Identifier: mythslegendscelt00roll (find matches)
Title: Myths and legends ; the Celtic race
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Rolleston, T. W. (Thomas William), 1857-1920
Subjects: Celts Celts Celtic literature Legends, Celtic
Publisher: Boston : Nickerson
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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he wall. The Dagda calledto it, and immediately it flew into his hands, killingnine men of the Fomorians on its way. The Dagdasinvocation of the harp is very singular, and not a littlepuzzling : Come, apple-sweet murmurer,** he cries, come,four-angled frame of harmony, come. Summer, come.Winter, from the mouths of harps and bags andpipes. * The allusion to summer and winter suj^o^ests thepractice in Indian music of allotting certain musicalmodes to the different seasons of the year (and even todifferent times of day), and also an Egyptian legendreferred to in Burneys History of Music, where thethree strings of the lyre were supposed to answerrespectively to the three seasons, spring, summer, andwinter.^ When the Dagda got possession of the harp, the talegoes on, he played on it the three noble strains * OCurry, Manners and Customs, iii. 214. ^ The ancient Irish division of the year contained only these threeseasons, including autumn in summer (OCurry, Manners andCustoms, iii. 217).118
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At the Revels of the Fairy Folk ii8 CHARACTERISTICS OF DANAAN DEITIES which every great master of the harp should command,namely, the Strain of Lament, which caused the hearersto weep, the Strain of Laughter, which made themmerry, and the Strain of Slumber, or Lullaby, whichplunged them all in a profound sleep. And undercover of that sleep the Danaan champion stole out andescaped. It may be observed that throughout thewhole of the legendary literature of Ireland skill inmusic, the art whose influence most resembles that of amysterious spell or gift of Faery, is the prerogative ofthe People of Dana and their descendants. Thus inthe Colloquy of the Ancients, a collection of talesmade about the thirteenth or fourteenth century, St.Patrick is introduced to a minstrel, Cascorach, a hand-some, curly-headed, dark-browed youth, who plays sosweet a strain that the saint and his retinue all fallasleep. Cascorach, we are told, was son of a minstrelof the Danaan folk. St. Patrick*s scribe, Brogan

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