us of the bard. Blended with the mortal hero, the aspect of the
god glances through the visor of the helmet, or adds a holy dignity to
the royal crown. Poetry borrows its ornaments from the lessons of the
priests. The ancient god of strength of the Teutons, throned in his
chariot of the stars, the Northern Wain, invested the Emperor of the
Franks and the paladins who surrounded him with superhuman might. And
the same constellation, darting down its rays upon the head of the
long-lost Arthur, has given to the monarch of the Britons the
veneration which once belonged to the son of 'Uthry Bendragon,'
'Thunder, the supreme leader,' and 'Eygyr, the generating power.' Time
rolls on; faith lessens; the flocks are led to graze within the rocky
circle of the giants, even the bones of the warriors moulder into
dust; the lay is no longer heard; and the fable, reduced again to its
original simplicity and nudity, becomes the fitting source of pastime
to the untutored peasant and the listening child. Hence we may yet
trace no small proportion of mystic and romantic lore in the tales
which gladden the cottage fireside, or, century after century, soothe
the infant to its slumbers." The works of the brothers Grimm, the
appearance of the _Kinder- und Haus-Maehrchen_, in 1812, and of the
_Deutsche Mythologie_, in 1835, threw a new light on the importance of
national tales, and awoke the spirit of scientific comparison which
has made the study of Folk-lore productive of such valuable results.

With regard to the diffusion of national stories, it is remarkable
that we find substantially identical narratives flourishing in the
most widely separated countries, and this fact has given rise to
several explanatory theories, none of which seems perfectly
satisfactory. The philological discovery of the original unity of all
the Aryan races may account for the possession by the Aryan peoples of
similar stories. It may be, as Sir George Cox suggests, a common
inheritance of such tales as were current when the Aryans "still lived
as a single people." We find, however, that these tales are also
current among people whom, accepting this theory, we should least
expect to find possessing them, and so the wide diffusion of the
stories yet remains unsatisfactorily accounted for. Identity of
imagination, inheritance, transmission, may each have played its part.

As to the origin of the tales much debate has arisen. It is obvious
from the nature of the inci