Sketches from Manx History (1915)
STEPHEN MILLER CHRISTOPHER SHIMMIN SKETCHES FROM MANX HISTORY (1915) CHIOLLAGH BOOKS FOR CULTURE VANNIN 2020 SKETCHES FROM MANX HISTORY * (1) [5b] The story of the Isle of Man may be divided into three distinct periods—the Celtic, from the unknown past to the 10th century; the Norse, to the middle of the 13th century; and the Manx, to the present time. The story of our Island changes its form as we journey backwards in time. First we have written history, as recorded in State papers and official documents. Overlapping these, and often in conflict with them, we have tradition—a statement of events handed down orally from one generation to the next. Beyond this is Legend—accounts of occurrences passed down through the ages, and usually overlaid with wonder and imagination until it becomes difficult to decide which is truth and which is fancy. Farthest away, in the dim, nebulous beginning of human story telling, we find the most ancient of all records, that of myth. The wonder stories of Egypt, Greece, and Germany, are familiar to many readers, yet how few of us trouble to read the legends of our own race and land. The Celtic mythology is as wonderful, as beautiful, and has more of tenderness than the others. We have marvellous stories of the doings of gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines, druids and magicians, kings and queens, giants and dwarfs, battles of nations, wars with fiends and fairies, adventurous voyages in magic lands and seas, and even under earth and sea. We have beautiful legends of saints and the miracles performed by them; weird stories of witches, stirring battle stories.
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