The Scottish Celtic review

Tlw Maileartach. 117and means, " Mist, son of the Blind Man."He came in from tliesea to the cave in which Diarmid and Grainc had taken refuge, ina night so stormy that Diarmid, the third best hero of the Fians,would not on any account venture out of the cave.In the whole of the Fian lore, there is much that seems purelyimaginative. And it is upon this supposition of personificationthat the localisation in so many places of the Fian traditions,and their strange extravagances, arc best explained. The classicalreader will remember how Hercules, also a personification of bodilystrength, was found by the Romans in every place they visited.Upon this view—the supposition that the incident is entirelythe work of imagination—the ballad is interesting and poetical.The Western Sea, in one of the gloomier aspects which it frequentlypresents among the Islands of Scotland, a bank of mist, adarkening shower, a high tide, or a fierce gale is converted by thepoet's fancy into an old woman who is the foster-mother of thePirate King who infests the coast. A solitary star twinklingthrough the darkening clouds, becomes an eye glimmering in hergloomy forehead ; the agitation of the sea, waves swept into spindriftor breaking wildly on the rocks, the roaring of the waves,and the Skerries covered with tangle, are readily converted intoher rocking motion, streaming hair, gloomy looks, projecting redteeth, and loud laughter.Following up the idea, the superiorityof the Norsemen at sea is represented by the old woman takingaway the Cup of Victory. Betrayed into over-confidence theNorse king engages in battle on land and is defeated. This isrepresented by the poet as an inroad of the Personified Sea.The explanation of the Muileartach is further strengthened bythe representation of an enclosure having been made for the greatfight, denoting the confining of water within manageable limits,by the Muileartach being called sgleb a specti-e, a film, a vapour,or an indistinct appearance, and by her combating the .heroes likea flame.At the same time, while there is much in the stories of theFians that can be explained as personifications and poeticalfancies ; there is much, such as the death of Oscar, that appearsas like real history and tradition as anything to be found inauthentic records.For archaeological or other scientific purpose, it is essential thatballads of this kind, and indeed everything got from oral sources,should be presented to the reader " uncooked,'' that is, withoutsuppression or addition, or alteration, which is not pointed out.