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Questers for inspiration, seekers of higher knowledge, dreamers versed in ancient lore, born out of their time, escaping from their world into the fairyland, yet struggling to communicate their vision to their contemporaries, the mythological characters have provided the Victorian poets with the masks allowing them to make their message at the same time personal and universal.

In the nineteenth century, myth was no longer discarded as mere fable, nor was it interpreted as history in a supernatural disguise. The comparative method helped to illuminate the similarities between beliefs of disparate cultures, and established the study of mythology as a respected field of scholarly research, in that myths were no longer treated as corruptions of the sacred revelation embodied in the Bible. The emerging discipline, anthropology, allowed greater insight into the mythopoeic mind, which the Romantic poets had discovered and celebrated among the country folk. Thus, the above-mentioned theories should not be viewed separately from literary studies. While classicists and philologists attempted to arrive at theories explaining the original significance of the major figures in world mythologies, the Victorian poets found in them new sources of inspiration for their dramatic personas. Moreover, this renewed interest in ancient mythologies also helped to awaken the public’s interest in the mythologies and folklore native to the British Isles, embracing both the Celtic and Norse connections, which also provided sources for new directions in literature.

In Celtic legends, the Irish monk Saint Brendan of Clonfert, and the Irish heroes Oisín, Bran and Mael Duin all travel to the Irish Fortunate Islands, which appear under various names, such as Tír na mBan (the Land of Women), Tír na nÓg (the Land of Youth), Tír na mBeo (the Land of the Living) and Tír Tairngire (the Land of Promise). These Celtic Islands of the Blessed were believed to be “settled by the semi-divine Tuatha Dé Danann, after their defeat by the mortal Milesians” and, like their Greek counterparts, were situated in the western ocean. This was also the traditional location of the Celtic Elysium, Avalon, the Island of Apples, where both the wounded King Arthur and Ogier the Dane were carried by Morgan le Fay after their final battles. However, according to another popular belief, Avalon was identified with Glastonbury. This concept of the Otherworld as situated in a different dimension yet sharing the same geographical location with a place in the world of mortals has been common in Irish folklore, where the Fairyland can be found under the fairy mounds (sídhe), in caves, ruined castles, raths or at the bottom of the lakes.

The works of Tennyson, Swinburne, Morris and Yeats prove that mythologies could still be employed in original and creative ways. Not only do these poets show keen awareness of the classical heritage but they also venture into other cultural areas, exploring Celtic and Norse themes and adapting them for their particular needs. Another important feature that they all share is the influence of the Romantic tradition on their works, so that these poets themselves may be perceived as the last Romantics.

For Yeats, reality was the source of symbols for the ineffable. Yet, despite his idea of high art as the new religion with the solitary artist as the new priest, it would be an oversimplification to state that he shut himself away from real life. To the contrary, he thought that a timeless, universal work of art should be rooted in direct experience, in genuine emotion as opposed to everything generalised and conventional, which he despised. The complexity of the relationship between the poet devoted to his work and the man of action preoccupied Yeats for most of his life.