Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1824 edition. Excerpt: ... complette de la Faerie;" but they are perhaps, as Bishop Percy has remarked, more analogous to the Weird Sisters than to the popular notion of fairyism in the present day. The ninth fable of the Edda, alludes to ' Les Genies lumineux," who are said to be " plus brillans que que le soleil; mais les noirs sont plus noirs que la poix V And what is this but the good and bad genii of eastern romance? Thor's " vaillante ceinture, qui a le pouvoir d'accroitre ses forces," and the " chaine magique," are equivalent to the enchanted ring; nor are " le grand serpent de Midgard," with other monsters, so unlike the oriental Dragon, as to preclude any comparison. In short, the reader clearly distinguishes the accordance of the northern mythology 1 Mythologu Celtique, p, 40. 2 Ibid. p. 84 and 90. 3 The Apocryphal continuation of the book of Esther, and Bel and the Dragon, seem to bespeak the prevalence of this action in the East at a very early period. with that of the East. I could cite many more examples, but they are unnecessary; and if, as Mr. Dunlop imagines, " in the Eastern Peris we may trace the origin of European Fairies '," by what possible contrivance, if he will be consistent, can he deny to the fairies of the North, that claim which he grants to the whole ofEuROPE? I shall now proceed to account for the introduction of romantic fiction, by a channel which appears to me the most natural, and therefore, the most likely to be true. I would begin with that period in which the persecutions of the pagan rulers, drove the primitive Christians into the East. Full of the mysterious wonders of the Apocalypse, not less than of the miraculous records of the Holy Gospels; imbued with all that the Old Testament narrates, and probably anticipating 1...
