Preface
while an apparition of Odin to break Sigmund's sword[1] in Teutonic legend is not considered to be due to any such craving for mysticism, because the Teutons are supposed to be a practical people.
On the principles of those who maintain the mystical character of the older Irish romances, Homer must surely be held to be the chief of mystics. The change of Apollo into the shape of Agenor[2] after he had enveloped the youth in a cloud to save him from the wrath of Achilles would certainly have been held to be an instance of "Celtic magic" if it had occurred in an Irish instead of a Greek poem, for it seems that it is hard to grasp the idea that when any race of men believed that their gods did really interest themselves in human affairs, it was perfectly natural that these gods should appear in the tales of the race. That Castor and Pollux should have appeared in the Forum to bring news of the battle of Lake Regillus, was accepted as a natural addition to their old legend by that most unmystical of peoples—the Romans; the goddess of war tells Conor of the approach of his foe in The Courtship of Ferb; Poseidon fights for the Greeks in their struggle to save the ships; and the warrior saint, St. James, rides before the armies of the Christian Spaniards in their battles against the Moors. There is nothing peculiarly Celtic in the instance where, in the Irish tale, divine aid is granted. Again it
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