Preface
THE Past may be forgotten, but it never dies. The elements which in the most
remote times have entered into a nation's composition endure through all its
history, and help to mould that history, and to stamp the character and genius
of the people.
The examination, therefore, of these elements, and the
recognition, as far as possible, of the part they have actually contributed to
the warp and weft of a nation's life, must be a matter of no small interest
and importance to those who realise that the present is the child of the past,
and the future of the present; who will not regard themselves, their kinsfolk,
and their fellow citizens as mere transitory phantoms, hurrying from darkness
into darkness, but who know that, in them, a vast historic stream of national
life is passing from its distant and mysterious origin towards a future which
is largely conditioned by all the past wanderings of that human stream, but
which is also, in no small degree, what they, by their courage, their
patriotism, their knowledge, and their understanding, choose to make it.
The part played by the Celtic race as a formative influence in
the history, the literature, and the art of the people inhabiting the British
Islands - a people which from that centre has spread its dominions over so
vast an area of the earth's surface - has been unduly obscured in popular
thought. For this the current use of the term "Anglo-Saxon" applied
to the British people as a designation of race is largely responsible.
Historically the term is quite misleading. There is nothing to justify this
singling out of two Low-German tribes when we wish to indicate the race
character of the British people. The use of it leads to such absurdities as
that which the writer noticed not long ago, when the proposed elevation by the
Pope of an Irish bishop to a cardinalate was described in an English newspaper
as being prompted by the desire of the head of the Catholic Church to pay a
compliment to "the Anglo-Saxon race."
The true term for the population of these islands, and for the
typical and dominant part of the population of North America, is not
Anglo-Saxon, but Anglo-Celtic. It is precisely in this blend of Germanic and
Celtic elements that the British people are unique - it is precisely this
blend which gives to this people the fire, the "elan", and in literature
and art the sense of style, colour, drama, which are not common growths of
German soil, while at the same time it gives the deliberateness and depth, the
reverence for ancient law and custom, and the passion for personal freedom,
which are more or less strange to the Romance nations of the South of Europe.
May they never become strange to the British Islands ! Nor is the Celtic
element in these islands to be regarded as contributed wholly, or even very
predominantly, by the populations of the so called "Celtic Fringe."
It is now well known to ethnologists that the Saxons did not by any means
exterminate the Celtic or Celticised populations whom they found in possession
of Great Britain. Mr. E. W. B. Nicholson, librarian of the Bodleian, writes in
his important work "Keltic Researches" (1904):
\"Names which have not been purposely invented to
describe race must never be taken as proof of race, but only as proof of
community of language, or community of political organisation. We call a man
who speaks English, lives in England, and bears an obviously English name
(such as Freeman or Newton), an Englishman. Yet from the statistics of
'relative nigrescence' there is good reason to believe that lancashire, West
Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Worcester-shire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire,
Rutland, Cambridgeshire, Wiltshire, Somerset, and part of Sussex are as
Keltic as Perthshire and North Munster ; that Cheshire, Shropshire,
Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, Gloucestershire, Devon, Dorset,
Northamptonshire, Huntingdonshire, and Bedfordshire are more so-and equal to
North Wales and Leinster; while Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire exceed
even this degree, and are on a level with South Wales and Ulster." [In
reference to the name "Freeman," Mr. Nicholson adds : No one was
more intensely 'English' in his sympathies than the great historian of that
name, and probably no one would have more strenuously resisted the
suggestion that he might be of Welsh descent ; yet I have met his close
physical counterpart in a Welsh farmer (named Evans) living within a few
minutes of Pwllheli."]
It is, then, for an Anglo-Celtic, not an
"Anglo-Saxon," people that this account of the early history, the
religion, and the mythical and romantic literature of the Celtic race is
written. It is hoped that that people will find in it things worthy to be
remembered as contributions to the general stock of European culture, but
worthy above all to be borne in mind by those who have inherited more than
have any other living people of the blood, the instincts and the genius of the
Celt.
remote times have entered into a nation's composition endure through all its
history, and help to mould that history, and to stamp the character and genius
of the people.
The examination, therefore, of these elements, and the
recognition, as far as possible, of the part they have actually contributed to
the warp and weft of a nation's life, must be a matter of no small interest
and importance to those who realise that the present is the child of the past,
and the future of the present; who will not regard themselves, their kinsfolk,
and their fellow citizens as mere transitory phantoms, hurrying from darkness
into darkness, but who know that, in them, a vast historic stream of national
life is passing from its distant and mysterious origin towards a future which
is largely conditioned by all the past wanderings of that human stream, but
which is also, in no small degree, what they, by their courage, their
patriotism, their knowledge, and their understanding, choose to make it.
The part played by the Celtic race as a formative influence in
the history, the literature, and the art of the people inhabiting the British
Islands - a people which from that centre has spread its dominions over so
vast an area of the earth's surface - has been unduly obscured in popular
thought. For this the current use of the term "Anglo-Saxon" applied
to the British people as a designation of race is largely responsible.
Historically the term is quite misleading. There is nothing to justify this
singling out of two Low-German tribes when we wish to indicate the race
character of the British people. The use of it leads to such absurdities as
that which the writer noticed not long ago, when the proposed elevation by the
Pope of an Irish bishop to a cardinalate was described in an English newspaper
as being prompted by the desire of the head of the Catholic Church to pay a
compliment to "the Anglo-Saxon race."
The true term for the population of these islands, and for the
typical and dominant part of the population of North America, is not
Anglo-Saxon, but Anglo-Celtic. It is precisely in this blend of Germanic and
Celtic elements that the British people are unique - it is precisely this
blend which gives to this people the fire, the "elan", and in literature
and art the sense of style, colour, drama, which are not common growths of
German soil, while at the same time it gives the deliberateness and depth, the
reverence for ancient law and custom, and the passion for personal freedom,
which are more or less strange to the Romance nations of the South of Europe.
May they never become strange to the British Islands ! Nor is the Celtic
element in these islands to be regarded as contributed wholly, or even very
predominantly, by the populations of the so called "Celtic Fringe."
It is now well known to ethnologists that the Saxons did not by any means
exterminate the Celtic or Celticised populations whom they found in possession
of Great Britain. Mr. E. W. B. Nicholson, librarian of the Bodleian, writes in
his important work "Keltic Researches" (1904):
\"Names which have not been purposely invented to
describe race must never be taken as proof of race, but only as proof of
community of language, or community of political organisation. We call a man
who speaks English, lives in England, and bears an obviously English name
(such as Freeman or Newton), an Englishman. Yet from the statistics of
'relative nigrescence' there is good reason to believe that lancashire, West
Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Worcester-shire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire,
Rutland, Cambridgeshire, Wiltshire, Somerset, and part of Sussex are as
Keltic as Perthshire and North Munster ; that Cheshire, Shropshire,
Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, Gloucestershire, Devon, Dorset,
Northamptonshire, Huntingdonshire, and Bedfordshire are more so-and equal to
North Wales and Leinster; while Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire exceed
even this degree, and are on a level with South Wales and Ulster." [In
reference to the name "Freeman," Mr. Nicholson adds : No one was
more intensely 'English' in his sympathies than the great historian of that
name, and probably no one would have more strenuously resisted the
suggestion that he might be of Welsh descent ; yet I have met his close
physical counterpart in a Welsh farmer (named Evans) living within a few
minutes of Pwllheli."]
It is, then, for an Anglo-Celtic, not an
"Anglo-Saxon," people that this account of the early history, the
religion, and the mythical and romantic literature of the Celtic race is
written. It is hoped that that people will find in it things worthy to be
remembered as contributions to the general stock of European culture, but
worthy above all to be borne in mind by those who have inherited more than
have any other living people of the blood, the instincts and the genius of the
Celt.
