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

Introduction.
the most extensive, the most important, the most
valuable series of researches which have appeared in
Scotland in this department of study are due to a
country gentleman, Campbell of Islay.
Let us look at the matter in another way. There is
but one other race of modern Europe which has pre-
served to the present day an heroic epos reaching back
into a far distant past. I allude to the Finns, and to
their noble mythico-heroic poem, the Kalewala. Contrast
the loving care with which official and academic Finland
has cherished the Kalewala, the scientific thoroughness
with which every variant has been noted, the recognition
of the epic as an object of national pride, national soli-
citude, with the treatment of the Ossianic ballads in
Scotland — a contrast all to the discredit and disgrace of
the richer and more illustrious people.
And yet who shall say that the Fenian hero-tales are
unworthy the care, the study which every other European
race has bestowed upon its national traditions ? Let us
not forget that for hundreds of years these tales were the
delight and solace of our forefathers, that they spring
from the heart's blood of the race, that they have become
bone of the bone, flesh of the flesh of the Gael whereso-
ever he has fixed his dwelling. Simply consider the
cold, abstract scientific value of an oral tradition which is
still quick and flourishing. So long as men live the tale
of Troy divine will be to them both a delight and a
wonder, an imperishable source of beauty, and a problem
the fascination of which may not be gainsaid. The great
Karling may perchance live longer as the white-bearded
emperor of the Chanson de Roland than as the heir of
the Caesars. And the German songs proudly vaunt, and
not without reason, that the praise of Siegfried and Dietrich
shall never die from out men's mouths. Of Arthur, too,
the same boast was made. But all these mighty epics,
although they form a part of humanity's most precious