Celtic Mythology and Religion

CAUSE OF MYTH. 2$
Hug na stuaidh mu'n cuairt gu mall
A choimhead fir a's glaine gruaidh,
A' togail fo eagal an ceann
Ri d' fhaicinn cho aillidh 'nad shuain.
Gabhsa cadal ann ad chbs,
A ghrian, is till o d' chlos le aoibhneas."
These lines bring us back to the anthropomorphism
of the Vedic hymns of India, to which alone, in their
richness of personification and mythic power, they
can be compared.
Allied to the linguistic theory of myth is
also the
simpler case of those myths consciously started to
explain the names of nations, countries, and places.
A common method of accounting for a national
name was to invent an ancestor or patriarch who
bore that name in an individual form. Britain,
so say the myths, is
so named from Brutus, grandson
of ^Eneas, the Trojan hero, who first ruled
here. Scotland gets its name from Scota, the
daughter of Pharaoh. The names of places are
dealt with in the same way, and, if the name is anyway
significant, the myth takes the lines indicated
by the popular etymology of the name. This is
the origin of the name of Loch-Ness :
" Where
Loch-Ness now is there was once a fine glen. A
woman went one day to the well to fetch water,
and the spring flowed so much that she got frightened,
left her pitcher, and ran for her life. Getting to
the top of a hill, she turned about and saw the glen
filled with water.
' '
Aha ! said she, tha ' loch ann
a nis ; ' and hence the lake was called Loch-Ness."
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