Celtic Folklore in the Works of Arthur Machen

CONCLUSION
Having done the research and written the paper “Celtic folklore in the works of Arthur Machen” the author of the paper has come to the following conclusion.
Celtic folklore, mythology and symbolism is an extremely perspective theme for research not only in art, history, but also in literature. Celtic culture has many facets and offers a broad field for research. For a long period of time people have been interested in Celtic culture that bears a lot of mysterious and supernatural. Numerous masterpieces have been created under influence of it. Many writers, poets and artists use the elements of Celtic culture, mythology and symbolism in their works, as, for example, one of the most famous Welsh writers of the 19th century Arthur Machen who from his early childhood was impressed by the mysterious Celts and their culture.
In this paper the author has analyzed and summarized the results of the study on the elements of Celtic folklore, mythology and symbolism used in Arthur Machen’s literary works. The process of research into the theme has shown that Celtic culture with its mythology, symbolism, rites and backgrounds is well treated by the foreign researchers and is well described in scientific literature. However, it was rather difficult to find the information about Celtic folklore in particular, as well as, about Arthur Machen and his literary works because not many sources are available. The author of the paper realizes that for further research more literary works of Arthur Machen should be analyzed in order to get a whole picture of the elements of Celtic folklore used in them.
The analysis of Celtic folklore in Arthur Machen’s works appeared to be a productive method for research. It has shown that many elements of Celtic folklore, mythology and symbolism appear in the works of Arthur Machen. These are such elements as the existence of two worlds – the real one and the otherworld; colours, “little people”, human sacrifice, transmutation and transfiguration and other. Some elements are clearly cut, some of them need more careful analysis because it is difficult to distinguish whether it belongs to the Celtic culture or not.
Hopefully, the present research may be useful for students and teachers, as well as for the people who are studying the history, literature or are interested in Celtic culture, folklore and mythology.
The theme has a broad perspective of research.

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