[55] The mere mention of these subterranean explorations opens up an immense field of discussion and speculation that can here be only relegated to a note; we can treat at greater length none but those legends which bear directly on our subject. Odysseus visited Hades, Aeneas descended to Orcus or Tartarus, and they have their counterparts in every land and every mythology. Human aetiological tendencies supply explanations of any cavern or natural chasm--even a volcano must be the mouth of the entrance to hell or purgatory--from Taenarus, where Pluto carried off Proserpine, and the Sibyl's cavern, whence Aeneas sought the lower regions, to the famous Lough Dearg in Donegal, the entrance to "St. Patrick's Purgatory," and the Peak cavern in Derbyshire. The student may begin his researches with T. Wright's _St. Patrick's Purgatory_ (1844). A very common tale in Celtic literature is that of the visit of some hero to the underworld and his seizure of some gift of civilisation--just as Prometheus stole fire from heaven. [56] _Ballads_, loc. cit. [57] A version of Fytte I will be found in this book, pp. 122-132. [58] See Child's _Ballads_, No. 37, Thomas Rymer, i. 317-329; also the romance, _Thomas of Erceldoune_ (E.E.T.S., 1875), where Prof. J.A.H. Murray prints all texts parallel, and adds a valuable introduction. [59] A similar episode survives in a Breton folk-tale, cited by Professor Kittredge in Child's _Ballads_, iii. 504. In _Huon of Bordeaux_ (E.E.T.S. edition, p. 265), Charlemagne mistakes Oberon for God. [60] See Gummere, _The Popular Ballad_ (1907), pp. 66-7. [61] Cottonian, Caligula A. II. A later version is at the Bodleian, MS. Rawlinson C. 86, and a Scottish version in Cambridge University Library, MS. Kk. 5. 30. [62] It was licensed to John Kynge the printer between 19 July 1557 and 9 July 1558. See Arber, Stationers' Registers, i. 79. Two fragments are in the Bodleian; see Hales and Furnivall, _Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript_ (1867), i. 521-535. [63] In this year it is mentioned, as having been amongst Captain Cox's books, in Laneham's famous _Letter_. See _Shakespeare Library_ reprint, p. xxx. [64] Brit. Mus. MS. Addl. 27,879; see Hales and Furnivall, _Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript_, i. 142. [65] Harl. 3810 (British Museum), printed by Ritson in _Ancient English Metrical Romances_ (1802) ii. 248; the Auchinleck MS. (W. 4. 1, in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh), printed by D. Laing in _Ancient Popular Poetry of Scotland_, iii; and Ashmolean 61 (Bodleian Library, Oxford), printed by Halliwell in his _Fairy Mythology_, p. 36. The three are collated by O. Zielke, _Sir Orfeo_ (Breslau 1880), a fully annotated edition. The last is used here. [66] A grafted fruit tree; here probably an apple. [67] It may be seen in Child's _Ballads_, i. 215, with a full analysis of the romance, and in the present editor's _Popular Ballads of the Olden Time_, Second Series, p. 208.