Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/61

Rh the majority of cases where comparison is possible, is obviously and undoubtedly more archaic in character. The relation between these two bodies of romantic fiction, Irish and Welsh, has not yet been satisfactorily determined. It seems most likely either that the Welsh tales represent the mythology and heroic legend of a Gaelic race akin to the Irish conquered by the Brythons (Welsh), but, as happens at times, passing their traditions on to their conquerors; or else that the Irish storytellers, the dominant literary class in the Celtic world throughout the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, imposed their literature upon Wales. My argument does not require me to discuss which of these two explanations has the most in its favour; in either case we must quit Britain and the woodland glades of Shakespeare’s Arden and turn for a while to Ireland.

Examining the fairy belief of modern Ireland or of Gaelic Scotland, we detect at once a great similarity between it and English folklore, whether recoverable from living tradition or from the testimony of Shakespeare’s literature. Many stories and incidents are common to both, many traits and characteristics of the fairy folk are similar. This is especially the case if we rely upon writers, like Crofton Croker for instance, who were familiar with the English literary tradition and may possibly have been influenced by it. But closer examination and reference to more genuinely popular sources reveal important differences. To cite one marked trait, the Irish fairies are by no means necessarily or universally regarded as minute in stature. Two recent and thoroughly competent observers, one, Mr. Leland Duncan of our Society, working in North Ireland, the other, Mr. Jeremiah Curtin, in South Ireland, agree decisively as to this; fairy and mortal are not thought of as differing in size. But what chiefly impresses the student