Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Hooper.djvu/33

Rh la justice et délibererent sur ce qui concernoit les. Cette espèce de créatures s'etoit formée dans la poudre de la terre, comme les vers naissent dans un cadavre." And again of the Fairies and Genii, or beings answering to them—"Les unes sont d'origine divine, d'autres descendent des, d'autres des Nains, comme il est dit dans ses vers: Il y a des de diverse origine, quelques unes viennent des Dieux, et d'autres des , d'autres des Nains." This fable gives a very curious account of the fairies: "Voici," says M. Mallet, "une Théorie complette de la Féerie;" but they are perhaps, as Bishop Percy has remarked, more analogous to the Weird Sisters than to the popular notion of fairyism in the present day. The ninth fable of the  alludes to " lumineux," who are said to be "plus brillans que le soleil; mais les noirs sont plus noirs que la poix." And what is this but the good and bad genii of Eastern romance? Thor's "vaillante ceinture, qui a le pouvoir d'accroitre ses forces," and the "chaine magique," are equivalent to the enchanted ring; nor are "le grand serpent de Midgard," with other monsters, so unlike the oriental Dragon, as to preclude any comparison.

In short, the reader clearly distinguishes the accordance of the Northern mythology with that of the East. I could cite many more examples, but they are unnecessary; and if, as Mr. Dunlop imagines, "in the Eastern Peris we may trace the origin of ," by what possible contrivance, if he will be consistent, can he deny to the fairies of the North that claim which he grants to the whole of ?

I shall now proceed to account for the introduction of romantic fiction, by a channel which appears to me the most natural, and therefore the most likely to be true. I would begin with that period in which the persecutions of the pagan rulers drove the primitive Christians into the East. Full of the mysterious wonders of the Apocalypse, not less than of the miraculous records of the Holy Gospels; imbued with all that the Old Testament narrates, and probably anticipating similar interposition from Heaven in their own persons; their minds wrought up by many causes to the highest pitch of enthusiasm, and their hearts glowing with a fervour that no other ages can boast—they were well prepared to receive the