remote antiquity for the materials and ideas of
the tales, the _sid_-world is still the world of divine beings, though
these are beginning to assume the traits of fairies. Probably among the
people themselves the change had already begun to be made, and the land
of the gods was simply fairyland. In Wales the same change had taken
place, as is seen by Giraldus' account of Elidurus enticed to a
subterranean fairyland by two small people.[1302]

Some of the Elysium tales have been influenced by Christian conceptions,
and in a certain group, the _Imrama_ or "Voyages," Elysium finally
becomes the Christian paradise or heaven. But the Elysium conception
also reacted on Christian ideas of paradise. In the _Voyage of
Maelduin_, which bears some resemblance to the story of Bran, the
Christian influence is still indefinite, but it is more marked in the
_Voyage of Snedgus and MacRiagla_. One island has become a kind of
intermediate state, where dwell Enoch and Elijah, and many others
waiting for the day of judgment. Another island resembles the Christian
heaven. But in the _Voyage of Brandan_ the pagan elements have
practically disappeared; there is an island of hell and an island of
paradise.[1303] The island conception is the last relic of paganism, but
now the voyage is undertaken for the purpose of revenge or penance or
pilgrimage. Another series of tales of visionary journeys to hell or
heaven are purely Christian, yet the joys of heaven have a sensuous
aspect which recalls those of the pagan Elysium. In one of these, _The
Tidings of Doomsday_,[1304] there are two hells, and besides heaven
there is a place for the _boni non valde_, resembling the island of
Enoch and Elijah in the _Voyage of Snedgus_. The connection of Elysium
with the Christian paradise is seen in the title _Tir Tairngiri_, "The
Land of Promise," which is applied to the heavenly kingdom or the land
flowing with milk and honey in early glosses, e.g. on Heb. iv. 4, vi.
15, where Canaan and the _regnum c[oe]lorum_ are called _Tir Tairngiri_,
and in a gloss to 1 Cor. x. 4, where the heavenly land is called Tir
Tairngiri Innambeo, "The Land of Promise of the Living Ones," thus
likening it to the "Land of the Living" in the story of Connla.

Sensuous as many of the aspects of Elysium are, they have yet a
spiritual aspect which must not be overlooked. The emphasis placed on
its beauty, its music, its rest and peace, its oblivion, is spiritual
rather than sensual, w