Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/145

Rh what then seemed the only possible hypothesis, namely, that of direct dependence upon Christian literature.

Writing, as I did in 1888, largely in opposition to Dr. Birch-Hirschfeld, I was naturally affected by his presentment of the case, and hence at times a polemic I should now judge unnecessary or imperfect. The Grail problem, involving as it does the mystic conceptions of communion and sacrifice, entered upon a new phase when it was recognised that these conceptions, even in their orthodox Christian forms, were connected with and had been influenced by pre-Christian doctrine and practice. In this country the standard-bearer of the movement of which Usener was the chief German representative has been Dr. Frazer. It is fitting that the solution of the Grail problem should now be sought along the lines which were first laid down for most English students in the Golden Bough.

's name is sufficient guarantee for the quality of this work. Despite a certain lack of skill in literary presentment, it may not unjustly be described as the most important collection of the contemporary folklore of the British Isles since the late Mr. Henderson's Northern Counties. Other writers have produced careful and excellent studies of special points, such as Dr. Maclagan's works on the Evil Eye and the Games of the North-west Highlands, but few have even attempted to record the folklore of any important district as a whole. Mrs. Trevelyan premises that she has omitted the fairy-lore and giant-legends of Wales, of which she has a sufficient collection to form a separate volume. What she does give us is comprised under the following heads: Folklore of the Sea, Lakes, Rivers, and Wells; Fires and Fire-festivals; the Heavens and the Earth; Hounds of the Under-World and others; Water-horses and Spirits of the Mist; Animals, Birds of Prey, and Insects; Plants, Herbs, and Flowers; Trees,