.. a point of the story which survives in the Ogier of
the Chansons de Geste, wherein Eadgar (Otkerus or Otgerus) gets what
belonged to Holger (Holge), the Helga til of Beowulf's Lay."--Saxo, _Danish
History_, lxiv.
[53] Cf. Child's _Ballads_, i. 319.
[54] In _Huon of Bordeaux_ Merlin comes with King Arthur to Oberon's
death-bed; Arthur introduces him as his nephew, the son of Ogier the Dane
and "my sister Morgan."
[55] The mere mention of these subterranean explorations opens up an
immense field of discussion and speculation that can here be only relegated
to a note; we can treat at greater length none but those legends which bear
directly on our subject. Odysseus visited Hades, Aeneas descended to Orcus
or Tartarus, and they have their counterparts in every land and every
mythology. Human aetiological tendencies supply explanations of any cavern
or natural chasm--even a volcano must be the mouth of the entrance to hell
or purgatory--from Taenarus, where Pluto carried off Proserpine, and the
Sibyl's cavern, whence Aeneas sought the lower regions, to the famous Lough
Dearg in Donegal, the entrance to "St. Patrick's Purgatory," and the Peak
cavern in Derbyshire. The student may begin his researches with T. Wright's
_St. Patrick's Purgatory_ (1844). A very common tale in Celtic literature
is that of the visit of some hero to the underworld and his seizure of some
gift of civilisation--just as Prometheus stole fire from heaven.
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