Note (return) — Chapter XXI
Reading edition
A magical sleep is often caused by music in the sagas, e.g. by the harp of Dagda, or by the branch carried by visitants from Elysium.1132 Many "fairy" lullabies for producing sleep are even now extant in Ireland and the Highlands.1133 As music forms a part of all primitive religion, its soothing powers would easily be magnified. In orgiastic rites it caused varying emotions until the singer and dancer fell into a deep slumber, and the tales of those who joined in a fairy dance and fell asleep, awaking to find that many years had passed, are mythic extensions of the power of music in such orgiastic cults. The music of the Filid had similar powers to that of Dagda's harp, producing laughter, tears, and a delicious slumber,1134 and Celtic folk-tales abound in similar instances of the magic charm of music.