Here the hair covers the whole body. As this narrative is due to St. Ambrose, and as St. Agnes is mentioned in the 11th century Irish Martyrology known as the Calendar of Oengus, it is probable that the legend was known to the early Irish Church, and if so, it is possible that the incident in our tale may be due to it.[1] On the other hand, Mr. Whitley Stokes tells me that he knows no other example of the incident in Irish literature. Considering, too, the pride taken by the Gaulish chieftains in the beauty and length of their hair, as testified to by classical writers; considering, moreover, the Irish rule which forbade the kingly throne to anyone possessed of a personal blemish, it seems to me quite as likely that the Mairend-Mugain story, if not founded on fact, is the outcome of Irish invention, as that it is a loan from the St. Agnes legend. The point deserves attention from those familiar with Irish as well as with continental hagiology.
I do not wish to labour the argument further. There can, I think, be no reasonable doubt that I have sufficiently proved my contention, and that the Gaelic tale of Gold-tree and Silver-tree, collected in North Scotland within the last few years, must be looked upon as the representative of a tale which flourished in the 10th century, a literary offshoot of which was the lai of Eliduc, and which may have been carried by Breton minstrels to Southern Italy, by Danish Vikings to North Germany, and there have given rise to the Schneewittchen group of stories. I am not concerned at present to prove or disprove this last contention. I may point out, however, that the German tale contains elements, such as the seven dwarfs, which have all the appearance of great antiquity, and that the material and social conditions postulated by the tale must have existed in German as well as in Celtic lands. I trust some member of the Society with more leisure than
- ↑ Prudentius tells the story of St. Eulalia; late hagiologists, of St. Mary the Egyptian, for which the oldest Acts of that saint give no warrant.
