2««» S. V. 126., May 29. '68.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



429 



LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 29. 1868. 

 THE SACRED ISLANDS OF THE NORTH. 



The idea of a sacred island, rising amidst the 

 waves, removed from all contentions and wars, 

 the abode of quiet and purity, the secure refuge 

 of men buffeted by the storms of the world, seems 

 naturally to suggest itself to the human mind. 

 By an easy transition this residence of a pious 

 and holy race becomes an Elysian field ; it is 

 endowed with perpetual spring ; the ground pro- 

 duces its fruits without labour ; there are no 

 serpents or wild beasts within its hallowed pre- 

 cinct ; its inhabitants ax'e no longer a sacred 

 colony of living men, but the souls of the de- 

 parted, translated to a region of bliss. 



The notion of holy islands first occurs in He- 

 siod. He describes the race of heroes, who form 

 the fourth age of mankind, as residing after 

 death, apart from the world, in the islands of the 

 blest, near the ocean, free from care, and enjoy- 

 ing three harvests in the year {Op. 166 — 171.). 

 Pindar, in like manner, conceives the islands of the 

 blest as the abode of the just and virtuous after 

 death {Olymp. ii. 68.). On the other hand, Ho- 

 race supposes his countrymen to seek an escape 

 from the horrors of the civil war in the Happy 

 Islands, where peace and plenty will be their 

 permanent lot (^Epod. xvi.). 



The Canary Islands became known to the 

 Romans after the war of Sertorius, and were 

 identified with the happy region at the extremity 

 of the world, described in the Odyssey (Plut., 

 Serf. 8. ; Plin., N. H. vi. 37. ; Smith's Diet, of 

 Geog., art. " Fortunataj Insulae "). Mela accord- 

 ingly describes the Fortunate Islands as really 

 existing in the Atlantic (iii. 10.) ; and Strabo 

 identifies them with some islands not far from 

 the promontory of Maurusia, opposite Cadiz (iii. 

 2. 13.) ; while Philostratus places them at the 

 extremity of Libya, near the uninhabited pro- 

 montory (Vit. Apollon. v. 3.). 



The marvellous islands in the Odyssey — the 

 island of Ogygia inhabited by Calypso, ^sea the 

 island of Circe, and the ^olian Island — furnish 

 other examples of the tendency to invest islands 

 with supernatural attributes. 



There was a constant disposition in the Greek 

 mind to realise the ideals of their ancient mytho- 

 logy and poetry, and therefore to identify ima- 

 ginary with actually existing places. But as the 

 horizon of their geographical knowledge extended, 

 and as positive science expelled fiction, the pro- 

 vince of fable receded, and the murvels of fiction 

 were banished into distant regions of the earth, 

 unknown by name to the generations with which 

 the stories originated. (See Ukert, i. 2. p. 345.) 



In remote antiquity the countries and waters of 



Northern Europe were wholly unknown to the 

 dwellers upon the shores of the Mediterranean ; 

 and even in later times, after Caesar had invaded 

 Britain, their acquaintance with these regions was 

 limited. When therefore the western parts of the 

 Mediterranean had been explored, and became 

 familiar to the Greeks, the north of Europe af- 

 forded a convenient field for supernatural and 

 marvellous stories. 



The first trace of this tendency occurs in the 

 account of Hecataeus of Abdera, a contemporary 

 of Alexander the Great, who wrote a work con- 

 cerning the Hyperboreans. This fabulous nation 

 were originally conceived to be under the imme- 

 diate care of Apollo, and to pass their time in un- 

 interrupted enjoyment, inhabiting a region beyond 

 the origin of the north wind, and therefore exempt 

 from the cold of winter. (See Miiller, Dor. b. ii. 

 c. 4.). By Hecataeus they were represented as 

 dwelling in an island, as large as Sicily, in the 

 ocean opposite Celtica, which was endowed with 

 a mild climate, and yielded two harvests in the 

 year {Fragm. Hist. Gr., vol. ii. p. 286.). 



It was, however, in the writers of the first five 

 centuries after Christ that the transposition of 

 imaginary islands and countries to this part of the 

 world chiefly occurs. 



Plutarch, in his treatise De Facie in Oris LunoB, 

 c. 26., describes the Homeric island of Ogygia as 

 situated five days' sail to the west of Britain, to- 

 gether with three other islands in the same direc- 

 tion, at equal distances from each other. In one 

 of these islands, he proceeds to say, Saturn is 

 related to be imprisoned by Jupiter ; whence the 

 neighbouring sea is called the Cronian or Satur- 

 nian. The great external continent, lying beyond 

 the circumfluous ocean, is at a distance of 5000 

 stadia (or 625 miles) from Ogygia, which is the 

 farthest from it of the four islands. The inter- 

 mediate sea is difficult to navigate, on account of 

 its muddy properties ; whence it has been believed 

 to be frozen. On the shore of the external con- 

 tinent there are Greeks, dwelling round a gulf 

 equal in size to the Palus Maeotis, the mouth of 

 which lies directly opposite to the mouth of the 

 Caspian Sea. The inhabitants of this continent 

 consider our earth as an island, because it is sur- 

 rounded by the ocean. They believe that this 

 Hellenic population is composed of the original 

 subjects of Saturn, subsequently reinforced by 

 some of the companions of Hercules : hence they 

 pay the principal honours to Saturn, and after 

 him to Hercules. When the planet Saturn is in 

 the sign of Taurus — a coincidence which occurs 

 every thirtieth year — they send out a body of 

 men, selected by lot, to seek their fortunes across 

 the sea. A band of this description, having escaped 

 from the dangers of the sea, landed on one of the 

 above-mentioned islands, which are inhabited by 

 Greeks, the descendants of former colonists, from 



