"Therefore had I arrows twain
Yestreen in the wood with me,
Had I but hurt my brother dear,
The other had piercA(C)d thee."
A very similar tale is told also in the celebrated Malleus Maleficarum
of a man named Puncher, with this difference, that a coin is placed on
the lad's head instead of an apple or a nut. The person who had dared
Puncher to the test of skill, inquires the use of the second arrow in
his belt, and receives the usual answer, that if the first arrow had
missed the coin, the second would have transfixed a certain heart
which was destitute of natural feeling.
We have, moreover, our English version of the same story in the
venerable ballad of William of Cloudsley.
The Finn ethnologist CastrA(C)n obtained the following tale in the
Finnish village of Uhtuwa:--
A fight took place between some freebooters and the inhabitants of the
village of AlajA¤wi. The robbers plundered every house, and carried off
amongst their captives an old man. As they proceeded with their spoils
along the strand of the lake, a lad of twelve years old appeared from
among the reeds on the opposite bank, armed with a bow, and amply
provided with arrows; he threatened to shoot down the captors unless
the old man, his father, were restored to him. The robbers mockingly
replied that the aged man would be given to him if he could shoot an
apple off his head. The boy accepted the challenge, and on
successfully accomplishing it, the surrender of the venerable captive
was made.
Farid-Uddin A,ttar was a Persian dealer in perfumes, born in the year
1119. He one day was so impressed with the sight of a dervish, that he
sold his possessions, and followed righteousness. He composed the poem
Mantic UttaA-r, or the language of birds. Observe, the Persian A,ttar
lived at the same time as the Danish Saxo, and long before the birth
of Tell. Curiously enough, we find a trace of the Tell myth in the
pages of his poem. According to him, however, the king shoots the
apple from the head of a beloved page, and the lad dies from sheer
fright, though the arrow does not even graze his skin.
The coincidence of finding so many versions of the same story
scattered through countries as remote as Persia and Iceland,
Switzerland and Denmark, proves, I think, that it can in no way be
regarded as history, but is rather one of the numerous household myths
common to the whole stock of Aryan nations. Probably, some one more
acquainted with Sanskrit literature than myself, and with better
access to its unpublished stores of fable and legend, will some day
light on an early Indian tale corresponding to that so prevalent among
other branches of the same family. The coincidence of the Tell myth
being discovered among the Finns is attributable to Russian or Swedish
influence. I do not regard it as a primeval Turanian, but as an Aryan
story, which, like an erratic block, is found deposited on foreign
soil far from the mountain whence it was torn.
German mythologists, I suppose, consider the myth to represent the
manifestation of some natural phenomena, and the individuals of the
story to be impersonifications of natural forces. Most primeval
stories were thus constructed, and their origin is traceable enough.
In Thorn-rose, for instance, who can fail to see the earth goddess
represented by the sleeping beauty in her long winter slumber, only
returning to life when kissed by the golden-haired sun-god PhA"bus
or Baldur? But the Tell myth has not its signification thus painted
on the surface; and those who suppose Gessler or Harald to be the
power of evil and darkness,--the bold archer to be the storm-cloud
with his arrow of lightning and his iris bow, bent against the sun,
which is resting like a coin or a golden apple on the edge of the
horizon, are over-straining their theories, and exacting too much from
our credulity.
In these pages and elsewhere I have shown how some of the ancient
myths related by the whole Aryan family of nations are reducible to
allegorical explanations of certain well-known natural phenomena; but
I must protest against the manner in which our German friends fasten
rapaciously upon every atom of history, sacred and profane, and
demonstrate all heroes to represent the sun; all villains to be the
demons of night or winter; all sticks and spears and arrows to be the
lightning; all cows and sheep and dragons and swans to be clouds.
In a work on the superstition of Werewolves, I have entered into this
subject with some fulness, and am quite prepared to admit the premises
upon which mythologists construct their theories; at the same time I
am not disposed to run to the extravagant lengths reached by some of
the most enthusiastic German scholars. A wholesome warning to these
gentlemen was given some years ago by an ingenious French
ecclesiastic, who wrote the following argument to prove that Napoleon
Bonaparte was a mythological character. Archbishop Whately's "Historic
Doubts" was grounded on a totally different line of argument; I
subjoin the other, as a curiosity and as a caution.
Napoleon is, says the writer, an impersonification of the sun.
1. Between the name Napoleon and Apollo, or Apoleon, the god of the
sun, there is but a trifling difference; indeed, the seeming
difference is lessened, if we take the spelling of his name from the
column of the Place VendA'me, where it stands NA(C)apoleA cubed. But this
syllable _Ne_ prefixed to the name of the sun-god is of importance;
like the rest of the name it is of Greek origin, and is I1/2I. or I1/2I+-I¹,
a particle of affirmation, as though indicating Napoleon as the very
true Apollo, or sun.
His other name, Bonaparte, makes this apparent connection between the
French hero and the luminary of the firmament conclusively certain.
The day has its two parts, the good and luminous portion, and that
which is bad and dark. To the sun belongs the good part, to the moon
and stars belongs the bad portion. It is therefore natural that Apollo
or NA(C)-ApoleA cubedn should receive the surname of _Bonaparte_.
2. Apollo was born in Delos, a Mediterranean island; Napoleon in
Corsica, an island in the same sea. According to Pausanias, Apollo was
an Egyptian deity; and in the mythological history of the fabulous
Napoleon we find the hero in Egypt, regarded by the inhabitants with
veneration, and receiving their homage.
3. The mother of Napoleon was said to be Letitia, which signifies joy,
and is an impersonification of the dawn of light dispensing joy and
gladness to all creation. Letitia is no other than the break of day,
which in a manner brings the sun into the world, and "with rosy
fingers opes the gates of Day." It is significant that the Greek name
for the mother of Apollo was Leto. From this the Romans made the name
Latona, which they gave to his mother. But _LA|to_ is the unused form
of the verb _lA|tor_, and signified to inspire joy; it is from this
unused form that the substantive _Letitia_ is derived. The identity,
then, of the mother of Napoleon with the Greek Leto and the Latin
Latona, is established conclusively.
4. According to the popular story, this son of Letitia had three
sisters; and was it not the same with the Greek deity, who had the
three Graces?
5. The modern Gallic Apollo had four brothers. It is impossible not to
discern here the anthropomorphosis of the four seasons. But, it will
be objected, the seasons should be females. Here the French language
interposes; for in French the seasons are masculine, with the
exception of autumn, upon the gender of which grammarians are
undecided, whilst Autumnus in Latin is not more feminine than the
other seasons. This difficulty is therefore trifling, and what follows
removes all shadow of doubt.
Of the four brothers of Napoleon, three are said to have been kings,
and these of course are, Spring reigning over the flowers, Summer
reigning over the harvest, Autumn holding sway over the fruits. And as
these three seasons owe all to the powerful influence of the Sun, we
are told in the popular myth that the three brothers of Napoleon drew
their authority from him, and received from him their kingdoms. But if
it be added that, of the four brothers of Napoleon, one was not a
king, that was because he is the impersonification of Winter, which
has no reign over anything. If, however, it be asserted, in
contradiction, that the winter has an empire, he will be given the
principality over snows and frosts, which, in the dreary season of the
year, whiten the face of the earth. Well, the fourth brother of
Napoleon is thus invested by popular tradition, commonly called
history, with a vain principality accorded to him _in the decline of
the power of Napoleon_. The principality was that of Canino, a name
derived from _cani_, or the whitened hairs of a frozen old age,--true
emblem of winter. To the eyes of poets, the forests covering the hills
are their hair, and when winter frosts them, they represent the snowy
locks of a decrepit nature in the old age of the year:--
"Cum gelidus crescit _canis_ in montibus humor."
Consequently the Prince of Canino is an impersonification of
winter;--winter whose reign begins when the kingdoms of the three fine
seasons are passed from them, and when the sun is driven from his
power by the children of the North, as the poets call the boreal
winds. This is the origin of the fabulous invasion of France by the
allied armies of the North. The story relates that these invaders--the
northern gales--banished the many-colored flag, and replaced it by a
white standard. This too is a graceful, but, at the same time, purely
fabulous account of the Northern winds driving all the brilliant
colors from the face of the soil, to replace them by the snowy sheet.
6. Napoleon is said to have had two wives. It is well known that the
classic fable gave two also to Apollo. These two were the moon and the
earth. Plutarch asserts that the Greeks gave the moon to Apollo for
wife, whilst the Egyptians attributed to him the earth. By the moon he
had no posterity, but by the other he had one son only, the little
Horus. This is an Egyptian allegory, representing the fruits of
agriculture produced by the earth fertilized by the Sun. The pretended
son of the fabulous Napoleon is said to have been born on the 20th of
March, the season of the spring equinox, when agriculture is assuming
its greatest period of activity.
7. Napoleon is said to have released France from the devastating
scourge which terrorized over the country, the hydra of the
revolution, as it was popularly called. Who cannot see in this a
Gallic version of the Greek legend of Apollo releasing Hellas from the
terrible Python? The very name _revolution_, derived from the Latin
verb _revolvo_, is indicative of the coils of a serpent like the
Python.
8. The famous hero of the 19th century had, it is asserted, twelve
Marshals at the head of his armies, and four who were stationary and
inactive. The twelve first, as may be seen at once, are the signs of
the zodiac, marching under the orders of the sun Napoleon, and each
commanding a division of the innumerable host of stars, which are
parted into twelve portions, corresponding to the twelve signs. As for
the four stationary officers, immovable in the midst of general
motion, they are the cardinal points.
9. It is currently reported that the chief of these brilliant armies,
after having gloriously traversed the Southern kingdoms, penetrated
North, and was there unable to maintain his sway. This too represents
the course of the Sun, which assumes its greatest power in the South,
but after the spring equinox seeks to reach the North; and after a
_three months'_ march towards the boreal regions, is driven back upon
his traces following the sign of Cancer, a sign given to represent
the retrogression of the sun in that portion of the sphere. It is on
this that the story of the march of Napoleon towards Moscow, and his
humbling retreat, is founded.
10. Finally, the sun rises in the East and sets in the Western sea.
The poets picture him rising out of the waters in the East, and
setting in the ocean after his twelve hours' reign in the sky. Such is
the history of Napoleon, coming from his Mediterranean isle, holding
the reins of government for twelve years, and finally disappearing in
the mysterious regions of the great Atlantic.
To those who see in Samson, the image of the sun, the correlative of
the classic Hercules, this clever skit of the accomplished French AbbA(C)
may prove of value as a caution.