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| Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
|---|---|---|
"Mab" | Celtic | A miniature creature who drives her chariot across the faces of sleeping people and compels them to dream dreams of wish-fulfillment. Celtic Fairy tale |
"Mugello" | France | The giant slain by Averardo de Medici, a commander under Charlemagne. The tale is interesting, for it is said that the Medici took the three balls of this giant's mace for their device. Pawnbrokers have adopted the three balls as a symbol of their trade. France |
"Ph?dria" | Lake | Handmaid of Acrasia the enchantress. She sails about Idle lake in a gondola. Seeing Sir Guyon she ferries him across the lake to the floating island, where Cymochles attacks him. Ph?dria interposes, the combatants desist, and the little wanton ferries the knight Temperance over the lake again. Fairy Tale |
"Pillars of Hercules" | Spain | The opposite rocks at the entrance of the Mediterranean Sea, one in Spain and the other on the African continent. The tale is that they were bound together till Hercules tore them asunder in order to get to Gades (Cadiz). The ancients called them Calpe and Abyla; we call them Gibraltar Rock and Mount Hacho, on which stands the fortress of Ceuta. |
| King name "Pwyll" | Welsh | In the tale of Pwyll, the earliest reference to Annwn, the Welsh mythological otherworld, occurs. It is ruled by Arawn, at war with Hafgan. Arawn obtains the help of Pwyll by exchanging kingdoms with him for a year, and Pwyll defeats Hafgan. Welsh |
"Saci" | Brazilian | An impish mythical character of Brazilian folk tales. |
| Hero name "Sadko" | Russian | A legendary hero of a Russian epic tale. |
"St. Patrick" | Ireland | Patrick and the serpent. According to tradition, St. Patrick cleared Ireland of its vermin; one old serpent resisted him; but St. Patrick overcame it by cunning. He made a box, and invited the serpent to enter it. The serpent objected, saying it was too small; but St. Patrick insisted it was quite large enough to be comfortable. After a long contention, the serpent got in to prove it was too small, when St. Patrick slammed down the lid, and threw the box into the sea. To complete this wonderful tale, the legend says the waves of the sea are made by the writhings of this serpent, and the noise of the sea is that of the serpent imploring the saint to release it. |
| King name "Thrummy Cap" | Britain | A sprite described in Northumberland fairy tales as a "queer-looking little auld man," whose exploits are generally laid in the cellans of old castles. Britain |
| God name "Willow Pattern" | s | The tradition. The mandarin had an only daughter named Li-chi, who fell in love with Chang, a young man who lived in the island home represented at the top of the pattern, and who had been her father's secretary. The father overheard them one day making vows of love under the orange-tree, and sternly forbade the unequal match; but the lovers contrived to elope, lay concealed for a while in the gardener's cottage, and thence made their escape in a boat to the island home of the young lover. The enraged mandarin pursued them with a whip, and would have beaten them to death had not the gods rewarded their fidelity by changing them both into turtle-doves. The picture is called the willow pattern not only because it is a tale of disastrous love, but because the elopement occurred "when the willow begins to shed its leaves." |
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