Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/170

so, instead of the ancient heathen accounts of the Isles of the Blest, the Middle Age was furnished with narratives in which a Christian coloring was infused. This process also took place independently of Ireland, inasmuch as the Islands of the Dead, placed by ancient Gauls in the direction of Britain, and by Britons along the Scottish shores, may have survived in the Avalon to which King Arthur was fabled to have taken.

It is stories of this sort which the well-known author of this volume collects for the purpose of general reading, and with attention more especially to the requirements of young persons. These begin with "The Story of Atlantis," and continue through the Celtic tales mentioned to the Leif Erikson and the Vinland of the Icelandic sagas, Sir Walter Raleigh's search for Norembega, and the Fountain of Youth of Ponce de Leon. The editor has followed in general the course of development, beginning with the legends belonging to the European shore, then to those of the open sea, and finally to the coast of America, to which the older stories were finally transferred. As Colonel Higginson observes, with every added step in knowledge the line of fancied stopping-places rearranged itself, the fictitious names flitting from place to place on the maps, and being sometimes duplicated. Where the tradition has vanished, the names associated, as in the case of the Antilles, are assigned to different localities. These American narratives, and the notes bearing on them, will be found suggestive and interesting, and it is this exhibition of the legendary interest associated with localities of the New World which constitutes the important feature of the book.

Without engaging in discussions which the plan of the work makes unsuitable, it may be noted that the Celtic stories are often modern. That of Taliessin, in particular, the second of the collection, dealing with the bardic kettle of Caridwen (not Cardiwen), scarce has a pedigree older than the last century, representing an invention of neo-bardic mysticism. While in substance the Irish tales concerning the Swan-children of Lir may be old, the form in which it is given is very modern. The stories of Bran and Peredur scarce antedate the fourteenth century in their existing versions, and so on. But it is not the purpose of the editor to furnish a history of the development of legends concerning islands.