THE CELTIC INSPIRATION.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR:1
Sin,—The letter of your correspondent "W. W." is full of interest, but misses a point, I think. "The gods of Scandi- navian mythology," he says, "are more definite and real 'to
us than the half-historical heroes of Celtic tradition." Granted. But were not both equally vague to any Englishman before last century ? Modern poetry has availed itself of the Scandi- navian mythology. It is only now beginning to avail itself of the Celtic. And in my opinion some one may possibly do for Celtic legend what Wagner has done for Scandinavian. There seem to me many other disputable points in the letter, notably the supposed "inability of the Celtic race to express or externalise their Nature-worship in anthropo- morphic forms," but I am not scholar enough to discuss them. Is not "W. W." a little inclined to blame a river for not being the sea ? I spare you an expansion of my
metaphor, and I am, Sir, &:c., STEPHEN GWYNN. [Gray no doubt popularised "Odin, King of Men," but unless we are mistaken the Scandinavian gods first appeared in our literature during the reign of Dryden.—En. Spectator.]
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