9] and which Morris renders as a tribute to King Olaf, "thou
brakest down London Bridge." There is little wonder, then, that the
men of King Olaf took back with them to saga-land a great memory of
this bridge and this fight, transferred to it their own variant of the
world-wide treasure legend, and made a legend not of money treasure,
but of regained health to a crippled warrior. The corresponding
non-British version of Brittany helps us to understand that the cure
of disease was originally associated with the gains of treasure, and
in the Norse version the treasure incident is altogether dropped, but
in its place is the recovery of health, a treasure more in accord with
the sterner needs and recollections of a great fight. The Norse story
is helpful to us as showing how London Bridge could enter into the
legends of a people, and remain with them even after that people was
no longer living in Britain, and it becomes therefore a valuable
addition to the evidence for the more ancient transference from
Britain to Brittany of the original legend.

Altogether the piecing together of the items of historical value in
this legend is most complete. We have not only recovered for history
hitherto lost conceptions of the place held by Roman Lundinium among
the Celtic tribesmen, but we have recovered also evidence of the true
culture-position of the Celtic tribesmen towards their Roman
conquerors. The examination of this legend may have been long and
tedious, but the result is, I think, commensurate. It illustrates the
power of tradition to set historical data in their proper environment,
to restore the proportion which they bear to unrecorded history, and
if the student will but follow the evidence carefully, I think he will
find these results.

We will take a step forward, and turn from local to personal
attachments of tradition. There is a whole class of traditions
attached to personages about whose historical existence there can be
but little doubt, and just because of the accretion of tradition round
them their historical existence has oftentimes been denied. The most
famous example in our history is of course King Arthur, and so great
an authority as Sir John Rhys is obliged to resort to a special
argument to account for the problems he is faced with. He argues, and
argues strongly, for an historic Arthur--an Arthur who was the British
successor of the Roman emperor after Britain had ceased to be a part
of the Roman Empire.