SOURCE: "Curious Myths of the Middle Ages," in The Quarterly Review, Vol. 122, No. 244, April, 1867, pp. 429-50.

In the following essay, the critic determines that the stories collected in Curious Myths of the Middle Ages are arbitrarily selected.

Mr. Grote, in the highly instructive chapter in his History of Greece on the "Ancient and Modern Mythical Vein," has pointed out the multiplication of mythic fables in mediaeval Europe, arising from the twofold channel into which its mythopæic tendencies were diverted, according as the 'saintly ideal' found form and substance in legends of the Catholic saints, or the 'chivalrous ideal' in the romances of chivalry. Each type appealed to an uncritical audience; neither type laid a heavy tax upon the faith of hearers, whose historical instincts were as yet dormant, and whose reasoning powers had not been quickened into life. The fertility with which both types of legend fructified...