Legends That Every Child Should Know; a Selection of the Great Legends of All Times for Young People. Hamilton Wright Mabie
Legends That Every Child Should Know; a Selection of the Great Legends of All Times for Young People
growth, … a poetic wording of the facts of life, … an endeavour to shape the facts of the world to meet the needs of the imagination, the cravings of the heart." The legend, dealing originally with incidents in the lives of the saints and with places made sacred by association with holy men, has, as a rule, some slight historical basis; is cast in narrative form and told as a record of fact; and, in cases where it is entirely imaginative, deals with some popular type of character like Robin Hood or Rip Van Winkle; or with some mysterious or tragic event, as Tennyson's "Idylls of the King" are poetic renderings of part of a great mass of legends which grew up about a little group of imaginary or semi-historical characters; Longfellow's "Golden Legend" is a modern rendering of a very old mediaeval tale; Irving's "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is an example of purely imaginative prose, and Heine's "Lorelei" of a purely imaginative poetic legend.
The legend is not so sharply defined as the myth and the fairy story, and it is not always possible to separate it from these old forms of stories; but it always concerns itself with one or more characters; it assumes to be historical; it is almost always old and haunts some locality like a ghost; and it has a large admixture of fiction, even where it is not wholly fictitious. Like the myth and fairy story it throws light on the mind and character of the age that produced it; it is part of the history of the unfolding of the human mind in the world; and, above all, it is interesting.
HAMILTON W. MABIE.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. HIAWATHA
From "Indian Myths." By Ellen Emerson.
II. BEOWULF
From "A Book of Famous Myths and Legends."
III. CHILDE HORN
From "A Book of Famous Myths and Legends."
IV. SIR GALAHAD
Alfred Tennyson.
V. RUSTEM AND SOHRAB
From "The Epic of Kings. Stories Retold from Firdusi." By Helen Zimmern.
VI. THE SEVEN SLEEPERS OF EPHESUS
From "Curious Myths of the Middle Ages." By Sabine Baring-Gould.
VII. GUY OF WARWICK
From "Popular Romances of the Middle Ages." By George W. Cox,
M. A. and Eustace Hinten Jones.
VIII. CHEVY CHASE
From "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads." Edited by Francis
James Child.
IX. THE FATE OF THE CHILDREN OF LIR
From "Gods and Fighting Men: The Story of the Tuatha de Danaan
and of the Fianna of Ireland." Arranged and put into English by Lady
Gregory.
X. THE BELEAGUERED CITY
From "Voices of the Night." By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
XI. PRESTER JOHN
From "Curious Myths of the Middle Ages." By Sabine Baring-Gould.
XII. THE WANDERING JEW
From "Curious Myths of the Middle Ages." By Sabine Baring-Gould.
XIII. KING ROBERT OF SICILY
From "The Wayside Inn." By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
XIV. THE LIFE OF THE BEATO TORELLO DA POPPI
From "Il Libro d'Oro of Those Whose Names are Written in the
Lamb's Book of Life." Translated from the Italian by Mrs. Francis
Alexander. Originally written in Latin by Messer Torrelo of
Casentino, Canonico of Fiesole, and put into Italian by Don Silvano.
XV. THE LORELEI
From the German of Heinrich Heine.
XVI. THE PASSING OF ARTHUR
From "Idylls of the King." By Alfred Tennyson.
XVII. RIP VAN WINKLE
Washington Irving.
XVIII. THE GRAY CHAMPION
From "Twice Told Tales." By Nathaniel Hawthorne.
XIX. THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW
Washington Irving.
CHAPTER I
WIGWAM LEGEND OF HIAWATHA [Footnote: This story is ascribed to Abraham le Fort, an Onondaga chief, a graduate of Geneva College. The poem of Longfellow has given it general interest. Hiawatha is an example of the intellectual capacity of one of that race of whom it has been said "Take these Indians in their owne trimme and naturall disposition, and they bee reported to bee wise, lofty spirited, constant in friendship to one another: true in their promise, and more industrious than many others."—Wood's, "New England's Prospect," London, 1634.]
On the banks of Tioto, or Cross Lake, resided an eminent man who bore the name of Hiawatha, or the Wise Man.
This name was given him, as its meaning indicates, on account of his great wisdom in council and power in war. Hiawatha was of high and mysterious origin. He had a canoe which would move without paddles, obedient to his will, and which he kept with great care and never used except when he attended the general council of the tribes. It was from Hiawatha the people learned to raise corn and beans; through his instructions they were enabled to remove obstructions from the water courses and clear their fishing grounds; and by him they were helped to get the mastery over the great monsters which overran the country. The people listened to him with ever increasing delight; and he gave them wise laws and maxims from the Great Spirit, for he had been second to him only in power previous to his taking up his dwelling with mankind.
Having selected the Onondagas for his tribe, years passed away in prosperity; the Onondagas assumed an elevated rank for their wisdom and learning, among the other tribes, and there was not one of these which did not yield its assent to their superior privilege of lighting the council-fire.
But in the midst of the high tide of their prosperity, suddenly there arose a great alarm at the invasion of a ferocious band of warriors from the North of the Great Lakes; and as these bands advanced, an indiscriminate slaughter was made of men, women, and children. Destruction fell upon all alike.
The public alarm was great; and Hiawatha advised them not to waste their efforts in a desultory manner, but to call a council of all the tribes that could be gathered together, from the East to the West; and, at the same time, he appointed a meeting to take place on an eminence on the banks of the Onondaga Lake. There, accordingly, the chief men assembled, while the occasion brought together a vast multitude of men, women, and children, who were in expectation of some marvellous deliverance.
Three days elapsed, and Hiawatha did not appear. The multitude began to fear that he was not coming, and messengers were despatched for him to Tioto, who found him depressed with a presentiment that evil would follow his attendance. These fears were overruled by the eager persuasions of the messengers; and Hiawatha, taking his daughter with him, put his wonderful canoe in its element and set out for the council. The grand assemblage that was to avert the threatened danger appeared quickly in sight, as he moved rapidly along in his magic canoe; and when the people saw him, they sent up loud shouts of welcome until the venerated man landed. A steep ascent led up the banks of the lake to the place occupied by the council; and, as he walked up, a loud whirring sound was heard above, as if caused by some rushing current of air. Instantly, the eyes of all were directed upward to the sky, where was seen a dark spot, something like a small cloud, descending rapidly, and as it approached, enlarging in its size and increasing in velocity.