Tlic other poem is one in the Red Book of Hergest commonly called Anrhec Urien (R. B. 1 7). It is likewise placed by Mr. Stephens in the same class of Predictive poems of the twelfth century, and in an article in the same volume of the ArcJuBologia Camhrensis (p. 206), Mr. Stephens adheres to this opinion as to its date, and maintains that it refers to events of the eleventh century. These events are supposed to be contained in a series of extracts from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Brut y Tyim/sogion, ranging fix>m 105fi to 1063, but the reader will seek in vain for anything but the most vague and general resemblance, which might be equally well traced between the allusions in the poem and any other series of events. Mr. Nash makes much * Chmk PicU and ScoU, pi 319.
212 BECENT CRITICISM OF HISTORICAL POEMS.
shorter work of it His argument is this: — ^The poem meDtions a battle of Corsfochno. The Hoianau also re- fers to a battle of Corsfochno. The Hoianau was written in the twelfth century, therefore this poem also was writ- ten in the twelfth century I Admitting that the Hoianau was written in the twelfth century, does it follow that a poem of that date may not refer to an event of an earlier period? The Hoianau mentions likewise Rhyd- defch Hael and the battle of Argoed Llwyfain, and both belong to an early period. There can be no doubt as to Rhyddcrch Hael being a real person in the sixth century, and as little that the battle of Argoed Llwyfain was a real event of the same century. Both Mr. Stephens and Mr. Nash admit it. Mr. Stephens, in his Literature of the Kymry^ says, with his usual candour: *' Corsfochno is in Cardiganshire, but I can find no other notice of this battle than another predic- tion;* but in his article on this poem he endeavours to find a notice of it in some lines of Gwalchmai, who flourished in the twelfth century, and Mr. Nash adopts the conclusion at once. Corsfochno, however, was a real place, and these lines only refer to events in South Wales having been tra Corsfochno, beyond Cors- fochno.
Let us now see whether another construction may not be put upon this poem, which is, to say the least of it> equally well borne out The poem opens with a greeting of Urien Reged. It then mentions three of the sons of Llywarch Hen — Jeuaf, Ceneu, and Selev. It then alludes to a competition between ** four men REGENT 0B1TI0I8M OF HI8I0BI0AL FOXMa 218 ining their place with four hundredp with the deepest water/ One of these is mentioned as A Dragon from Owynedd of preeqiitous landi and gentle towns.
Surely this was enough to have indicated )st once Madgwn Gwynedd, whom Gildas calls ''the inmilar dragon,'* as the person probablj alluded Uk Tbea another is thus alluded to as \^ A Besr from the Soath, he will sriae^ and Cync^las is called by Gildas a "Bear and the Charioteer of a Bear/ If two of the four men thus indicate two of Gildas's kings, we may well pranune that the four men meant are his four longs of Wales. It is said of the Dragon of Gwynedd — Killing snd droummg from Eleri (a iiTer in Confochno) to Chwilfynydd, A conquering and unmerdfiil one will triumph; Small will be his armj on returning from the (action of) Wednesday.
And again— He that will escape from the affair of Confochno will be fortunate.
NoW| docs not this contest between the four men, in which the deep waters play a part, and the Dragon of Gwynedd triumphs, and which is said to be the afiair of Corsfochno, very plainly refer to the transaction at Corsfochno, whatever it really was, by which Maelgwn Gwynedd, the insular dragon, became supreme soyo- reign of Wales, and in which these northern chiefo may have taken a part? The reference to Urien at the end — 214 RECENT CRITICISM OF HISTORICAL POEMS.
Urien of Beged, generous he is and will be.
And has been since Adam.
He, proud in the hall, has the most wide-spreading sword Among the thirteen kings of '^ Y Gogledd/' or the North — is conclusive as to the antiquity of the poem. If it had been composed in the twelfth century, when all memory of the C]rmric states in the north had passed away, Urien would have been brought to South Wales, where the later bards had provided a Reged for him between the Tawy and the Towy.
It 18 needless to examine more of this criticism. These two specimens will suffice, and the notes to the poems will indicate, as far as possible, the real events referred to. The real character and bearing of this criticism upon the poems may be sufficiently indicated by a short illustration. Let us suppose that the ques- tion is the genuinness of the poem called The Wallace^ attributed to a popular minstrel Blind Harry. Why, we might suppose ^Ir. Stephens and Mr. Nash would say, Here is a battle fought by Wallace against the English at Falkirk. We know the real battle of Fal- kirk was fought against the English by Prince Charles Edward in 1 74 6. Wallace heads an insurrection against the English, so does Prince Charles. It is quite dear that the battle of Falkirk in 1746 is the real battle; under the name of Wallace, an ancient hero, Prince Charles is meant^ and we must bring down the age of the poem to the eighteenth century. In using this illustration I do not think I am caricaturing this branch of the recent criticism.
RECENT CRITICISM OP HISTORIGAL POEICa 215 The objections taken to these poems under the third proposition are, that tlie orthography and yerbal fonns are not older than the date of the MSS. in which they were transcribed^ and that the poetical structure and the sentiments they breathe are analogous to the poetry of a later age. Mr. Stephens, by admitting that some of the poems are genuine, neutralises the first branch of this objection entirdy, and the second to some extent If some of the poems are pronounced to be ancient, notwithstanding the orthography being of a later date, so may all, and Mr. Stephens is bound to show that there ia a marked difference between the poetical form and the sentiments of the poems he ^rejects and those he admits to be genuine, before he can foimd upon such an argument Mr. Nash, how- ever, goes further. He does not absolutely deny that some of the poems may be genuine, but he does not admit that any are older than the MSS. in which they appear, and he throws upon the advocates of their authenticity the burden of proving that they are older, notwithstanding their structure and orthography.
It may be admitted that these poems, as well as all such documents, whatever their age may be, usually appear, in so far as their orthography and verbal forms are concerned, in the garb of the period when the MS, in which they appear was transcribed. The scribes of those times had not the spirit of the antiquaries of the present, which leads them to preserve the exact spelling and form of any ancient document they print When such poems were handed down orally, those who recited 216 RECENT CRITICfISM OF HISTORICAL POEMS.
them did not do so in the older forms of an earlier period, but in the language of their own. In their Temacular formSy a process of phonetic corruption and alteration was going on, but it was a gradual and insensible one, and the language of the poems was easily adapted to it as their spoken idiom. The reciters and the hearers both wished to understand the historic and national lays they were dealing with; and the reciter no more thought it necessaiy, in transcribing them from older MSS., to preserve their more ancient form, than he did, in reciting them orally, to preserve any other form of the language than the one in which he heard them repeated. This is not peculiar to Welsh MSS., but is true of all such records. The only excep- tion was when the scribe did not understand the piece which he was txanscribing. and retained the old forma, and hence arise those pieces which appear in an obsolete form of the language with glosses. There was also this peculiarity in Welsh MSS., that there had been at in- tervals great and artificial changes in the orthography, and the scribe was no doubt wedded to the orthographic system of the day.
It is fortunate, however, that these poems are con- tained in MSS. of different dates, as it affords at once a test of the soundness of this objection. Between the Black Book of Caermarthen and the Bed Book of Heigest there is an interval of two centuries, and the Books of Aneurin and Taliessin stand between them. Now, there are poems in the Bed Book of Hergest and in the Book of Taliessin which are also to be found in RECENT CRITICISM OF HISTORICAL F0K1I8. 217 the Black Book of CacimartheiL Hod this latter MS. not been preservedi there would have been no older text of these poems than in the two former MSS., and Mr. Nash's argument as to their being no older than the MS. in which they appear would have applied with equal force, but here we have the same text nearly two centuries earlier.
Let us then compare a few Unes of the same poem in each Book: — BiiACK Book of Caericabthen. ) Adwin caer yssit ar Ian Uyant A<lwin yd rotir y pauper y chwant Gogywarch de gwinet boed tev wyant^ Gwaewaur rrin. Bei adarwant Dyy merchir. gueleisse guir yg cvinowantii Dyv lev bv. ir. guarth. it adcorssant Ad oet bryger cocL ac och ar dant Oet llutcdic guir guinet Dit y deuthant Ac am kewin llech vaelvy kylchuy wriwant Guytin y can keiwin Uv o carant * Book of Taliessin..
AduC}^ gaer yssyd ar Ian lliant AduOyn yt rodir y paOb ychwant Gogyfarch ti vynet boet teu uCyant GCaywaCr lyn rein a derllyssant DuO merchyr giicleis wyr ygkyfhofant Dyfieu bu gdartheu a amugant Ac yd oed vriger coch ac och ardant Oed lludued vynet dyd y doethant Ac am gefyn llcch vael(iy kylchfiy vriwant COydyn ygan gefyn Uu o garant 218 BEOENT CRinCfISM OF HISTORICAL POEMS.
Black Book of Caermabthen.
Bac gereint gelin kystut Y gneleise meirch can crinvmt A gwidy gaur ganr achlut Bed Book of Hergest.
Bac gereint gelyn kythnid GOeleis y veirch dan gynuyd A gifedy ga6r gar6 achlud.
But there are indications in the Black Book of ^ Caermarthen that in some of the poems the writer had transcribed from some older record, and had not always understood what he wrote. The fact that no older record has come down to us, is no proof that it never existed; and had such record been pre- aerred, we no doubt would have found a differ- ence between its text and that of the Black Book, analogous to the difference between the latter and the Bed Book of Hergest. Had we the Book that Scolan confesses to have drowned, it might have set- tled the question..
But though we have no older record of any of the existing poems than the Black Book of Caer- marthen, we have two fragments of other poems of older date, and these may help us to penetrate still a little further back. The first is a verse preserved in the old Welsh Laws, and there expressly said to have been sung by Taliessin. The other is the short poem preserved in the Cambridge Juvencus^ and printed in ToL iL p. 2. It is not attributed to any bfurd, but it fiECENT CRITICISM OP HISTORICAL FORMS. 2} 9 approaches so closely, in style, structure, and senti- ment, to one of the poems attributed to Uywaich Hen, as to leave no rational doubt that they are by the same author. Though we cannot compare them widi the same passages in the later MSS., we may place them in contrast with passages as nearly approaching to them in metre and style as we can find*.
In comparison with the firsts let us take three lines in the same metre out of the first poem in the Book of Taliessin, which is also to be found in the Bed Book of Hergest And with the other let us compare a few stanzas in the poems of Llywarch Hen which mort nearly approach it: — I.
Old Welsh Laws.
Kickleu odures eu Uaueneu Kan Eun en rudher bedineu Guir Anion rudyon euredyeu Book of Taliessin.
Achyn mynhOyf derwyn creu Achyn del ewynuriO ar vyggeneu Achyn vyghyfalle ar y llathen pieu Eed Book of Heboest.
A chynn mjmnOyf deruyn creu • A chynn del ewynriC ar vynggeneu A chynn vyngkyualle ar llathen preu 220 BSCENT CRITICISM OF HISTORICAL POEMS.
IL Cambridge Juvencus.
Niguorcosam nemheunaur Henoid. Mitda nit gurmaur. Mi amfranc dam ancalaiir Nicanu niguardam nicusam Henoid. Get ibcn med noueL Mi amfranc dam an paid Bed Book of Hergest.
Stauell gyndylan ystywyll Hena Heb dan heb gannwyll Namyn duO pCy am dyry pOyll Stauell gyndylan ystywyll Heno. Heb dan heb oleuat Elit amdaO am danat Pan wisgei garanmael, gat peis kynndylan A phyiydyaO y onnen Ny chaffei /ranc tianc 06 benn Black Book of Casrmarthxn.
Oet re rereint dan vortoid Gereint Garhirion graun guenith Bution ruthir eririon blith.
Oet re lerient dan vortuid Gereint Garhirion graun ae b6 * Bution ruthir eriron d6.
REGENT ORITIOISM OF HISTORICAL P0E1C& 221 There can be no doubt that the analogy here cairies lis back to the ninth century, but before we can ad- vance further it will be necessary to revert to the historic argument as to the true date and place of these poems in Cymric literature.
To enter into an inquiry with regard to the; metri- cal structure and poetic character of these poema, in order to show the extent to which they indicate that they are the work of an earlier age, and the essential difference between them and the poetry of the twelfth and succeeding centuries, would exceed the limits of this work. It would involve a detailed examination of the whole of these poems, which is here impossible. The examples above given will show that the metre of most of the poems attributed to Lly warch Hen, and which is usually called the Triban Milwyr, or war- rior's triplet, is at least as old as the ninth century, and one of Taliessin's metres as the tenth.
There is a remarkable admission by lolo Morganwg himself as to the difference in character between the genuine and the spurious poems attributed to Taliessin* He says of the Mabinogi of Talicssin — ** This romance has been mistaken hj many for true history; but that it was not, might have been easily discovered by proper attention to the language and its structure — ^to the stmcture of the verse in the poems attributed in this fiction to Talieasin bar* ing nothing but the externals of the verse of the genuine Taliessin, and nothing of its internal rhythm and other peculiaritiea."
No one knew better than lolo Morganwg where these spurious poems really came from.
222 RECENT CRITICISM OP HISTORICAL FOEMS.
The poems attributed to Taliessin have been sub- jected to criticism both by Mr. Stephens and by Mr. Nash, but the poems attributed to Mjrrddin, with which Mr. Nash does not profess to deal, are likewise in- cluded within the scope of Mr. Stephens' criticism. We have only to deal with those, the texts of which are to be found in the four ancient MSB. There are four in the Black Book of Caermarthen, and two in the Red Book of Hergest, and no doubt the legendary connection of the name of Caermarthen with that of ^Myrddin led to their occupying a prominent place in '^ the former MS. The first poem in that book (B. B. 1) is a dialogue between Myrddin and Taliessin, and the last stanza — Since I, Myrdin, after Taliessin Let my prophecy be made common, indicates Myrddin as the author. The subject is the Battle of Ardderyd, and one of Arthurs battles— that at Trywruid — is alluded to in it; but there is one allu- sion in it which marks great antiquity — that to a place called Nevtur — which can be no other than Nemhtur, the most ancient name of Dumbarton, and one not applied to it^ or indeed known, after the eighth century.
The other three are Nos. 16, 17, and 18, the two last being the Avallenau and the Hoianau. Mr. Stephens considers both to be spurious, and the work of Uyward Prydydd y Moch, the bard of liywellyn, prince of North Wales from 1194 to 1240, but the poems had evidently been already transcribed REGENT GfilTICISM OT HI8T0BI0AL FQEMa. 25S3 before his time. Mr. Stephens is of oourBe dealing with the text in the Myvyiian Aichseology; Vat while the texts of the Hoionan in the Black Book and in the Myvyrian Archaeology are substantially the same^ there is a great difference between the two texts of die Avallenau. That in the Archaeology contains twenty- two stanzas, while the text in the Black Book has only ten, and the order is differait; but further, the stanas omitted in the Black Book are just those upon which Mr. Stephens founds his aigument for its later date. While, therefore, I agree with Mr. Stefdiens in con« sidering the Hoianau as a spurious poem written in imitation of the Avallenau, I consider that his critieiem is not applicable to the text of the latter as we have it in the Black Book, and that it Ib an old poem to which the stanzas founded upon by Mr. Stephens have been subsequently added. The poem No. 16 I rank along with the Hoianau.
The two poems contained in the Bed Book of Hergest are the first two in the MS. The first is the Cyfocsi Mjrrdin, but this poem will be more con- veniently considered in the next chapter, in connection with the historical argument The second is the Guasgardgerd Yyrddin; and from the direct allusions to a king under the name of Cock o Normandi, who can be no other than William Rufus, as he is invariably termed in the Bruts 7 Brenhin Cock, and to Mob Eenri, or the son of Henri, whom I believe to be intended for.Bobert, Earl of Oloucester, son of 224 REC£NT CRITICISM OF HISTORICAL POEMS.
Heniy the First, I can havo no hesitation in assigning it to the beginning of the twelfth century.
None of these three poems, which I consider to be unquestionably spurious, ought in my opinion to be assigned to any bard of North Wales. They, along with some other poems of the same class contained in the Bed Book of Hergest, emanate very plainly from South Wales^ and probably from Glamorgan.
TRUE PLACE OF POEMS IK WELSH LTTEBATURS. 225 CHAPTER XIIL TRUE PLACE OF THE POEMS IN WELSH LITERATUBS.
Having thus examined the recent criticism, hj which the poems attributed to the bards of the sixth cen- tury are maintained really to belong to a much later period, so far as the limits of this work will per- mit> we have now to approach the true problem wo have to solve, and endeavour to assign to them their real place in Cymric literature; and the first question is, Do the poems themselves afibrd any indica- tions by which we may judge of their antiquity? It is obvious, viewed in this light, that if these poems are genuine they ought to reflect the history of the period to which they belong. If we find that they do not re-echo to any extent the fictitious narrative of the events of the fifth and sixth centuries as represented in the Bruts, but rather the leading facts of the early history of Cymry, as we have been able to deduce them from the older authorities, it will be a strong ground for concluding that they belong themsdves to an earlier age. This is an inquiry which of course can only afiect the so-called historical poenuf, with such others of the class of m}i}hological poems as contain historical allusions; but when their true place and period are once ascertained, the other poems must be vou I. Q 226 TRUE PLACE OF POEMS judged of by their resemblance to these in metrical structure, style, and sentiment Following, then, the course of the history, as we have traced it, we have first the Marwnad or Death-song of Cunneddaf (B. T. 4 6). Cunedda, as we know, was Guledig in the fifth century, and retired firom the northern . wall to beyond the southern. In the poem we are told — There ib trembling from fear of Cunedda the burner, In Caer Weir and Caer Lliwelydd; that is, in Durham and Carlisle — two towns, the one behind the west end, and the other the east end of the walL And again — He was to bo admired in the tumult with nine hundred horse.
Here he is represented as commanding 900 horse, the exact amount of auxiliary cavalry attached to a Roman legion. The Roman wall, or mur^ is likewise alluded to in two other of those death-songs (B. T. 40, 41) — one where Ercwlf is called the Wall-piercer, and the other where Madawg, the son of Uthyr, is called the Joy of the WalL It is very remarkable how few of these poems con- tain any notice of Arthur. K they occupied a place, as is supposed* in Welsh literature, subsequent to the intro- duction of the Arthurian romance, we should expect these poems to be saturated with him and his knights, and his adventures, but it is not so. Out of so large a %^5- body of poems^ there are only five which mention him at all, and then it is the historical Arthur, the Guledig, to whom the defence of the wall was entrusted, and IN WELSH LTTERATURB. 227 who fights the twelve battles in the north, and finally perishes at CSamlan. In one of them, the Oadeir Teymon (B. T. 15), this idea pervades the whole poenu Arthur is the 1 Person of two aathon Of the race of the steel Abu He is mentioned as being • Among the Gosgordd of the wall The Bard asks Who are the three chief minivfcers That guarded the countiy t And finally From the destruction of Ghieft, In a butchering manner; From the loricated Legion Arose the Guledlg.
In another, the poem in the Black Book which has been supposed to refer to the Mabinogi of Ealhwch and Olwen, Arthur again appears as the warrior fighting in the north, and two of his twelve battles are men- tioned — In Mynyd £idd3rn He contended with Cynvyn.
And again — On the strands of Trywruyd Contending with Garwluyd, Brave was his disposition. With sword and shield.
And the same body of legionary cavalry is alluded They were stanch commanders Of a legion for the benefit of the country, Bedwyn and Bridlaw, 2^f ne ^umirerf to them would listen. * 228 TRUE PLACE OF PO^MS Again, in the Spoils of Annwfn (B. T. 30), in which, in its historical sense, an expedition to the dreary region north of the wall would be intended — Thrioe twenty Canliwr stood upon the mur or wall Canhtor is a centuridy or body of 100 men, and there were sixty centuries in the Boman legion, here represented as stationed at the wall.
In the Historia Britonum^ the author describes the Britons as having been, for forty years after the Romans left the island, '' sub metu,'' which expression he after- wards explains as meaning, ^sub metu Pictorum et Scotorum,^ and the memory of these fearful and de- structive outbursts of ravaging and plundering bands of Picts from beyond the wall must have long dwelt in their recollection. This we might also expect to find reflected in the poems.
When a poem opens with these lines: — How miserable it is to see Tumult and commotion, Wounds and confusion, The Brithwyr in motion, And a cruel fate, With the impulse of destiny, And for the sake of Heaven,.
Declare the discontinuance of the disaster is it possible to doubt that that poem was written at a time when the country was still smarting from the recollection of their ravages? Thu£f, in another poem (R R 23), we have Let the chief architects Against the fierce Picts Be the Morini Bi/thon— IN WELSH LITERATURE. 229 alluding, to the attempt b7 the Britons to protect themselves by the walL Then, in two other poems, <me commonly colled the Mic Dinbych (B. T. 21), where the billows which surround one of the cities axe said To come to the green 8ward from the region of the Ffidili; and in another (B. T. 11), where it is said — Heamdur and Hyfeid and Owallawg^ And Owen of Mona of Maelgwnian eneig]r, Will lay the PeUhwyr prostrate— is it possible to doubt that they must have been written when the Picts were still a powerful people in Britain, and before their kingdom was meiged in that of the Scots?
The mode in which Mr. Nash deals with these pas- sages is characteristic He ignores the first poem altogether, and he so disguises the other passages in his translation as to banish the Picts as effectually firom them as they were ever expelled by the Roman troops from the province. In the passage quoted firom the second poem, he translates the line — Rac Ffichit huon, before twenty chiefs. Now, Ffichit does not mean twenty in Welsh, but Fichead means twenty in Gaelic; and he would rather suppose that the bard had introduced a Gaelic word than that he could have alluded to such embarrassing people as the Picts.
In the next passage he translates the line — Adaw hwynt werglas o glas Ffichti^ ** promised to them are ^ the drinking-cups of painted glass.* If A daw hunfnt means they came, Adaw means a promise; but how Gwerlas can mean drinking-cups I cannot conceive.
230 TBUE PLACE OF POEMS It is alwajrs used as meaning " the green swarcL*' Then he evidently supposes that glas is the English word " glass /' instead of the middle form of chs^ a region; and thus here, too, he would rather suppose that the bard had used the English word " glass,*" and the Latin word '* pictus'* in its corrupt form ffichti, than that the Picts could have been mentioned; but the technical use ^ in Welsh of Ffichti for the Picts is quite established. The last passage he thus translates: — " Heamddur and Hyfeid Hir, and Gwallawg and Owen of Mona, and Maelgwn of great reputation, they would prostrate the foe;* thus quietly suppressing the word Feithtvyr, which certainly does not mean simply " foe," * Nennius mentions the Picts whom Arthur defeated at the battle of Mynyd Eiddyn, or Edinburgh, by the strange and unusual name of Cathregion; but we find them appearing under that name in another poem in the Book of Taliessin (50):— The Catbreith of a strange language will be troubled, From the ford of Taradyr to Portwygyr in Mona.
The ford of Taradyr is the ford of Torrador, across the river Carron, the northern boundary of the Picts of Manau, near Falkirk.
« In noticing Mr. Noah's ao-caUed tranBlations, I may remark that he invariably tranalatea Welsh on the principle that, if any Welsh word xesemblei an English word, it must be the English word that is used. He eairiei this so far as to translate the weU-known word for a ford in Welsh, rkydy by the English word *< road." He appears to me to ^ translate Welsh somewhat in the same fashion aa Hood*B school-boy translated the first line of Viigil— Anna, Timmqne cano— An arm, a man, and a **^*mi, IN WEL8H LITERATURS. 231 This poem, too, is ignored by Mr. Nash.
Another portion of these poems must evidently have been known to the author of the GfenecUogia^ written in the eighth century. After narrating the reign of Ida, king of Northumbrian who died in 559, he says: — '* Tunc Talhaem Cataguen in poemate claruit et Neirin et Taliesin et Bluchbard et Cian qui vocatur Gueinthgwant simul uno tempore in poemate Britannico claruerunt" Of these four who shone in British poetry, it is admitted that the first three are Aneurin, Taliessin, and Uywarch Hen, and being mentioned in the course of his notice of Bemicia, they must have been connected with the nortl^ The expression used with regard to them is renuirkable. It does not simply say that they flourished then, but ** in poemate Britannico daruerunt'' Could he have used that expression had there not been poemata Britannica, Welsh poems, then well known T and then connect with this some of the subsequent notices, " Contra ilium {i.e. Hussa) quatuor regis Urbgen ^/ et Ridderch Hen et Guallauc et Morcant dimicaverunt'' The idea that runs through these notices, and accounts for the otherwise apparently unconnected and intru* sive mention of the bards, is this: Aneurin, Taliessin, and Llywarch Hen, wrote Welsh poems, and it was against Hussa that Urien, Ridderch Hen, Gwallawg, and Morcant fought Add to this, that the subject of a number of the poems of Taliessin and Lljrwarch Hen was the wars of these very heroes against the Saxons; and can we reasonably doubt that these poems weie 232 TRUE PLACE OF POEMS known to the writer? The next notice is still more signi- cant "Deodric, contra ilium Urbgen cum filiis dimicabat fortiter." There is but one poem in which Urien is mentioned as fighting along with any of his sons. It is the Battle of Argoed Llwyfain, attributed to Taliessin (B. T. 35), in which Urien and his son Owen are attacked by Flamddwyn, the Saxon king, and fight valiantly against hiuL Must this poem not have been in the mind of the writer when he here notes— It was against Deodric that Urien and his sons fought, — thus identifying him with Flamddwyn? There is another allusion of the same kind equally significant After narrating the war between Oswy and Penda, with the thirty British kings who assisted him, and their slaughter in Campo Gai, he adds, ** Et nunc facta est strages Gai CampL^ Is the idea not this — And it was now that the well-known slaughter of CcUraeth took place? for traeth, a shore, is here rendered by Campus and Ca^ forming in combination Oa, as in Gatraeth^ is the adjective Gaus agreeing with Campus^ and the great poem of the Gododin, including the mixed portion, which belongs to this period, must have been known to the writer. If these inferences are at all legitimate, a body of historical poems attributed to the same bards, and narrating the same events by the same warriors as those which we now have, must have been in existence when the author of the Genealogia wrote— that is, in the eighth century.
Further, in examining these poems^ we find that there runs through the poems in each of the four books <.
IN WELSH LTTERATUEE.. 233 a date indicated in the poem itself, which is nearly the same in all, and is comprised within the first sixty years of the seventh or immediately preceding century. Thus, in the Book of Caermarthen, there is what I con- ceive to be the text of the Avallenau in its original shape, and in this text the bard says — Ten yean and forty, with my treaBarw, Have I been sojoaming among ghoeU and ipritea.
And the first poem tells us tliat, after the battle of Ardderyd, Seven score generous ones become ghosU.
In the wood of Celyddon they came to an end.
The battle of Ardderyd was fought in the year 573, and ten years and forty will bring us to 623, not long after which the poem may have been composed* In the Book of Aneurin, the bard who YiX>to the last part of the Gododin tells us that ^ fix>m the height of Adoyn he saw the head of Djr&wal Brec devoured by ravens;" but Dyfhwal Brec is no other than Donald Brec, king of Dalriada, and the year of his death is a fixed era. It was in 642.
In the Book of Taliessin there is a poem (49) which has been much misunderstood It contains these verses: — Five chiefs there will be to me Of the Gwyddyl Ffichti, Of a sinner's diBposition, Of a race of the knife; Five others there will be to me Of the Norddmyn place; The sixth a wonderful kingy ' From the sowing to the reaping $ 234 TRUE PLACE OF POEMS The seventh proceeded To the land over the flood; The eighth, of the line of Dtifi^ Shall not he freed from prosperity.
The Dyfi or Dovey flows past Corsfochno; and the Traeth Maelgum, where Maelgwn Gwynedd established the sovereignty in his family, is on its shore. The kings of his race are the only kings who could be said to be of the line of Dn/i or Dovey. The word Norddmyn is probably the word translated by the author of the Genealogia, where he calls Oswald " Rex Nordorum/' It is only used on this one occasion, and seems, during his reign, to have been appUed to the kings of the NordanhymbrL We know that the Saxons of Bemicia superseded a Pictish population; and there is but one king of the line of Dufi who became a king of Bemicia, and he was Cadwallawn, a descendant of Maelgwn Gwynedd. The passage, therefore, appears to refer to Bemicia, which lay south of the Firth of Forth. We have first five kings of the Gwyddyl Ffichti, then five kings of the Norddmyn — Ida, EUa, Ethebic, Ethelfred, and Edwin. The sixth, from the sowing to the reaping — that is, finom spring to harvest — was Osric, who only reigned a few months, when he was slain in autumn by Cadwallawn. The seventh was Eanfrid, who crossed the flood — that is, the Firth of Forth— j&x)m the knd of the Picts, where he had taken refuge, and was likewise slain by Cadwallawn, who is the eighth king of the line of Dtjifi, and the poem must have been written before his