The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 17, No. 487, April 30, 1831Various
General
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 17, No. 487, April 30, 1831
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
The _Mirror's_ able correspondent VYVYAN has, in vol. xii. p. 408, noticed
the connexion between the German Peter Klaus and Emperor Barbarossa, with
the oriental Seven Sleepers and the American Rip Von Winkle. We may add,
that there is a similar Welsh superstition respecting the enchanted
slumber of King Arthur, and his expected reappearance upon earth before
the last day, to take part in the holy wars of the times. The Poles and
Turks, if we mistake not, have among them a corresponding legend; and
whilst Sir W. Scott has given us that of the purchase of horses by Thomas
the Rhymour, and the magic slumbers of the gigantic men-at-arms appointed
to ride them, in the subterranean mews, H. has rescued very happily from
oblivion a coincident English superstition. The legendary lore of
mountainous and mining countries, is, with little variation, the same; and
whether America, Germany, Sweden, Scotland, Wales, or our own peculiar
mining districts in England be the locale of such, still may be
discovered, under different names indeed, and circumstances, the demons of
the mines, the guardians of hidden treasures, the freakish dwarfs and
fays, who delight in unexpectedly enriching the poor and virtuous, whilst
they delude most miserably all idle and worthless treasure-seekers, &c.
Nay, what, we may inquire, are the oriental genii of kings, and lamps,
&c., but modifications of one and the same superstition? And what are the
said Ginns--who erect splendid palaces in the course of a few brief hours,
and transport them at pleasure from place to place--but the Evil Ones of
more modern times and northern countries, who build, according to popular
tradition, bridges, and mills, &c.?--who cleave mountains, excavate
ditches, and fly away with monasteries and hermitages, in an incredibly
short space of time?
However, we have finished; for less than a folio could not do that justice
to our subject in its various bearings which it requires;--nor, indeed,
would less than an intimate acquaintance with all the tongues and
traditions of all nations that are, or ever have been, upon the face of
the earth--so intermingled are divine revelations, corrupt mythologies,
wild and palpable fictions, fantastic imaginings, exaggerated allegories,
poetical machinery, and the very insanity of human hopes, fears, and
wishes, &c. &c., in the great and never to be analyzed body of popular
superstition!
Can any of the readers of the _Mirror_ throw additional light on the
subject of coincident traditions?--Can any of its contributors show the
connexion which subsists between oriental mythology, allegory, and
legendary lore, with that of the Scandinavian nations? This Sir Walter
Scott has omitted to do;--but this might afford, even formed of the
materials to be gleaned from various desultory sources, another volume
upon "Demonology and Witchcraft."
M.L.B.
* * * * *
FINE ARTS.
* * * * *
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