Chapter 32: would provide the work with a symmetrical conclusion. As (3)

[126] So the group of Carolingian romances, which long passed for the work of Archbishop Turpin, retained the characteristics of a barbarous society in their views concerning magic, superstition, morals, etc., though sanctified by the addition of ecclesiastical miracles, and other matters of edification, which earned for it the formal approval of Pope Calixtus II. in the year 1122.

[127] Manannán is presented in like fashion in the story of Mongán, _op. cit._

[128] So in the tale of Mider, _ante_, where, as here, it is introduced into the description of the pagan Elysium, Magh Mór; the ecclesiastical interpolations, as here again, being brought in in the usual incongruous manner.

[129] As in the _Voyage of Maelduin’s Curach_, an Imram of substantially the original type, treated from a Christian point of view. The trait is copied in the _Adventures of Tadg Mac Céin_, a late mediæval romance composed in the archaic style, where it receives from Tadg the characteristic comment, ‘’Tis queer, though charming’; he evidently regarded it as an example intended rather for edification than imitation. It is interesting to note how the idea recurs in modern Irish poetry, as, indeed, practically, in Irish peasant life. In poor Mangan’s beautiful _Love Ballad_, translated or imitated from the Irish, the hero--

‘Sheltered by the sloe-bush black,
Sat, laughed, and talked, while thick sleet fell,
And cold rain.
Thanks to God! no guilty leaven
Dashed our childish mirth.
You rejoice for this in Heaven,
I not less on earth.’

[130] One of the most explicit instances occurs in the Graal series, in the _Queste_, when Perceval is informed that the Castle of Maidens is Hell, and the captives therein are the souls that await Christ’s coming; the seven knights that defend the castle being the seven deadly sins (Nutt, _Studies_, etc., p. 41).

[131] Edited and translated by Mr. W. Stokes in _Rev. Celtique_, ix.-x., from a version contained in the L.U., parts being completed from later versions. Cf. _Voyage of Bran_, i. 162-3.

[132]

Pars in gramineis exercent membra palaestris;
Contendunt ludo, et fulva luctantur arena, etc.

VIRG., _Æn._, vi. 642-3.

[133] _Odyssey_, ix. 481 _sqq._

[134] David Fitzgerald, ‘Popular Tales of Ireland,’ _Rev. Celtique_, iv. 189 _sqq._

[135] The root conception belongs to the common stock of Celtic tradition. We shall see more of the fiery rampart later on; for the revolving wall, cp. the castle in the Welsh story of Peredur, which spun round faster than the winds.

[136] Probably a reminiscence of some hermit who had chosen a snowy region in the North for his retreat.

[137] A similar miraculous provision by the agency of some animal occurs in the legends of several of the Irish hermits. In Wolfram’s _Parzifal_, the Grail appears as a ‘stone which yields all manner of food and drink, the power of which is sustained by a dove, who every week lays a Host upon it.’--Nutt, _Studies_, etc., p. 25.

[138] _Vita S. Columbæ_, I. xiv.

[139] _Iomram Churraig h-Ua g-Corra_, ed. and trans, by Mr. W. Stokes, in _Rev. Celt._, xiv. 22 _sqq._, from the Book of Fermoy, a MS. of the fourteenth century. The tale, in its present form, is later than that of Maelduin, though Professor Zimmer considers that the original was written early in the eighth century, the present being probably ‘a thirteenth-century _rifacimento_, save the opening portion, which he (Zimmer) thus looks upon as being the earliest fragment of this genre of story-telling.’--Nutt, _Voyage of Bran_, i. 162. Mr. Stokes, however, regards the extant version as a work of the eleventh century, _loc. cit._

[140] Here, again, the harp in the hands of a modern minstrel re-echoes the ancient tune:

‘And, as I watch the line of light, that plays
Along the smooth wave, tow’rd the burning west,
I long to tread that golden path of rays,
And think ’twould lead to some bright isle of rest.’--MOORE.

[141] A similar belief existed in the old Latin religion. Outside the city gates of every town there used to be a pit, the ‘Mundus,’ which was regarded as the receptacle of the souls of the dead. It was covered with a flagstone, which was lifted on three days in the year, occurring in August, October, and November, to give the imprisoned souls a holiday. Cp. the belief, once prevalent all over Europe, and still existing in many parts, that on All Souls’ Eve the spirits would go through their towns in procession, and visit their former homes.

[142] _Imrum Snedghusa agus Mic Ríagla_, ed. and trans, by Mr. Whitley Stokes, _Rev. Celt._, ix. 12 _sqq._, from the Yellow Book of Lecan, before mentioned; and see O’Curry, _MS. Materials of Irish History_, pp. 333 _sqq._ Mr. Stokes ascribes the tale to the middle of the seventh century; Mr. Nutt, to the middle or latter part of the ninth century.--_Voyage of Bran_, i. 231.

[143] The anticipation of a general battle immediately prior to the Judgment, though an article of many religions (_e.g._ the Persian, the Norse, etc.), is unusual in Irish writings of the present class; it is probably suggested by the prophecies contained in the Revelations, and in the prophetical books of the Old Testament, more especially the mention of the Battle of Armageddon in Rev. xvi. The mention of Enoch in connection with this battle is singular, and suggests the legend of Enoch in the Talmud. The disappearance of a national hero, and his seclusion until he shall appear to take part in some great conflict, though common to the traditions of most races (some of the most familiar being Arthur, Dietrich of Berne, Holger Danske, Frederick II.--not Frederick I., Barbarossa), has always appealed to the Irish imagination, and recurs in the modern folk-tales of Gearoid Iarla, O’Sullivan, the MacMahon, etc. It will be remembered that on Mr. Parnell’s death many believed that the Chief was not really dead, but had only disappeared for a time.

[144] There is no intention to suggest that the _Echtra_, the _Imram_, and the _Fis_, or the tales in each group, succeeded one another in the order in which they are referred to in the text, either in their present form or in their original composition, least of all as regards the very ancient materials which are embodied in all of them. It has been attempted to present them in such order as may best illustrate the development of the eschatological idea, and the increasing fusion of native traditions with the Church legends. A later writer, on account of his subject, or for other reasons, might sometimes employ a more archaic form of narrative than some of his predecessors.

[145] Sanctorum quoque angelorum dulces et suavissimas frequentationes luminosas habere meruit. Quorumdam justorum animas crebro ab angelis ad summa coelorum vehi, Sancto revelante Spiritu, videbat. Sed et reproborum alias ad inferna a demonibus ferri saepenumero aspiciebat.--_Vita S. Columbæ_, I. i. Part III. of the Life is largely devoted to these visions, which, however, do not throw light upon our subject.

[146] Bede, _Hist. Eccl._, III. xix., where the author relates St. Fursa’s arrival in England from Ireland, and gives an account of his visions. See, too, the Very Rev. Canon O’Hanlon, _Lives of the Irish Saints_, under 16th January, where an account is given of several Acts, Visions, etc., of St. Fursa, mostly of the usual mediæval type.

[147] Probably suggested by Ephesians vi. 16.

[148] This episode suggests the manner in which Virgil protected Dante from the onset of Filippo Argenti (_Inf._ viii. 40 _sqq._), though the latter passage does not contain any moral, in connection with Dante’s own previous conduct, as is the case in Fursa’s vision, and in similar moral legends of the Middle Ages.

[149] _The Vision of Laisrén_, in _Stories and Songs from Irish MSS._, by Professor Kuno Meyer, _Otia Merseiana_, i. 1899; ed. and trans. with notes from Rawlinson B. 512, a fifteenth-century MS. in the Bodleian. Professor Meyer considers that the original was an O. I. work of the late ninth or early tenth century (p. 112).

[150] Edited by Mr. Whitley Stokes, in _A Middle Irish Homily, Rev. Celt._, iv. 245 _sq._

[151] Cited by Mr. Nutt, _Voyage of Bran_, i. 225, where it is suggested that this circumstance may have arisen in the distinction between the Pagan Elysium and Heaven, a provisional Hell being added for the sake of symmetry. But it appears quite as probable that this classification may be another instance of the acquaintance of the Irish Church with Eastern writers, for the fourfold division already exists in the _Book of Enoch_, c. 22, the several categories being: (1) The martyrs, as in the _Fis Adamnáin_; (2) The rest of the righteous; (3) Sinners who have been punished in this life; (4) Sinners who have not made expiation.

[152] Cp. Milton, _Paradise Lost_, i. 61-3:--

‘A dungeon horrible on all sides round,
As one great furnace, flamed; yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible.’

[153] Possibly this amplification of the usual description of the Piast owes something to the picture of Rumour, in Book iv. of the _Æneid_.

[154] David Fitzgerald, _loc. cit._, pp. 192-3, where he cites from Kuhn, _Die Herabkunft des Feuers_, a passage of the Vedas: ‘Two birds sit on the top of the imperishable açvattha, one eating its figs, and the other looking on.’ He also cites from the _Félire Oengusa_: ‘A great tree that was in the Eastern world, and the heathens used to worship it, so that the Christians fasted against all the Saints of Europe that the tree might fall, _et statim cecidit_.’ This passage contrasts curiously with the terms in which the ‘great tree’ is described in other Irish writings. The _Félire_ also speaks of Elijah, Gospel in hand, preaching to the spirits under the Tree of Life in Paradise, while the bird-flocks come to eat the berries of it, which are sweeter than honey and headier than wine; just as the ale of the Tír Tairngire is described as headier than the ale of Éire.

The human souls in the form of birds are a variant of a belief of world-wide extent. In Lithuania and the neighbouring countries the belief still exists, or existed lately, that the souls of dead children return as birds. Nearer to the present instance is the Mohammedan belief that the martyrs for Islam feast on the fruits of Paradise in the shape of beautiful green birds.

[155] Cp. hereon Professor Alessandro d’Ancona, _I Precursori di Dante_ (Firenze, 1874), pp. 29-30, 108, etc.

[156] Cp. _Inferno_, i. 144 _sqq._: ‘loco eterno Ove udirai le disperate strida, Di quegli antichi spiriti dolenti, Chè la seconda morte ciascun grida: E poi vedrai,’ etc.

[157] In nearly all the visions the seer is provided with a guide or instructor, though there is a great variety in the persons invested with this office. The earliest of these is the Archangel Michael in the Book of Enoch, and he retains his functions in a large proportion of the subsequent visions, and even in the conventional relations of a visit to Hades in Renaissance and post-Renaissance literature. Dryden, indeed, in his Essay on Epic Poetry, complains of the unfair share of work in this department that is thrust upon him. In the Vision of Esdras he is associated with Gabriel and thirty-four other angels. In the Vision of Fursa he is conducted by three angels who represent the Trinity. In other narratives St. Paul or St. Peter figures. In the later mediæval visions the guardian angel appears in this capacity with increasing frequency, and in particular in the Irish legends from the time of St. Patrick, who received his revelations through the mouth of his angel Victor. In the Shepherd of Hermas, the apparition of the object of Hermas’s affection, followed by that of the sibyl-like personification of the Church, is a very curious anticipation of Beatrice instigating Virgil to undertake Dante’s guidance.

[158] Cp. the manner in which the Dé Danann chiefs are often represented in the heroic romances, sitting in state in their dúns: _e.g._ Lugh Mac Cethlenn, in the story of Conn, thus enthroned, with a great tree in the doorway of his dún, and the birds singing on it.

[159] Revelation iv., xx., etc. Cp. the Book of Enoch, where One clad in white robes sits in glory in the crystal mansion, whence a river of fire issues.

[160] Revelation iv. 4; vi. 11, etc.

[161] A conception similar in kind, though different in form, is apparent in the dún with a hundred doors, and at each of them an altar, and a priest celebrating mass thereon, in the Voyage of Snedgus and Mac Ríagla. Cp. the Castle of the Graal in the Perceval romances. The accessories of Christian worship are frequently introduced into the Heaven of mediæval legends, though seldom with such minuteness as in our text. Cp. the seventh- or eighth-century legend of Saints Theophilus, Sergius, and Hyginus, who came to a church built of crystal and precious stones.--Ancona, _op. cit._, p. 32. This church, indeed, was not meant to symbolise Heaven, but corresponds to the churches on the mystical islands of the Irish _Imrama_. Praise and psalmody, as among the joys of Heaven, of course have Scripture warrant; it remained for Swedenborg to crown the bliss of his elect, who in other respects _se réjouissent moult tristement_, with the privilege of listening to sermons through all eternity.

[162] Cp. the Vision of Esdras, where the Apostles and Patriarchs and all the righteous are arrayed about the Tree of Life.

[163] _Acallam na Sénórach_, in _Irische Texte_, IV. i., II. 6089 _sqq._

[164] Mr. Whitley Stokes aptly compares the three fiery orbs in _Paradiso_, xxxiii. 114 _sqq._ However, these orbs represent the visible manifestation of the Trinity, and do not appear as circles encompassing the Divine seat.

[165] It is curious to note how Dante employs this symbol to represent the Imperial eagle, in _Purg._ xxxii. 125 _sqq._, which, in its onslaught upon the car of the Church, reminds us how the bird Karshipta breaks off the branches of the Tree of Life in the Var of Yima. Surely this coincidence, and also the frequency of the culture bird in the myths of unconnected races, afford good examples of the independent origin of similar ideas. In the branch covered with life-giving berries, brought by the eagles in the Voyage of Maelduin, we may possibly have a modification of the popular Irish tradition, further influenced by the Phœnix legend, or, maybe, some Oriental tradition, derived through intercourse with the Eastern Churches.

[166] In some Continental visions the Cockayne idea assumes a form more accordant with the Scriptural imagery, the inhabitants of Paradise renewing their youth by eating the fruit of the Tree of Life and drinking the Waters of Life (Ancona, _op. cit._, p. 32). The last item is evidently suggested by Revelation xxii. 1, when the Waters of Life proceed from under the Throne, as in the Chaldæan myth. By a certain meeting of extremes the Cockayne idea passes over into asceticism; thus, in order to express the abundance and luxury of the mythical Elysium, it is said that a single loaf, or the very scent of the apple-trees, or the like, affords sufficient sustenance; in later developments we find in the Persian Paradise one loaf suffices for so many persons, Connla lives for a month on the apple brought him by the _Leanamhán Sidhe_, the fragrance of the candles in Adamnán’s Heaven yields sustenance enough, and so on.

[167] Thus, Tundale’s guardian angel quits him temporarily as he enters into Hell. See _post_.

[168] The Irish legends of the Otherworld, and the _Fis Adamnáin_ in particular, offer so many points of resemblance to the Book of Enoch as to lead us to conclude that that work must have been known to the Irish Church. This is likely enough in itself, having regard to the close connection maintained by that Church with the Churches of Egypt and Syria, referred to in a previous section, where a parallel case was pointed out, viz. the preservation, in an Irish translation, of the Book of Adam and Eve, the original text of which disappeared.

[169] And compare St. Paul, 1 Corinthians iii. 13.

[170] The close agreement of this theory with the Egyptian belief has been pointed out in Section 2 _ante_.

[171] Cp. the angel at the door of Purgatory (_Purg._ ix. 103-4).

[172] Cp. the fire through which Dante had to pass in the seventh circle of Purgatory (_Purg._ xxvii.).

[173] It is remarkable that several of the most impressive incidents in the Apocalyptic description of the Last Judgment are omitted from the present, as from most of the other mediæval visions; a circumstance which may cause us to hesitate before concluding positively that our author had as frequent recourse to the Book of Revelation as many analogies would suggest.

[174] Mr. Whitley Stokes, in a note on this passage, aptly compares the Egyptian demon Apap, which devoured the souls of the wicked. He also cites an Old English homily, where a dragon swallows the wicked and discharges them into the Devil’s maw. The fertile mediæval literature on the subject furnishes several parallels, more or less close, both of a serious and comic nature.

[175] This is probably one of the additions made to the Book of Enoch in Christian times, cp. Rev. xx. 4-5, where precedence is given to the martyrs, the other righteous not being permitted to live again until after the lapse of one thousand years. Herein we have another form of the doctrine of postponed redemption in certain cases, though not here, to allow time for the purgation of sins.

[176] Cp. the similar fate of the flatterers (_Inf._ xviii. 113), and the stinking Stygian lake in which the violent are immured (_Inf._ vii. 110).

[177] We have seen that in Persia, as in Ireland, the ‘black north’ was the region whence cold winds and malignant beings proceeded. It is a well-known fact that cold no less than heat entered into the Hell of the Irish, as of the Northern nations, wherein they are followed by Dante, who, indeed, makes the sufferings of the inmost circle, devoted to the worst of sinners, to consist in intense cold. Cp. Shakespeare, _Measure for Measure_, III. i.:

‘The delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice.’

So Milton: ‘In fierce heat and in ice.’

[178] ‘Senza riposo mai era la tresca Delle misere mani, or quindi or quinci Iscotendo da se l’arsura fresca’ (_Inf._ xiv. 40-42); and in _Inf._ xvii. 47-48: ‘Di quà di là soccorrien con le mani, Quando a’ vapor, e quando al caldo suolo.’

[179] _Inf._ v., where Dante couples with them the angels who abstained from taking either part on Satan’s revolt, but _per sè foro_. In like manner the Irish writers, as in the story of St. Brendan, extended their more merciful judgment to these spirits also. The popular traditions of modern times identify them with the _Daoine Sidhe_, but without agreeing as to their ultimate fate after the Judgment.

[180] Cp. the devices to which Christian redactors of Pagan legends had recourse, in order to bring the national heroes within the pale of salvation: _e.g._ Cuchulainn, Concobar, Finn Mac Cumhal, Caoilte, Cormac Mac Áirt, Fintan, Tuan Mac Cairill, etc. The early Christian writers dealt in like manner with Seneca, Trajan, Statius, Lucan, etc.; to whom Dante, apparently on his own responsibility, added Rhipeus.

[181] This is the doctrine of St. Augustine, which Dante followed in _Inf._ vi. 106 _sqq._

[182] Cp. the brazen wall wrapped in flame in the Revelation of St. Paul.

[183] Cp. Revelation ix. 6, upon the authority of which text a similar passage is introduced into many of the mediæval descriptions of Hell. Cp. the Book of Adam, where the damned ‘call aloud for the second death, and the second death is deaf to their prayer’ (Ancona, _op. cit._ 107). So Dante, ‘che la seconda morte ciascun gride’ (_Inf._ i. 115). Cp. too Dante, _Inf._ iii. 124-6, where the guilty are eager to cross the river to their place of suffering: ‘Chè la divina giustigia gli sprona Sì che la tema si volge in disio,’ when, however, Dante was probably following Virgil, _Æneid_, vi. 313-14.

[184] See, especially, _Paradise Lost_, ii. 587 _sqq_.

[185] ‘Now seeing that they who make this moan are the Saints, to whom are allotted everlasting mansions in the heavenly Kingdom, how much more meet were it for men that are yet on earth,’ etc., ch. 34. Cp. the similar passages in the _Félire Oengusa_ and the _Scéla Lái Brátha_ referred to in the preceding section.

[186] Verbal differences between the two versions are frequent throughout, though generally the later copy is the fuller, owing to the insertion of a certain amount of ‘padding.’ Far wider divergences exist between the different versions of most of the mediæval legends, _e.g._ the Vision of Paul, the Voyage of St. Brendan, and the Vision of Tundale. This circumstance strengthens the internal evidence of interpolations in the _Fis Adamnáin_. At the same time, it adds to the difficulty of determining the relative priority of the incidents contained in the several Visions.

[187] The Acts of St. Brendan, and the accounts of his voyages, have often been translated by modern scholars. Besides the collections of hagiologists and Church historians, standard works on the subject are Jubinal, _La Légende latine de Saint Brendaines_, Paris, 1836; Schröder, _Sanct Brandan_, Erlangen, 1871; Moran, _Acta Sancti Brendani_, Dublin, 1872. The Irish Life is edited, with a translation and notes, by Mr. Whitley Stokes, in _Anecdota Oxoniensia_ (_Mediæval and Modern Series_, pt. 5). In the Rev. Denis O’Donoghue’s _Brendaniana_ the subject is treated in an interesting and compendious manner. The summary of the principal incidents of the voyages given in the text, is taken, for the most part, from Mr. Stokes’s edition of the Irish life.

[188] The imaginary island of St. Brendan was delineated in the maps of the Middle Ages, and even of later periods. It was claimed by the Portuguese, but afterwards ceded to Spain. Many voyages were undertaken in quest of it, one so late as 1721.--Ancona, _op. cit._, p. 50.

[189] Father O’Donoghue points out that the whale episode appears too early in mediæval churches to be due to an imitation of Sinbad. It occurs in a mediæval life of St. Machutus, or Malo, which, however, Father O’Donoghue considers an imitation of St. Brendan, into whose legend the incident entered at a very early period, being mentioned in a poem by St. Cumin, who lived in the seventh century (_Brendaniana_, pp. 88-91), where the author refers to parallels occurring in the Mediæval Bestiaries. Signer D’Ancona (_op. cit._) says that the episode occurs in the Romance of Alexander, which is likely to be the origin of the Western variants. However, the idea is one which may well have presented itself spontaneously in several distinct quarters.

[190] Apparently a travesty of Manannán Mac Lír as he appeared to Bran in the _Imram Bráin_, but _quantum mutatus_, or, literally, _diablement changé en route_. Already have the Celtic deities followed the Olympians, and become converted into demons.

[191] Cf. Virgil, _Æneid_, vi. 557-8, and Dante, _Inferno_, iii. 22-28.

[192] We may note one curious incident which illustrates the sympathy, before mentioned, with which Irish Churchmen treated the beings who pertained to that older faith which it was their mission to destroy. One day St. Brendan came upon a maiden of vast stature and exceeding beauty floating upon the sea, dead, and a spear through her. He restored her to life, and asked her who she was: she replied that she was one of the dwellers in the sea, who were praying for the Resurrection. He baptized her, and gave her the choice--to die, and go at once to Heaven, or to return to her own people. She chose to go direct to Heaven, so he administered to her the last Sacrament, and she died.

[193] Mr. Whitley Stokes suggests that ‘his feathers may be a reminiscence of some hermit’s dress of bird-skins’ (_op. cit._, p. 354). Or, maybe, of some anchorite who may have lived into extreme old age, as doubtless many did, in the condition of King Nebuchadnezzar after his fall, until his long white hair and beard suggested the plumage of a white bird. Or, again, it is just possible that this bird-like hermit, dwelling in an island Paradise, may be an attempt to euhemerise one of the many avatars of the sacred bird.

[194] The influence of the _Fis Adamnáin_ likewise appears in the opening portion of the Life, which cites precedents for the Saint’s devout and holy life among the worthies of the Old and New Testaments.

[195] The principal Latin Life of St. Brendan, though later than the Irish life, was written in the eleventh century. Both Lives, however, contain elements which the Lives of other Irish saints prove to have been of much earlier date.

[196] _Imrama_ still continued to be written, and the late mediæval story of Tadg Mac Céin (published, with a translation, in Mr. Standish Hayes O’Grady’s _Silva Gadelica_), presents a very admirable specimen of its class. That work, however, is a more purely literary production, consciously imitative, and deliberately archaic in style.

[197] The summary in the text follows the Irish version contained in _La Vision de Tondale_, V. H. Friedel and Kuno Meyer (Paris, 1907), which also contains two French versions in prose, and a fragment of an Anglo-Norman version in verse. The Irish translation was made in 151-, by Muirgheas Mac Páidin ui Maoilchanaire (_op. cit._, Introduction). The original Latin has been edited by Scade, Halle, 1869, and A. Wagner (with an O. G. version), Erlangen, 1882. For translations into modern languages see _op. cit._, Introduction, and Ancona, _op. cit._, p. 53 _n._

[198] In Christian art, Hell was often symbolised by a picture of the Dragon, his open mouth filled with flames, into which the wicked were impelled. This image survived in book illustrations into the eighteenth century at least. It occurs in many of the mediæval visions; possibly the Vision of St. Paul may have been the immediate authority. It appears so early as the Vision of Esdras, if not before.

[199] This lake corresponds to the sea haunted by strange monsters which swarm about the hero’s curach in the early _Imrama_ and in the modern romantic folk-tales.

[200] Signor D’Ancona (_op. cit._) suggests that the apologue of the bridge in the _Fioretti_ of St. Francis (cxxvii.) is an imperfect quotation from Tundale, as also a similar passage of Joachim of Flora.

[201] See the remarks in the preceding section upon a similar conception in the _Fis Adamnáin_, and contrast the treatment of it by the two authors.

[202] The destruction of the guilty soul, and its reintegration for a renewal of its suffering, dates back to Plutarch’s Vision of Thespesios. See Sect. I _ante_.

[203] Cp. the analogous ideas in the Shepherd of Hermas, and the vision in St. Gregory’s Epistle.

[204] It is said that the Hells of the Oriental religions even surpass those of mediæval Christendom in the morbid cruelty and obscenity, and in the childish extravagance of their descriptions.

[205] The angel who came to Tundale’s rescue may also be compared to the angel who came to the aid of Dante and Virgil when their entrance into the City of Dis was opposed by the demons (_Inf._ ix.). Signor D’Ancona (_op. cit._, p. 55 _n_.) compares the approach of Tundale’s angel, ‘with a radiance as of a star,’ to the approach of the angel in _Purgatorio_ xii. 89 _sq._, _nella faccia, quale Par tremolando mattutina stella_, citing the passage from the Latin Tundale, where the resemblance is still closer--_longe venientem velut stellam lucidam._

[206] _Purg._ xxvii. 130 _sqq._

[207] _Par._ xxii. 129 _sqq._ Dante evidently follows the corresponding passage in the _Somnium Scipionis_, or the derivative passage in Book ix. of Lucan’s _Pharsalia_. The manner in which the idea appears in Tundale is not analogous. The doctrine--‘to whomsoever God giveth power to behold Himself, to him is power to see all other creatures likewise’--is precisely that of Dante. See _Paradiso_ ix. 61 _sq_. and cp. viii. 90; ix. 73 _sq._; xi. 19 _sq._, etc.

[208] For many specimens of these visions, both of earlier and later dates, see Ozanam, _Dante et la Philosophie catholique au treizième Siècle_; Wright, _St. Patrick’s Purgatory_, 1844; Ancona, _op. cit._ The learned author of the last-named work has recorded several curious and little-known examples, and, in his notes, gives references to many works upon special branches of the subject.

[209] ‘Andovvi poi lo Vas d’elezione, Per recarne conforto a quella fede,’ etc. (_Inf._ ii. 28-9).

[210] For this extreme tenuity, cp. Al Sirât, the Muslim equivalent of the Chinvât Bridge, narrow as a razor’s edge; also the souls’ bridge of the Inoits of Aleutia, which, as in several mediæval visions, is of the thickness of a single thread.

[211] Cp. the fate of the violent in canto xii. of the _Inferno_. The traitors also stand more or less completely congealed in the ice, according to the circumstances of their treachery (_Inf._ xxxii.-xxxiv.).

[212] It is possible that this circumstance was suggested by similar travel tales told of the serpents of India, and preserved by the Greek naturalists. However, the idea is one which might well occur spontaneously, as one of the usual Otherworld applications of the _lex talionis_.

[213] Cp. the fiery sepulchres in _Inf._ canto xi., wherein, likewise, infidels were immured.

[214] Northumbria, it will be remembered, was Christianised by Irish monks, who planted monasteries at Lindisfarne and elsewhere, which long maintained the connection between the two countries.

[215] Cp. Plutarch, Vision of Thespesios, _ante_, Sec. 1, where the souls ascended contained in bubbles.

[216] In the _Fis Adamnáin_ Paradise is placed in the south-east.

[217] Cp. _Inferno_ xii. and xxxii.-xxxiv.

[218] _Inf._ xxi.-xxii.; and cp. the Centaurs in _Inf._ xii. 56.

[219] _Inf._ xxxii.-xxxiv.

[220] _Inf._ ix.

[221] _Inf._ v.

[222] _Inf._ xxiv.-xxv.

[223] _Inf._ xxiii. 111 _sqq._

[224] See a paper by M. Henri Gaidoz in _Revue Celtique_, ii. 482.

[225] Signor d’Ancona (_op. cit._, pp. 62-3) doubts whether this work was ever known beyond its birthplace in the Abbey of Monte Cassino, until its discovery less than a century ago, where Dante was not likely to have seen it. In the absence of direct evidence on this point, I leave the passage in the text as it stands, for the reader to form his own conclusions.

[226] Perhaps a reference should be made to the Vision of the Otherworld composed by Dante’s friend, the learned Jew Immanuel ben Salamone, as the question might occur whether Dante may not, by his means, have arrived at such part of his subject as relates to Old Testament lore and Jewish tradition by a shorter cut than the usual channels, which it has been here attempted to trace. Immanuel was born at Rome in 1265, the year of Dante’s birth, and, like his friend, was at once poet, scholar, theologian, philosopher, and exile, and, probably, one of the most learned men of his day. It is possible that Dante may have been indebted to him for stray pieces of information, scraps of Hebrew, and the like, but the debt can hardly go further than this. Immanuel’s vision of Hell and Paradise was not completed till 1325, and is a manifest imitation of the _Commedia_; it has been conjectured, even, that by Daniel, who served as his guide, as Virgil did to Dante, he signified the latter. See Signor Seppelli’s translation, with notes and introduction--_Inferno e Paradiso di Emanuele di Salamone_, Ancona, 1874.

INDEX

Abersetus, 36, 194.

Acallam na Sénórach, 187.

Accadian survivals in Assyrian mythology, 69.

Achæmenian elements in Avestan religion, 79.

Acheron, 216.

Achilles in Leuke, 143.

Achtlann, 149.

Adam, legend of death of, 84, 97;
Book of, 203 _n._;
Book of Adam and Eve, 114.

Adam de Ros, 230.

Adamnán, St., authorities for life, 4 _n._, 12;
meaning of name, 7;
birth and lineage, 7;
anecdote of student days, 12, 13;
at monastery of Iona, 8;
Abbot, 8;
missions to England, 8, 9;
relations with Bede, 9;
Paschal controversy, 9, 10;
Boruma tribute, 15, 16, 17;
relations with Árd-Rí Finnachta, 13 _sqq._;
emancipation of women, 18 _sqq._, 45;
death, 10, 22-3;
character, 9, 12, 23-4;
his learning, 10, 12, 25;
his _Life of St. Colm Cille_, 10;
cited, 157, 166;
treatise _De Locis Sanctis_, 11, 114;
his canons, 12, 18;
apocryphal writings, 12;
the _Cáin Adamnáin_, 18 _sqq._, 27.

---- The Vision of, date of, 25;
MSS. and editions, 27;
reasons of ascription to Adamnán, 25 _sqq._, 45, 177;
Translation, 28 _sqq._;
precedents and authorities, 28-9, 106-7, 180-1;
contents discussed, 25 _sqq._, 174 _sqq._;
structural design, 175 _sqq._;
composite character, 176 _sqq._;
literary characteristics, 174-6, 186, 246-8;
ecclesiastical proclivities, 182-4;
Purgatorial theory, 193-4;
coincidences with Oriental eschatology, 83 _sqq._, 90, 193;
compared with Dante’s _Commedia_, 181, 185, 187, 188 _n._, 189,
193 _n._, 194-5, 200-4;
relation to Dante, 243-6;
cited, 3, 22, 96 _n._, 133, 144, 152, 171, 172, 174, 211, 212,
218 _n._, 230, 232, 233.

Addison’s _Vision of Mirza_ and Bridge episode, 132.

Aelian, 151.

Æons, early Persian, 79;
of Philo Judæus, 79 _n._;
of Hesiod, _ib._

Ailill, 132.

Alberic, Vision of, 238-9;
cp. with Dante, _ib._

Alcuin, 5 _n._

Aldfrid, King of Northumbria, 8.

Alexandria, Jewish colony in, 86;
culture mainly Hellenic, 86-8;
contact with Egyptian ideas, 88-9.

Allegory, in the Avesta, 74-5, 182;
in Virgil, 46;
in the Shepherd of Hermas, 104;
in Irish legends, 135, 142, 144-5.

Amesha Spentas, the, and Philo’s Emanations, 78-9.

Ancona, Prof. A. d’, _I Precursori di Dante_, 175 _n._, 184 _n._,
190 _n._, 203 _n._, 208 _n._, 213 _n._, 216 _n._, 228 _n._,
229 _n._, 238 _n._

Angels, hierarchies, 30, 185, 223-4;
guardian angels, 29, 86, 181-2, 191, 214;
tending souls of dead, 35, 191 (and see art. ‘Guide’);
porter in Otherworld, 35, 84, 193;
fallen angels, 202 _n._, 211;
angel of death, mistaken, 110, 111;
angel giving light in Paradise, 34;
in Hell, 214.

Anglo-Saxon scholars and missionaries, 5 _n._

Annals, Irish, see under Ireland;
of Ulster, cited, 2 _n._

Apap, Egyptian ‘Eater of the Dead,’ 89, 196 _n._

Apocalypse of St. John, see ‘Revelations’ of St. Paul, St. Peter, etc.;
see ‘Paul,’ ‘Peter,’ etc.

Apocryphal Books, Christian, abundance of, 101;
Jewish traditions in, 97.

Apostles, Vision at death of B. V., 29, 107;
in Paradise, 31, 98, 194-5.

Apuleius, 49.

Aquinas, Thomas, pupil of Petrus Hibernicus, 6 _n._

Arali, 70.

Arch, fiery, watery, etc., in legends, 32, 152, 160, 188.

Arculf, 11, 12.

Árd-Ollamh, the, 117.

Árd-Rí, the Irish, 116 _n._

Ariel, archangel, 36.

Ariosto’s enchanted gardens, Otherworld origin of, 181.

Aristophanes on the Otherworld, in the _Frogs_, 59 _sqq._;
on the mysteries, _ib._

Armageddon, 163 _n._

Árt mac Cuinn, 133, 136, 138-9.

Art, sacred, and the mediæval legends, 186, 215 _n._

Ascetics, priority of, in Paradise, 39, 198.

Assyrian eschatology, 69, 70, and see ‘Chaldæa.’

Augustine, St., Vision of Curina, 110;
purgatorial theory, 193;
cited, 202.

Avesta, eschatology, 71 _sqq._;
animistic conceptions, 75;
allegorising tendency, 74-5;
date and composition, 76;
Neo-Platonic influences, 76 _sqq._;
early Persian elements, 79;
Oriental elements, 81;
influence on Hebrew thought, 70.

Axiochos, pseudo-Platonic dialogue, 58.

Bagadas, Bridge myth among the, 132.

Baitan, 157.

Ballyshannon, Mórdáil of, 18.

Balor, the Fomorian champion, 135 _n._

Bards, the Irish order, 117 _n._

Battle at the end of the world, 163.

Bécuma Cneisgel, 136, 138.

Bede, Venerable, and Adamnán, 9, 10, 23;
account of St. Fursa’s visions, 166 _sqq._;
of Drihthelm’s vision, 233.

Béfind, 122.

Belach Dúinn, 8.

Benn Edair, 136.

Best, Mr. R. I., _Adventures of Árt, Son of Conn, and the Courtship
of Delbchaem_, 136 _n._, 137.

Birds, mystical, 32, 72, 73, 154-5, 163, 189;
as divine messengers, 72, 73;
as culture bringers, 72;
human souls in, 46, 160, 174 _n._, 189, 191;
singing the canonical hours, 32, 85, 179;
choirs of, in Paradise, 31, 157-8, 163, 174, 185, 189;
in island Elysium, 160.

Birr, Mórdáil of, 18.

Book of the Dead, Egyptian, 89 _n._

Boruma Tribute, instituted, 14;
remitted, 15 _sqq._;
treatises on, 14.

Bran, son of Febal, Voyage of, 122 _n._, 123 _sqq._, 146-8, 189.

Brandenburg, Marquis of, legend, 121.

Brenainn of Birr, St., 154.

Brendan, St., Voyage of, 147 _sqq._, 202 _n._, 207 _sqq._;
influence on European literature, 202, 207;
his island, belief in, 207 _n._

Bridge, in legends of the Otherworld, 38-9, 71, 111, 131, 132,
139, 178, 197-8, 215-17, 231, 239;
cognate traditions, 131-2.

Brudin Da Derga, story of, cited, 12 _n._

Brug na Boinne, Elysium in, 122, 189.

Brunetto Latini, reference to his _Tesoretto_, 121.

Bryce, Prof., on the Donation of Constantine, 45 _n._

Buan, mystical hazels of, 140, 155.

Budge, Dr. W., _Book of the Dead_, 89 _n._

Bundehesh cited, 72.

Burghcastle, monastery founded by St. Fursa, 166.

Cáin Adamnáin, see ‘Adamnán.’

Caldron, magic, 122-3, 141.

Calixtus II., Pope, and Carolingian Romances, 147 _n._

Callimachus, 88.

Carman, poem on Fair of, cited, 32, 115.

Carolingian Romances, 146 _n._

Castle, enchanted, Otherworld origin of, 150;
revolving, in romance of Peredur, 154.

Castor and Pollux, 49.

Cernunnos and Bran, 123 _n._

Cethlenn, 135 _n._

Chaldæa, eschatology of, 69, 70;
Hades, 70;
visits thereto, 69;
Elysium, 69;
multitudinous deities, 81-2;
no Rebirth doctrine, 80.

Charles, Rev. A. H., ed. of _Book of Enoch_, 95 _n._

Chastity ideal in Irish Elysium, 144, 147-8.

Chaucer cited, 143.

Chinvât Bridge, 71, 112.

Christ’s descent into Hades, 101.

Christian interpolations in Irish tales, 145-8;
ideas becoming predominant, 146-7.

Chthonian side of Irish myths, 121, 129, 130, 135 _n._, 136, 138-9.

Church, Paradise conceived as a, 34, 164, 184.

Cicero, _Somnium Scipionis_, 64;
approbation of the mysteries, 108.

Cinel Enda, 7.

City, celestial, 33, 35, 94.

Classical ideas in mediæval eschatology, 227.

Classification of departed spirits, 172, 198-9;
of penalties in the Otherworld, 40 _sqq._, 105, 199 _sqq._

Claudian, cited, 49.

Clement of Ireland, 6 _n._

Clovis II., 167.

Cockayne element in Irish Elysium, 122-3, 135, 137, 141, 190;
transition to higher conceptions, 144, 164-5, 171, 190.

Colm Cille, St., 8, 11, 18, 24;
visions of, 166;
privilege of order, 17;
Adamnán, _Life_ of, see ‘Adamnán.’

_Commedia_, see ‘Dante.’

Comyn, Michael, _Laoi Oisín ar dTír na n-Óg_, 133.

Conall Gulbán, 7.

Concobar, mediæval Irish king, 221.

Condla Coel Corrbacc, 149.

Conn Ced-cathach in Otherworld, 133 _sqq._, 143.

Connla mac Cuinn in Otherworld, 126, 133, 143.

Constantine, Donation of, 45.

Cormac, King of Cashel, 221-2.

Cormac mac Áirt in Otherworld, 120, 133, 139 _sqq._, 146 _n._

Corpre Cundail, 149.

Cuchulainn, in Otherworld, 120, 127 _sqq._, 130;
and children of Doel Dermait, 146, 149, 150.

Curina, Vision of, 110.

_Dá Brón Flatha Nime_, 174.

Dagda, Elysium of the, 121-3, 144, 183, 190.

Daire Degamra, 137.

Dante, antiquity of his theme, 1-3;
his true originality, 3, 241;
his design, 67-8, 181;
Dante and Virgil, 67;
non-classical sources, 68;
how far indebted to the Irish legends, 243-6;
Dante and Immanuel ben Salamone, 241 _n._;
parallels to the _Fis Adamnáin_, 181, 185, 187, 188 _n._, 189,
193 _n._, 194-5, 200-4;
to the Vision of St. Paul, 230;
to the Vision of Tundale, 225-9;
to St. Patrick’s Purgatory, 235, 238;
representation of the Trinity, 186, 188 _n._;
mystical bird, 189;
cited, 32 _n._, 101 _n._, 103 _n._, 169 _n._, 172, 181 _n._,
193 _n._, 194-6, 209 _n._, 231.

Darmesteter, trans. of _Vendîdâd_, 71 _n._;
on Neo-Platonic ideas in the Avesta, 76 _sqq._

Dead cast no shadows, 61, 79;
nor move eyelids, 61.

Dé Danann, see ‘Tuatha Dé Danann.’

Delbchaem, 136, 138.

Demeter, 49;
and see ‘Mysteries.’

Demonax and the Mysteries, 108.

Demons, malice of, 43, 204;
opposition to the seer’s progress, 167-8, 170, 213, 233, 234, 239.

Derg, Loch, 234.

Derry, Mórdáil at, 18.

Dicuil, 6 _n._, 114, 115.

Dietrich, Prof., on the Greek mysteries, 54 _n._

Dill, Prof., _Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius_, 75 _n._,
88 _n._

Dionysos, in the mysteries, 59;
in the _Frogs_ of Aristophanes, 59.

Divinity, the, representation of, in Paradise, 32, 33;
as a mystical face, 33.

Doel Dermait, children of, and Cuchulainn, 146, 149, 150.

Döllinger on the Donation of Constantine, 45 _n._

Donatus, St., Irish bishop of Fiesole, 6 _n._

Drihthelm, Vision of, 233.

Druimceatt, Mórdáil of, 18.

Drumhome, 7.

Dumas _père_, quoted, 1.

Dungal, 6 _n._

Easter, time of celebrating, 9;
and see ‘Paschal Controversy.’

‘Eater of the Dead,’ Egyptian, 89, 196 _n._

Ecbatana, walls of, 33 _n._, 185.

Ecgfrid, King of Northumbria, 8.

Echtra, class of Irish romance, 118;
E. Nerai, 132;
E. Áirt, 136.

Edward I. and Lia Fáil, 134.

Egypt and the Greek mysteries, 52-3;
early intercourse with Greece, 88-9;
eschatology, 89, 93;
relations to Alexandrian culture, 87-9;
cults in the Hellenic world, 88-9;
intercourse with Irish Church, 113-15.

Elborz, Mount, 71, 81.

Eleusis, see ‘Mysteries.’

Elias in Paradise, 46, 85, 98, 157, 163, 174, 179, 205.

Elysium, Greek, 49 _n._, 50, 58, 59, 63;
Chaldæan, 69;
Avestan, 72, 85;
Egyptian, 89;
Irish, 49 _n._, 121-6, 128-9, 135, 137, 138, 140-4, 146 _n._, 147;
aristocratic theory of, 70, 143, 227.

Emer, 128-9.

End of world anticipated by early Church, 100-1.

Enniskillen, derivation of name, 135 _n._

Enoch, in Paradise, 46, 85, 98, 157, 179, 205;
to reappear for final battle, 163;
Book of, date, 94;
cited by St. Jude, _ibid._;
general character, 95;
summary, 95 _sqq._;
purgatorial theory, 194;
whether known in Ireland, 192 _n._;
compared with Dante, 95;
cited, 183 _n._, 198, 199.

Eochaid Airem, 122, 127.

Eochaid Glas Corpre, 149.

Epicurean school, influence of, in first century, 91.

Er, Vision of, 56 _sqq._, 59.

Eratosthenes, 88.

Erenach, the Irish, 40.

Eridu, 70.

Erigena, see ‘Joannes Scotus E.’

Erik Saga, 131.

Esdras, Vision of, in O. T. Apocrypha, 97, 182 _n._, 215 _n._;
in N. T. Apocrypha, 98.

Etain, 122, 127.

Ethne, wife of Mider, 127;
E. Taebfada, 143.

Fabian, Bishop of Rome, 45.

Failbhe, Abbot of Iona, 8.

Fand, 128-9.

Félire Oengusa, 174, 205 _n._

Fercertue, 126 _n._

Fermoy, Book of, cited, 136 _n._, 157 _n._

Ferry to Hades, 67.

Fidelis, Irish traveller, 114.

Fiery circles in Paradise, 30, 187;
lakes, rivers, etc., of Otherworld, 36, 37, 96, 132, 133, 194;
wall, 43, 153, 187, 194, 202.

Filid, Irish literary order, 117.

Filippo Argenti, 169 _n._

Finnachta Fledach, Árd-Rí of Ireland, accession, 14;
relations with Adamnán, 13 _sqq._;
and Boruma tribute, 14 _sqq._;
mentioned in connection with emancipation of women, 45;
death, 17.

Finn cycle, 133.

Firghil, Irish bishop of Salzburg, 6 _n._, 115.

Fis, class of Irish romances, 120;
the Christian Fis, 165, 212;
_Fis Adamnáin_, etc., see ‘Adamnán,’ Etc.;
see also under ‘Vision.’

Fitzgerald, David, _Popular Tales of Ireland_, 153 _n._, 174 _n._

Fomorians, the, Chthonian powers, 121, 135 _n._

Food, miraculous, 126, 155-6, 208, 210.

Forgall Monach, 130.

Foucart, M. P., on the Greek mysteries, 52-5;
on the Isis cult, 89 _n._

Four Masters, the, cited, 18.

Fravashi, the, 86, 183.

Frederick II., Emperor, and Petrus Hibernicus, 6 _n._;
legend of disappearance of, 164 _n._

Friedel, Dr. V. H., joint editor of _La Vision de Tondale_, 212 _n._

Fursa, St., 166;
Visions of, 167 _sqq._

Gardner, Prof. P., on the Greek mysteries, 53 _n._, 54, 92 _n._;
on Greek sources of Christian eschatology, 92 _n._

Gelasius, 25.

Gilbert, Abbot of Louth, 234.

Giöll, Bridge of, 131.

Gisdubar, 69.

Good and evil, souls of mingled, fate of, 39, 72, 85, 112, 191, 201-2,
220-2.

Gorm and Bridge myth, 131.

Graal legend, parallels to Irish legends, 124 _n._, 131, 150, 154, 156,
184 _n._

Greece, visits to Otherworld, 49;
visions of Otherworld, 56 _sqq._;
Greece and Alexandria, 86 _sqq._;
intercourse with Egypt, 89 _n._;
philosophic schools under early Empire, 91;
influence on early Christian eschatology, 92 _n._;
Greek learning in Ireland, 115;
Greeks in Ireland, _ibid._;
traces in Irish tales, 151;
and see ‘Elysium,’ ‘Tartarus,’ ‘Mysteries,’ ‘Hades,’ ‘Plato,’
‘Plutarch,’ ‘Aristophanes.’

Gregory I., Pope and Saint;
vision of Stephen, 110;
of a soldier, 111;
of a Spanish monk, 112.

Guide to Hades, 182;
in _Book of Enoch_, 95;
in _Vision of Esdras_, 98;
in _Fis Adamnáin_, 29, 181-2, 195;
in Irish legends, 121, 130, 167, 170, 214;
in Continental legends, 230.

Hades, the Greek, 50;
Virgilian, 66;
Chaldæan, 70;
Christian, 92 _n._

Haemgils, 233.

Hara-berezaiti, Mount, 71 _n._

Harrowing of Hell legend, 101.

Healy, Dr., _Ireland’s Ancient Schools and Scholars_, 4 _n._

Heaven, described: in the _Book of Enoch_, 96;
in the _Fis Adamnáin_, 30 _sqq._, 183 _sqq._;
in Irish legends, 158, 174, 223, 234;
as a Christian Church, 34, 164, 184;
the Seven Heavens, 35, 83, 84, 192;
and see ‘Paradise.’

Hebrews, see ‘Jews.’

Hell, in the _Book of Enoch_, 95-6;
Greek ideas in Christian, 109;
_Apocalypse of Peter_, 105;
_Paul_, 106;
St. Gregory, 112;
_Fis Adamnáin_, 38 _sqq._, 196 _sqq._;
other Irish visions, 158, 170-1, 172-3, 209, 219 _sqq._, 233, 235;
Continental legends, 231, 239;
of Oriental religions, 226 _n._;
as mouth of a monster, 215, 216, 235, 239;
Northern and Southern conception contrasted, 200 _n._, 202, 228.

Hellenism, in Persia, 76 _sqq._;
Syria, 68;
Egypt, 87-9;
Jewish schools, 68, 86-7.

Helmet of Irish Árd-Rí, 32 _n._, 188.

Henry of Saltrey, 234.

Herakles, visit to Hades, 49.

Hermas, Shepherd of, 101 _sqq._;
anticipations of Dante, 103, 182 _n._

Hermits on islands, 154-7, 160, 191, 210, 211.

Hermödr and Bridge myth, 131.

Herodotus cited, 33 _n._, 87, 88 _n._, 151.

Hesiod, Elysium, 50 _n._;
æons, 79 _n._;
cited, 121 _n._

Hierarchies, nine celestial, 30, 185, 223-4.

Hilarius, Pope, reforms calendar, 9.

Homer, Elysium, 50;
island Paradise, 121;
_Odyssey_ cited, 152.

Horse-races of demons, 152.

Hull, Miss Eleanor, _Cuchullin Saga_, 130, 131.

Hyde, Dr. Douglas, _Literary History of Ireland_, 117 _n._, 128 _n._

Immanuel ben Salamone, 241 _n._

Imram, class of Irish romance, 120;
adopts Christian eschatology, 146, 157, 164;
Christian Imrama, 147, 150;
modern Imrama, 212;
of Bran, Maelduin, the Ui Corra, Snedgus and Mac Ríagla, St. Brendan,
Tadg Mac Céin; see ‘Bran,’ etc.

Indian mythology, parallels in, 29 _n._

Inferno, see ‘Dante.’

Initiation, see ‘Mysteries.’

Interpolations, Christian, in Irish heroic tales, 145-9.

Iona, monastery founded by St. Colm Cille, 8;
abbots of, 8;
opposition to Adamnán’s reform, 10;
apocryphal disputes with Adamnán, 22.

Ireland: Church in seventh century, 4;
three orders of saints, 4;
asceticism, 24;
tribal organisation, 7, 15;
political activity, 6;
learning in, 5, 115;
connections with Gaul, 113;
with the East, 113-15;
intercourse with Greeks, 115;
Oriental type of monasticism, 114;
pilgrimages to Egypt, 114;
missionary activity, 5;
Irish scholars abroad, 5, 115;
Irish monastic foundations in foreign countries, 5, 166, 233 _n._

---- Social ranks and classes, 116 _n._;
position of women, 18 _sqq._

---- Political constitution, 14, 116 _n._;
the Mórdáil, 18.

---- The literary class, 116-18;
the annals, authority of, 16, 17.

---- Romantic literature: classification of stories, 118-19;
pagan elements, 119, 120;
ethical ideas, 144, 145, 147-8;
tolerance of clergy, 119, 209 _n._;
clerical interpolations, 145-9;
transition to Christianity, 146-7, 157, 164-5;
possible borrowings from the Norse, 131, 152;
from classics, 151-2;
loss of natural beauty, 247;
of music, 124, 139, 141, 159, 181, 189, 191, 247.

---- Interrupted development of Irish literature and modern revival, 247.

_Isaiah, Vision of_, 98.

Ishtâr, 69, 97.

Isis, cult of, in Græco-Roman world, 89 _n._;
treatise on Isis and Osiris, 88.

Island Paradise, 123, 151, 153-4, 157, 159, 160, 162-3, 184 _n._, 210.

Israel, see ‘Jews.’

Jews, contact with Oriental religions during captivity, 68, 82;
Persian mythology, 70;
Hellenic influences, 68, 86-7;
colonies in Asia and Alexandria, 86;
Egyptian ideas, 87-9;
Rabbinical legends, 84;
spiritism, 81;
eschatology, 89, 90, 191;
Purgatorial theories, 90;
influence on Christian conception of Paradise, 109.

Joannes Scotus Erigena, 6 _n._, 115.

John of Thessalonica, 107.

Jubinal, _La Légende latine de St. Brendaines_, 207 _n._

Jude, St., Epistle of, cited, 71, 94, 99.

Judgment: of individual on demise, 37, 38, 71, 106, 195;
deferred till Last Judgment, 39, 40, 41, 191;
Last, 31, 47, 72 _n._, 96;
impatience of damned for, 43;
intensification of bliss and woe after, 202.

Karshipta, mystical bird of Avesta, 72, 73, 81, 85, 189.

Labraid Luathlam-ar-Claideb, 128.

Lagny, monastery, founded by St. Fursa, 167.

Laisrén, St., Vision of, 169 _sqq._

Lanigan cited, 7 _n._

Lawrence, ed. of _Book of Enoch_, 95 _n._

Leanamhán Sidhe stories, 127, 136.

Lebor Brec, 27.

Lebor na g-Cert, 117 _n._

Lebor na h-Udri, 27, 122 _n._, 127 _n._

Lenormant, _Origines de l’Histoire_, cited, 69 _n._, 82.

Lerins, monastery of, 113.

Leuke, 50, 143.

_Lex innocentium_, 22.

_Lex talionis_, in punishments of Otherworld, 63, 105, 171, 231, 238.

Lia Fáil, 134, 187.

Liban, 128.

_Limbus infantium_, 172, 238;
_Limbus patrum_, 172.

Lindus, temple of, initiation at, 56 _n._

Loeg, 128-9, 147.

Loingseach mac Oengusa, Árd-Rí, 18.

Lothair, King of Lombards and Dungal, 6 _n._

Lucan cited, 49, 229 _n._

Lucian cited, 108, 109, 151.

Lucifer, in _Fis Adamnáin_, 38;
in Vision of Fursa, 167;
in Vision of Tundale, 220.

Lucretius on Tartarus doctrine, 109.

Lug, Irish god, 121.

Lugh mac Cethlenn, dún of, 135, 183 _n._

Lying excluded from Otherworld, 141-2, 143.

Macbeth, parallel in Conn legend, 135.

Machutus, St., and whale, 208 _n._

Mac Conglinne, Vision of, 123.

Maelduin’s Curach, Voyage of, 120, 150 _sqq._

Magh Breg, 8;
M. Mell, 152, 183, 187, 189;
M. Mon, 125;
M. Mór, 122, 148 _n._;
M. Réin, 124.

Malachi, St., 25.

Malignant powers in Irish myth, 129, 130.

Malo, St., see ‘Machutus.’

Manannán mac Lír, 121, 123, 128, 143, 146, 147, 156;
converted into the Devil, 208.

Mangan, J. C, quoted, 148 _n._

Marcus, author of _Vision of Tundale_, 212, 225.

Marianus Scotus, 6 _n._

Martyrs, precedence of, in Paradise, 39, 188.

Mary, B. V., Vision at death of, 9, 107, 181;
in Paradise, 31, 185.

Median conquests, effects of, 70.

Megasthenes, possible borrowings from, 151.

Mercy, leaning of Irish divines towards, 201-2.

Meru, Mount, 81.

Metempsychosis, see ‘Rebirth.’

Meyer, Prof. Kuno, ed. of the _Cáin Adamnáin_, 18;
of the _Voyage of Bran, Son of Febal_, 49 _n._, 122 _n._, 123 _n._;
of the _Tochmarc Emere_, 130 _n._;
of the _Echtra Nerai_, 132 _n._;
of the _Baile Mongáin_, 140 _n._;
of the _Vision of Laisrén_, 169;
of _La Vision de Tondale_, 212 _n._;
of the _Vision of Mac Conglinne_, 123 _n._

Michael, Archangel, 35, 95, 182, 195, 230.

Mider, Irish god, 121, 122, 123, 128, 148 _n._

Miller, Demon, 152-3, 162.

Milton cited, 173 _n._, 201, 203, 204.

Mithra cult in Roman Empire, 75 _n._

Moling, St., and Boruma tribute, 14, 15.

Mongán, 140 _n._, 147 _n._, 153.

Moore, Thomas, quoted, 159 _n._

Moran, Dr., _Ada Sancti Brendani_, 207 _n._

Mórdáil of Ireland, 18;
Adamnán at, _ib._

Morgan, 136, 138.

Moses, contest between Michael and Satan for, 71.

Muirgheas mac Páidin ui Maoilchanaire, translator of _Visio Tundali_,
213 _n._

Mundus of Latin towns, 161 _n._

Murias, 122.

Music, Irish susceptibility to, 124, 139, 141, 159, 181, 189, 191, 247.

Musical cords to St. Peter’s vessel, 29.

Musical stones, 31, 125, 181, 187.

Mysteries, Greek, 51 _sqq._;
origin, 52-3;
Eleusinian, 51-2, 54-6;
Orphic Pythagorean, 52-4;
orgiastic, 55;
connected with Demeter, 52;
Dionysos, 59;
Pythagoras, 52-3;
benefits of initiation, 52, 58-60;
moral teaching, 51-2, 54-6;
doctrine of future life, 52 _sqq._;
of rebirth, 54;
survival of, 108.

Nature, Irish love of, 158-9, 247.

Neid, 126 _n._

Neo-Platonism and the East, 76 _sqq._;
in interpretation of Greek myths, 51.

Nera, adventures of, 132.

Niamh Cinn Óir, 133.

Nicodemus, gospel of, 97, 101.

Norse, possible Irish loans from, 131, 152.

North, region of evil powers, 200.

Northumbria, Christianised from Ireland, 233 _n._

Numenius, 77.

Nutt, Mr. Alfred, _Essay on the Irish Vision of the Happy Otherworld
and the Celtic Doctrine of Rebirth_, 49 _n._, 92 _n._, 119 _n._,
122 _n._, 123 _n._, 131 _n._, 150, 155, 162 _n._, 172 _n._;
_Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail_, 124 _n._, 131 _n._,
150 _n._, 156 _n._;
on the Greek and Irish Elysium, 49 _n._;
on the Greek mysteries, 53 _n._, 59 _n._;
on the Greek sources of Christian eschatology, 92 _n._;
on the Phœnix legend, 155;
on the date of the voyage of Snedgus and Mac Ríagla, 162 _n._;
5 _n._, 28.

Oath of Irish Kings, 21.

O’Curry, _Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish_, 117 _n._, 122 _n._;
_MS. Materials of Irish History_, 162 _n._

O’Donnells, the, of Tír Conaill, 7.

O’Donoghue, Rev. Denis, _Brendaniana_, 207 _n._, 208 _n._

Oengus Óg, 121, 122.

O’Flaherty, _Ogygia_, 14.

O’Grady, Dr. Standish Hayes, _Silva Gadelica_, 14, 15, 212 _n._

O’Hanlon, Very Rev. Canon, _Lives of the Irish Saints_, 4 _n._, 14, 18,
166 _n._

Oisín, 133.

Orpheus, 49, and see ‘Mysteries’;
Orpheus myth in Ireland, 127.

Otherworld, visits to, in Greek myths, 49;
Chaldæa, 69;
in Irish traditions, 121, 133;
Connla, 126;
Cuchulainn, 127 _sqq._;
Conn, 134 _sqq._;
Árt, 138 _sqq._;
Cormac, 139 _sqq._;
and see ‘Vision,’ ‘Imram.’

---- Descriptions, Chaldæan, 69, 70, 193;
Avestan, 71 _sqq._;
Greek, 49 _sqq._;
in _Book of Enoch_, 96;
in _Apocalypse of Peter_, 105;
in ancient Ireland, 122-6, 128-30, 133-5, 137-44;
and see ‘Elysium,’ ‘Paradise,’ ‘Hell,’ ‘Heaven,’ ‘Purgatory.’

---- Orthodox character of the ecclesiastical legend, 109;
of minor importance in the Western Church, 110.

Owen, Vision of, 234 _sqq._;
Dante parallels, 235.

Ozanam, _Dante et la Philosophie catholique_, 229 _n._

Paradise, Hebrew ideas in Christian, 109;
described in _Book of Enoch_, 96;
_Vision of Esdras_, 98;
_Revelation_, 100 _n._;
_Apocalypse of Peter_, 105;
by St. Gregory, 111;
in _Fis Adamnáin_, 29, 30;
in the Irish legendary, 157, 221, 233;
Paradise of Birds, 211;
Terrestrial Paradise in Irish legends, 153-4, 162-3, 210, 236;
and see ‘Elysium,’ ‘Heaven.’

_Paradiso_, see ‘Dante.’

Parnell, Mr., and the return myth, 164 _n._

Paschal controversy, 9, 10, 25.

Patrick, St., 45, 113, 182 _n._, 223;
pagan prophecy of his coming, 135;
hymn of, 21.