--- title: Notes and References — Celtic Fairy Tales · full text with trees · page 2 description: Notes and References, «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: It may be as well to give the reader some account of the enormous extent of the Celtic folk-tales in existence. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/34/page/2/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Celtic Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/) / Notes and References # Notes and References · page 2 [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/34/) **2** CORNWALL and MAN are even worse than Wales.[49](../../49/ "tree and pragmatics") Hunt's \_Drolls from the West of England\_ has nothing distinctively Celtic, and it is only by a chance Lhuyd chose a folk-tale as his specimen of Cornish in his \_Archaeologia Britannica\_, 1709 (see \_Tale of Ivan\_).[50](../../50/ "tree and pragmatics") The Manx folk-tales published, including the most recent by Mr. Moore, in his \_Folk-Lore of the Isle of Man\_, 1891, are mainly fairy anecdotes and legends.[51](../../51/ "tree and pragmatics") From this survey of the field of Celtic folk-tales it is clear that Ireland and Scotland provide the lion's share.[52](../../52/ "tree and pragmatics") The interesting thing to notice is the remarkable similarity of Scotch and Irish folk-tales.[53](../../53/ "tree and pragmatics") The continuity of language and culture between these two divisions of Gaeldom has clearly brought about this identity of their folk-tales.[54](../../54/ "tree and pragmatics") As will be seen from the following notes, the tales found in Scotland can almost invariably be paralleled by those found in Ireland, and \_vice versa\_.[55](../../55/ "tree and pragmatics") This result is a striking confirmation of the general truth that folk-lores of different countries resemble one another in proportion to their contiguity and to the continuity of language and culture between them.[56](../../56/ "tree and pragmatics") Another point of interest in these Celtic folk-tales is the light they throw upon the relation of hero-tales and folk-tales (classes 2 and 3 above).[57](../../57/ "tree and pragmatics") Tales told of Finn of Cuchulain, and therefore coming under the definition of hero-tales, are found elsewhere told of anonymous or unknown heroes.[58](../../58/ "tree and pragmatics") The question is, were the folk-tales the earliest, and were they localised and applied to the heroes, or were the heroic sagas generalised and applied to an unknown \[Greek: tis\]?[59](../../59/ "tree and pragmatics") All the evidence, in my opinion, inclines to the former view, which, as applied to Celtic folk-tales, is of very great literary importance; for it is becoming more and more recognised, thanks chiefly to the admirable work of Mr. Alfred Nutt, in his \_Studies on the Holy Grail\_, that the outburst of European Romance in the twelfth century was due, in large measure, to an infusion of Celtic hero-tales into the literature of the Romance-speaking nations.[60](../../60/ "tree and pragmatics") Now the remarkable thing is, how these hero tales have lingered on in oral tradition even to the present day.[61](../../61/ "tree and pragmatics") (See a marked case in "Deirdre.")[62](../../62/ "tree and pragmatics") We may, therefore, hope to see considerable light thrown on the most characteristic spiritual product of the Middle Ages, the literature of Romance and the spirit of chivalry, from the Celtic folk-tales of the present day.[63](../../63/ "tree and pragmatics") Mr. Alfred Nutt has already shown this to be true of a special section of Romance literature, that connected with the Holy Grail, and it seems probable that further study will extend the field of application of this new method of research.[64](../../64/ "tree and pragmatics") The Celtic folk-tale again has interest in retaining many traits of primitive conditions among the early inhabitants of these isles which are preserved by no other record.[65](../../65/ "tree and pragmatics") Take, for instance, the calm assumption of polygamy in "Gold Tree and Silver Tree."[66](../../66/ "tree and pragmatics") That represents a state of feeling that is decidedly pre-Christian.[67](../../67/ "tree and pragmatics") The belief in an external soul "Life Index," recently monographed by Mr. Frazer in his "Golden Bough," also finds expression in a couple of the Tales (see notes on "Sea-Maiden" and "Fair, Brown, and Trembling"), and so with many other primitive ideas.[68](../../68/ "tree and pragmatics") Care, however, has to be taken in using folk-tales as evidence for primitive practice among the nations where they are found.[69](../../69/ "tree and pragmatics") For the tales may have come from another race--that is, for example, probably the case with "Gold Tree and Silver Tree" (see Notes).[70](../../70/ "tree and pragmatics") Celtic tales are of peculiar interest in this connection, as they afford one of the best fields for studying the problem of diffusion, the most pressing of the problems of the folk-tales just at present, at least in my opinion.[71](../../71/ "tree and pragmatics") The Celts are at the furthermost end of Europe.[72](../../72/ "tree and pragmatics") Tales that travelled to them could go no further and must therefore be the last links in the chain.[73](../../73/ "tree and pragmatics") For all these reasons, then, Celtic folk-tales are of high scientific interest to the folk-lorist, while they yield to none in imaginative and literary qualities.[74](../../74/ "tree and pragmatics") In any other country of Europe some national means of recording them would have long ago been adopted.[75](../../75/ "tree and pragmatics") M. Luzel, \_e.g.\_, was commissioned by the French Minister of Public Instruction to collect and report on the Breton folk-tales.[76](../../76/ "tree and pragmatics") England, here as elsewhere without any organised means of scientific research in the historical and philological sciences, has to depend on the enthusiasm of a few private individuals for work of national importance.[77](../../77/ "tree and pragmatics") Every Celt of these islands or in the Gaeldom beyond the sea, and every Celt-lover among the English-speaking nations, should regard it as one of the duties of the race to put its traditions on record in the few years that now remain before they will cease for ever to be living in the hearts and memories of the humbler members of the race.[78](../../78/ "tree and pragmatics") In the following Notes I have done as in my \_English Fairy Tales\_, and given first, the \_sources\_ whence I drew the tales, then \_parallels\_ at length for the British Isles, with bibliographical references for parallels abroad, and finally, \_remarks\_ where the tales seemed to need them.[79](../../79/ "tree and pragmatics") In these I have not wearied or worried the reader with conventional tall talk about the Celtic genius and its manifestations in the folk-tale; on that topic one can only repeat Matthew Arnold when at his best, in his \_Celtic Literature\_.[80](../../80/ "tree and pragmatics") Nor have I attempted to deal with the more general aspects of the study of the Celtic folk-tale.[81](../../81/ "tree and pragmatics") For these I must refer to Mr. Nutt's series of papers in \_The Celtic Magazine\_, vol. xii., or, still better, to the masterly introductions he is contributing to the series of \_Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition\_, and to Dr. Hyde's \_Beside the Fireside\_.[82](../../82/ "tree and pragmatics") In my remarks I have mainly confined myself to discussing the origin and diffusion of the various tales, so far as anything definite could be learnt or conjectured on that subject.[83](../../83/ "tree and pragmatics") Before proceeding to the Notes, I may "put in," as the lawyers say, a few summaries of the results reached in them.[84](../../84/ "tree and pragmatics") Of the twenty-six tales, twelve (i., ii., v., viii., ix., x., xi., xv., xvi., xvii., xix., xxiv.) have Gaelic originals; three (vii., xiii., xxv.) are from the Welsh; one (xxii.) from the now extinct Cornish; one an adaptation of an English poem founded on a Welsh tradition (xxi., "Gellert"); and the remaining nine are what may be termed Anglo-Irish.[85](../../85/ "tree and pragmatics") Regarding their diffusion among the Celts, twelve are both Irish and Scotch (iv., v., vi., ix., x., xiv.-xvii., xix., xx., xxiv); one (xxv.) is common to Irish and Welsh; and one (xxii.) to Irish and Cornish; seven are found only among the Celts in Ireland (i.-iii., xii., xviii., xxii., xxvi); two (viii., xi.) among the Scotch; and three (vii., xiii., xxi.) among the Welsh.[86](../../86/ "tree and pragmatics") Finally, so far as we can ascertain their origin, four (v., xvi., xxi., xxii.) are from the East; five (vi., x., xiv., xx., xxv.) are European drolls; three of the romantic tales seem to have been imported (vii., ix., xix.); while three others are possibly Celtic exportations to the Continent (xv., xvii., xxiv.) though the, last may have previously come thence; the remaining eleven are, as far as known, original to Celtic lands.[87](../../87/ "tree and pragmatics") Somewhat the same result would come out, I believe, as the analysis of any representative collection of folk-tales of any European district.[88](../../88/ "tree and pragmatics") [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/34/) **2** - ← previous: [page 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/34/) - next →: [I. 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