Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 3 (Celtic and Slavic).djvu/318

204 spear, Nuada's irresistible sword, Manannan's magic sword, Tethra's talking sword. The Stone of Fal suggests the Grail as a stone, and it, like Dagda's cauldron and the spear and swords of Lug, Nuada, and Manannan, belonged to the Tuatha De Danann. The Grail, sword, and spear have affinity with these as much as with the Christian symbols. Yet no theory quite accounts for the assimilation of the two groups, and while the Grail has magic properties, we should remember that miraculous food-producing and healing of the sick were works of our Lord, which might easily be associated with objects connected with Him, as a result of the belief in relics. Failing the discovery of an early manuscript in which the actual sources of the Grail story may be found, much is open to conjecture.

A theory connected with the prevailing study of vegetation rituals sees in the objects and their effects survivals of Celtic ritual resembHng that of Adonis or Tammuz, its aim being the preservation of the fertility of the land.$54$ There is no evidence, however, that at such rituals a miraculous foodsupplying vessel had any part; such vessels belong to the domain of myth, and the story of the Grail has more the appearance of being derived from a myth which was possibly based on such rituals. It is in myth that magico-miraculous powers flourish, not in ritual; and such a myth could be Christianized. When, moreover, the theory makes the further assumption that the ritual was of the nature of a "mystery," there is again no evidence for this, for vegetation rituals are open to all in the fields, even where Christianity has been adopted. The theory, however, postulates a mystery-cult, with a plain and evident meaning for the folk—associated with powers of life and generation—and with other significations for the initiate—phallic, philosophic, spiritual. The story of this pagan mystery, which expressed three planes or worlds—"the triple mysteries of a life-cult"—was gradually Christianized by those ignorant of its meaning and was finally