LEGENDS OF THE SAINTS. 469 were modified so as to suit Christian feeling. But when preserved without such a change, they exhibited themselves palpably, and were designated by their compilers, as at variance with the reli- gious belief of the people, and as associated either with impos- ture or with evil spirits. A new vein of sentiment had arisen in Europe, unsuitable in- deed to the old mythes, yet leaving still in force the demand for mythical narrative generally. And this demand was satisfied, speaking generally, by two classes of narratives, the legends of ths Catholic Saints and the Romances of Chivalry, corre- sponding to two types of character, both perfectly accommodated to the feelings of the time, the saintly ideal and the chivalrous ideal. Both these two classes of narrative correspond, in character as- well as in general purpose, to the Grecian mythes being sto- ries accepted as realities, from their full conformity with the pre- dispositions and deep-seated faith of an uncritical audience, and prepared beforehand by their authors, not with any reference to imposed so powerfully upon the people around him as to receive divine hon- ors. Thor also is treated as having been an evil daemon. (See Lexicon Mythologic. ut supra, pp. 567, 915.) Respecting the function of Snorro as logographer, see Prsefat. ad Eddam, at supra, p. xi. He is much more faithful, and less unfriendly to the old re- ligion, than the other logographers of the ancient Scandinavian Sagas. (Leit- faden der Nordischen Alterthiimer, p. 14, by the Antiquarian Society of Copenhagen, 1837.) By a singular transformation, dependent upon the same tone of mind, the authors of the French Chansons de Geste, in the twelfth century, turned Apollo into an evil dastnon, patron of the Mussulmans (see the Roman of Garin le Loherain, par M. Paulin Paris, 1833, p. 31 ) : " Car mieux vaut Diex que ne fait Apollis." M. Paris observes, " Get ancien Dieu des beaux arts est 1'un des demons le plus souvent de'signe's dans nos poOmes, comme patron des Musulmans." The prophet Mahomet, too, anathematized the old Persian epic anterior to his religion. " C'est a 1'occasion de Naser Ibn al-Hareth, qui avait apporte' de Perse PHistoire de Rustem et d'Isfendiar, et la faisait reciter par des chan- teuses dans les assemblies des Koreischites, que Mahomet pronon^a le vera iuivant (of the Koran): II y a des hommes qui achetent des contes frivoles, pour detourner par-la les hommes dc la voie de Dien, d'une maniereinsensee, et pour la livrer a la rise'e : mais leur punit.on les couvrira de honte.' (Mohl, Preface au Livre dea Rois deFsrdoasi, p. xiii.)
