Grover Cleveland - "State of the Union Addresses of Grover Cleveland"

William Morris - "The Wood Beyond the World"

George MacDonald - "Warlock o' Glenwarlock"

Peter B. Kyne - "The Valley of the Giants"

The Age of Fable

T >> Thomas Bulfinch >> The Age of Fable




The second part, the Valkyrie, relates how Wotan still covets the
ring. He cannot take it himself, for he has given his word to the
giants. He stands or falls by his word. So he devises an artifice
to get the ring. He will get a hero-race to work for him and
recover the ring and the treasures. Siegmund and Sieglinda are
twin children of this new race. Sieglinda is carried off as a
child and is forced into marriage with Hunding. Siegmund comes,
and unknowingly breaks the law of marriage, but wins Nothung, the
great sword, and a bride. Brunhild, chief of the Valkyrie, is
commissioned by Wotan at the instance of Fricka, goddess of
marriage, to slay him for his sin. She disobeys and tries to save
him, but Hunding, helped by Wotan, slays him. Sieglinda, however,
about to bear the free hero, to be called Siegfried, is saved by
Brunhild, and hid in the forest. Brunhild herself is punished by
being made a mortal woman. She is left sleeping on the mountains
with a wall of fire around her which only a hero can penetrate.

The drama continues with the story of Siegfried, which opens with
a scene in the smithy between Mime the dwarf and Siegfried. Mime
is welding a sword, and Siegfried scorns him. Mime tells him
something of his mother, Sieglinda, and shows him the broken
pieces of his father's sword. Wotan comes and tells Mime that only
one who has no fear can remake the sword. Now Siegfried knows no
fear and soon remakes the sword Nothung. Wotan and Alberich come
to where the dragon Fafner is guarding the ring. They both long
for it, but neither can take it. Soon Mime comes bringing
Siegfried with the mighty sword. Fafner comes out, but Siegfried
slays him. Happening to touch his lips with the dragon's blood, he
understands the language of the birds. They tell him of the ring.
He goes and gets it. Siegfried now has possession of the ring, but
it is to bring him nothing of happiness, only evil. It is to curse
love and finally bring death. The birds also tell him of Mime's
treachery. He slays Mime. He longs for some one to love. The birds
tell him of the slumbering Brunnhilda, whom he finds and marries.

The Dusk of the Gods portrays at the opening the three norns or
fates weaving and measuring the thread of destiny. It is the
beginning of the end. The perfect pair, Siegfried and Brunhild,
appear in all the glory of their life, splendid ideals of manhood
and womanhood. But Siegfried goes out into the world to achieve
deeds of prowess. He gives her the Nibelungen ring to keep as a
pledge of his love till his return. Meanwhile Alberich also has
begotten a son, Hagan, to achieve for him the possession of the
ring. He is partly of the Gibichung race, and works through
Gunther and Gutrune, half-brother and half-sister to him. They
beguile Siegfried to them, give him a magic draught which makes
him forget Brunhild and fall in love with Gutrune. Under this same
spell, he offers to bring Brunhild for wife to Gunther. Now is
Valhalla full of sorrow and despair. The gods fear the end. Wotan
murmurs, "O that she would give back the ring to the Rhine." But
Brunhild will not give it up,--it is now her pledge of love.
Siegfried comes, takes the ring, and Brunhild is now brought to
the Rhine castle of the Gibichungs, but Siegfried under the spell
does not love her. She is to be wedded to Gunther. She rises in
wrath and denounces Siegfried. But at a hunting banquet Siegfried
is given another magic draught, remembers all, and is slain by
Hagan by a blow in the back, as he calls on Brunhild's name in
love. Then comes the end. The body of Siegfried is burned on a
funeral pyre, a grand funeral march is heard, and Brunhild rides
into the flames and sacrifices herself for love's sake; the ring
goes back to the Rhine-daughters; and the old world--of the gods
of Valhalla, of passion and sin--is burnt up with flames, for the
gods have broken moral law, and coveted power rather than love,
gold rather than truth, and therefore must perish. They pass, and
a new era, the reign of love and truth, has begun.

Those who wish to study the differences in the legends of the
Nibelungen Lied and the Nibelungen Ring, and the way in which
Wagner used his ancient material, are referred to Professor W. C.
Sawyer's book on "Teutonic Legends in the Nibelungen Lied and the
Nibelungen Ring," where the matter is treated in full detail. For
a very thorough and clear analysis of the Ring as Wagner gives it,
with a study of the musical motifs, probably nothing is better for
general readers than the volume "The Epic of Sounds," by Freda
Winworth. The more scholarly work of Professor Lavignac is
indispensable for the student of Wagner's dramas. There is much
illuminating comment on the sources and materials in "Legends of
the Wagner Drama" by J. L. Weston.





CHAPTER XLI

THE DRUIDS--IONA

DRUIDS


The Druids were the priests or ministers of religion among the
ancient Celtic nations in Gaul, Britain, and Germany. Our
information respecting them is borrowed from notices in the Greek
and Roman writers, compared with the remains of Welsh and Gaelic
poetry still extant.

The Druids combined the functions of the priest, the magistrate,
the scholar, and the physician. They stood to the people of the
Celtic tribes in a relation closely analogous to that in which the
Brahmans of India, the Magi of Persia, and the priests of the
Egyptians stood to the people respectively by whom they were
revered.

The Druids taught the existence of one god, to whom they gave a
name "Be' al," which Celtic antiquaries tell us means "the life of
everything," or "the source of all beings," and which seems to
have affinity with the Phoenician Baal. What renders this affinity
more striking is that the Druids as well as the Phoenicians
identified this, their supreme deity, with the Sun. Fire was
regarded as a symbol of the divinity. The Latin writers assert
that the Druids also worshipped numerous inferior gods.

They used no images to represent the object of their worship, nor
did they meet in temples or buildings of any kind for the
performance of their sacred rites. A circle of stones (each stone
generally of vast size), enclosing an area of from twenty feet to
thirty yards in diameter, constituted their sacred place. The most
celebrated of these now remaining is Stonehenge, on Salisbury
Plain, England.

These sacred circles were generally situated near some stream, or
under the shadow of a grove or wide-spreading oak. In the centre
of the circle stood the Cromlech or altar, which was a large
stone, placed in the manner of a table upon other stones set up on
end. The Druids had also their high places, which were large
stones or piles of stones on the summits of hills. These were
called Cairns, and were used in the worship of the deity under the
symbol of the sun.

That the Druids offered sacrifices to their deity there can be no
doubt. But there is some uncertainty as to what they offered, and
of the ceremonies connected with their religious services we know
almost nothing. The classical (Roman) writers affirm that they
offered on great occasions human sacrifices; as for success in war
or for relief from dangerous diseases. Caesar has given a detailed
account of the manner in which this was done. "They have images of
immense size, the limbs of which are framed with twisted twigs and
filled with living persons. These being set on fire, those within
are encompassed by the flames." Many attempts have been made by
Celtic writers to shake the testimony of the Roman historians to
this fact, but without success.

The Druids observed two festivals in each year. The former took
place in the beginning of May, and was called Beltane or "fire of
God." On this occasion a large fire was kindled on some elevated
spot, in honor of the sun, whose returning beneficence they thus
welcomed after the gloom and desolation of winter. Of this custom
a trace remains in the name given to Whitsunday in parts of
Scotland to this day. Sir Walter Scott uses the word in the "Boat
Song" in the "Lady of the Lake":

"Ours is no sapling, chance sown by the fountain, Blooming at
Beltane in winter to fade;" etc.

The other great festival of the Druids was called "Samh'in," or
"fire of peace," and was held on Halloweve (first of November),
which still retains this designation in the Highlands of Scotland.
On this occasion the Druids assembled in solemn conclave, in the
most central part of the district, to discharge the judicial
functions of their order. All questions, whether public or
private, all crimes against person or property, were at this time
brought before them for adjudication. With these judicial acts
were combined certain superstitious usages, especially the
kindling of the sacred fire, from which all the fires in the
district, which had been beforehand scrupulously extinguished,
might be relighted. This usage of kindling fires on Hallow-eve
lingered in the British islands long after the establishment of
Christianity.

Besides these two great annual festivals, the Druids were in the
habit of observing the full moon, and especially the sixth day of
the moon. On the latter they sought the Mistletoe, which grew on
their favorite oaks, and to which, as well as to the oak itself,
they ascribed a peculiar virtue and sacredness. The discovery of
it was an occasion of rejoicing and solemn worship. "They call
it," says Pliny, "by a word in their language, which means 'heal-
all,' and having made solemn preparation for feasting and
sacrifice under the tree, they drive thither two milk-white bulls,
whose horns are then for the first time bound. The priest then,
robed in white, ascends the tree, and cuts off the mistletoe with
a golden sickle. It is caught in a white mantle, after which they
proceed to slay the victims, at the same time praying that God
would render his gift prosperous to those to whom he had given
it." They drink the water in which it has been infused, and think
it a remedy for all diseases. The mistletoe is a parasitic plant,
and is not always nor often found on the oak, so that when it is
found it is the more precious.

The Druids were the teachers of morality as well as of religion.
Of their ethical teaching a valuable specimen is preserved in the
Triads of the Welsh Bards, and from this we may gather that their
views of moral rectitude were on the whole just, and that they
held and inculcated many very noble and valuable principles of
conduct. They were also the men of science and learning of their
age and people. Whether they were acquainted with letters or not
has been disputed, though the probability is strong that they
were, to some extent. But it is certain that they committed
nothing of their doctrine, their history, or their poetry to
writing. Their teaching was oral, and their literature (if such a
word may be used in such a case) was preserved solely by
tradition. But the Roman writers admit that "they paid much
attention to the order and laws of nature, and investigated and
taught to the youth under their charge many things concerning the
stars and their motions, the size of the world and the lands, and
concerning the might and power of the immortal gods."

Their history consisted in traditional tales, in which the heroic
deeds of their forefathers were celebrated. These were apparently
in verse, and thus constituted part of the poetry as well as the
history of the Druids. In the poems of Ossian we have, if not the
actual productions of Druidical times, what may be considered
faithful representations of the songs of the Bards.

The Bards were an essential part of the Druidical hierarchy. One
author, Pennant, says, "The Bards were supposed to be endowed with
powers equal to inspiration. They were the oral historians of all
past transactions, public and private. They were also accomplished
genealogists," etc.

Pennant gives a minute account of the Eisteddfods or sessions of
the Bards and minstrels, which were held in Wales for many
centuries, long after the Druidical priesthood in its other
departments became extinct. At these meetings none but Bards of
merit were suffered to rehearse their pieces, and minstrels of
skill to perform. Judges were appointed to decide on their
respective abilities, and suitable degrees were conferred. In the
earlier period the judges were appointed by the Welsh princes, and
after the conquest of Wales, by commission from the kings of
England. Yet the tradition is that Edward I., in revenge for the
influence of the Bards in animating the resistance of the people
to his sway, persecuted them with great cruelty. This tradition
has furnished the poet Gray with the subject of his celebrated
ode, the "Bard."

There are still occasional meetings of the lovers of Welsh poetry
and music, held under the ancient name. Among Mrs. Hemans' poems
is one written for an Eisteddfod, or meeting of Welsh Bards, held
in London, May 22, 1822. It begins with a description of the
ancient meeting, of which the following lines are a part:

"... midst the eternal cliffs, whose strength defied
The crested Roman in his hour of pride;
And where the Druid's ancient cromlech frowned,
And the oaks breathed mysterious murmurs round,
There thronged the inspired of yore! on plain or height,
In the sun's face, beneath the eye of light,
And baring unto heaven each noble head,
Stood in the circle, where none else might tread."

The Druidical system was at its height at the time of the Roman
invasion under Julius Caesar. Against the Druids, as their chief
enemies, these conquerors of the world directed their unsparing
fury. The Druids, harassed at all points on the mainland,
retreated to Anglesey and Iona, where for a season they found
shelter and continued their now dishonored rites.

The Druids retained their predominance in Iona and over the
adjacent islands and mainland until they were supplanted and their
superstitions overturned by the arrival of St. Columba, the
apostle of the Highlands, by whom the inhabitants of that district
were first led to profess Christianity.

IONA

One of the smallest of the British Isles, situated near a rugged
and barren coast, surrounded by dangerous seas, and possessing no
sources of internal wealth, Iona has obtained an imperishable
place in history as the seat of civilization and religion at a
time when the darkness of heathenism hung over almost the whole of
Northern Europe. lona or Icolmkill is situated at the extremity of
the island of Mull, from which it is separated by a strait of half
a mile in breadth, its distance from the mainland of Scotland
being thirty-six miles.

Columba was a native of Ireland, and connected by birth with the
princes of the land. Ireland was at that time a land of gospel
light, while the western and northern parts of Scotland were still
immersed in the darkness of heathenism. Columba with twelve
friends landed on the island of lona in the year of our Lord 563,
having made the passage in a wicker boat covered with hides. The
Druids who occupied the island endeavored to prevent his settling
there, and the savage nations on the adjoining shores incommoded
him with their hostility, and on several occasions endangered his
life by their attacks. Yet by his perseverance and zeal he
surmounted all opposition, procured from the king a gift of the
island, and established there a monastery of which he was the
abbot. He was unwearied in his labors to disseminate a knowledge
of the Scriptures throughout the Highlands and islands of
Scotland, and such was the reverence paid him that though not a
bishop, but merely a presbyter and monk, the entire province with
its bishops was subject to him and his successors. The Pictish
monarch was so impressed with a sense of his wisdom and worth that
he held him in the highest honor, and the neighboring chiefs and
princes sought his counsel and availed themselves of his judgment
in settling their disputes.

When Columba landed on lona he was attended by twelve followers
whom he had formed into a religious body of which he was the head.
To these, as occasion required, others were from time to time
added, so that the original number was always kept up. Their
institution was called a monastery and the superior an abbot, but
the system had little in common with the monastic institutions of
later times. The name by which those who submitted to the rule
were known was that of Culdees, probably from the Latin "cultores
Dei"--worshippers of God. They were a body of religious persons
associated together for the purpose of aiding each other in the
common work of preaching the gospel and teaching youth, as well as
maintaining in themselves the fervor of devotion by united
exercises of worship. On entering the order certain vows were
taken by the members, but they were not those which were usually
imposed by monastic orders, for of these, which are three,--
celibacy, poverty, and obedience.--the Culdees were bound to none
except the third. To poverty they did not bind themselves; on the
contrary they seem to have labored diligently to procure for
themselves and those dependent on them the comforts of life.
Marriage also was allowed them, and most of them seem to have
entered into that state. True, their wives were not permitted to
reside with them at the institution, but they had a residence
assigned to them in an adjacent locality. Near lona there is an
island which still bears the name of "Eilen nam ban," women's
island, where their husbands seem to have resided with them,
except when duty required their presence in the school or the
sanctuary.

Campbell, in his poem of "Reullura," alludes to the married monks
of Iona:

"... The pure Culdees
Were Albyn's earliest priests of God,
Ere yet an island of her seas
By foot of Saxon monk was trod,
Long ere her churchmen by bigotry
Were barred from holy wedlock's tie.
'Twas then that Aodh, famed afar,
In lona preached the word with power,
And Reullura, beauty's star,
Was the partner of his bower."

In one of his "Irish Melodies," Moore gives the legend of St.
Senanus and the lady who sought shelter on the island, but was
repulsed:

"O, haste and leave this sacred isle,
Unholy bark, ere morning smile;
For on thy deck, though dark it be,
A female form I see;
And I have sworn this sainted sod
Shall ne'er by woman's foot be trod."

In these respects and in others the Culdees departed from the
established rules of the Romish church, and consequently were
deemed heretical. The consequence was that as the power of the
latter advanced that of the Culdees was enfeebled. It was not,
however, till the thirteenth centurv that the communities of the
Culdees were suppressed and the members dispersed. They still
continued to labor as individuals, and resisted the inroads of
Papal usurpation as they best might till the light of the
Reformation dawned on the world.

Iona, from its position in the western seas, was exposed to the
assaults of the Norwegian and Danish rovers by whom those seas
were infested, and by them it was repeatedly pillaged, its
dwellings burned, and its peaceful inhabitants put to the sword.
These unfavorable circumstances led to its gradual decline, which
was expedited by the subversion of the Culdees throughout
Scotland. Under the reign of Popery the island became the seat of
a nunnery, the ruins of which are still seen. At the Reformation,
the nuns were allowed to remain, living in community, when the
abbey was dismantled.

Iona is now chiefly resorted to by travellers on account of the
numerous ecclesiastical and sepulchral remains which are found
upon it. The principal of these are the Cathedral or Abbey Church
and the Chapel of the Nunnery. Besides these remains of
ecclesiastical antiquity, there are some of an earlier date, and
pointing to the existence on the island of forms of worship and
belief different from those of Christianity. These are the
circular Cairns which are found in various parts, and which seem
to have been of Druidical origin. It is in reference to all these
remains of ancient religion that Johnson exclaims, "That man is
little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the
plains of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer amid the
ruins of lona."

In the "Lord of the Isles" Scott beautifully contrasts the church
on lona with the cave of Staffa, opposite:

"Nature herself, it seemed, would raise
A minister to her Maker's praise!
Not for a meaner use ascend
Her columns, or her arches bend;
Nor of a theme less solemn tells
That mighty surge that ebbs and swells,
And still between each awful pause,
From the high vault an answer draws,
In varied tone, prolonged and high,
That mocks the organ's melody;
Nor doth its entrance front in vain
To old Iona's holy fane,
That Nature's voice might seem to say,
Well hast thou done, frail child of clay!
Thy humble powers that stately shrine
Tasked high and hard--but witness mine!"






GLOSSARY


Abdalrahman, founder of the independent Ommiad (Saracenic) power
in Spain, conquered at Tours by Charles Martel

Aberfraw, scene of nuptials of Branwen and Matholch

Absyrtus, younger brother of Medea

Abydos, a town on the Hellespont, nearly opposite to Sestos

Abyla, Mount, or Columna, a mountain in Morocco, near Ceuta, now
called Jebel Musa or Ape's Hill, forming the Northwestern
extremity of the African coast opposite Gibraltar (See Pillars of
Hercules)

Acestes, son of a Trojan woman who was sent by her father to
Sicily, that she might not be devoured by the monsters which
infested the territory of Troy

Acetes, Bacchanal captured by Pentheus

Achates, faithful friend and companion of Aeneas

Achelous, river-god of the largest river in Greece--his Horn of
Plenty

Achilles, the hero of the Iliad, son of Peleus and of the Nereid
Thetis, slain by Paris

Acis, youth loved by Galatea and slain by Polyphemus

Acontius, a beautiful youth, who fell in love with Cydippe, the
daughter of a noble Athenian.

Acrisius, son of Abas, king of Argos, grandson of Lynceus, the
great-grandson of Danaus.

Actaeon, a celebrated huntsman, son of Aristaeus and Autonoe, who,
having seen Diana bathing, was changed by her to a stag and killed
by his own dogs.

Admeta, daughter of Eurystheus, covets Hippolyta's girdle.

Admetus, king of Thessaly, saved from death by Alcestis

Adonis, a youth beloved by Aphrodite (Venus), and Proserpine;
killed by a boar.

Adrastus, a king of Argos.

Aeacus, son of Zeus (Jupiter) and Aegina, renowned in all Greece
for his justice and piety.

Aeaea, Circe's island, visited by Ulysses.

Aeetes, or Aeeta, son of Helios (the Sun) and Perseis, and father
of Medea and Absyrtus.

Aegeus, king of Athens.

Aegina, a rocky island in the middle of the Saronic gulf.

Aegis, shield or breastplate of Jupiter and Minerva.

Aegisthus, murderer of Agamemnon, slain by Orestes.

Aeneas, Trojan hero, son of Anchises and Aphrodite (Venus), and
born on Mount Ida, reputed first settler of Rome,

Aeneid, poem by Virgil, relating the wanderings of Aeneas from
Troy to Italy,

Ae'olus, son of Hellen and the nymph Orseis, represented in Homer
as the happy ruler of the Aeolian Islands, to whom Zeus had given
dominion over the winds,

Aesculapius, god of the medical art,

Aeson, father of Jason, made young again by Medea,

Aethiopians, inhabitants of the country south of Egypt,

Aethra, mother of Theseus by Aegeus,

Aetna, volcano in Sicily,

Agamedes, brother of Trophonius, distinguished as an architect,

Agamemnon, son of Plisthenis and grandson of Atreus, king of
Mycenae, although the chief commander of the Greeks, is not the
hero of the Iliad, and in chivalrous spirit altogether inferior to
Achilles,

Agave, daughter of Cadmus, wife of Echion, and mother of Pentheus,

Agenor, father of Europa, Cadmus, Cilix, and Phoenix,

Aglaia, one of the Graces,

Agni, Hindu god of fire,

Agramant, a king in Africa,

Agrican, fabled king of Tartary, pursuing Angelica, finally killed
by Orlando,

Agrivain, one of Arthur's knights,

Ahriman, the Evil Spirit in the dual system of Zoroaster, See
Ormuzd

Ajax, son of Telamon, king of Salamis, and grandson of Aeacus,
represented in the Iliad as second only to Achilles in bravery,

Alba, the river where King Arthur fought the Romans,

Alba Longa, city in Italy founded by son of Aeneas,

Alberich, dwarf guardian of Rhine gold treasure of the Nibelungs

Albracca, siege of,

Alcestis, wife of Admetus, offered hersell as sacrifice to spare
her husband, but rescued by Hercules,

Alcides (Hercules),

Alcina, enchantress,

Alcinous, Phaeacian king,

Alcippe, daughter of Mars, carried off by Halirrhothrus,

Alcmena, wife of Jupiter, and mother of Hercules,

Alcuin, English prelate and scholar,

Aldrovandus, dwarf guardian of treasure,

Alecto, one of the Furies,

Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia, conqueror of Greece,
Egypt, Persia, Babylonia, and India,

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