Celtic Mythology and Religion

WELSH AND GAELIC ELYSIUM. 141
where Manannan lived with Fann his wife, as the
myths have it. Tir-fa-tonn looks rather like the
Gaelic Hade?, the abode of the dead. The Gaelic
version of Diarmat's sojourn there gives strong
colour to such a supposition, and the early Middle
Age legends in regard to St. Patrick's Purgatory
below Lough Dearg—the precursors of Dante and
Milton's descriptions—lend great countenance to
such a distinction between Tir-fa-tonn and Mag
Mell.
The myths may be grouped in three divisions.
There are, first, the myths where a mortal is summoned,
in an enchanting song, by a fairy being who
has fallen in love with the mortal, to a land of beauty
and happiness and ' ever-youthful life ; second,
there are myths which tell how a hero has, Ulysseslike,
paid a business visit to the other world ; and,
thirdly, the accounts of many voyages of discovery
in search of the Happy Isles, and the " Traveller's
Tales " of the wonders seen. To the first class belong
three very remarkable Irish myths : the Courtship
of Etain,
the story of Condla Cam, and Ossian in
Tir-nan-og. The outline of the story is as follows :
There suddenly appears before a kingly company
a fairy being who chants, for some particular person
in the company loved by the fairy, a song descriptive
of the glories and pleasures of the Land of the Everyoung.
The person so addressed cannot choose
but love the fairy, and go to the wonderful land.
In Ossian's case alone have we got an account of the