Legends of the North: The Guidman O' Inglismill and The Fairy Bride

Legends of the North: The Guidman O' Inglismill and The Fairy Bride

The superstition with which the tale is interwoven has, for unknown ages, and in all countries, been an article of the popular creed. It is impossible to trace the origin of the belief. Some imagine it has been conveyed to us by the tradition of the Lami, who took away young children to slay them, and that this, mixed up with the tales of Fauns and Gods of the woods, originated the notion of Fairies. Others, that the belief was imported into Europe by the Crusaders from the East, as Fairies somewhat resemble the Oriental Genii. It is certainly true that the Arabs and Persians, whose religion and history abound with similar tales, have assigned the Genii a peculiar country. Again, Homer is supposed to have been among authors the originator of the idea, as, in his third Iliad, he compares the Trojans to cranes when they descend to fight against pigmies or fairies. Pliny, Aristotle, and others give countenance to the belief in a race of fairies; Herodotus described a nation of dwarfs living on the head waters of the Nile; Strabo thought that certain men of Ethiopia were the original dwarfs; while Pomponius Mela placed them far south. But nobody believed these stories, which were taken to be either poetical licences or chapters in romance. It is, however, strange that a race called Obongos, about thirty-six inches high, are mentioned as existing near the Ashango country by Paul de Chaillu (the discoverer of the gorilla), in his late work "From the Country of the Dwarfs." Whatever conjecture may be adopted, it is certain our Saxon ancestors, long ere they left their German forests, believed in the existence of a kind of diminutive demons, or middle species between men and spirits, to whom they attributed performances far exceeding human art. Although we are now a great literary people, yet, in this description of legendary lore, we are far behind the Germans; for this is a peculiar style of writing not exactly fitted for English cultivation, but in which the Germans seem to possess the faculty of invention and contrivance, together with originality of conception and power of execution, in such an eminent degree as to leave the legendary writers of our own and other countries at an immeasurable distance. In fact, we may search the whole range of English, French, Spanish, and Italian literature, and there will not be found one author "who dips so deep into the dark profound," or one who is possessed of that magic wand that can give the same vitality to the beings of a shadowy world as the Germans, or one who, can conjure up before the mind's eye, in such enchanting colours, the magical representations of beings and forms of no mark or likelihood, and with whose names even we were previously totally unacquainted. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 37375
Author: Buchan, Patrick
Release Date: Sep 10, 2011
Format: eBook
Language: English