Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/257

Rh form of the Echidna who for a time made Herakles sojourn in her CHAP. dwelling: but the Tailor's son of Basle in the mediaeval story had the - courage neither of Herakles nor of Sir Gawain, and he was so terrified by the writhing of her tail that in spite of the beauty of her face he fled after giving her only two of the three kisses which she had bargained for.^ Such a myth as this, it is obvious, would, if subjected to Christian influence, exhibit the fairy queen as a malig- nant demon who takes delight in corrupting the faith of true believers by plunging them into a horrible sensuality. Thus modified, the myth of Odysseus and Kalypso appears as the story of Tanhaiiser, whom Venus entices into her magic cave, within the Horselberg (Ercildoune) or mountain of Ursula. After a time the sensuous enjoyment of the place palls upon him as upon Odysseus, and he makes his escape to the earth with a weary load of sin upon his heart, for which he vainly seeks to obtain absolution.'^ At last he comes before pope Urban IV., who tells him that his pastoral staff will put forth leaves and blossoms sooner than God should pardon him. Tanhaiiser has scarcely departed when the staff is seen to bloom ; but it is too late. The minnesinger cannot be found, and he re-enters the Horselberg in despair, never to leave it again. Another modification, not less obvious and more in accordance with the spirit of the mediaeval myth, would be that of mere sleep, and Endymion would thus become the type of other slumberers to whom a century was but as a day. Among such is Epimenides, who while tending sheep fell asleep one day in a cave, and did not wake until more than fifty years had passed away. But Epimenides was one of the Seven Sages, who reappear in the Seven INIanes of Leinster,^ and in the Seven Champions of Christendom ; and thus the idea of seven sleepers was at once suggested. This idea finds expression in the remarkable legend of the seven sleepers of Ephesus ; and the number seven may be traced through other mediaeval stories. So Barbarossa clianges his position every seven years, and at the end of every seventh year Charlemagne starts in his chair, and Olger Dansk

' Gould, Curious Myths, &^c., Ogier the Dane, who is Tithonos re- second series, 223. stored to a youth, which, like that of

romance of Sir Launfal and the Fay which the fairy gives him remains un- Tryamour, who bestows on him the consumed. — Keightley, Fairy My/ho- never-failing purse, and in the tale of hj^'y, 34, et se</. For the legend of Oberon and liuon of Bordeaux. This Ogier, or Olger the Dane, see Popular Oberon is the dwarf king Elberich of Romances of the Middle Ages, and In- the Heldenbuch, who performs to Otnit troduction to Comparative Mythology, the service discharged by Oberon to 302. Huon. The story of Tanhaiiser, again, ^ Fergusson, The Irish before the is only another form of the legend of Conquest.
 * The same story is presented in the Melcagros, is to last as long as a brand