Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/338

32G CELTIC LITERATURE otter. Another link in the chain which connects all thess legends with Celtic mythology is the introduction of Brendan into the curious legend of the irruption of Loch Neagh, beneath which lived in her sun-house Liban, probably the same as Becuma, and therefore as Mor gana, whose lapdog was transformed into an otter when she herself became a salmon. In the Christian Immrams or Wanderings the pagan soul-kingdom was simply changed into a place where souls were to await the final resurrec tion. It is probable, however, that a tradition of real wanderings among the rocky and inaccessible islands along the western coasts of Ireland and Scotland, and on the ocean itself, served as a nucleus around which gathered and fused together the pagan and Christian notions of the kingdom of the dead. The islands of birds, and the whale serving as an island (in the Latin St Brendan lasconius, i.e., Irish iasc-inis, fish-island), support this view. The Fisa, or prophetic Visions, are merely a different type from the Immrams or Wanderings of the same fundamental legends; although perfectly pagan in their origin the better known ones belong to Christian times when the Celtic Soul-Kingdom, and the Christian story of the Day of Judgment, and the Elysium and Tartarus of the Romans, as depicted by Virgil in the sixth book of the ^Eneid, which became known to the Irish as early at least as the 6th century, were fused together. The visions when translated into Latin passed into European languages. The original Irish of some of them is not now known ; perhaps some of them were first written in Latin; their thoroughly Irish character, however, and the existence in Irish only of one of the most perfect of them, the Vision of Adamndn, lead to the opposite conclusion. The Wandering of St Brendan, the Purgatory of St Patrick, and the Vision of Tundale represent three distinct types of the second stream of legends. The first is the way of getting at the soul-kingdom by water, the second by a cave, and the third by a/ts or vision, which in pagan times would have formed part of the Filideclit of the poet. These three legends, which are to be found in every European language in the Middle Ages, constitute three out of the five main sources of the plot of Dante s great poem. 1 The effect of St Brendan s Voyage upon geographical discovery does not come within our scope, and we shall therefore only add that his island, which was simply the Celtic soul-kingdom, is to be found on maps of the 17th century, and was the subject of an article in a treaty between Spain and Portugal iu the 1 8th. The third current we have already touched upon. It was formed by the fusion of the legends of Art, son of Conn, the necromancy of the Aes Side, and the legendary history of the struggles of the Britons and Saxons iti the North of England and the South of Scotland, which latter legends supplied heroes, a toponomy, and events. To this stream flowed afterwards, as we have pointed out, the Armorican tributary stream of the Round Table, and the Provencal stream of the St Graal. The effects of this stream of legend, which in its early course belongs to South Wales, on the literatures of Europe is too well known to require discus sion here further than to point to its threefold action : (1) much of the romantic literature of Europe may be traced back directly or indirectly to those legends ; (2) they helped as the vehicle of that element we call chivalry, which the church infused into them, to fashion and mould the rude soldiers of feudal times into Christian knights ; and (3) they expanded the imagination, and incited the minds of men to inquiry beyond the conventional notions of things, and thus materially assisted in creating modern society. 1 See Villari, Antiche legende e tradizioni che illustrano la Divina Commedia, Pisa, 1865. BIBLIOGRAPHY. In the following list we have included Bibiio- only the more important works bearing more or less S ra P h 7- directly upon the subjects treated of in the foregoing article. We have been consequently obliged to exclude many valuable works on the history of Celtic peoples, and especially the numerous and interesting books on Celtic antiquities. Although the Neo-Druidic heresy may be considered to be now fully exploded, we have, nevertheless, deemed it necessary to include a few of the principal works of the upholders of that singular delusion, because of the historic interest which they possess. CKLTIC LANGUAGES, ETHNOLOGY, Ac., IN GENERAL. Zeuss, J. G.. Gram- matica Celtica, 2 vols., Lipsise, 1853; second and greatly improved edition, Berlin, 1871, ed. by Prof. H. Ebel, embodying all the emendations of Celtic scholars to the time of its publication. Gliick, C. W.: Die bei Caius Julius Caesar vorkommen- den Keltischen Namen,Miinchen, 1857. Stark, Dr Franz: Keltische Forschungen, Keltische Personennamen nachgewiesen in den Ortsbenennungen des Codex Traditionum Ecclesije Ravennatensis aus dem VII. -X. Jahrhundert, Wien, 1869. Flechia, Prof.: Di alcune forme de nomi local! dell Italia Superiore, Torino, 1871. Roger, Baron de Relloguet: Ethnogdnie Gauloise, Paris, 1858-1861. Dief- enbach, Lorenz: Origines Europasae, Die Alton Viilker Europas, Frankfurt, 18C1 ; Dr Diefenbach was the first who systematically included the Celtic languages in comparisons with the Germanic languages in his Vergleichendes Wiirtcrbuch der Gennanischen Sprachen, 2 vols., Frankfurt, 1851. Beitrage znr vergleichen- den Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete der Arischen, Celtischen, und Siawischen Sprachen, lierausgegeben von A. Kuhn und A. Schleicher, vols. 1-8. This periodical contains the most important contributions made to Celtic philology since the publication of the first edition of Zeuss s Grammatica Cellica, such as those of Ebel, Stokes, Schleicher, Cuno, Becker, Aufrecht, Lottner, Pictet, &c. Prof. Ebel s valuable contributions, "Celtische Studien," have, with the excep tion of those on the verb, been translated into English (" Celtic Studies from the German of Dr Hermann Ebel," etc., by William K. Sullivan, London & Edin burgh, 1863). The Beitrage has been fused with the Zeitschrift fur ver- gleichende Sprachforschung, herausgegeben von Dr Adalbert Kuhn. The volume for 1876 contains a remarkable article on the Perfect tense in Irish by Professor Ernest Windisch, who has also done good service by contributing comparisons from the Celtic languages, especially Irish, to the 4th edition of Curtius s Grundziige der Griechischen Etymologic (Leipzig, 1873), and to Pro fessor Fick s work on Greek Proper Names. The Revue Celtique, commenced in 1870 by Prof. H. Gaidoz, is the only periodical in Europe exclusively devoted to the scientific study of Celtic, and contains papers by most of the scholars of Europe who devote themselves to the subject Ad. Pictet, Dr Stokes, Mr J. Rhys, M. M. Perrot, d Arbois de Jubainville, Le Men, Sauve", Luzel, <fec. CELTIC EPIGRAPHY Gaulish Inscriptions. Professor J. Becker s paper, " Die Inschriftlichen Ueberreste der Keltischen Sprachc," published in the 3d and 4th volumes of the Beitrage zur vergleichenden Sprachforschung (1863-18C5), is an exhaustive summary of what was known about Gaulish Inscriptions up to that time; see also papers in the Beitrage (by Pictet and Stokes) and in Hie Revue Celtique. Ogam Inscriptions. The Proceedings of the Uoyal Irish Academy contain the papers of Bishop Graces, Dr Samuel Ferguson, the late Mr R. R. Brash, who are those who have occupied themselves with the subject in Ireland. Dr Ferguson has also contributed a paper on the subject to the journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Society of Ireland. The Archteologia Cam brensis may be consulted on the Welsh inscriptions, and in connection with then, we may specially mention the name of Mr J. Rhys. IRISH Fac-Similes of JUSS., published by the Royal Irish Academy. Leabhar na h-UvJhri; a collection of pieces of prose and verse in the Irish language, compiled and transcribed about 1100 A.D., Dublin, 1870. Leabhar Breac, the Speckled Book, otherwise styled Leabhar Mdr, Dvna Doighre, the Great Book of Dun Doighre; a collection of pieces in Irish and Latin compiled from ancient sources about the close of the 14th century, Dublin, 1872-1876. Book of Leinster, a MS. of the first half of the 12th century, and the richest repository of poems and tales in (he Irish language, now In the library of Trinity College, Dublin. Language, <fec. O Donovan s Grammar of the Irish language; Dublin, 1845. O Reilly s Irish English Dictionary, with a supplement by Dr O Donovan, Dublin, 1864. Stokes, Dr Whitley: Irish Glosses; a medieval tract on Latin declensions with examples explained in Irish, together with the Lorica of Gildaa and the Middle Irish Gloss thereon, from the Leabhar Breac. Three Irish Glossa ries: Cormac s, O Davoren s, and a Glossary to the Calendar of Oingus, London, 1862; Cormac s Glossary, translated and annotated by O Donovan, Calcutta, 1868. Goidelica, or notes on the Gaelic manuscripts preserved at Turin, Milan, Bern, Leyden, the Monastery of St Paul in Carinthia, and Cambridge, with eight hymns from the Liber Hymnorum, and the old Irish notes in the Book of Armagh, Cal cutta, 18C6; also a revised edition. Remarks on the Celtic additions to Curtius s Greek Etymology, and on the Celtic comparisons in Bopp s Comparative Gram mar, with notes on some recent Irish publications, Calcutta, 1875. Nigra, CavaL C.: Glossas Hibernicse veteres codiois Taurinensis, Lutetiae Parisionim, 18C9; and Reliquie Celtiche I. II Manoscritto Irlandcse di S. Gallo, Torino 1872 (this gives the marginal notes in Ogam from the Sit Gall MS.) Prof. G. I. Ascoli is bringing out the Irish Glosses at Milan. Annals, <tc. O Connor s Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores Veteres, London, 1814-1825, 1826, 4 vols. Annals of the Four Masters, edited, with a translation and copious notes, by O Donovan, 7 vols., Dublin, 1851. Chronicon Scotorum ; a chronicle of Irish affairs from the earliest times to 1135 A.D., with a supplement containing the events from 1141 to 1150, edited, with a translation, by W. M. Hennessy, London, 1866. The Annals of Loch Ce: a chronicle of Irish affairs from 1014 A.D. to 1590 A.D., edited, with a translation, by Hennessy. The War of the Gaedhil with the Oaill, or, the Invasions of Ireland by the Danes and other

Norsemen, edited, with a translation, by Dr Todd, Dublin, 1867.