Welsh Journals

are not incompatible: 'Divided into two, one half of Munster symbolizes serfs, the other the Other World'. Their discussion of these and other matters is based on the fairly extensive and varied material available from Irish sources, and they have adduced comparisons from other civilizations and literatures, notably Indian, in support of their views. Furthermore, the fact that they have found evidence which suggests that a similar conceptual framework existed for Wales provides some encour- agement for those who may feel inclined to accept their interpretation of the Irish material. As far as Irish tales are concerned the oldest known classification is not according to cycles-mythological, heroic, etc.-but according to the subjects with which the tales are concerned-destructions, cattle-raids, courtships, etc. In the third part of this book ('The Meaning of Story') the authors have summarized in seven chapters (headed 'Births', 'Youthful Exploits', 'Wooings', 'Elopements', 'Adventures', 'Voyages', and 'Deaths') many of the Irish and Welsh stories, and they discuss in terms of funda- mental beliefs and practices the meaning of the many motifs involved. Thus the 'Births', which 'it was appropriate to recount. at the birth of human children', were 'originally religious stories which were believed to have a liberating and elevating effect upon their hearers', and 'they had a validity as exemplars in the light of which the meaning of ordinary births could be apprehended'. The 'Wooings', whose recitation 'at the wedding-feasts of humble folk enlarged the meaning of the contingent act' are 'a variant of the quest for "the treasure hard to find" which man needs for his wholeness and fulfilment, a treasure which must ever be wrested from the grasp of an indefatigable foe'. In the 'Elopements', which 'may be described as the mythological inversion of marriage from the female standpoint', 'the man upon whom the frustrated wife fixes her affections is, by virtue of his nature and otherworld associations, a human personification of the supernatural lover who interferes with marriages'. In the 'Voyages' have been preserved 'the tattered remnants of an oral Celtic "book" of the dead, which proclaimed that the mysteries of the world beyond death had been at least partially explored and the stations of the soul's pilgrimage charted'. Thus, 'the immram has its own function. It is to teach the "craft" of dying and to pilot the departing spirit on a sea of perils and wonders'. Finally of the 'Deaths' the authors say 'the declamation of such stories at Samain, perhaps, and at wakes for the dead, had its proper function. They elevated death to the plane of the tragic and heroic'. From this kaleidoscopic-almost bewildering- collection of material we see the life-story of the 'hero' reproduced in different 'cycles', demonstrating the existence of what may well be old and significant patterns. However, one is left with doubts about many of the authors' statements. This book clearly represents a sincere effort to piece together the remnants of a tradition and shed light on part of our nations' past. The