In the author's "Foreword" to the Tauchnitz selection of the Fiona
Macleod Tales, entitled _Wind and Wave_, he has set down in explanation
what here may be fittingly reprinted. He explains that in certain
sections are tales of the old Gaelic and Celtic-Scandinavian life and
mythology; that in others there is a blending of Paganism and
Christianity; in others again "are tales of the dreaming imagination
having their base in old mythology or in a kindred mythopœic source....
They divide broadly into tales of the world that was and tales of the
world that is, because the colour and background of the one series are
of a day that is past, and past not only for us, but for the forgetting
race itself; while the colour and background of the other, if
interchangeable, is not of a past, but only of a passing world which
lies in essential truth in nature, material or spiritual, the truth of
actual reality, and the truth of imaginative reality....
"Many of these tales are of the grey wandering wave of the West, and
through each goes the wind of the Gaelic spirit, which everywhere
desires infinitude, but in the penury of things as they are turns upon
itself to the dim enchantment of dreams. And what are these, whether of
a single heart on the braes of sorrow or of the weariness of unnumbered
minds in the maze of time and fate, but the dreams of the wavering
images of dreams, with which for a thousand years the Gael has met the
ignominies and sorrows of a tragical destiny; the intangible merchandise
which he continually creates and continually throws away, as the May
wind gathers and scatters the gold of the broom."
Elizabeth A. Sharp.
PHARAIS
A ROMANCE OF THE ISLES
"_Mithich domh triall gu tigh Pharais._"
(It is time for me to go up unto the House of Paradise.)
Muireadhach Albannach.
"_How many beautiful things have come to us from Pharais._"
"Bileag-na-Toscùil."
_To_
_E.W.R._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account