Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/190

182 "Summary of Celtic Language and Literature" in Ersch and Gruber's Encyclopædia, mentions with approval (p. 139) the tradition of the Spanish origin of the Milesians, and repeats the opinion he had previously expressed in 1878 as to the, in the main, historical character of the Irish heroic cycles. Nevertheless I believe that the latter are in reality as mythical as the mythological cycle properly so called. The personages may have lived, but the feats attributed to them are older, and in their origin mythical. I will cite one instance: the turning-point of the great epic, the Tain bo Cuailgne, is the fight at the ford between the Ulster hero Cu-Chulaind, the Celt par excellence, and the Firbolg Ferdiad. The two had been companions in arms, their friendship had been of the closest; opposed now to one another they are well nigh equally matched; it is only when Cu-Chulaind hurls the enchanted Ga-bolg at his foe that he overcomes him. What is this but a double of the fight between Lug, the Tuatha de Danann, and the Fomore Balor whose kinsman he is, and whom he slays with a stone?

M. d'Arbois de Jubainville treats at some length the Conception of Cu-Chulaind from the L. n. H., the translation of which I have printed, Folk-Lore Record, vol. iv. pp. 22-25. I refer him to my comments upon the story as illustrating some points he has overlooked. I likewise refer him for a Cymric parallel to the tradition of Tuan mac Cairill, oldest of men, who had been first stag, then wild boar, then eagle, lastly salmon, and who has witnessed all the history of Ireland, to the Mabinogi of Kilhwch and Olwen, where the hero seeks counsel of the ousel of Cilgwri, and she refers him to the stag of Redynvre, and he to the owl of Cwm Cawlwyd, and he to the eagle of Gwern Abwy, and he to the salmon of Llyn Llyw, for the record of old events. Although neither the animals, nor the order in which they are placed, coincide, both traditions have, I believe, a common origin. Lastly, he should notice the reflex of the Irish invasion legends in the cauldron-sage found in the Mabinogi of Branwen, daughter of Llyr, which I have analysed and commented upon, Folk-Lore Record, vol. v.