tions. Such criticism as he has received has been Conservative rather than Radical in its tendency. I ventured in my former article to dispute some of his conclusions respecting the influence of Teutonic upon Celtic tradition, conclusions supported by desperate but unconvincing ingenuity. Professor Kuno Meyer has since shown that many of the philological arguments upon which these conclusions were grounded are open to considerable doubt.[1]
To the “Liberal-Conservative” view, again, belongs Mrs. Bryant’s bright and ingenious sketch of early Irish history, ethnology, and sociology. She essays to find a meaning in the Irish traditions of successive immigrations from the East and South (traditions which Mons. D’Arbois de Jubainville explained by purely mythological considerations[2]), by interpreting them in the light of current ethnological theories. The Tuatha dé Danann are an early immigration, probably Gaelic, from the North-East, and to them the stone circles and circular tombs may be assigned; the Firbolgs, another Gaelic invasion from the South-East through Britain; whilst the Milesian immigration from the South, from Spain, is accepted as fact. The undeniable traces of pre-Celtic population, both in physical characteristics and in social institutions, are accounted for by the pre-Firbolg immigration mentioned in the traditional annals. I cannot but think that the time for any such synthesis is still far off, and the many erroneous, or at least doubtful, statements to be found in the first few pages of Mrs. Bryant’s book strengthen my conviction. Is it “certain that at the dawn of Irish tradition all the peoples of Erin spoke one language, and were settling down together side by side
- ↑ Revue Celtique, vol. x. At the same time, Prof. Meyer tells me that his studies upon the text of the Tochmarc Emer have convinced him that this saga exists in two redactions, a pre-Norse and a post-Norse invasion one; and he bears witness to the value of the method by which Professor Zimmer has distinguished various strata in the development of the Irish sagas.
- ↑ Le Cercle Mythologique Irlandais, Paris, 1884; and cf. my notice, Folk-Lore Journal, vol. ii.
