THREE NEW BOOKS ON FOLK-LORE. 
3i 
This, of course, is much less ambitious work than the production of one of 
those volumes purporting to deal with folk-lore, of which we have already too 
many examples, and which can be carried into existence with the greatest ease by 
anyone possessed of a little intelligence, a few books, and a pair of scissors — the 
first qualification is the least necessary of the three. But the collectors will re- 
ceive the thanks of the scientific worker, while the compiler can only excite his 
annoyance. 
The Folk-lore Society has done well to issue so suggestive a band-book in so 
cheap and convenient a form, and we warmly commend it to the notice and for 
the use of members of the Selborne Society. J. B. 
The Science of Fairy Tales , an inquiry into Fairy Mythology, by Edwin 
Sidney Hartland, F.S.A. London : Walter Scott, 1891 (Contemporary Science 
Series). [8vo, cloth, pp. viii. , 372. Price 3s. 6d.] 
In the handy little volume before us Mr. Sidney Hartland has endeavoured to 
embody the general conclusions to which his wide reading on a very interesting 
subject has led him. After some general remarks on the art of story-telling and 
on savage ideas, in the course of which he distinguishes between traditional narra- 
tives (supernatural or not) believed to be true (Sagas), and tales told merely for 
amusement (Marc hen, or nursery tales), he discusses at some length a selection of 
narratives of various countries and ages relative to fairy births and human mid- 
wives, changelings, robberies from fairyland, the supernatural lapse of time in 
fairyland, and swan-maidens, and finally recapitulates his principal conclusions, 
combating other theories with which he does not agree. 
In general terms, it may be said that Mr. Hartland regards all fairy tales 
either as remnants of the animism of savage races, or as distorted reminiscences 
of the ancient gods. Thus, he regards the Lady Godiva of Coventry legend as 
originally a goddess similar to the Roman Bona Dea, or to the German Berchtha, 
whose rites were performed in secret by women only. Similarly, he identifies the 
sleeping Frederick Barbarossa with the red-beard Thor. The Solar theory, once 
paramount, but now moribund, is not so much as alluded to ; perhaps because 
this theory, even if true, to a wider extent than is now generally believed, would 
lie behind mythology itself, and would therefore have no immediate connection 
with the modern reflection with which alone the author deals. 
With Professor Liebrecht’s theory that swan-maidens are to be regarded as 
ghosts of the departed, Mr. Hartland makes short work ; but he is not only less 
successful, but appears to us to claim too much for his own views in combating 
those of Mr. Mac Ritchie, who identifies the Piets and Finns with the fairies of 
Scotland and Ireland. That some of the legends of fairies in Scotland and Ire- 
land may have an historical basis, although they may show a close resemblance to 
stories in other countries which have none, does not seem altogether impossible. 
Mr. Hartland says, “ No theory will explain the nature and origin of the fairy 
superstitions which does not also explain the nature and origin of every other 
supernatural being worshipped or dreaded by uncivilised mankind throughout the 
world.” This seems to us to be far too sweeping an assertion. If history has a 
tendency to repeat itself, some fables, at least, may be founded on actual fact, or 
on the misinterpretation of fact ; and, again, fable may convert itself into actual 
fact. But folk-lore and fact are not the same ; for folk-lore deals not with facts 
so much as with the popular opinions respecting facts. Thus, as long as the 
Ornithorhynchus was regarded as viviparous, its oviposition was a piece of folk- 
lore ; now that it is known to be oviparous, the fact is transferred to the domain 
of natural history. Other parts of folk-lore, nay, even of so-called fairy myth- 
ology, may ultimately prove to be based on more or less distorted historical or 
scientific facts. And we cannot agree with some writers that the repetition of the 
same unusual circumstance in different parts of the world is in itself an argument 
that it never happened at all. Thus, even if the most ancient form of the Tell 
legend is a mere fable, there is nothing impossible in a tyrant like Ilarald Hard- 
rada or Gessler putting into practice what he might easily have heard as a 
popular legend. The science of folk-lore appears to us to be a far wider and 
more complex problem than it appears to Mr. Hartland, or, let us add, to the 
majority of folk-lorists. 
Returning from this digression, there are one or two points of detail on which 
