Preface
a craving after magic is the special characteristic of the Celtic mind, will be found to rest upon no surer basis than did the older claims. It does not really tend to increase the interest which is felt in Irish literature when it is represented as differing widely in its subject and its interests from all the other literatures of the world; we shall do better if we try to realise the points where it touched upon, modified, and borrowed from other stocks. Possibly Irish romance modified directly or indirectly the romances of the Middle Ages;[1] perhaps it sprang from the same source whence flowed the far greater music of Homer. As a survival of the ideas of that Celtic race which once spread all over Western Europe, the ancient stories should be of interest in all lands where Celts once ruled, where descendants of the Celtic race to day remain. For there is reason for the belief that, not only in those districts which are now regarded as especially Celtic, but even in countries which like England are spoken of as especially Teutonic, runs the blood of the race which composed the legends on which these Irish tales are founded, if, indeed, some of the mythology and of the incidents of the tales do not point back to that yet earlier date when Teuton and Celt were one.
xviii
- ↑ We have no evidence of direct Irish influence on continental literature, but this influence was undoubtedly felt in Wales; and the connection between mediaeval romance, Welsh literature, and Breton literature is well known.
