ARE WE ALL TROJANS?

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18267, 29 December 1924, Page 11

ARE WE ALL TROJANS?

TO THE EDITOR 0* "THI PSE9B." Sir, —Your article this morning interested mo much. As to the value of 'tradition, tho Catholic Churcli lays it down, I believe, that it, in certain cases, is more authoritative than the ■written word. Certainly there are traditions in certain families and amongst certain peoples that come within tho category laid down by the JR.C. Church. In nil probability the Trojans, like the Acheans, were a northern people of older settlement than the Greek -wave. In all history there has been, .amongst tho northern peoples, a flux and reflux to and from ''Jltl "tfH essay upon "Tho Face of the , one reads .of Greek settlements 'on the coasts of the northern seas. As I read it the island to the east of Britain was Denmark, subsequent rising of the land converting it into a peninsula. In about 380 8.0. (see ! Enclop. Brit.) Phvsias of JMassalia, a Grecian astronomer, spent some' years 1 in Britain and wrote an. account of its geographical features. A little later Ireland was known to the Romans. So far as the.northern seas •were concerned there was a regular trade route from Greeoe through Thrace to the Danube and down the Vistula (see Nordenskold); Greek trading adventurers perhaps opened it up. Alexander's returned soldiers perhapa leut efficient aid. The Greeks were great adventurers (Have they left us their spirit? Have we no Golden Fleece, no no Australian, no Klondvkes?), and they certainly left their "marks from India to Norway. In all probability a hand of Alexander s old soldiers, after fighting in the 6outh, turned to the north, fought and conquered Germanic tribes, and took their women. The Mother's Tongue always conquers the conquerors in such caaee, but Greek art prevailed, and according to JDu Chaillan (I think), their descendants, the Viking?, left evidence of it in their mound tombs. The original Greek type was quite different from the tricky tittle dark rogues of to-day, being tail, with red or golden hair and blue eyes, so, I think, states JRualrin in Athena, Queen of tho Air, hut as I have not read it since '69, T cannot h© sure. The original type, in <ill its purity, is often found in the north of England and in Scotland, where Viking settlements were formed, and it is a curious fact that the old (Spots fought in Alexander's favourite wedge formation, that they have the old Greek pipes and are still fond of the. name Alexander. As to our English Histories, they are absurd. Thcv represent the British ae navagcs, yet Caesar drove through cornfields—and sava.ges do not have oornficlds/nor do such artistic gold work as did the ancient Britons. The actual truth is that the Romans were organised brigands, destroying in Gaul and Britain a higher civilisation than their own. Both Gauls and Britons worshipped one God and in material things! were as advanced aa we were but a. little over a hundred years ago. Did not the maritime warriors of northern France have chain cables for tbeir ships? Nelson had not Did they not .have reapers that gathered in their crops in a few days. T remember when 'wc out. our com with hook or sickle, f i fear that I have taken up too much space.—Yours, etc., TtfRNBULL. Pec. 37th. *