] _Cf_ as to the mythic character of the Tuatha de Danann, D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op cit_, and my review of his work, Folk-Lore Journal, June, 1884

[97] I at one tiht that the prohibition to reveal the ”secret words,” which is such an iht be referred to the same myth-root as the instances in the text

There is little or no evidence to sustain such a hazardous hypothesis

Nevertheless it is worth while drawing attention in this place to that prohibition, for which I can offer no adequate explanation

[98] Powers of darkness and death Tethra their king reigns in an island home It is from thence that the maiden comes to lure away Connla of the Golden Hair, as is told in the Leabhar na-h-Uidhre, even as the Grail er comes to seek Perceval--”'tis a land in which is neither death nor old age--a plain of never ending pleasure,” the counterpart, in fact, of that Avalon to which Arthur is carried off across the lake by the fay maiden, that Avalon which, as we see in Robert de Borron, was the earliest home of the Grail-host

[99] _Cf_ D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op cit_ p 188

[100] When Cuchulainn was opposing the warriors of Ireland in their invasion of Ulster one of his feats is to h branches of trees by passing theh his clenched hand, so that however bent and knotted they were they cane_, quoted by Windisch, Rev Celt, Vol V

[101] This epithet recalls Lug, of who was _par excellence_ the crafts Tured acted as a sort of areneral to the Tuatha de Danann A dim reminiscence of this may be traced in the words which the folk-tale applies to Ulla their arms”

[102] _Cf_ my Aryan Expulsion and Return formula, pp 8, 13, for variants of these incidents in other stories belonging to this cycle and in the allied folk-tales

[103] This incident is only found in the living Fionn-_sage_, being absent from all the older versions, and yet, as the coinal and essential feature How do the advocates of the theory that the Ossianic cycle is a recentout of the lives and circu the lines of a for to do? The Fionn-_sage_, it is said, has been doctored in ie_, but the assertion (which though boldly made has next to no real foundation) cannot be made in the case of the Conte du Graal Mediaeval Irish bards and unlettered Highland peasants did not conspire together to ree with those of Perceval

[104] In the Gawain forht whose death he sets forth to avenge is slain by the cast of a dart Can this be brought into connection with the fact that Perceval slays with a cast of his dart the Red Knight, who, according to the Thornton romance, is his father's slayer

[105] This prose tale precedes an oral version of one of the cooes back to the days when the Irish were fighting against Norse invaders The poehlands, belongs to that later stage of development of the Fenian cycle, in which Fionn and his ainst the Norsemen It is totally dissimilar from the prose story summarised above, and I a to a far earlier stage in the growth of the cycle, a stage in which the heroes were purely enerally

[106] The prohibition seems to be an echo of the widely-spread one which forbids the visitor to the otherworld tasting the food of the dead, which, if he break, he is forfeit to the shades The most famous instance of this myth is that of Persephone

[107] _Cf_ Procopius quoted by Elton, Origins of English History, p 84

[108] Prof Rhys, Hibbert Lectures for 1886, looks upon hi by fraud, as Zeus dispossessed Kronos by force

[109] D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op cit_, p 275 Rhys, _op cit_, p

149

[110] M Duvau, Revue Celtique, Vol IX, No 1, has translated the varying versions of the story

[111] Like many of the older Irish tales the present form is confused and obscure, but it is easy to arrive at the original

[112] The part in brackets is found in one version only of the story Of the two versions each has retained certain archaic features not to be found in the other

[113] Summarised by D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op cit_, p 323