Ossian Collection > Waifs and strays of Celtic tradition > Volume 4

Introduction.
of the modern tales. Even if this were so I could
still point out that a long period is postulated during
which the folk-tale must have lived on without being
recorded, which is all I contend for ; but I do not
believe for one moment that it is so. On the contrary,
the way in which these themes occur in the heroic
legends I have mentioned, shows that they must have
been commonplaces familiar both to the story-teller and
to his hearers. In other words, the mythical and heroic
sagas of the Irish Gael, sagas recorded in writing from
the seventh to the fifteenth centuries, pre-suppose a
background of traditional fancies, beliefs, and concep-
tions of the same essential character as those still
current. I underline the word essential, as I do not for
one moment intend to deny that changes have taken
place in the mass of tradition, that some things have
utterly died away, others been profoundly modified,
much again been added.
It is necessary to insist upon this view of the facts,
because distinguished scholars have a way of treating
the date of transcription as equivalent to the date of
origin. Thus M. d'Arbois de Jubainville, in his Essai
dun catalogue de la littcrature epique de Vlrlande, often
adds the designation " conte moderne", solely it would
seem because only modern MSS. exist. I by no means
deny the existence of heroic, or simply fairy tales to
which the term modern may be properly applied, i.e.,
which are the outcome of a deliberate and individual
artistic effort on the part of a writer living within the
last two centuries. It is by no means the least remark-
able feature of Gaelic legend that it has retained its
vital power down almost to the present day ; thus,
almost within the memory of living men, fresh com-
binations of the old materials have won popular favour
and swollen the mass of folk-literature. I only say that
the fact of recent transcription does not suffice to range