Celtic · The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries · 8 of 25
CHAPTER X THE TESTIMONY OF CHRISTIANITY 442-55
W. Y. Evans-Wentz (1911)
Edicts against Pagan Cults--Cult of Sacred Waters and its Absorption by Christianity--Celtic Water Divinities--Druidic Influence on Fairy-Faith--Cult of Sacred Trees--Cult of Fairies, Spirits, and the Dead--Feasts of the Dead-- Conclusion.
Lough Derg a Sacred Lake originally--Purgatorial Rites as Christianized Survivals of Ancient Celtic Rites--Purgatory as Fairyland--Purgatorial Rites parallel to Pagan Initiation Ceremonies--The Death and Resurrection Rite--Breton Pardons compared--Relation to Aengus Cult and Celtic Cave-Temples-- Origin of Purgatorial Doctrine pre-Christian--Celtic and Roman Feasts of dead shaped Christian ones--Fundamental Unity of Mythologies, Religions, and the Fairy-Faith.
SECTION IV
MODERN SCIENCE AND THE FAIRY-FAITH; AND CONCLUSIONS