SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

lIZ Saga-Book Ofthe Viking Society
Such an exaggerated judgment must be attributed to
the scantiness of our information. The Irish sources were
all written down in a period remote from the old pagan
times. Christianity had long ago superseded the heathen
religion and notwithstanding the remarkable interest of
Irish clerics in the old national lore, it is only too natural
that they should eliminate the "demons" which had
led their ancestors astray. But if these gods were
suppressed, openly or tacitly, in the mythical tales, the
core was cut out of them. In this way it is very difficult
for us to distinguish even the faint outlines of a hierarchical
system of deities, each with its own character and
functions.
Here an almost insurmountable difficulty presents
itself. Our sources of information, roughly summarized,
are these: a few chapters of Caesar's and a few
sentences in other classical authors; a most bewildering
quantity of inscriptions, monuments, of different kinds,
coins and votive-offerings as well as the result of minute
excavations, all pertaining to the Gaulish peoples. About
the other continental Celtic tribes we know next to
nothing. On the other side of the Channel, we have
in Romanized Britain a considerable quantity of monuments
and even the results of very interesting excavations,
showing us at any rate that there are clear correspondences
between religious beliefs in Gaul and Britain.
From Wales we have literary documents, written down
at a comparatively late time; they may contain valuable
pieces of heathen lore, but they are adorned with all kinds
of romantic themes and some of them are suspect of being
introduced by Irish settlers.
It is obvious that to harmonize this heterogeneous
material should be the first concern of the scholar. All
attempts to do so hitherto have, however, failed. Considering
the different ways of approach, we can easily
understand why the results have been so meagre. They
are often even quite disconcerting. Following the general