Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/132

124 Four of the ten stories given by Mr. MacDougall belong to the Fian—or Fenian—cycle. The whole of its companion volume, by the late (alas that we have to write late!) Rev. J. G. Campbell of Tiree, is devoted to the same cycle. Several of the stories preserved by the latter are found in verse, some of them only in verse. Of some of the stones abstracts alone are given. Nor has Mr. Campbell authenticated all with the names of the tellers, though he is fully alive to the necessity of presenting them to the reader "uncooked", as he expresses it. But there is no reason to doubt that they are truly traditional and a contribution of value to students of folk-lore in general, as well as of Celtic literature, narrated as they are both in English and Gaelic. It is a great pity that Celtic antiquaries cannot agree upon one form for their heroes' names, at least when intended for the English reader. Erse and Gaelic seem to have departed, even further than English, if that be possible, from a rational, phonetic system of spelling. The consequence is that we have their proper names in almost every conceivable shape. For example, in this one volume the chief hero appears in the English portions as Fionn Mac Cumhail, Fion Mac Cumhail, Fionn Mac Cumal, Finn Mac Cumal, Fionn MacCoul, Fin-mac-Coul, Fionn, Finn, Fin, and Fingal. How many transformations he undergoes in the Gaelic portion I cannot, of course, undertake to say. I believe, however, the above list by no means exhausts the forms which this one name has been known to assume; and it is anything but unique in this respect.

Mr. Alfred Nutt's Introduction deals chiefly with Prof. Zimmer's new theory identifying the heroes of the Ossianic cycle (a better expression than Fenian, or Fian, cycle) with the Vikings. To readers who claim no special familiarity with Irish history and literature, and who regard the questions raised by Prof. Zimmer merely as they affect the science of tradition in general, Mr. Nutt's arguments appear to carry great weight. Personally, I utterly disbelieve the