4 chapters
59 minute read
Selected Chapters
4 chapters
CURIOUS MYTHS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
CURIOUS MYTHS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
BY S. BARING-GOULD, M.A. BOSTON: ROBERTS BROTHERS. 1867. STEREOTYPED AT THE BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY, No. 4 Spring Lane. University Press: Welch, Bigelow, & Co., Cambridge. POPE JOAN. From Joh. Wolfii Lect. Memorab. (Lavingæ, 1600.)...
16 minute read
The Dog Gellert.
The Dog Gellert.
H AVING demolished William Tell, I proceed to the destruction of another article of popular belief. Who that has visited Snowdon has not seen the grave of Llewellyn’s faithful hound Gellert, and been told by the guide the touching story of the death of the noble animal? How can we doubt the facts, seeing that the place, Beth-Gellert, is named after the dog, and that the grave is still visible? But unfortunately for the truth of the legend, its pedigree can be traced with the utmost precision. Th
24 minute read
THE CRAFTY HARE.
THE CRAFTY HARE.
In a certain forest lived a mighty elephant, king of a herd, Toothy by name. On a certain occasion there was a long drought, so that pools, tanks, swamps, and lakes were dried up. Then the elephants sent out exploring parties in search of water. A young one discovered an extensive lake surrounded with trees, and teeming with water-fowl. It went by the name of the Moon-lake. The elephants, delighted at the prospect of having an inexhaustible supply of water, marched off to the spot, and found the
2 minute read
The Mountain of Venus.
The Mountain of Venus.
R AGGED, bald, and desolate, as though a curse rested upon it, rises the Hörselberg out of the rich and populous land between Eisenach and Gotha, looking, from a distance, like a huge stone sarcophagus—a sarcophagus in which rests in magical slumber, till the end of all things, a mysterious world of wonders. High up on the north-west flank of the mountain, in a precipitous wall of rock, opens a cavern, called the Hörselloch, from the depths of which issues a muffled roar of water, as though a su
32 minute read