Sigurd rescued Brynhild, and how Odysseus blinded the Kyklops,--then
certain mythic or dramatic types had been called into existence; and to
these types, preserved in the popular imagination, future stories would
inevitably conform. We need, therefore, have no hesitation in admitting
a common origin for the vanquished Panis and the outwitted Troll or
Devil; we may securely compare the legends of St. George and Jack the
Giant-killer with the myth of Indra slaying Vritra; we may see in the
invincible Sigurd the prototype of many a doughty knight-errant of
romance; and we may learn anew the lesson, taught with fresh emphasis by
modern scholarship, that in the deepest sense there is nothing new under
the sun.

I am the more explicit on this point, because it seems to me that the
unguarded language of many students of mythology is liable to give rise
to misapprehensions, and to discredit both the method which they employ
and the results which they have obtained. If we were to give full weight
to the statements which are sometimes made, we should perforce believe
that primitive men had nothing to do but to ponder about the sun and the
clouds, and to worry themselves over the disappearance of daylight. But
there is nothing in the scientific interpretation of myths which obliges
us to go any such length. I do not suppose that any ancient Aryan,
possessed of good digestive powers and endowed with sound common-sense,
ever lay awake half the night wondering whether the sun would come back
again. [125] The child and the savage believe of necessity that the
future will resemble the past, and it is only philosophy which raises
doubts on the subject. [126] The predominance of solar legends in most
systems of mythology is not due to the lack of "that Titanic assurance
with which we say, the sun MUST rise"; [127] nor again to the fact
that the phenomena of day and night are the most striking phenomena in
nature. Eclipses and earthquakes and floods are phenomena of the most
terrible and astounding kind, and they have all generated myths;
yet their contributions to folk-lore are scanty compared with those
furnished by the strife between the day-god and his enemies. The
sun-myths have been so prolific because the dramatic types to which
they have given rise are of surpassing human interest. The dragon who
swallows the sun is no doubt a fearful personage; but the hero who toils
for others, who slays hydra-headed monsters, and dries the tears