Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 3 (Celtic and Slavic).djvu/334

212 The same charitable point of view is seen in the fact that the gods and heroes still have their own mystic world in the síd and are seldom placed in hell. Yet there are exceptions, for Cúchulainn came from hell, as we saw, but St. Patrick transferred him to heaven. Even in hell, however, he had still been the triumphant hero, and when the demons carried off his soul to "the red charcoal," he played his sword and his gaí bolga on them, as Oscar did his flail,18 so that the devils suffered, even while they crushed him into the fire.19 Caoilte craved that his sister might be brought out of hell, and Patrick said that if this were good in God's sight, she and also his father, mother, and Fionn himself would be released.20 In other poems, however, the Féinn are and remain in hell, as has already been seen.

Thus, while the Church set its face against the old cults, so that only slight traces of these remain, or gave a Christian aspect to popular customs by connecting them with saints' days or sacred places, it was on the whole rather proud than otherwise of the heroes of the past and preserved their memory, together with much of the gracious aspect of the ancient gods. Exceptions to this exist and were bound to exist, e. g. in many Irish and Scots Ossianic ballads; and there was, too, a tendency to confuse Elysium with hell, more especially in Welsh legend, this being inevitable where myths of Elysium were still connected with a local cult. Gwyn was lord of Annwfn, which was located on Glastonbury Tor, or king of fairy-land, and here St. Collen was invited to meet him. Seeing a wonderful castle and a host of beautiful folk, he regarded them as devils, their splendid robes as flames of fire, their food as withered leaves; and when he threw holy water over them, everything vanished.21 Probably a cult of Gwyn existed on the hill. Gwyn was also thought to be a hunter of wicked souls, yet it is also said of him that God placed in him the force of the demons of Annwfn (here the equivalent of hell) in order to hinder them from destroying the people of this world.22