From the PREFACE.
THE STORIES contained in this volume fall into three classes, the first comprising tales for which, so far as we may see, no historical character whatever can be claimed, while to the second belong the legends in which a certain amount of national or local history has been imbedded amongst masses of mythical detail. The third class comprehends those tales which on a careful analysis are found to lie in great part or wholly beyond the province of the comparative mythologist.
Of this last class it seemed necessary to include some specimens, as I felt it to be my duty to leave no room for the misapprehension that the science which professes to explain completely the myths of Psyche and Eros, of Urvasi and Pururavas, seeks to resolve the whole popular literature of the Aryan nations into phrases which have certainly furnished all the materials for the legends of Hermes and Phoibos, of Sigurd, Helgi, and Baldur. The tales given as specimens of this class belong to Scandinavian rather than to Teutonic folk-lore; but their general character and their wide popularity may render it unnecessary to apologise for their insertion.
No one probably will be disposed to question the importance of determining the degree of credibility to be attached to the burning of Ilion and the burning of the house of the Icelandic Njal, if the differences between the two be capable of measurement. This question I have endeavoured to answer in the Introduction, in the hope that the attempt may serve to remove some strange misconceptions of the method which has been applied in the analysis of the popular legends of the Aryan nations.
This examination might be extended beyond the tales contained in this or the preceding series; but however far it might be carried, the results, so far as we may judge, would be substantially the same. The work already done may suffice to show how far the method of the comparative mythologists may be applied, and to determine the point at which it must give place to the researches of the historian.
That the general result of this examination is to prove the wholly mythical character of the vast mass of popular tradition, I can have no doubt; and I venture to think that few will be disposed to dispute it. That it throws a fresh light on the history of the human mind, and invests these stories with a deeper, nay with an imperishable interest, seems to be not less certain; and if comparative mythology, while it explains the growth of popular stories, have shown that their growth was inevitable, and that it implies no corruption of the human intellect and no debasement of human affections, it will have done a work the importance of which can scarcely be exaggerated. It will, in short, have shown that the multiplication of these myths was a necessary phase of the education of the world, and will have imparted to the epic narratives into which these myths have been developed a higher and more abiding charm....