Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

361main current of the development of the legendary literature downto the time when the mythical and legendary element entirelyfaded out and free literary invention took its place. The readerof these pages will, however, it is hoped, have gained a generalconception of the subject which will enable him to understandthe significance of such tales as we have not been able to touchon here, and to fit them into their proper places in one or otherof the great cycles of Celtic legend. It will be noticed thatwe have not entered upon the vast region of Celtic folk-lore. [418]Folk-lore has not been regarded as falling within the scope ofthe present work. Folk-lore may sometimes represent degradedmythology, and sometimes mythology in the making. In eithercase, it is its special characteristic that it belongs to and issuesfrom a class whose daily life lies close to the earth, toilers inthe field and in the forest, who render with simple directness,in tales or charms, their impressions of natural or supernaturalforces with which their own lives are environed. Mythology, inthe proper sense of the word, appears only where the intellectand the imagination have reached a point of development abovethat which is ordinarily possible to the peasant mind—when menhave begun to co-ordinate their scattered impressions and havefelt the impulse to shape them into poetic creations embodyinguniversal ideas. It is not, of course, pretended that a hard-and-fastline can always be drawn between mythology and folk-lore; still,the distinction seems to me a valid one, and I have tried toobserve it in these pages.After the two historical chapters with which our study hasbegun, the object of the book has been literary rather thanscientific. I have, however, endeavoured to give, as theopportunity arose, such results of recent critical work on therelics of Celtic myth and legend as may at least serve to indicateto the reader the nature of the critical problems connectedtherewith. I hope that this may have added somewhat to thevalue of the work for students, while not impairing its interest