Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

341Here let us pause for a moment to point out how clearly weare in the region of mediæval romance, and how far from thatof Celtic mythology. Perhaps the Celtic “Land of Youth” mayhave remotely suggested those regions of beauty and mysteryinto which the Arthurian knight rides in quest of adventure. Butthe scenery, the motives, the incidents, are altogether different.And how beautiful they are—how steeped in the magic light ofromance! The colours live and glow, the forest murmurs in ourears, the breath of that springtime of our modern world is aboutus, as we follow the lonely rider down the grassy track into anunknown world of peril and delight. While in some respects theContinental tales are greater than the Welsh, more thoughtful,more profound, they do not approach them in the exquisiteartistry with which the exterior aspect of things is rendered, theatmosphere of enchantment maintained, and the reader led, withever-quickening interest, from point to point in the developmentof the tale. Nor are these Welsh tales a whit behind in the nobleand chivalrous spirit which breathes through them. A finer schoolof character and of manners could hardly be found in literature.How strange that for many centuries this treasure beyond all priceshould have lain unnoticed in our midst! And how deep must be [396]our gratitude to the nameless bards whose thought created it, andto the nobly inspired hand which first made it a possession forall the English-speaking world!Defeat of KymonBut to resume our story. Kymon did as he was bidden, theBlack Knight appeared, silently they set lance in rest and charged.Kymon was flung to earth, while his enemy, not bestowing oneglance upon him, passed the shaft of his lance through the reinof Kymon's horse and rode off with it in the direction whencehe had come. Kymon went back afoot to the castle, where noneasked him how he had sped, but they gave him a new horse, “adark bay palfrey with nostrils as red as scarlet,” on which he rodehome to Caerleon.