172 CUMBRIA AND THE MEN OF THE NORTH.
ference.'' And a similar monument is described in a MS. quoted by Dr. Jamicson, in his edition of Bellen- den*8 Boece, as existing in Carrick: — " There is 3 werey grate heapes of stonnes, callit wulgarley the Eemes of Bladdnney, being the name of the village and ground. At the suthermost of thir 3 caimes are ther 13 great tall stonnes, standing upright in a perfyte circkle^ aboute some 3 ells ane distaimt from ane other, with a gret heighe stonne in the midle, which is werily estoemid be the most learned in- habitants to be the buriall place of King Caractacus. ** The names of Caradawg and of Gwallawg seem, therefore, connected with the district of Carrick and that of Wigton, extending between Carrick and the Solway Firth.
Gwenddolew, the son of Ceidiaw, is clearly con- nected with Ardderyd, now Arthuret, where his name still remains in Carwhinclow; and between this and the southern boundary of Cumbria, at the Derwent, others of the descendants of Coel may have had their seat We have Urien connected with the district at the northern wall, termed Mureif or Regcd, in which Loch Lomond was situated. And of the family of Cynwyd Cynwydion one son, dyddno Eiddyn, is connected by his name with Eiddyn or Caer Eiddyn, now Caredin, termed in the Capiiula of Gildas " civitas antiquis- sima; ** and another, Catrawd Calchvynyd, with Kelso. Calchvynyd is simply Calch Mountain, or chalk moim- tain; and Chalmers, in his Caledonia (voL iL p. 166), says: ''It (Kelso) seems to have derived its an- CUMfiBIA AND THE MEN OF THE NORTH. 173 cient name of Calchow from a calcaieou eminence which appeals conspicuous in the middle of the town, and which is still called the Chalk Heugh."
The other group of families descended from Dyfnwal Hen are not so easily placed, as they Kxm acquired the supremacy over the whole x^on, bat it is probable that they were more immediately connected with the central districts, Annandale, dydesdale, Teviotdale, Yarrow, Selkirk, and Tweeddale. After Kentigem was recalled to Cumbria, it is stated by Joceline -that he placed his episcopal seat for some time at Hoddelm or Hoddom in Annandale, where Byd- derch's power may hftve been greatest, and his £EitherVi name of Tutgual Tntclud seems to connect him with the ** flumen Qud,'' probably the upper part^ as we read in the acts of St. Eentigem of a ** rcgina de Caidsow* or Cadyow, the old name of the middle district of the vale of the Clyde, which indicates a separate small state.
Between Strathclyde and Ayrshire lay the district of Strathgiy^ now the county of Renfrew, and this part of Cumbria seems to have been the scat of the family of Caw, commonly called Caw Cawlwydd or Caw Prydyn, one of whose sons was Gildas. In one of the lives of Gildas he is said to be son of Caimus who reigned in Arecluta. In the old description of Scotland we are told that Arcgaithel means Margo Hibemensium. The name Arecluta is similarly composed, and signifies a district lying along the Clyde, and Strathgrife or Benr frewshire lies in its whole extent along the south bank of the Clyde. In the life of St Cadocus a singular 174 CUMBRIA AND THE MEN OF THE NORTH.
legend is preserved. Ho is said to have visited Scot- land, and while he was building a monastery there near the mountain Bannawe he found the grave of a giant^ who rose and informed him that he was Caw of Prydyn, and that he had been a king who reigned be- yond the mountain Bannawe, and in another legend we are told that this monastery was in regione Lin- theamus {Lives of Cambro British Saints). Now the parish of Cambuslang, on the Clyde, is dedicated to St Gadoc, and through the adjoining parish of Carmimnock, formerly Carmannock, runs a range of hills, now called the Cathkin hills, which separates Strathclyde £ix)m Ayr- shire and terminates in Renfrewshire. This must be the mountain Bannawe, and the name is preserved. in Carmannock, B passing into M in Welsh in combina- tion, and Caw is thus represented in this legend also as reigning in Strathgryf or Renfrewshire. The name Lintheamus is probably meant for Linthcamus or Cam- buslang.
There is a curious legend preserved in the Vene- dotian code of the old Welsh laws, which is as follows: ^ Here Eiidyr Muhenvaur, a man from the north was slain; and, after his death, the ** Gwjr y Goglcd,** or Men of the Norths came here to avenge him. The chiefs, their leaders, were Cljddno Eiddin; Nadd Hael, son of Senyllt; and Mordaf Hael, son of Semaii, and Bydderch Hael, son of Tudwal Tudglyd; and they came to Anron, and because Eiidyr was slain at Aber Mewydus in Anron, they burned Arvon as a further revenge. And then Bon, son of Maelgwn, and the men of Gwynedd, assembled in anns, and proceeded to the banks of the Gweiyd ** yn y Gogledd," or in the north, and there they were long disputing who should lake the lead through the river Gweryd. Then Bun despatched CUMBRIA AND THE MKN OF THB KOBTH. 179 a messenger to Gwynedd to asoerttin who was enftitlsd to ibb lead: some say tliat Maeldaf the elder, the Lord of Penaidd, atiyudged it to the men of AiTon; Jomerth, thesonof Madog^oo the authority of his own infonnation, aflbms thai Idno tlie aged a98igned it to the men of the Uaek-headed shafts. And tlMV»* nponthe men of Arvon adyanoed in the Tan, and wen valoraip there. And Tsliessin sang — ^ Behold! firom the sideney of their hladsS| With RoDy the reddener of armies, The men of Anron with their mddj laaess.* Old Wdak Imm, ^ 5a Elidyr Mwynvawr waa the head of one of tho families descended from Dyfhwal Hen, and so were Rydderch Hael| Nudd Had, and Mordav Hael, and Clyddno Eiddjm was of the race of CoeL They are called ^ Gwyr 7 Gogledd,'' or Men of the North, and the scene of the dispute as to who should lead was the banks of the river Forth, for the river Gweryd in the north is the Forth, it having been, according to the old description of 1165, called, " Britannice, Weryd.** The author of the GenecUogia annexed to Nennius describes four of these kings of the north — Urien, Rydderch, Gwallawg, and Morcant— as warring against Hussa, son of Ida, the king of Bemicia, who reigned from 667 to 574; and the battle of Arddeiyd, fought in 573, by which the anti-Christian party were finaUy crushed, resulted in the consolidation of these petty states into the kingdom of Cumbria or Strathclyde» and the establishment of Rydderch as king in the strong fortress of Aldyde or Dumbarton rock, which became from henceforth the chief seat of the kingdom. Here we find Rydderch established when he sent % 176 CUMBRIA AND THE MEN OF THE NORTH.
message to St Columba^ to consult him, as supposed to possess prophetic power^ whether he should be slain by his enemies, as recorded by Adomnan in his Life of St. ColumbOf who calls him ** Rex Rodarcus filius Totail qui Petra Qoithe regnavit" St Columba's reply — * De eodem rege et regno et populo ejus " — ^was, that he would not fall into the hands of his enemies, but die in his own house: which prophecy, adds Adomnan, was fulfilled, as he died a peaceful death.
If Joceline reports a real fact, when he says that he died in the same year as St. Kentigem, his death must have taken place either in the year 603 or 614, according to which is the true date of St Kentigem's death;* and during that time he consoUdated his Xx>wer, and re-established the bishopric of Glasgow.
The chronicle of 977 records, in 580, the death of Gwrgi and Peredur, the sons of Eliver Gosgorddvaur, another of these northern kings, and, in 593, the death of Dunawd, son of Pabo Post Prydain; and the Gene- ahgia state that against Theodric, son of Ida, who reigned in Bemicia from 580 to 587, Urien with his sons fought valiantly, and adds, " In illo tempore ali- quando hostes, nunc cives, vincebantur,'' showing the character of the struggle which was taking plac^ between the Cymric population and the increasing power of the Angles.
* The Chronicle of 977 placet Kentigem's death in 61S; but the Abeideen BreriAiy, in the Life of Baldied, placee hii death on Sondaj, the 13th Januaiy 603. The 13th of Januaiy ii St. Kentigem's daj, and it feU upon a Sondaj in 603 and also in 614. The fizst date is lo be punned.
CUMBRIA AKD THB MEM OF THE KOBTR. 177 In 603 a great effort appean to have been xnade by the Celtic tribes to drive back the An^^eii^ under Aidan, king of the Scots who inhabit Britain, whom Bede describes as invading Bemida with an immAnnA and brave army, and being defeated and put to fli^t at Degaastan, now Dawston, in Idddesdale, where ahnost all his army were slain, and he himself escaped with a few only of his followers. This disaster most have crushed the efforts of the Celtic tribes to xesiBt the Angles for the time, and enabled the latter to extend their territories unresisted, till in the leign of Edwin they reached the shores of the Urth of Forth.
After the death of Edwin, when Oadwallawn had established his power, Tighemac records, in 638, the battle of Glenmairison, in which the people of Donald- brec were put to flighty ''et obsessio Etain,* and afterwards, in 642, that Donaldbrec was slain in the fifteenth year of his reign in the battle of Strathcauin by Oban, king of the Britons, and in the same year a battle between Oswy and the Britons. The same tran- sactions are repeated at a later date in Tighemac, when the first battle is said to have been in CdUthroB^ and the second in Strathcam, while the name of the British king is given as Haan; but the first are the true dates.
Donaldbrec was the king of Dalriada, and the son of that Aidan who had been defeated in 603. Glen- mairison must not be confoimded with the glen called Olenmoriston on Loch Ness. It was in CaUthros^ and Calithros appears to have been the same with the dis- trict called Calatria, in which Callander is situated. It VOL. I. N i 178 CUMBRIA AlfB THE MEN OF THE NORTH.
lay between the Carron and the Avon, extending on the west at least to the place called Carriden on the Avon, and bounded on the east by the Firth of Forth, including in its limits the parishes of Kincil and Care- den; and within this district Glenmairison must have been situated, though it cannot now be identified. Etain was no doubt Eiddyn or Cacreden, and the upper part of the valley of the Carron was called Strath Canon, in which there was a royal forest termed in old charters Strathcawin. These events then indicate a great struggle between Dbnaldbrec and the Britons, in which the former was defeated and finally slain in 642. If my conjecture is correct, that Aidan led a combined force of Scots and Britons, he was in fact for the time performing the functions of Guledig or "Dux Bellorum" in the north; and this struggle probably indicated an attempt on the part of Donaldbrec to maintain the same position. Who Ohan or Haan was, we do not know. He may have been a king of Alclyde and a successor of Rydderch, but it is more probable that he was no other than Cadwallawn himself, whom Tighemac calk Chon, and that the object of the war was whether Donald should retain his father's position, or whether Oadwallawn, who had now become powerful in the aoath, should extend his supremacy over the north likewise.* * TIm paasagM quoted from UgheniAC wiU be found in the Ckro- wUtm 9ftk$PieU and SeoU, recentljr published in the eeries of Scottish Bceoidi^ and tn aooonnt of GblAtria wiU be found in the intioduction, pilxxx.
CUMBBIA AND THE MSK OF THB KOBTB. 179 The great defeat of the combined fofoes of the Mercians and Britons in 655 by Oswj, king of Nordir nmbria, in which Penda, king of the Merciaiui» was slain, and Cadwallawn escaped with his life, tmfninated the power of the latter, and led to the sabjedaon of the Cambrian Britons to the kings of Northumbtiai and two years afterwards the Annals of Ulster zeoord the death of Oureit or Guriad, king of Aldyde. Hie sab- jection of the Britons to the Angles lasted till the year 686, when Ecfrid, king of Northumbria, was slain in the batde of Dumuchen, and during tiiat time no king of Aldyde is recorded. It was also during this time that Ecfrid granted to lindisfame, Oarlisle, with territory to the extent of fifteen miles roond it; bat the result of the defeat and death of Ec&id was, as Bedc tells us, that a part of the Britons recovered their liberty, and that this part was the British kingdom of Cumbria or Strathclyde appears from this, that the kings of Aldyde again appear in the Annals as independent kings.
In 694 died Domnall MacAuin rex Alochluaithe, and, in 722, Bdi filius Elfin rex Alochluaithe. In the Welsh pedigrees annexed to Nennius, a genealogy is given, in which this Beli, son of Elfin, appears, and his descent is there given from Dyfiiwal Hen, the an- cestor of Bydderch Had, and stem-father of the second group of northern families.
Although the Britons of Strathdyde had recovered their liberty, and the Picts had regained that part of the " Provincia Pictorum'' north of the Forth which the.
180 CUMBRIA AND THE MEN OF THE NORTH.
Angles had subjected, it would appear that the Pictish population south of the Forth still remained subject to them. The Picts of Manann had come under their power as early as the reign of Edwyn, and therefore still remained within the Anglic kingdom, as appears from their subsequently rebelling against its kings; and the Picts of Galloway seem likewise to have remained under their subjection, as Bode tells us that in 731, when he closes his histoiy, four bishops presided in the province of the Northumbrians, one of whom was Pecthelm in the church which is called Candida Casa, or Whitehom, '* which," he says, " from the increased number of believers, has lately become an additional Episcopal see, and has him for its first prelate.^' This implies that Whitehom still remained in the province of the Northumbrians; and in 750, we are told, in the chronicle annexed to Bede, that Ecbert, king of North- imibria, ** Campum Cyil cum aliis regionibus suo regno addidit;" that is, Kyle and Carrick, which lay between it and Galloway, and possibly Cuningham, forming modem Ayrshire.
In the same year, however, a great battle is recorded both in the Welsh and the Irish Annals between the Britons and the Picts, in which the Picts were defeated, and Taloigan, brother of Angus, the king of the Picts, slain. The place where this battle was fought is termed in the Chronicle of 977, Mocetauc, in the Brut y Saeson, Magdawc, and in the Brut y Tyvrysogxon^ Maefiydawc Mae$ is the Welsh equivalent for Magh in Gaelic, meaning a plain, and the place meant was no doubt CUMBRIA Ain> THE UES OF THE NOBXB. 181 Mugdock in the parish of StrathUane, Starlingahira, die ancient seat of the Earls of Lennox, In dd charten it is spelt Magadavac In the same year, acooxding to the Welsh Chronidei and two years after, acooxding to Tighemac, died Teudwr, son of Bile^ king of Aldyde^ and in 756 Eadbert, king of Northnmfariai and Angna^ king of the Picts, appear to have united their finces^ and we are told by Simeon of Durham that they led their army '' ad nrbem Alcwith, ibique Brittones inde conditionem receperont^ prima die mensis AngnatL* In 760 the Welsh Chronicle records the death of Dungual, son of Teudwr. From this date there is a blank in the kings of Aldyde for an entire century—^ the first notice we have of them again being in 872, when Arthga ''rex Britonum Strathduaide ' is akdn, " Consilio Constantini filii Cinadon/ This Constantine was king of the Scots, and Arthga or Arthgal appears in the Welsh genealogy as descendant in the fourth degree from DunguaL Alclyde is recorded, however, in the Annals of Ulster as having been burnt in 780 and besieged 870 by the Norwegian pirates, who^ after a siege of four months, took and destroyed it Accord* ing to the Welsh Chronicle, '' Arx Aldut a gentUibus fracta est" Strathdyde was again ravaged by them in 875. Arthgal appears to have been succeeded by his son Run, who is called in the Pictish Chronide ''rex Britonum,'' and said to be the father of Eocha, who ^ reigned along with Grig, by a daughter of Kenneth MacAlpin. This is the last name given in the Welsh genealogy, and one of the copies of the Brut y 182 CUMBRIA AND THE MEN OF THE NORTH.
Tywysogion has the following entry in 890, which, if containing a true feet, will explain this.
^Ilie men of Stnthclyde who would not unite with the SazoDS were obliged to leave their country and go to Gwynned, and Anaiawd (king of Wales) gave them leave to inhabit the eountij taken from him by the Saxons, comprising Maelor, the ▼ale of Clwyd, Bhyvoniog, and Tegem^, if they could drive the Saxons out, which they did bravely. And the Saxons came on that aoooont a second time against Anarawd, and fought the action of Cymiyd, in which the Cymry conquered the Saxons and drove ihem wholly out of the countiy; and so Gwynned was freed fitmi the Saxons by the might of die ' Gwyr y Gogledd ' or Men of the North."
That the Britiish line of the kings of Strathdyde came to an end very soon \a certain, for the Pictish Chronicle tells us that on the death of Donald ** rex Britannorum,'' who must have died between 900 and 918, " Dunenaldus filiis Ede rex eligitur.^ He was brother to Constantine, the king of the Scots, and thus a Scottish line was established in the kingdom of Strath- dyde. It must have been so much weakened by the loss of Kyle and the other regions wrested from it by the Saxons^ and the attacks upon it by the Norwegian pirates, that we can well believe that a large portion of the population fled to Wales for refuge, and that the in- fluence of the new and powerful kingdom of the Scots led to a prince of that race being placed upon the throne.
In 946 it was overrun and conquered by Edmund, king of Wessex. He bestowed it upon Malcolm, king of the Scotfi^ and from this time it became an appanage of the Scottish crown. The Saxon historians name the region conquered by Edmund as Cumbria, but that CUMBRIA AND THE KES OF THE KOSXH. 183 this kingdom of Strathdyde is meant^ appears fmrn the Chronicle of 977, now a contemporaij leoord, which has, in 946, '' Strat Glut vastata est a Sazomboa.* It is unnecessaiy for the purpose of this work to follow the histoiy further. Suffice it to say that^ in the reign of Malcolm Canmore, Carlisle and that port of Cumbria south of the Solway Firth belonged to the Norman conqueror, and was erected into an earidom for one of his followers; that^ on the death of Edgar, that part of it which lay north of the Solway Firth was given to his brother. Prince David, and on hit accessbn to the throne in 1124 became united to the Scottish crown; but that its poj^ulation remained a distinct element in the population of SoothukL ftr some time after, under the names of ComhieDMi^ Brits, and Strathdyde Wealas.
184 BECENT CRITICISM OF MYTHOLOGICAL POEMS.
S CHAPTER XL RECENT CRITICISM OF MYTHOLOGICAL POEMS EXAMINED.
Such then being, so far as we can gather it from the scanty materials afforded to us, the real position of the Cjmric population, and the leading features of their history prior to the twelfth century, as well as of their literature subsequent to that period, the question before us is this, What place does this very peculiar body of ancient poetry really occupy? Are we to regard them as ancient poems which have come down to us from an early period of Cymric literature, and possessing from their antiquity an historic value inde- pendently of their literary merit, if they have any? or are we to set them aside as so beset with suspicion, and as evincing such evidence of fetbrication in a later age, as to render them valueless for all historic pur- poses?
That the bards to whom these poems are in the main attributed, are recorded as having lived in the sixth century, is certain. We have it on the authority of the Genealogia annexed to Nennius, written in the eighth century. That this record of their having lived in that age is true, we have every reason to believe, and we may hold that there were such bards as Taliessin, Aneurin, Lljrwarch Hen, and Mjrrddin, at RECENT CRmCISM OF MYTHOLOGICAL POEM& 185 that early period, who were believed to have written poems. That the poems which now bear their name do not show the verbal forms» and orthography of that age, and that the form of the language of these poems • has not the aspect which the language of the sixth century ought to exhibit, is equally certain. But this implies no more than that we do not possess transcripts of these poems made at that period. With the ex- caption of two fragments, the oldest transcript we now possess is that in the Black Book of Caermarthen, a MS. of the twelfth century, and the orthography and verbal forms are those of that period, but this is not con- clusive. All transcripts show the orthography and forms of their period. There may have been earlier transcripts, and if these had been preserved they would have shown earlier forms.
Before proceeding further, then, with this view of the subject, we may inquire whether these poenm exhibit other marks of a later date, independently of the orthography and form of the language, so dear and decisive, as to lead us at once to the conviction that they could not belong to an earlier period than the date of the MS. in which we find the oldest text If this question is answered in the negative, we may then inquire how far they show us clear and decisive marks of having been the work of an earlier age; and having determined their date, the literary question will become easily disposed ofl If, on a fair and candid examination of these poems, it must be answered in the afltenative, cadit qtUBStio.
186 RECENT CRITICISM OF MYTHOLOGICAL POEMS.
• These poems have recently been arraigned at the 1)ar of criticism by Mr. Stephens and Mr. Nash; and though they differ somewhat in the extent to which they answer this question in the affirmative^ yet on the whole their verdict is against the antiquity of the poems^ and the grounds upon which they arrive at this conclusion partake to a great extent of one com- mon character. It will, therefore, be convenient to deal with these works together as really forming one body of criticism, and to examine first the case for the prosecution, as it were, and the real bearing of that criticism upon the question.
Both of these writers group the poems into two classes, which they call Mythological and Historical, and the objections which they urge against them may be comprised under the three following proposi- tions: — L The so-called mythological poems do not con- tain, as is supposed, a system of mystical and semi- pagan philosophy, handed down from the Druids, and preserved in these poems by their successors, the Bards of the sixth century, as an esoteric creed; but they are the work of a later age, and arc nothing but the wild and extravagant emanations of the fancy of bards of the twelfth and subsequent centuries, and contain such allusions to the prose tales and romances of the middle ages as to show that they must have been written aftier these tales were composed.
IL The so-called. historical poems not only contain direct allusions to later evidente^ but it can be shown RECENT CRITICISM OF MTTHOLOQICAL POSIfS. 187 that other allusions^ which have been sapposed to apply to events of the sixth centaiy, were really intended to refer to later events.
III. The orthography and poetic structure of these poems show that they could not have been written earlier than the date of the MSS. in which they first appear.
Mr. Stephens embraces in his criticism the whde of these poems; Mr. Nash deals with those of Taliesain alone; and it may be as well to consider the bearing of this criticism on the poems attributed to Taliesan first Mr. Stephens, in his work on the Literature of the Kymry, docs not go minutely into them, but deak with a few specimens only, and states the result of hia examination of seventy-seven poems, attributed to Taliessin, in the following classification: — HiSTORIOAL, AND AS OlD AS THE SCCTH CiMTURT.
Gwaith Gwcnystrad. The Battle of GwenystnuL Gwaith Argoed Llwyfain. The Battle of Aigoed liwy&in.
Gwaith Dyffryn Gwarant The Battle of Dyffiyn Gwarant I Uricn. To Urien.
I Urien. To Urien.
Canu i Urien. A Song to Urien.
Yspoil Taliesain. The Sports of Taliesain.
Canu i Urien Kheged. A Song to Urien Bheged.
Dadolwch Urien Bheged. Reconciliation to Urien.
I Wallawg. To Gwallawg (the Oalgacos of Tacitus).
Dadolwch i Urien. Boconciliation to Urien.
Marwnad Owain ap Urien. The Elegy of Owain ^> Urien.
188 RECENT CRITICISM OF MTTHOLOQICAL POEMS.
Doubtful.
Cerdd i Wallawg ap Ueenawg. A Song to Owollawg ap Ueenawg.
Marwnad Cunedda., The Elegy of Canedda.
Gwarchan Tutvwicli. The Incantation of Tutvwlch.
Gwaichan Adebon. The Incantation of Adebon.
Gwarchan Cynfelyn. The Incantation of Cynvelyn.
Gwarchan Maelderw. The Incantation of Maelderw.
Kerdd Daronwj. The Song to Daronwj.
TVawsganu Cjnaa Garwyn. The Satire on Cjnan Garwyn.
bomances belonoino to the twelfth amd thirteenth Centuries.
CoKU Cyniaf Taliettm, DehvddiatU ElphiiL Hones Taliessin. Canu 7 Medd. Canu 7 GwTnt Canu 7 B7d Mawr. Canu 7 B7d Bach. Bustl y Beirdd. Boarth Beiidd. Cad Goddeo. Cadeir Taliesin. Oader TeTmon. Canu 7 Cwrwv. Canu 7 Meirch. AddvwTneu Taliesin. Angar KT^yndawd. Priv QTfarch. DehvddiatU Elphin. Aiymes P7dd Brawd. AwdlVrailk Glaswawd Taliesin. Divrtgawd TalimtL Mab gyfnm Taliesin.
Awdl EUo TaUesiu. Kufes Taliessin*s first Sang. The ConsokUion of Elphin, The History of Taliessin. The Mead Song. The Song to the \^nd. The Song of the Great World. The Song of the Little World. The Gall of Iha Bards. The Circle of the Bards. The Battle of the Trees. The Chair of Taliesin. The Chair of the Sovereign On. The Song of the Ale. The Song of the War-horses. The Beautiful Things of Taliesin. The Provincial Confederacy. The Primary Gratulation. Elphin^s Consolation. The Day of Judgment The Ode of Farieties. The Encomiums of Taliesin. Past and Future Ages. Taliesin's Juvenile Accomplish- ments. Another Ode hf Taliesin. The Confession of Taliessin.
RECENT CRITICISM OF MYTHOLOGICAL POSM& 189 These sekm to form Portions of the Mabinooi of Talib> SIN, WHICH WAS COMPOSED BT ThOMAS AB EiNION OiFBISUIX Cadair Keridwen. Marwnad Uthyr Pendragon. Preiddeu AnnwiL Marwnad £rcwl£ Marwnad Mad. Ddrud ao EroY 7 greulawn. Marwnad Aeddon o Yon. Anrhyyeddodau Alexander. Y Oofeisws Byd. Llurjg Alexander.
The Chair of Keridweo.
The Elegy of Uthyr PendragoiL The Yictima of Annwn (Hell).
The Elegy of Hercoka.
The Elegy of Madoe the Bold and EroY the Heroe. The Elegy of Aeddon of Moil The not wounding of Alexander. A Sketch of the Worid. The Lorica of Alexander.
Predictive Poems — ^Twelfth and Succeeding CEKXimmL Ymarwar Uud Mawr.
Ymarwar Uud Bychan.
Gwawd Uud Mawr Kerd am Yeib liyr.
Marwnad Corroi ab Daiiy.
Mic or Myg Dinbych.
Arymes Brydain.
Arymes.
Ayrmes.
Kywrysedd Gwynedd a Debeubarth. Awdl.
Marwnad y Milveib. V Maen Owyrth, Can y Gwynt Anrhec TJrien.
The Appeasing of the Oreit Uud.
The Appeasing of Und the littlei The Praise of Uud the Gnat Song to the Sons of Uyr.
Elegy on Gorroy, Son of Dajij.
The Prospect of Tenby.
The Destiny of Britain.
The Oracle.
The Oracle.
The Contention of Nivth and South Wales. A Moral Ode.
Elegy on a Thousand Saints. The Miraculous Stone. The Song of the Wind.— Sabjeel^ Owen Gwynedd. The Gift of Urien.
Theological— Same Date.
Plaeu yr Aipht The Plagues of E^jrpt Uath Moesen. The Bod of Moses.
Uath Moesen. The Bod of Moses.
Gwawd Gwyr Israel Eulogy of the Men of Israel Nosx. — ^The poems printed in italics are not in the Book of Tslinssin 190 BECENT CRITICISM OF MYTHOLOGICAL POEMS.
Since the publication of that work, several papers have appeared in the ArcJuBohgia Cambrensis^ in which he has given his more matured views of the poems, modifying somewhat this classification.
Mr. Nash deals with them in the two classes only, and on the whole considers the entire body of poetry connected with the name of Taliessin to belong to the twelfth and subsequent centuries.
It is with the poems attributed to Taliessin that the objections under the first proposition mainly deal. The great body of those included imder the head of mytho- logical poems bear his name, or are said to be composed by him, and to these the school of Owen Pughe and Edward Williams, of Davics and Herbert, has given a mystic sense, and has supposed that a species of Druidic superstition was handed down in them. Now, I go a certain length with them in this objection. I agree with them in thinking that these poems do not contain any such esoteric system of semi-pagan philo- sophy, and so far as their criticism goes to demolish the £mcie8 of this school, I think it is well founded. But there I stop. It does not follow that because the poems are not what Davies and Herbert represent them to be, they are therefore not genuine. It does not follow that because a mistaken meaning has been applied to them, therefore they can have no rational meaning whatever. Like all poems of this description, theyare fiill of obscure aUusions and half-expressed sentiments, and where the leal drift of the poem is not understood, it will of courBe have the aspect of meaningless verbiage, just RECENT CRITICISM OF MYTHOLOGICAL POEM& 191 as the ritual of a church, to one who does not know what it is intended to convey or to symbolisei appean mere mummeiy; but as soon as a due is obtained to the real meaning of the poef^ the allusions in the poem, however obscure they appear, become intelli- gible and consistent; and before the critic can justly urge this objection, he must be very sure that he has grasped the real meaning of the poet, as well as comprehended the true bearing and place in literature of the poems he is dealing with. That these poems are really in- tended to convey a definite meaning I do not doubt They will be found to harmonise with the history and intellectual character of the place and period to which they belong, and the first work of the critic is to ascer- tain, on definite grounds, what that place and period really is.
The other ground given for doubting these poems is more tangible — ^viz. that they contain such allusions to the prose tales and romances of the middle ages as to show that they must have been written after these tales were composed, and here Mr. Nash makes a special case against the poems attributed to Talie8sin.r He states that a prose tale, containing the personal history of Toliessin and his transmigrations^ was composed in the thirteenth century, and that a copy of this tale contained in the Bed Book of Hergest has been published, with an English translation, by Lady Charlotte Guest, in her collection of Mabinogion. This prose tale is interspersed with poems said to have been sung by Taliessin, and Mr. Nash mnintAin^ that 192 RECENT CRITICISM OF MYTHOLOGICAL POEMS.
it is in the main the basis from which the greater part of the so-called poems of Taliessin has sprung, and that a large number, besides those contained in the Habinogi of Taliessin, derive their inspiration from it.