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Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 1823-1911

"Tales of the Enchanted Islands of the Atlantic"

15. He mentions (I. 19, note) a map printed at Amsterdam in 1678 byKircher, which shows Atlantis as a large island midway between Spain andAmerica. Ignatius Donnelly's "Atlantis, the Antediluvian World" (N. Y.1882), maintains that the evidence for the former existence of such anisland is irresistible, and his work has been very widely read, althoughit is not highly esteemed by scholars.II. TALIESSINThe Taliessin legend in its late form cannot be traced back beyond theend of the sixteenth century, but the account of the transformation is tobe found in the "Book of Taliessin," a manuscript of the thirteenthcentury, preserved in the Hengwt Collection at Peniarth. The Welsh bardhimself is supposed to have flourished in the sixth century. See AlfredNutt in "The Voyage of Bram" (London, 1897), II. 86. The traditions may befound in Lady Charlotte Guest's translation of the "Mabinogion," 2d ed.,London, 1877, p. 471. The poems may be found in the original Welsh inSkene's "Four Ancient Books of Wales," 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1868; and healso gives a facsimile of the manuscript.III. CHILDREN OF LIRThe lovely legend of the children of Lir or Lear forms one of those threetales of the old Irish Bards which are known traditionally in Ireland as"The Three Sorrows of Story Telling." It has been told in verse by Aubreyde Vere ("The Foray of Queen Meave, and Other Legends," London, 1882), byJohn Todhunter ("Three Irish Bardic Tales," London, 1896); and also inprose by various writers, among whom are Professor Eugene O'Curry, whoseversion with the Gaelic original was published in "Atlantis," Nos.


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