Hero Tales | Page 2

and especially some
of the independent shorter stories, are well adapted to use in
reading-classes at school. Of the seventeen stories herein presented,
nine are from the "Golden Age," four from "Siegfried," and four from
"Roland." They are, for the most part, episodes, complete in themselves,
and connected only by a slender thread with the main narrative. Their
intrinsic value is in no way diminished by being thus separated from
their former setting, and each tale being independent of the others, they
lend themselves more readily to the demands of the schoolroom.
It is well to observe that in no case have I endeavored to repeat the
story in its exact original form. To have done so would have defeated
the purpose in view; for without proper adaptation such stories are
usually neither interesting nor intelligible to children. I have therefore
recast and rearranged, using my own words, and adding here a touch of
color and here a fanciful idea, as the narrative has seemed to permit or
as my audience of school children may demand. Nevertheless, in the
end, the essential features of each tale--those which give it value in its
original form--remain unchanged.
CONTENTS
How Apollo Came to Parnassus The Hunt in the Wood of Calydon The
Choice of Hercules Alpheus and Arethusa The Golden Apple Paris and
Oenone Hesione Paris and Helen Iphigenia The Hoard of the Elves The
Forging of Balmung Idun and Her Apples The Doom of the
Mischief-maker The Hunt in the Wood of Puelle Ogier the Dane and
the Fairies How Charlemagne Crossed the Alps What Happened at
Roncevaux

HOW APOLLO CAME TO PARNASSUS
A very long time ago, Apollo was born in the island of Delos. When
the glad news of his birth was told, Earth smiled, and decked herself
with flowers; the nymphs of Delos sang songs of joy that were heard to
the utmost bounds of Greece; and choirs of white swans flew seven
times around the island, piping notes of praise to the pure being who
had come to dwell among men. Then Zeus looked down from high
Olympus, and crowned the babe with a golden head-band, and put into
his hands a silver bow and a sweet-toned lyre such as no man had ever
seen; and he gave him a team of white swans to drive, and bade him go

forth to teach men the things which are right and good, and to make
light that which is hidden in darkness.
So Apollo arose, beautiful as the morning sun, and journeyed through
many lands, seeking a dwelling place. He stopped for a time at the foot
of Mount Olympus, and played so sweetly upon his lyre that Zeus and
all his court were entranced. Then he wandered up and down through
the whole length of the Thessalian land; but nowhere could he find a
spot in which he was willing to dwell. At length he climbed into his car,
and bade his swan team fly with him to the country of the
Hyperboreans beyond the far-off northern mountains. Forthwith they
obeyed; and through the pure regions of the upper air they bore him,
winging their way ever northward. They carried him over many an
unknown land, and on the seventh day they came to the Snowy
Mountains where the griffins, with lion bodies and eagle wings, guard
the golden treasures of the North.
In these mountains, the North Wind has his home; and from his deep
caves he now and then comes forth, chilling with his cold and angry
breath the orchards and the fair fields of Greece, and bringing death and
dire disasters In his train. But northward this blustering Boreas cannot
blow, for the heaven-towering mountains stand like a wall against him,
and drive him back. Hence it is that beyond these mountains the storms
of winter never come, but one happy springtime runs through all the
year. There the flowers bloom, and the grain ripens, and the fruits drop
mellowing to the earth, and the red wine is pressed from the luscious
grape, every day the same.
The Hyperboreans who dwell in that favored land know neither pain
nor sickness, nor wearying labor nor eating care; but their youth is as
unfading as the springtime, and old age with its wrinkles and its
sorrows is evermore a stranger to them. The spirit of evil, which would
lead all men to err, has never found entrance among them, and they are
free from vile passions and unworthy thoughts; and among them there
is neither war, nor wicked deeds, nor fear of the avenging Furies, for
their hearts are pure and clean, and never burdened with the love of
self.
When the swan team of silver-bowed Apollo had carried him over the
Snowy Mountains, they alighted in