Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/60

 36 of Europe in the ninth and tenth centuries. There is, moreover, abundant evidence that the warlike character of their social organisations did profoundly affect the mythic system they possessed in common with other Teutonic people, and that Eddaic mythology presents the beliefs not of Teutondom generally, but of those portions to which were due the Viking raids. It is therefore possible, not to say probable, that the Scandinavians did introduce new and sharply-defined elements into the folklore of these islands. The possibility remains purely conjectural until it is verified by an examination of the facts of folklore, but it justifies their investigation from this special point of view.

Confining ourselves for the moment to those Aryan-speaking communities known to have settled in these islands, and, when they did so, belonging substantially to similar stages of culture, it is, I would urge, almost impossible to assign large portions of the philosophical, the business element of our folklore exclusively to one or other of them, excepting always the possibility I have just indicated of specific Scandinavian features. As an illustration of the extraordinary similarity which obtains among rites and beliefs possessing a practical object and sanction, I may mention those connected with rude stone monuments. In Mr. Borlase's admirable work on the Dolmens of Ireland, a magnificent storehouse of material which I am glad to have the opportunity of publicly commending to members of this Society, there are figured and described monuments covering a vast range of country, lands like Ireland and the two Britalns, mainly Celtic for over 2,000 years; lands like Central Europe, largely Celtic 2,500 years ago, Teutonic later; lands like Southern Scandinavia, Teutonic as far back as we can trace; lands like East Central Europe, the battle-ground of Teuton and Slav; or again like the great southern peninsulas of Europe, but slightly touched by Celt or Teuton. In all these lands the rude