Northern mythology

APPENDIX. 225
siderable progress. Of such narratives many, it is true,
belong not to our province, some being mere obscured
historic reminiscences, others owing their origin to etymologic
inteqn'etations, or even to sculpture and carvings,
which the people have endeavoured to explain in their own
fashion; while others have demonstrably sprung up in
Christian times, or are the fruits of literature.
Nevertheless,
a considerable number remain, which descend from
ancient times, and German mythology has still to hope
for much emolument from the Popular Traditions, since
those with which we are already acquainted offer a plentiful
harvest of mythic matter, without which our kno^vledge
of German heathenism would be considerably more
defective than it is^
The Popular Tale (Volksmarchen), which usually
knows neither names of persons or places, nor times, contains,
as far as our object is concerned, chiefly myths that
have been rent from their original connection and exhibited
in an altered fanciful form.
Through lively imagination,
through the mingling together of originally
unconnected narratives, through adaptation to the various
times in which they have been reproduced and to the
several tastes of listening youth, through transmission
from one people to another, the mythic elements of the
Popular Tales are so disguised and distorted, that their
chief substance is, as far as mythology is concerned, to us
almost unintelligible 2.
Eut Popular Traditions and Popular Tales are, after all,
for the most part, but dependent sources, which can derive
any considerable value only by connection with more
trustworthy narratives. A yet more dependent source is
the Superstitions still to be found in the country among
the great mass of the people, a considerable portion of
which has, in my opinion, no connection with German
1 Muller, p. 14. - lb. p. 15.
L 5