lysium is co-extensive with this world and hidden in a
mist is perhaps connected with the belief in the magical powers of the
gods. As the Druids could raise a mist at will, so too might the gods,
who then created a temporary Elysium in it. From such a mist, usually on
a hill, supernatural beings often emerged to meet mortals, and in
_Maerchen_ fairyland is sometimes found within a mist.[1259] It was
already believed that part of the gods' land was not far off; it was
invisibly on or within the hills on whose slopes men saw the mist
swirling mysteriously. Hence the mist may simply have concealed the
_sid_ of the gods. But there may also have been a belief that this world
was actually interpenetrated by the divine world, for this is believed
of fairyland in Welsh and Irish folk-lore. Men may unwittingly interfere
with it, or have it suddenly revealed to them, or be carried into it and
made invisible.[1260]

In most of the tales Elysium is a land without grief or death, where
there is immortal youth and peace, and every kind of delight. But in
some, while the sensuous delights are still the same, the inhabitants
are at war, invite the aid of mortals to overcome their foes, and are
even slain in fight. Still in both groups Elysium is a land of gods and
supernatural folk whither mortals are invited by favour. It is never the
world of the dead; its people are not mortals who have died and gone
thither. The two conceptions of Elysium as a land of peace and
deathlessness, and as a land where war and death may occur, may both be
primitive. The latter may have been formed by reflecting back on the
divine world the actions of the world of mortals, and it would also be
on a parallel with the conception of the world of the dead where
warriors perhaps still fought, since they were buried with their
weapons. There were also myths of gods warring with each other. But men
may also have felt that the gods were not as themselves, that their land
must be one of peace and deathlessness. Hence the idea of the peaceful
Elysium, which perhaps found most favour with the people. Mr. Nutt
thought that the idea of a warlike Elysium may have resulted from
Scandinavian influence acting on existing tales of a peaceful
Elysium,[1261] but we know that old myths of divine wars already
existed. Perhaps this conception arose among the Celts as a warlike
people, appealing to their warrior instincts, while the peaceful Elysium
may have been the product of