by Edwin Sidney Hartland
Available in 226 free installments
Owner:
These are the premises whence we set out, and the principles which will guide us, in the study on which we are about to enter. The name of Fairy Tales is legion; but they are made up of incidents whose number is comparatively limited. And though it would be impossible to deal adequately with more than a small fraction of them in a work like the present, still a selection may be so treated as to convey a reasonably just notion of the application of the principles laid down and of the results to be obtained. In making such a selection several interesting groups of stories, unconnected as between themselves, might be chosen for consideration. The disadvantage of this course would be the fragmentary nature of the discussions, and consequently of the conclusions arrived at. It is not wholly possible to avoid this disadvantage in any mode of treatment; but it is possible to lessen it. I propose, therefore, to deal with a few of the most interesting sagas relative to the Fairy Mythology strictly so called. We shall thus confine our view to a well-defined area, in the hope that we may obtain such an idea of it as in its main lines at all events may be taken to be fairly true to the facts, and that we may learn who really were these mysterious beings who played so large a part in our fathers' superstitions. As yet, however, we must not be disappointed if we find that the state of scientific inquiry will not admit of many conclusions, and such as we may reach can at present be stated only tentatively and with caution. Science, like Mr. Fox in the nursery tale, writes up over all the doors of her palace:
?Be bold, be bold, but not too bold.?Many a victim has found to his cost what it meant to disregard this warning.
[14] I have not thought it necessary to illustrate at length the characteristics of savage thought enumerated above. They are exhaustively discussed by Dr. Tylor in ?Primitive Culture,? Sir John Lubbock in ?The Origin of Civilization,? Mr. Andrew Lang in ?Myth Ritual and Religion,? and some of them by Mr. J. G. Frazer in ?Totemism,? and more recently in ?The Golden Bough,? published since these pages were written.
Transcriber's Note: See Appendix for more detailsStories of midwives who have been summoned to the birth of fairies ? Human visitors to Fairyland must not eat there ? The reason ? Fairies' gratitude ? The conditions of fairy gifts.
