Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

PREFACE 3Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Cambridgeshire,Wiltshire, Somerset, and part of Sussex are as Keltic asPerthshire and North Munster; that Cheshire, Shropshire,Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, Gloucestershire, Devon, Dorset,Northamptonshire, Huntingdonshire, and Bedfordshire aremore so—and equal to North Wales and Leinster; whileBuckinghamshire and Hertfordshire exceed even this degree,and are on a level with South Wales and Ulster.” 1It is, then, for an Anglo-Celtic, not an “Anglo-Saxon,” peoplethat this account of the early history, the religion, and the mythicaland romantic literature of the Celtic race is written. It is hopedthat that people will find in it things worthy to be rememberedas contributions to the general stock of European culture, butworthy above all to be borne in mind by those who have inheritedmore than have any other living people of the blood, the instinctsand the genius of the Celt.1 In reference to the name “Freeman,” Mr. Nicholson adds: “No one wasmore intensely ‘English’ in his sympathies than the great historian of that name,and probably no one would have more strenuously resisted the suggestion thathe might be of Welsh descent; yet I have met his close physical counterpart ina Welsh farmer (named Evans) living within a few minutes of Pwllheli.”