The Irish Mythological Circle and Irish Mythology. By H. D'Arboride
Jubainville. Translated by Richard Irvine Best. (O'Donoughue and Co., Dublin. 68. net.)—Mr. Best feels a legiti- mate pride in the tenacity with which the Irish Celts have re- tained their ancient tradition. Locality has, of course, helped them. Ireland has been often invaded, but never swept over by stranger races, as the rest of Western Europe. Of M. de Jubain- ville's elaborate treatise we can say but little. To treat it in detail would be to plunge into the abyss of comparative myth- ology. The familiar stories appear in new and particularly picturesque variants, and, of course, our old friend the Solar- myth is not wanting. Hermes is the Dawn ; he slays Argus, the hundred-eyed,—i.e., Night with her stars ; the Celtic Hermes is Lug, and Argus is Bator. The ethical tendency of the Celtic nature identifies Lug with the good, and 13alor with the evil. In process of time these beings were euhemerised into mortal heroes, a change of thought which M. de Jubainville attributes to the
eleventh century. But our readers must study this volume for themselves. They will find in it much curious learning.
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