Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/332

 32 2 Collectanea.

These lines recall the three types of music frequently men- tioned in early Irish literature, namely, goltraighe, geantraighe, and suantraighe. In the Irish tale Cath Muige Mucrime, Fer fi mac Eogabail plays these three latter kinds of music. (Vid. Silva Gadelica, p. 311, ed. S. H. O'Grady.) In the Irish tale the first type of music produces weeping, the second laughter, the third sleep. It would seem, therefore, that the ballad, as recorded, supports to a great extent Professor Kittredge's theory of Celtic origins in regard to the theme in its romance setting. Despite, however, the Celtic traits in the ballad, as it is recorded, attention has to be paid to the story's relation to the Danish ballad " Harpens Kraft." (Sophus Bugge : Arkiv for nordisk Filologi, vii.) The theory of Celtic influence on the ballad is rather strengthened by the fact that there is a lack of Continental ballad versions dealing with the Orpheus theme. In fact, in view of the theme, as told in the ballad and the romance, bearing such a distorted resemblance to the classical story of Orpheus and Eurydice, the very name of the ballad might be questioned. To do so would, however, betray a lack of temperate criticism ; but the suggestion bears very much on the importance which we should attach to the presence in a ballad of an historical or a classical character, as giving an indication of either its age or origin. To illustrate this point I shall quote what M. Pol de Courcy has written concerning the Breton ballad, " Les Aubrays et le More du Roi " : " Les Aubrays est le nom d'une seigneurie du pays de Retz apportee en mariage, en 1455, a Roland de Lannion, par Guyonne de Grezy, dame des Aubrays. Le ballade ne peut pas, par con- sequent, etre anterieure a cette epoque, et nous la croyons bien plus moderne." (Child, The Eng. and Scot. Pop. Ballads, Introd. to Johnie Scott.) " The ballad," wrote Child, " can be no older, unless the Seigneur les Aubrays has displaced an earlier hero ; but what means have we of deciding that question } " The real question is. Can such displacement take place ? Clearly yes ; and a study of ballad variants helps forward, in many cases, the solution of the question, because versions of the same ballad often differ in regard to the person whom they make the hero. Now, if this displacement can take place in