Abstract
FICTION, “like the baseless fabric of a vision, leaves not a wrack behind,” because it has no foundation in fact. Stories that are commonly classified as “fabulous” usually have, however, a nucleus of scientific import. In the words of Canon Atkinson: “The myth, the fable (of the mystic sort), the legend, has always a base, a substratum or foundation of some sort. Like the Pentacle, with its mystic application and use, or the Svastika, Fylfot, or Hammer of Thor, the Monolith or Standing-stone—from Jacob's stone at Bethel, and before and since—it has always had its own something to rest upon, to spring from its actual material ‘base’ or occasion.” Scientific inquiry is required to reveal this base; but by this we do not mean that facts of physical or of natural science are necessarily involved in every marvellous story, but rather that the investigator of legendary lore should conduct his research in a scientific spirit, discarding speculative evidence, and reducing the problem to its simplest appearance. This is the spirit in which Canon Atkinson has investigated the myths, legends, and traditions connected with Whitby. His treatment of the Caedmon legend is worthy of special mention. It will be remembered that Caedmon produced his great sacred poem at Whitby. According to Baeda, he was a common cowherd or oxherd, to whom the gift of poesy was miraculously, or at least suddenly,given, and this story has been generally accepted in spite of its great improbability. Canon Atkinson rids the story of its miraculous element, and justifies the dictum poeta nascitur, non fit. He shows that it is largely mythical, and that Caedmon was probably a homely native poet of some genius, but undeveloped, before the Abbess Hild took him up. This view is practically clinched by the evidence that Caedmon's name is of Celtic origin, and that therefore he doubtless possessed the fervid imagination and vivid fancy of the Celtic temperament. It need hardly be said that the miracle described by Baeda would have been eliminated from the story at once by a man of science. To us it seems that Canon Atkinson comes to the only conclusion possible after a careful consideration of historical records, and a common-sense view of the case. Other stories and customs connected with Whitby are discussed with a similar broad-mindedness,and in a manner which local historians generally would do well to follow.
Memorials of Old Whitby.
By Rev. J. C. Atkinson Pp. 326. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1894.)
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Memorials of Old Whitby. Nature 51, 149 (1894). https://doi.org/10.1038/051149b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/051149b0