Among the Greeks a descent into the cave of Trophonius occupied much the same place in their popular Mysticism that the Purgatory of S. Patrick assumed among Christians. Having died after, it is said that she was buried on the spot; and therefore the Lord Pope always turns aside from that way, and it is supposed by some out of detestation for what happened there. Then he was ware of a swan floating on the water, drawing a boat by a silken band fastened round its neck. That which characterizes the sepulchres of Golasecca, and gives them their highest interest, says M. de Mortillet, who investigated them,0is this, first, the entire absence of all organic representations; we only found three, and they were exceptional, in tombs not belonging to the plateau; secondly, the almost invariable presence of the cross under the vases in the tombs. A fable was invented to account for this name, and to connect them with bees and honey; but I have little doubt that it was corrupted from the Semitic designation of the servants of Mylitta. new beginnings and saying goodbye to the past.It takes you to far off lands and seas where there is only the intertwining of two hearts on a ship, sailing into eternity: Then fill to me the parting glass, Then the seven sleepers awoke, and it was to them as if they had slept but a single night. The Mussulmans revere him equally with the Christians, and tell a tale concerning him having a strong affinity to that recorded in the acts. Oh, all the comrades e'er I had, It happened one day that he was called to a tournament, whither his wife and domestics went also, leaving the child in the cradle, the greyhound lying by him, and the falcon on his perch. However much the burlesque poets of the Middle Ages might laugh at this mysterious western region of blissful souls, it held its own in the belief of the people. Since the age when these people vanished, earth has accumulated to the depth of 4 feet. Again, in connexion with the mention of Isis, he alludes to a rite observed by the Suevi of carrying about a ship in her honour. And from the place where the serpent died, there burst forth a torrent. It is certainly not later than the reign of Henry VI. The theft was in some places exchanged for Sabbath-breaking, especially among those in Protestant countries who were acquainted with the Bible story of the stick-gatherer. Thereupon he replied, modestly, that he was a Jew by birth, a native of Jerusalem, by name Ahasverus, by trade a shoemaker; he had been present at the crucifixion of Christ, and had lived ever since, travelling through various lands and cities, the which he substantiated by accounts he gave; he related also the circumstances of Christs transferencefrom Pilate to Herod, and the final crucifixion, together with other details not recorded in the Evangelists and historians; he gave accounts of the changes of government in many countries, especially of the East, through several centuries; and moreover he detailed the labors and deaths of the holy Apostles of Christ most circumstantially. With two vessels he put out to sea and steered for the Canariesin those days the regions of nautical discovery and romance, and the outposts of the known world; for as yet Columbus had not crossed the ocean. Herodotus gives a curious legend relating to the destruction of the host of Sennacherib before Jerusalem. At the sight of this, the wife of Dacian, whom Jacques de Voragine makes proconsul under Diocletian, is converted, and she and George are decapitated. The arguments on the other side may be had in Allatii Confutatio Fabul de Johanna Papissa, Colon. [189] Washington Irving, Chronicles of Wolferts Roost, and other Papers. Long was it believed in France that the unfortunate Melusina appeared in the air, wailing over the ramparts of Lusignan before the death of one of its lords; and that, on the extinction of the family, she was seen whenever a king of France was to depart this life. . A twelvemonth later she gave birth to another son, whom she called Gedes; he had a face which was scarlet. The old fables of Valkyries were misunderstood, when Christianity had cast these damsels from heaven, and the stories were modified to account for the transformation. The Syriac Chronicle of the Jacobite Primate, Gregory Bar-Hebrus (born 1226, died 1286), also identifies Unk-Khan with Prester John. One day an Ottawa chief, whilst sitting by the water side, beheld a beautiful woman rise from the flood, her face exquisitely lovely, her eyes blue, her teeth white, and her locks floating over her shoulders. . Moreover, we have heard through our treasurer that you have been pleased to send to us some objects of art and interest, that our Exaltedness might be gratified thereby. The chief of this order of knights was entitled King. Her rosy cheeks and ruby lips, No one, however, has penetrated, as yet, to the furthest limits of the cavern.. The coincidence of finding so many versions of the same story scattered through countries as remote as Persia and Iceland, Switzerland and Denmark, proves,I think, that it can in no way be regarded as history, but is rather one of the numerous household myths common to the whole stock of Aryan nations. Pheredur is mentioned as well in the Annales Cambriae, which extend from the year 444 to 1066. He came ashore, won her heart, became Duke of Cleves, and lived happily with her for many years. All the best Paul! It would not eat, though it was offered small fish, shells, crabs, lobsters, &c. After its death, some excrement was discovered in the vat, like the secretion of a cat. The copy from which I have taken the representation for this work is thus coloured: hair, the hue of kelp; body, olive tint; webbed olive between the fingers, which have each four joints; the fringe round the waist orange, with a blue border; the fins green, face slate-grey; a delicate row of pink hairs runs the length of the tail. The great champions of the myth were the Protestants of the sixteenth century, who were thoroughly unscrupulous in distorting history and suppressing facts, so long as they could make a point. A careful study of these sources, conducted by the light of comparative mythology, will, I am satisfied, lead to the discovery that, under the name of Methodism, we have the old druidic religion still alive, energetic, and possibly more vigorous than it was when it exercised a spiritual supremacy over the whole of Britain. 17. And there he would sit for hours singing to the wondering ears of the Indians the beautiful things he saw in the depths of the ocean, always closing his strange stories with these words:Follow me, and see what I will show you. For a great many suns, they dared not venture upon the water; but when they grew hungry, they at last put to sea, and following the man-fish, who kept close to the boat, reached the American coast[164].. Sagen, p. 499. Among the ancient Iranians the same myth prevailed, but was sublimated into a conflict between good and evil. The lady took the swan with her as they proceeded on their journey, and fed it from her hand. All the members of this tribe bear the caudal appendage, and, as Oriental imagination is given to exaggeration, I was assured that the tails sometimes attained the length of two feet. [85] Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, iv. These and similar nations were shut in behind lofty mountains by Alexander the Great, towards the North. This portion belongs to thee, O Rudra, whose animal is the mouse[149]. In later mythology it became the attribute of Ganeca, who was represented as riding upon a rat; but Ganeca is simply an hypostasis for Rudra. It is frescoed along the walls of the choir of the church of S. Croce at Florence, by the hand of Agnolo Gaddi. Being human, I receive it in good part, and we have ordered our treasurer to send you some of our articles in return. Divides his time between heaven and hell, subject of wailing, seeking, and finding. If I am correct in supposing that the Hatto myth points to sacrifices of chieftains and princes in times of famine, and that the manner of offering the sacrifice was the exposure of the victim to rats, then it is not to be wondered at, that, when the reason of such a sacrifice was forgotten, the death should be accounted as a judgment of God for some crime committed by the sufferer, as hardheartedness, murder, or sacrilege. Terrified at the idea of meeting the anger of the parents, they determined to escape; but in their flight fell in with their mistress, to whom they were compelled to relate the supposed murder of the child by the greyhound. But classic antiquity has also its rock-breaking plant, thesaxifraga,whose tender rootlets penetrate and dissolve the hardest stones with a force for which the Ancients were unable to account. Now, this story, I can positively assert, unless the events of this world move in a circle, did not happen in Lewes, or any other Sussex town. Humboldt, in his remarks on this passage, says: Pomponius Mela, who lived at a period sufficiently near that of Cornelius Nepos, relates, and Pliny repeats it, that Metellus Celer, whilst Proconsul of Gaul, received as a gift from a king of the Boii or Boeti (the name is somewhat uncertain, and Pliny calls him a king of the Suevi) some Indians who, driven by the tempests from the Indian seas, landed on the coasts of Germany. they whisper!Angels say,Sister spirit, come away!. Because he forsook the religion of his ancestors and followed strange gods, therefore God took the government from him, and gave it to one better than he, and whose heart was right before God.. We two have paddled in the stream, Sometimes they descend to earth, and become the wives of mortals; but soon their celestial nature re-asserts itself, and they expand their luminous wings, and soar away into the heavenly deeps of tranquil azure. If we read the Acts of the Apostles and their Epistles with care, it is striking how great weight, we find, is laid on this doctrine. The design on the north and south was different, and contained no crosses. It is on this that the story of the march of Napoleon towards Moscow, and his humbling retreat, is founded. When Christ was transfixed by the spear, there flowed from His side blood and water. There he made his confession; but the priest, horror-struck at his recital, dared not give him absolution, but passed him on to another. The shamrock of Ireland derives its sacredness from its affecting the same form. And, again, another gives eleven, but in different order: Martha, Saula, Brittola, Gregoria, Saturnina, Sabatia, Pinnosa, Ursula, Sentia, Palladia, Saturia. It was raised well above the surface, and seemed to have a sort of fishers cap of moss on its head. In Isaia c. Ixvi. But not so dissenting religion. Some way above is a bird with expanded wings. Among other indications, we have only to cite the Rosetta stone, on which it is employed to translate the title(Greek)given to Ptolemy Epiphanius. Jesus, obeying, looked at him, and said, I shall stand and rest, but thou shalt go till the last day. At these words the man set down the child; and, unable to remain where he was, he followed Christ, and saw how cruelly He was crucified, how He suffered, how He died. The names are the same: Arbhus became altered into Albhu, by the change of therintoI; thebin the old German Elbe is replaced in modern German and Norse by anf. The spring and summer breezes were deified by the ancient Aryans. He appeared in light on the walls of Jerusalem, waving his sword, and led the victorious assault on the Holy City. 23. Upon searching round, he saw an object lying on a rock a dozen yards from the shore, at which he was somewhat frightened. This the king read. Again the people refused to pay the stipulated sum, thereupon the charcoal-burner piped all their sheep into the lake. Then said he, Faire sweete Father, Jesu Christ, if ever I did thing that pleased the Lord, for thy pittie ne have me not in despite for my foull sins done here before time, and that thou shew me some thing of that which I seek.. In the Saga of Half and his knights is an account of a merman who was caught and kept a little while on land. Their mother laughs at their comical gestures, and they vanish (Popol-Vuh, b. ii. A long neck, too, extends from his breast, and a membrane joins his reddening toes; plumage clothes his sides, and his mouth becomes a pointless bill. In the first none of the fictile ware was turned on the wheel or fire-baked. There was truth in what Svathi said; but the poor wretches did not view the matter in the same light as he, nor appreciate the force of his argument; and they spent the night howling with despair. Now there were in Ephesus seven Christians, Maximian, Malchus, Marcian, Dionysius, John, Serapion, and Constantine by name. It was sung in the TV series Cranford by Joe McFadden in 2007. For Christene mene weren wont to holden that placealweyes. Just as in the Keltic legends of the Fortunate Isles, we hear of mortals who went by ship to the Avalon of Spirits, and then returned to their fellow-mortals; so in this Belgic fable we have a denizen of the distant paradise coming by boat to this inhabited land, and leaving it again. Of this trespass he was accused by his sister who appeared in the way. The canoes, bodies, timber, and nuts, washed up on the western coasts of Europe, may have originated the belief in there being a land beyond the setting sun; and this country, when once supposed to exist, was variously designated as Meropis, the continent of Kronos, Ogygia, Atlantis, the Fortunate Isles, or the Garden of the Hesperides. Under Add your personalization, the text box will tell you what the seller needs to know. Those of one were gone. An equally remarkable illustrated work on Antichrist is the famous Liber de Antichristo, a blockbook of an early date. But sesame is the name of a well-known eastern plant,sesamum orientatelso that probably in the original form of the Persian tale absorbed into the Arabian Nights, a flower was employed to give admission to the mountain. One, for a ladys back-hair, ornamented, and of stags horn, came from the terramare of Fodico di Poviglio. There are, however, so many varieties of crosses among the urns of Golasecca, and ingenuity seems to have been so largely exercised in diversifying this one sign, without recurring to others, that I cannot but believe the sign itself had a religious signification. Here he came upon a land well populated, where the people spoke the Irish tongue. Credat Judus Apella! The hands seem to people to be long, and the fingers not to be parted, but united by a web like that on the feet of water-birds. i. par. Most of the legends we are considering point to islands as the place where the victim suffered, and islands, we know, were regarded with special sanctity by the Northern nations. [7] Paul v. Eitzen was born January 25, 1522, at Hamburg; in 1562 he was appointed chief preacher for Schleswig, and died February 25, 1598. The skeleton of the romance is this. But S. Gertrude occupies the place of the ancient Teutonic goddess Holda or Perchta, who was the receiver of the souls of maidens and children, and who still exists as the White Lady, not unfrequently, in German legends, transforming herself, or those whom she decoys into her home, into white mice. In a Sclavonian legend, a youth was reposing in a forest. Like Helmas, he breaks his promise and loses his wife. [93] Isidor. This cross has a wheel in the centre, and is called Kiakra or Tschakra. The influence of Persian mythology is also perceptible in the legend. Kings, princes, and princesses, of Norway, Sweden, Ireland, Flanders, Normandy, Brabant, Friesland, Denmark in a word, of all lands with which a geographer of the twelfth century was acquaintedhad joined the expedition, in their desire to testify their admiration of the chastity and piety of Ursula and her companions. In popular opinion, this distant isle was far more beautiful than paradise, and the rumours of its splendour so excited the mind of the mediaevals, that the western land became the subject of satyre and jest. After the Arabs had captured the city of Elvan, Fadhilah, at the head of three hundred horsemen, pitched his tents, late in the evening, between two mountains. On the seal we see the mancarrying his sticks, and the moon surrounds him. His voyage seems to be founded on that of Sinbad, and is full of absurdities. Andreas Libavius, a writer I have already quoted in my article on the Wandering Jew, undertook a series of experiments upon the hazel divining rod, and concluded that there was truth in the popular belief. Some of the technologies we use are necessary for critical functions like security and site integrity, account authentication, security and privacy preferences, internal site usage and maintenance data, and to make the site work correctly for browsing and transactions. Testimon. From the Greek of Eutychianus, two early Latin versions are extant, one by Paulus Diaconus, the other by Gentianus Hervetus. And then I asked if he had seen the strange sights and visions spoken of. Partenope), in Italian. This history if it ever existed, has not come down to us; the work of Jean dArras is a complete romance. Out of compassion for his kinsman, the Count of Poitou adopted his youngest son Raymond, a beautiful and amiable youth, and made him his constant companion in hall and in the chase. I do not propose that you should print my narrative, but I think in these cases personal testimony, even indirect, is more useful in forming ones opinion than a hundred old volumes. Unde quidam vulgariter loquens ait:, Rusticus in Luna,Quem sarcina deprimit unaMonstrat per opinasNulli prodesse rapinas,, which may be translated thus: Do you know what they call the rustic in the moon, who carries the fagot of sticks? So that one vulgarly speaking says,, See the rustic in the Moon,How his bundle weighs him down;Thus his sticks the truth reveal,It never profits man to steal., Shakspeare refers to the same individual in his Midsummer Nights Dream. Quince the carpenter, giving directions for the performance of the play of Pyramus and Thisbe, orders: One mustcome in with a bush of thorns and a lantern, and say he comes in to disfigure, or to present, the person of Moonshine. And the enacter of this part says, All I have to say is, to tell you that the lantern is the moon; I the man in the moon; this thorn-bush my thorn-bush; and this dog my dog.. In the Musum Victorium at Rome is a curious and ancient representation of them in a cement of sulphur and plaster. Archbishop AElfric (d. 1006) alludes to the story in his Homilies S. Bernard also, in his Depreratio ad gloriosam Virginem Mariam Vincent of Beauvais, in his wonderful Speculum Historiale S. Bonaventura, as a passionate devotee to the Virgin, could not omit it from his Speculum Beatae Manse; Jacques de Voragine inserts it in his Golden Legend, and Albertus Magnus includes it in his Biblia B. Mariae Virginis. It is again mentioned by the great German poet of the twelfth century, Hartmann von der Aue, and by Konrad von Wurzburg, in the thirteenth century. In the time of Antichrist the Church will be divided: one portion will hold to the world-power, the other will seek out the old paths, and cling to the only true Guide. 2023. Whether this legend was in the Welsh book of Walter the Archdeacon, from which the good Bishop of S. Asaph derived so much of his history, does not appear. Lohengrin, as soon as he heard the story of the misfortunes of the Duchess Else, undertook to fight for her. Sweet angels are calling to me from yon shore,Come over, come over, and wander no more.. The Parting Glass Apollo was called Smintheus, as has been stated already. In the year of the Greeks 1514, of the Arabs 599 (A.D. 1202), when Unk-Khan, who is the Christian King John, ruled over a stock of the barbarian Hunns, called Kergt, Tschingys-Khan served him with great zeal. p. 472. Since the Jew has had his life extended, he has become silent and reserved, and only answers direct questions. I believe that the mythological core of this picturesque legend is the repose of the earth through the seven winter months. This visionary solved the difficulty, to the great edification of the faithful. How shall we account for this? It appears in every branch of the Aryan family, and examples might be quoted from Modern Greek, Albanian, Neapolitan, French, German, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, Icelandic, Scotch, Welsh, and other collections of popular tales. In vain did he entreat Venus to permit him to depart, and it was only when, in the bitterness of his grief, he called upon the Virgin-Mother, that a rift in the mountain-side appeared to him, and he stood again above ground. The peasant then quitted our company to faint away, as was his wont after similar experiments. He has struck Ahi, who lurked in the bosom of the celestial mountain, he has struck him with that sounding weapon wrought for him by Twachtri; and the waters, like cattle rushing to their stable, have poured down on the earth[70]. And again:, O Indra, thou hast killed the violent Ahi, who withheld the waters!, O Indra, thou hast struck Ahi, sleeping guardian of the waters, and thou hast precipitated them into the sea; thou hast pierced the compact scale of the cloud; thou hast given vent to the streams, which burst forth on all sides[71].. All are set dancing, and cannot stop till the piping has ceased. Macpherson, in his Introduction to the History of Great Britain, relates a legend which agrees with those prevalent among other Keltic peoples. As the Wild Huntsman is the personification of the storm, it is curious to find in parts of France that the sudden roar of a gale at night is attributed by the vulgar to the passing of the Everlasting Jew. The other portals are of ebony. Plutarch asserts that the Greeks gave the moon to Apollo for wife, whilst the Egyptians attributed to him the earth. He stoutly protested his innocence. The following circumstance happened to me yesterday evening, he says: M. In the year 711 lived Beatrice only daughter of Dietrich, Duke of Cleves, at her castle of Nymwe-gen. One bright day she sat at her window looking down the Rhine, when she saw a swan drawing a boat by a gold chain. How could he have obtained reliable information, or seen documents upon which to ground the assertion? At this time lived George of Cappadocia, a native of Melitena. St. Petersburg, 1860, pp. After a while the three trees touched one another, then began to incorporate and confound their several natures in a single trunk. Shortly after his arrival at Megen, his wife gave birth to a son, whom he named Octavian, and next year to a daughter, whom they called Swan. One day the Count and his retinue hunted a boar in the forest of Colombiers, and distancing his servants, Emmerick found himself alone in the depths of the wood with Raymond. A French orientalist, M. Neve, wrote a learned work in 1847 on these ancient Indian deities, to prove that they were deified sages. I have seen a man of the same race, who had a tail an inch and a half long, covered with a few hairs. In the British Museum is a volume of French romances, containing, among others, LYstoire du Chevalier au Signe, told in not less than 3000 lines. The root of life and the red blossoms lay on the ground before me, and in my power. With this, naturally enough, the lady who is speaking restores the corpse to life. And whan that they were in the age of theyr pleasaunt and fresshe grene yougth thei reane all about sporting and playinge in the said forest about the trees and floures., One day it fell out that a yeoman of Queen Matabrune, whilst chasing in the forest, saw the seven children sitting under a tree eating wild apples, each with a silver chain about his neck. Shall we meet in that blest harbour,When our stormy voyage is oer?Shall we meet and cast the anchorBy the fair celestial shore? He armed himself with a suit covered with hooks, and was devoured by the dragon, which perished in killing him. Finding the right cremation urn for a lost loved one is rarely a simple task. In the mean while the day of ordeal approached, and Else fell into despair. Again, in the atrium this cross was repeated twenty times in the principal place before the tablinum and altar of the household divinities, and again in connexion with water. In the German story, the husband is weary with the taunts of those around at having married a water-sprite, and bids her return to her element. Henry de Knyghton, in his history, however, asserts that it was not the Apostle of Ireland, but an abbot Patrick, to whom the revelation of purgatory was made; and John of Brompton says the same. CHORUS: HAMELN town was infested with rats, in the year 1384. A curious phenomenon is, that Bleton is able to make the rod turn between another persons fingers, even without seeing it or touching it, by approaching his body towards it when his feet stand over a subterranean watercourse. The mother of Napoleon was said to be Letitia, which signifies joy, and is an impersonification of the dawn of light dispensing joy and gladness to all creation. That was all; not another word about him. By this Eirek ascended into a loft of the tower, and found there an excellent cold collation prepared for him. In Greek mythology the solar gods are many, and the stories of their deaths are distributed so as to provide each with his exit from the world; but in Semitic mythology it is not so, the sun-god is one, and all kinds of deaths are attributed to him alone, or, if he suffers anthropomorphism, to his representative. Fear not, O flock, fear not, O daughter! exclaims the commentator; thy true Moses is seated on the well, and He will arise out of His resting-place, and will with His own hand smite the shepherds, and water theflock. Let the sheep be in barren and dry pastures,so long the shepherds strive not; let the sheep pant and die,so long the shepherds show no signs of irritation; but let the Church approach the limpid well of life, and at once her prelates will, in the latter days, combine to strive with her, and keep back the flock from the reviving streams. At night, Lohengrin heard her sobbing. And the pontificate was vacant for a month. Presently there came a second weasel, as if to seek his comrade, and when he found him dead, a mournful scene began; he touched him as if to say, Wake up, wake up, let us play together! And when the other little animal lay dead and motionless, the living one sprang back from him in terror, and then repeated the attempt again and again, many times. Consequently the Prince of Canino is an impersonification of winter;winter whose reign begins when the kingdoms of the three fine seasons are passed from them, and when the sun is driven from his power by the children of the North, as the poets call the boreal winds. The four rivers already mentioned rise in it. The Martyro-logium Gallinense, a compilation made in 804, does not include her; nor does the Vetus Calen-darium Corbeiense, composed in or about 831. Aymar went several times round the chamber, rod in hand, placing one foot on the chairs, on the various articles offurniture, and on two bureaux which are in the apartment, each of which contains several drawers. Herakles is another; he expires in flames, rending the poisoned garment given him by Dejanira. The monk of Hildesheim, doubting how with God a thousand years could be as yesterday, listened to the melody of a bird in the green wood during three minutes, and found that in three minutes three hundred years had flown. Then he rebuked her sorrowfully, and leaving his bed, bade her farewell. Without and within, I seemed to traverseAll the seven nether worlds; up and down,I sought an easier wayWhere I might have the readiest paths.. At first he defended himself with a club, then with his sword, and, as he found himself unable to cope with the multitude, he ordered his servants to put him in a box, and suspend this by a rope from the ceiling, and as soon as the mice were gone, to liberate him. He rang at the door; as it was opened by the porter, he rushed past, sought the well-known chamber, and threw himself at the feet of Serafina. Next day he was given poison to drink without its affecting him. He was then scourged with thongs of hide till his flesh came off his back, but was well next day. They were constructed of great boulders, rectangular, somewhat cylindrical, and slightly conical. Guided by his rod, Aymar went from street to street, till he was brought to a standstill before the prison gates. On the 30th of August, 1692, the poor hunchback was, according to sentence, broken on the wheel, in the Place des Terreaux. Gherghis, or El Khoudi, as he is called by them, lived at the same time as the Prophet. In one region grows no poisonous herb, nor does a querulous frog ever quack in it; no scorpion exists, nor does the serpent glide amongst the grass, nor can any poisonous animals exist in it, or injure any one. Thus perish one hundred thousand slokas. Ahriman represents Ahi, and is the principle of evil; corrupted into Kharaman, it became the Armenian name for a serpent and the devil. This romance was commenced by Chretien at the request of Phillip of Alsace, Count of Flanders; it was continued by Gauthier de Denet, and finished by Manessier, towards the close of the twelfth century. In like manner, much of the religion of the lower orders, which we regard as essentially Christian, is ancient heathenism, refitted with Christian symbols. . Lohengrin belongs to the round table; the hero who releases Beatrice of Cleves is called Elias Grail. In course of time he became their king. Olaf Tryggvason is waiting a similar occasion in Norway. A. Jones. Scheben, A., Leben der h. Ursula. Cologne, 1850, 8vo.
