Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/164

 132 The Idea of Hades in Celtic Literature.

Brython and Gael, if he had fixed ideas on such subjects at all, was rather inconsequent in their application, and did not always carry out the theories we conceive that he ought to have had with so systematic an adher- ence to mythological classification as might have been wished.

The passage to which I refer is found in the short story called Echtra Condla Chaim, or the "Adventures of Connla the Fair," and is spoken by a fair lady who endeavours by her persuasive vision of a land of life beyond the great shore to induce Connla to accompany her into Magh Mell, where reigns the immortal monarch Buadach, where neither death nor sin are known, where feasts have no need of preparation, where no quarrel disturbs their happy gatherings, and where the body of Connla shall never decay or his youth and beauty wither. Then comes her final appeal. " Connla, thou who art seated in a place of honour amongst mortals who shall die (he was eldest son of the King of Ireland), thou who awaitest the dread hour of death, the Immortal Ones invite thee to come to them ; thou art a hero to the people of Tethra, he desires to see thee daily in the assemblies of thy fatherland, in the midst of those that thou hast known and who are dear to thee " (Windisch, Irische Grammaiik, p. 120). This mention of Tethra is very curious. He seems to be in this story one of two kings reigning in Magh Mell. Now, we know very little of Tethra. Though he was one of the chiefs of the Fomorians, or gods of barbarism and ignorance, at the time of their conflict with the Tuatha De Danann, the gods of light and civilisation, we do not hear of him during the second battle of Moytura as taking a prominent part in the fighting. After the battle was over, however, we are told that " Ogma the champion found Tethra's sword and cleansed it ; whereupon, after the manner of swords at the time, it began to relate