Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore
Will no one tell me what she sings? Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow For old, unhappy, far-off things, And battles long ago: Or is it some more humble lay, Familiar matter of to-day? Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain, That has been, and may be again!
At the end of the service the bride returns to her father's house, where she remains quietly till it is time to get ready for dinner. As the clock strikes four, the entire weddi...
21. Part 21Dante had no wish to level the spiritual windmills that lay in his path: he left them standing, only seeking a proper reason for their being there. Therefore he did not answer h...
4. Part 4A Servian _pesma_ illustrates the same idea. Young Toevo has the misfortune to break his arm. A doctor is fetched--no other than a Vila of the mountain. The wily sprite demands...
13. Part 13Such is the peasant poet of to-day; such he was five hundred or a thousand years ago. He presents a not unlovely picture of a stage in civilisation which is not ours. To-morrow...
12. Part 12Life of my life, who art my spirit and soul, By no suspicions be nor doubts oppressed, Love me, and scorn false jealousy's control-- I not a thousand hearts have in my breast, I...
19. Part 19A Corsican legend, reported by M. Frederic Ortoli, should have a place here. On the Day of the Dead a certain man had to go to Sartena to sell chestnuts. Overnight he filled his...
5. Part 5It is a common idea that, until the other day, mountains were looked upon with positive aversion. Still we know that there were always men who felt the power of the hills: the m...
7. Part 7High above the hardiest saxifrage tower the three thousand feet of everlasting snows that crown Mount Ararat. The Armenians call it Massis or "Mother of the World," and old geog...
22. Part 22We catch sight again of the personal fate in the relations of Antony with the young Octavius. Antony had in his house an Egyptian astrologer, who advised him by all means to kee...
15. Part 15If it needed some imagination to see in this humble minstrel the representative of the courtly adepts in the gay science, still his relationship to them was not purely fanciful....
26. Part 26This _nani-nani_ calls to mind some words in a letter of Sydney Dobell's: "A little girl-child! The very idea is the most exquisite of poems! a child-daughter--wherein it seems...
24. Part 24In an Istriot variant of the above song, "Santa Luceia" is spoken of as the Madonna of the eyes; "Santa Puluonia" as the Madonna of the teeth: we hear also something of the Magd...
18. Part 18The Portuguese ballad of "Helena," which has not much in common with "Lord Roland"--except that it is a story of treachery--is brought into relation with it by its bequests. Hel...
25. Part 25Fais dodo, Colin, mon p'tit frere, Fais dodo, t'auras du lolo. Le papa est en haut, qui fait le lolo, Le maman est en bas, qui fait le colo; Fais dodo, Colin, mon p'tit frere Fa...
9. Part 9To the idealised vision that goes along with hereditary culture a large town may seem an impressive spectacle. For Wordsworth, worshipper of nature though he was, earth had not...
16. Part 16A distinguished French scholar thought that he heard in this an echo of Anacreon's ode [Greek: k' eus koren]. The inference suggested is too hazardous for acceptance; yet that i...
28. Part 28The Letts and Esthonians observe the Feast of Souls, by spreading a banquet of which they suppose their spirit relatives to partake; they put torches on the graves to light the...
27. Part 27A notable section of the voceri treats of that insatiable thirst after vengeance which formerly provided as fruitful a theme to French romancers as it presented a perplexing pro...
8. Part 8Our family party consists of three dozen persons, the representatives of four generations. The young married women come in and out from directing the preparations of the supper....
3. Part 3The influence of death on the popular imagination is shown in those ballads of the supernatural of which folk-poetry offers so great an abundance as to make choice difficult. On...
17. Part 17Fourteen angels in a band Every night around me stand. Two to my left hand, Two to my right, Who watch me ever By day and night. Two at my head, Two at my feet, To guard my slum...
11. Part 11which is to be read on the facade of St Mark's, opposite the ducal palace. The meaning is, Look before you leap--an adage well suited to the people who had the reputation of bei...
20. Part 20tells the usual story of house-to-house visiting and expected largess. In Devonshire, children used to take round a richly-dressed doll; such a doll is still borne in triumph by...
2. Part 2Several lines in the second German version are evidently borrowed from the Ladybird or Maychafer rhyme which has been pronounced a relic of Freya worship. Here the question aris...
6. Part 6Next to the swallow, the grey gull has the reputation of being the greatest traveller. Till lately the women of Croisic met on Assumption Day and sang a song to the gulls, implo...
1. Part 1Will no one tell me what she sings? Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow For old, unhappy, far-off things, And battles long ago: Or is it some more humble lay, Familiar matter of...
23. Part 23[Footnote 2: Laura Gonzenbach was the daughter of the Swiss Consul at Messina, where she was born. At an early age she developed uncommon gifts, and she was hardly twenty when s...
14. Part 14Little I murmur against my load of woe-- Our love will never fail, nor yet decline; For to behold thy form contents me so, To see thee laugh with those red lips of thine. Dost t...
29. Part 29Also the harmless frog. It is a sin. Of brothers he told tales. It is a sin. The landmark stone he moved. It is a sin. Called in the Sircar's aid.[5] It is a sin. Put poison in...