Chapter XXII
Reading edition
THE STATE OF THE DEAD.
Several writers, notably M. D'Arbois, assume that the orbis alius of the dead was the Celtic island Elysium. But that Elysium never appears in the tales as a land of the dead. It is a land of gods and deathless folk who are not those who have passed from this world by death. Mortals may reach it by favour, but only while still in life. It might be argued that Elysium was regarded in pagan times as the land of the dead, but after Christian eschatological views prevailed, it became a kind of fairyland. But the existing tales give no hint of this, and, after being carefully examined, they show that Elysium had always been a place distinct from that of the departed, though there may have arisen a tendency to confuse the two.
Thus neither in old sagas, nor in Märchen, nor in popular tradition, is the island Elysium a world of the dead. For the most part the pagan eschatology has been merged in that of Christianity, while the Elysium belief has remained intact and still survives in a whole series of beautiful tales.
Notes in this chapter
Note 1 · Footnote 1154: (return) Skene, i. 370.Note 2 · Footnote 1155: (return) Cæsar, vi. 14, 19.Note 3 · Footnote 1156: (return) Diod. Sic. v, 28.Note 4 · Footnote 1157: (return) Val. Max. vi. 6. 10.Note 5 · Footnote 1158: (return) Phars. i. 455 f.Note 6 · Footnote 1159: (return) Amm. Marc. xv. 9; Strabo, iv. 4; Mela, iii. 2.Note 7 · Footnote 1160: (return) Miss Hull, 275.Note 8 · Footnote 1161: (return) Nutt-Meyer, i. 49; Miss Hull, 293.Note 9 · Footnote 1162: (return) Larminie, 155; Hyde, Beside the Fire, 21, 153; CM xiii. 21; Campbell, WHT, ii. 21; Le Braz2, i. p. xii.Note 10 · Footnote 1163: (return) Von Sacken, Das Grabfeld von Hallstatt; Greenwell, British Barrows; RC x. 234; Antiquary, xxxvii. 125; Blanchet, ii.Note 11 · Footnote 1164: (return) L'Anthropologie, vi. 586; Greenwell, op. cit. 119.Note 12 · Footnote 1165: (return) Nutt-Meyer, i. 52; O'Donovan, Annals, i. 145, 180; RC xv. 28. In one case the enemy disinter the body of the king ofNote 13 · Footnote 1166: (return) LU 130a; RC xxiv. 185; O'Curry, MC i. p. cccxxx; Campbell, WHT iii. 62; Leahy, i. 105.Note 14 · Footnote 1167: (return) Vigfusson-Powell, Corpus Poet. Boreale, i. 167, 417-418, 420; and see my Childhood of Fiction, 103 f.Note 15 · Footnote 1168: (return) Larminie, 31; Le Braz2, ii. 146, 159, 161, 184, 257 (the rôle of the dead husband is usually taken by a lutin or folNote 16 · Footnote 1169: (return) Le Braz2, i. 313. Cf. also an incident in the Voyage of Maelduin.Note 17 · Footnote 1170: (return) RC x. 214f. Cf. Kennedy, 162; Le Braz2, i. 217, for variants.Note 18 · Footnote 1171: (return) Curtin, Tales, 156; see p. 170, supra.Note 19 · Footnote 1172: (return) Curtin, Tales, 156; Campbell, Superstitions, 241; Folk-Lore, xiii. 60; Le Braz2, i. 213.Note 20 · Footnote 1173: (return) Folk-Lore, ii. 26; Yeats, Celtic Twilight, 166.Note 21 · Footnote 1174: (return) Tertullian, de Anima, 21.Note 22 · Footnote 1175: (return) Reinach, RC xxii. 447.Note 23 · Footnote 1176: (return) Val. Max. vi. 6; Mela, iii. 2. 19; Plut. Virt. mul 20.Note 24 · Footnote 1177: (return) See p. 229, supra.Note 25 · Footnote 1178: (return) Le Braz2, i. p. xxxix. This is only one out of many local beliefs (cf. Sébillot, ii. 149).Note 26 · Footnote 1179: (return) Procop. De Bello Goth. vi. 20.Note 27 · Footnote 1180: (return) Claudian, In Rufin. i. 123.Note 28 · Footnote 1181: (return) Sébillot, i. 418 f.Note 29 · Footnote 1182: (return) de Defectu Orac. 18. An occasional name for Britain in the Mabinogion is "the island of the Mighty" (Loth, i. 69, etNote 30 · Footnote 1183: (return) de Facie Lun[oe], 26.Note 31 · Footnote 1184: (return) See Hartland, Science of Fairy Tales, 209; Macdougall, Folk and Hero Tales, 73, 263; Le Braz2, i. p. xxx. Mortals soNote 32 · Footnote 1185: (return) Le Braz2, i. p. xl, ii. 4; Curtin, 10; MacPhail, Folk-Lore, vi. 170.Note 33 · Footnote 1186: (return) See p. 338, supra, and Logan, Scottish Gael, ii. 374; Folk-Lore, viii. 208, 253.Note 34 · Footnote 1187: (return) Le Braz2, i. 96, 127, 136f., and Intro, xlv.Note 35 · Footnote 1188: (return) Philostratus, Apoll. of Tyana, v. 4; Val. Max. ii. 6. 12.Note 36 · Footnote 1189: (return) Le Braz1, ii. 91; Curtin, Tales, 146. The punishment of suffering from ice and snow appears in the Apocalypse of PauNote 37 · Footnote 1190: (return) RC xxvi. 153.Note 38 · Footnote 1191: (return) Bk. iv. ch. 36.Note 39 · Footnote 1192: (return) Erdathe, according to D'Arbois, means (1) "the day in which the dead will resume his colour," from dath, "colour"; (Note 40 · Among all the problems with which man has busied himself, none so appeals to his hopes and fears as that of the future life. Is there a fartNote 41 · Cæsar writes: "The Druids in particular wish to impress this on them that souls do not perish, but pass from one to another (ab aliis ... adNote 42 · This Celtic doctrine appears more clearly from what Lucan says of the Druidic teaching. "From you we learn that the bourne of man's existencNote 43 · This theory of a bodily immortality is supported by the Irish sagas, in which ghosts, in our sense of the word, do not exist. The dead who rNote 44 · The archæological evidence of burial customs among the Celts also bears witness to this belief. Over the whole Celtic area a rich profusion Note 45 · The idea that the body as well as the soul was immortal was probably linked on to a very primitive belief regarding the dead, and one sharedNote 46 · In numerous Celtic folk-tales the dead rise in the body, not as ghosts, from the grave, which is sometimes described as a house in which theNote 47 · As a result of such beliefs, various customs are found in use, apparently to permit of the corpse having freedom of movement, contrary to thNote 48 · Earlier customs recorded among the Celts also point to the existence of this primitive belief influencing actual custom. Nicander says that Note 49 · Where was the world of the dead situated? M. Reinach has shown, by a careful comparison of the different uses of the word orbis, that Lucan'Note 50 · If there was a genuine Celtic belief in an island of the dead, it could have been no more than a local one, else Cæsar would not have spokenNote 51 · Traces of the idea of an underworld of the dead exist in Breton folk-belief. The dead must travel across a subterranean ocean, and though thNote 52 · Some British folk-lore brought to Greece by Demetrius and reported by Plutarch might seem to suggest that certain persons—the mighty dead—weNote 53 · Plutarch has obviously mingled Celtic Elysium beliefs with the classical conception of the Druids.1183 In Elysium there is no care, and favoNote 54 · The world of the dead was in all respects a replica of this world, but it was happier. In existing Breton and Irish belief—a survival of theNote 55 · There is no decisive evidence pointing to any theory of moral retribution beyond the grave among the pagan Celts. Perhaps, since the hope of