SOURCE: "Aspects of Celtic Mythology," in Proceedings of the British Academy, 1934, pp. 207-48.

In the following essay, van Hamel undertakes a comparative analysis of Celtic mythology, particularly of the Irish Fenian Cycle, in order to uncover the magical and religious undercurrents in the tradition.

Some scholars look upon a myth as an article of faith of pagan times. Others take it as an expression of the early religious mind in a symbolical form. However, neither dogmatism nor speculation belongs to the primitive properties of religion. Their influence, great though it may become in the course of evolution, is not in any degree underrated if precedence is given to an altogether different aspect of mythology, which is of a practical and, therefore, a more primitive character. Myths have an essential bearing upon the execution of the earliest religious functions, that is, upon the ritual intended for the obtaining of...