Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/309

 The Irish '' Mirabilia\ 301

found in Norway itself, such as snow-shoes, and a lake which turns wood into stone.

But here the patience of the son is exhausted, and he interrupts his father by saying : ' These things are all known to me, as they are in this country, and I have seen them all. I should like to hear of Iceland, Greenland, and Ireland.'

The father then, without further objection, begins to speak of Iceland, its earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, sub- terranean fires, springs of ale, etc.

When the father has said all he knows about Iceland, the son repeats his question as to Greenland and Ireland, and then follows the section on Ireland, with which I propose to deal more particularly, and which I will trans- late in cxtcnso. It will be seen that most of the stories told about Ireland are of the character of Mirabilia. Now, our two main sources of Irish Mirabilia are the Irish col- lections of such stories, most of which have been edited by Todd, in his edition of the Irish Nennins, pp. 192-219, and the Topographia Hibernia of Giraldus Cambrensis. A priori there is no reason why our Norse author should not have been acquainted with either of these, or should not have taken his materials from either of them. For Giraldus brought out his book in 1 188, and of some at least of the \x\s\\. Mirabilia there existed Latin translations as early as the ninth century {Nennius). We shall see how far our author's treatment of the subject favours such an hypothesis.

Having mentioned that both Iceland and Greenland are such poor and wretched countries that they may hardly be inhabited, the father proceeds :

I. " Ireland, on the other hand, is almost the best of lands^ that men know, though wine does not grow there.^ And

1 Ni bia co airther in domuin inis bus fherr, ' There shall be no better island as far as the east of the world,' says the woman Eriu to the sons of Mil (the Milesians), LL. p. 13a.

est insula.
 * Gir. i, 6 : Pascui? et pratis, melle et lacte, vinis^ non vineis, dives