Myths reflect our cultural and psychological souls. The fables of gods and goddesses, fairies and elves, gnomes, giants, and various otherworldly people and customs tell a lot of things about the people who keep them alive by thinking and writing about them.

The Forgotten Language by Erich Fromm, page 195, tells:

"If one fails to grasp the true meaning of the myth, one finds oneself confronted with this alternative: either the myth is a prescientific, naive picture of the world and of history and at best a product of poetically beautiful imagination, or- and this is the attitude of the orthodox believer- the manifest story of the myth is true, and one must believe it as a correct report of events which actually happened in 'reality'".

Generally, the myth is seen in symbolic terms by people in the 21st century.

Leach discusses the fairies in The Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend:

"One of the oldest Irish sagas states that the barrows where the fairies dwelt were open about Samhain... According to Keating, in heathen times the druids on Ireland assembled to sacrifice to the gods and burn their victims on Samhain Eve. All other fires were extinguished to be rekindled only from that fire" (Leach, 968).

In this statement, we see the elements of the hill barrow or fairy mound where an underground world flourished. Samhain or Halloween (All Hallow's Eve) was the time when the gates between two worlds were open and where, through these gates, the living human and the Otherworld folk, including the dead, could pass freely.

In Ibn Fadlan's historical account of the Viking king burial, the dead chieftain was buried in the ground for a while, but he was exhumed at a later time. By the time of exhumation, the dead king's skin had turned black from being in the cold earth.

In olden times, preceding burial and during the Wake, the dead body was often treated as if the person were alive. Sometimes the corpse was set up to a table in a chair, spoken to, and danced with by the living before being buried.

All these funeral customs were expressions of cultures that showed a conviction about this present life as we know it. There was a strong belief that there was another existence or afterlife. It was felt that a life on earth preceded a new life in some other dimension or realm.

Many of the old pagan customs involved lighting fires and subsequently passing people and cattle through the fire. Passing people through fire was symbolic of moving people or spirits from one condition to another and maybe representing some kind of purification. These fires were often lit during the nights when spirits were said to enter into this world through spiritual portals with very narrow time opportunities.

These fires may have been lit because of fear and to appease the spirits. In ancient times, the passing of people through the fire was most often literal, burning them alive as sacrifices. Those ancient customs seem to be nearly identical to the heathen practice of sacrificing children to Molech, burning them alive. Eventually, the practice of Christianity caused people to modify their behavior and make symbolic burnings. As Christianity made progress in changing the heathen rites, the more acceptable custom of having people dash across and through a bonfire became acceptable.

The pagan fires of Beltain were lit on the eve of the festival and burned all night, leaving only ashes the next day. People rubbed the cold black ashes on their faces. The word Beltaine or Beltane was Gaelic and referred specifically to May or May Day. Today, this festival has both pagan and Christian significance.

If you consider the extinguished life fires in Maurya's household in Riders to The Sea, you can discern the need for a new fire to be lit on the hearth, as the Beltaine fires were each year.