I am glad to be here, for though the weather has changed for the worse I am so fond of the place and neighbourhood. But what I care for most is I am in a strong Fiona mood, though more of dream and reverie—creatively—than of actual writing: indeed it is likely all my work here, or nearly all shall be done through dream and mental-cartooning. I have written “The Snow Sleep of Angus Ogue” for the winter Evergreen, and am glad to know it is one of F. M.’s deepest and best utterances.
The Evergreen was a Quarterly started by Prof. Geddes, of which W. S. was Editor. Five numbers only were issued. During the autumn William had prepared for publication by P. Geddes & Coll a re-issue of the Tales contained in The Sin-Eater and The Washer of the Ford, in the form of a paper covered edition in three volumes, Barbaric Tales, Spiritual Tales, Tragic Romances. Each volume contained a new tale. Mr. W. B. Yeats considered that “Of the group of new voices none is more typical than the curious mysterious voice that is revealed in these stories of Miss Fiona Macleod.... She has become the voice (of these primitive peoples and elemental things) not from mere observation of their ways, but out of an absolute identity of nature.... Her art belongs in kind, whatever be its excellence in its kind, to a greater art, which is of revelation, and deals with invisible and impalpable things. Its mission is to bring us near to those powers and principalities, which we divine in mortal hopes and passions.
Mr. W. E. Henley had shown considerable interest in the “F. M.” Tales, and had written an appreciative letter to the author, who immediately acknowledged it:
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Dear Mr. Henley,
I thank you for your kind letter. Any work of recognition from you means much to me. Your advice is wise and sane, I am sure—and you may be certain that I shall bear it in mind. It will be difficult to follow—for absolute simplicity is the most difficult of all styles, being, as it must be, the expression of a mind at once so imaginative in itself, so lucid in its outlook, and so controlled in its expression, that only a very few rarely gifted individuals can hope to achieve the isolating ideal you indicate.
The three latest things I have written are the long short-story “Morag of the Glen,” “The Melancholy of Ulad,” and “The Archer.” I would particularly like to know what you think of the style and method of “The Archer” (I mean, apart from the arbitrary fantasy of the short supplementary part—which affords the clue to the title)—as there I have written, or tried to write, with the accent of that life as I know it.
F. M.
The central story of “The Archer” was one of the Tales which the author valued most, and rewrote many times. In its final form—“Silas,” in the Tauchnitz volume of F. M. Tales—it stands without the opening and closing episodes. Concerning the “fantasy of the short supplementary part” a curious coincidence happened. That arbitrary fantasy is the record of a dream, or vision, which the author had at Tarbert. In a letter from Mr. Yeats received shortly after, the Irish poet related a similar experience which he had had—a vision of a woman shooting arrows among the stars—a vision that appeared also the same night to Mr. Arthur Symons. I remember the exchange of letters that passed between the three writers; unfortunately Fiona’s letter to Mr. Symons, and the latter’s answer, are not available. But I have two of the letters on the subject which, through the courtesy of Mr. Yeats, I am able to quote; both, unfortunately are undated. F. M. describes a second vision which, however, had no connection with the coincidence.
Mr. Yeats wrote: