Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 3 (Celtic and Slavic).djvu/41

Rh for other peoples than the Celts dwelt in his time opposite Britain. Possibly, however, the Celts believed that the dead went to distant islands. Even now the Bretons speak of the "Bay of Souls" at Raz, at the extreme point of Armorica, while folk-lore tells how the drowned are nightly conveyed by boat from Cape Raz to the isle of Tevennec.34 If the Celtic dead went to an island, this may explain the title said by Pliny, quoting Philemon (second century b. c), to have been given by the Cimbri to the northern sea, Morimarusam = Mortuum Mare or possibly Mortuorum Mare ("Sea of the Dead")—the sea which the dead crossed. The title may refer, however, to an unchangeably calm sea, and such a sea has always been feared, or to the ice-covered sea, which Strabo35 regarded as an im- passable spongy mixture of earth, water, and air. The sup- posed Celtic belief in an island of the dead might also explain why, according to Pliny, no animal or man beside the Gallic ocean dies with a rising tide36—a belief still current in Brit- tany; the dead could be carried away only by an outflowing tide. But whether or not the Celts believed in such an island, it is certain that no Irish story of the island Elysium connects that with them, but associates it only with divine beings and favoured mortals who were lured thither in their lifetime.

In Wales and Ireland, where Roman civilization was un- known, mythology had a better chance of survival. Yet here, as in Gaul, it was forced to contend with triumphant Chris- tianity, which was generally hostile to paganism. Still, curi- ously enough. Christian verity was less destructive of Celtic myths than was Roman civilization, unless the Insular Celts were more tenacious of myth than their Continental cousins. Sooner or later the surviving myths, more often fragments than finished entities, were written down; the bards and the filid (learned poets) took pride in preserving the glories of their race; and even learned Christian monks must have assisted in keeping the old stories alive. Three factors, however, played their part in corrupting and disintegrating the myths. The