No proof of Atlantis
In my recent publication Il-Folklor Malti (Malta, 2003, p. 155 n. 121) I argued against Francis Galea's line of thought that by taking Manwel Magri's ethnopoetic texts, collected during his fieldwork in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, one finds...
In my recent publication Il-Folklor Malti (Malta, 2003, p. 155 n. 121) I argued against Francis Galea's line of thought that by taking Manwel Magri's ethnopoetic texts, collected during his fieldwork in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, one finds historical proof of Malta being the remains of Atlantis.
The same argumentation is repeated in Mr Galea's contribution, Malta Remains Of Atlantis (The Times, June 22). May I point out that his quote from Magri with reference to Ix-Xini Jimxi fl-Art (The Land Ship) is a folk tale and not a legend (see my critical edition of Manwel Magri, Hrejjef Missirijietna, Malta, 1994, p. 500). This is an international narrative (ATU 513B), entitled The Land And Water Ship, narrated in various countries including Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Byelorussia, Canada, China, Corsica, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, India, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Panama, the Philippines, Sardinia, Scotland, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the Ukraine, the United States, and the West Indies, besides Malta.
One understands Magri's pro-Phoenician bias in his pseudo-historical comments on Maltese narrative texts at a time when he was a pioneer in Maltese folkloristics but 100 years later it is expected that the works of various contemporary scholarly folklorists of international renown be consulted. The latter do agree that the essence of history is not to be found in folk narrative semantics.