Synopses & Reviews
PREFACE. T HE principal object of this Foreword is to inform the expert Folkloreist and the casehardened Mythologist comparative or otherwise that the following pages are intended for those who, being neither expert nor case-hardened, come under that gracious and catholic term-general reader. The writer addresses not the scholiast, but the ordinary person who likes to read about what he has not time to study. Some portion of what is here printed has appeared in a once popuIar magazine now defunct. The author hastens to add, for the relief of the irreverent, that the journal long survived the ordeal of the publication. Nevertheless this book appears on its merits, or otherwise, and seeks no support from past attainment. Neither does it make any - --p ... v111 Preface - pretension to originality of matter or method, though it may, perhaps, contain one or two new ideas. It is unnecessary to add that the publication is made only at the tearkul entreaty of multitudinous friends. That, of course, is well understood among my th-hunters. C O N T E N T S . CHAPTER PREFACE I. STORYOLOGY - 11. THE MAGIC WAND III. THE MAGIC MIRROR - IV. THE MAGIC MOON V. THE DEVILS CAND1. E - VI. THE SEA AND ITS LEGEXDS - VII, MOTHER CAREY AND HER CHICKENS VIII. DAVY JONESS LOCKER - IX. SOME F1, OWERS OF FANCY X. ROSEMARY FOR REMEMBRANCE - XI. HERB OF GRACE - XII. THE ROMANCE OF A VEGETABLE XIII. THE STORY OF A TUBER XIV. THE CENTRE OF THE WORLD . INDEX - PACE - - vii STORYOLOGY. CHAPTER I. STORYOLOGY. HAT is a myth According to Webster, it is a fabulous or imaginary statement or narrative con veying an important truth, generally of a moral or religious nature an allegory, religious or historical, of spontaneousgrowth and popular origin, generally involving some supernatural or superhuman claim or power a tale of some extraordinary personage or country that has been gradually formed by, or has grown out of, the admiration and veneration of successive generations. Here is a choice of three definitions, but not one of them is by itself satisfy ing. Let us rather say that a myth is a tradition in narrative form, more or less current in more or less differing garb among different races, to which religious or superhuman significations may be ascribable. We say may be ascribable because, Story 0log y although the science of comparative mythology always seeks for such significations, it is probable that the modern interpre rations are often as different from the original meaning as certain abstruse readings of Shakespeare are from the poets own thoughts. In their introduction to Tales of the Teutonic Lands, Cox and Jones declare that the whole series of Arthurian legends are pure myths. These tales, they say, can be traced back to their earliest forms in phrases which spoke not of men and women, but of the Dawn which drives her white herds to their pasturesJ-the white clouds being theguardians of the cattle of the Sun- of the Sun which slays the dew whom he loves, of the fiery dragon whiih steals the cattle of the lord of light, or the Moon which wanders with her myriad children through the heaven. It is clainled that a strict etymological connection has been established with regard to a large number of these and similar stories, but the link which binds the myth of the Hellenic Hephaistos with that of the Vedic Agni justifies the i ferencteh at both these myths reappear in those of Regiti and ofWayland, or, in other words, that the story of the Dame of the Fine Green Kirtle is the story of Medeia, and that the tale of Helen is the legend of the loves of Conall Gutban...
Synopsis
Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.