Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/331

Rh CELTIC LITERATURE 319 Influence of Rhys cib Tewdwr and Gru/yd ab Cynan or Welsh poetry- support of this assumption outside a pretended work called Barddas, or treatise on the whole system of the bards, which lolo Moryanwy possessed, was the Romance called Hanes Taliessin, or history of Taliessin, which though partly prose, and therefore coming under the head of the prose romances, of which we shall speak later, may be more conveniently referred to here. A fragment of the Welsh text of this history was given in the Myvyrian A rchaioloyy ; the whole tale was afterwards published by Dr Owen Pughe; and Lady Charlotte Guest published it again in the third volume of her Mabinoyion from two fragments, one dated about 1758, and the other belonging to lolo Morganwg. The romance of the Hanes Taliessin in its existing form belongs o o to the beginning of the 17th century. Of the thirteen poems contained in Lady Charlotte Guest s book, only two are found in the Book of Taliessin, the Ode to the Wind and the Mead Song. It is evident that a number of poems attributed to Taliessin were floating about in popular tradi tion, and were strung together in the 16th century into a romance. Although of these so taken up only the two just mentioned find a place in the special manuscript of Talies-nn s poems in the 14th century, we are not therefore entitled to assume that the other poems did not therefore exist at that period. It is singular that the compiler of the Hanes Taliessin did not include such poems as the Canu y Meirch, or the Song of the Horses, which would find its place after the account of the contest of Elphin against the 24 horses of Mailcun, the Ale Song, which is the counterpart of the Mead Song, the Chair of Taliessin, and the Chair of the Sovereign (Kadeir Teyrnon). In all these there is no mythology, nor indeed anything indicative of a secret. But when the Elegy Oi f the Thousand Sons, a religious poem on the saints before and after Christ, which is in the Book of Taliessin, is believed to contain the doctrine of metempsychosis, any doctrine whatever may be drawn from the Welsh poetry. But while the whole of the Neo- Druidic speculations must be looked upon as fables, it does not follow that there are no mythological allusions in Welsh poems as old as from the 12th to the 14th century. We have already alluded to the occurrence of the name of the goddess Ceridwen in two poems in the Black Book attributed to Cnhelyn, a bard of the 9th century. The following poems in the Book of Taliessin also contain traces of mythology : Song concerning the Sons of Llyr ab Broch- wel, the Chair of Ceridwen, the Spoils of Annion, Daronv:y t and the Angar Cyfindawd. But as the mythology of the poems is intimately connected with that of the prose tales we shall reserve our observations on the subject until we are considering the Mabinoyion. Whether the poems we have been hitherto considering were really first written after the 10th century, or, as seems much more probable, were composed at an earlier period and transmitted by popular tradition, their language under going the same changes as the spoken language, they must be considered from a merely literary point of view as the products of the period from the llth to the 13th century inclusive. But apart from those poems there is another and a perfectly legitimate Welsh literature which may be said to have commenced with the restoration of the old royal families of North and South Wales. Ithys ab Tewdwr, the reputed legitimate heir to the throne of South Wales, returned from Brittany in 1077 bringing with him no doubt the Armoric legends of the Round Table; and Gruff yd ab Cynan came in 1080 from Ireland, where he was born and had been educated, and where he must have become familiar with its poetry and music. Indeed, we know on the authority of Welsh writers that Gruffyd reorganized the bards and improved the music, and in other ways gave a great and beneficial impulse to Welsh literature. Among the changes which he effected in the organization of the bards may have been the institution of bardic Gorsedds or meetings, of which the modern Eisteddfod is an imitation. In Ireland the poets did not, so far as we know, hold separate meetings of this kind, but they took a pro minent part in the great periodic gatherings called Aoneclts or fairs held fora threefold purpose, for promulgating laws, for public games, and as a market. At these gatherings poems were sung, stories narrated, and prizes awarded. One of the earliest poets whose productions we can be Poet* of certain of is Meilyr, bard of Trahaearn, whom Gmffyd ab the 1-2tl1 Cynan defeated at the battle of Carno, and afterwards of cc the conqueror Grn/yd himself. His best piece is the Death-bed of the Bard, a semi-religious poem, which is distinguished by the structure of the verse, poetic feeling, and religious thought. Meilyr was the head of a family of bards; his son was Gwalchmai, one of the best Welsh poets ; and the latter had two sons, Einion and Meilyr, some of whose poetry has reached us. Gwalchmai was a true poet, and not a mere professional bard. In his Gorhoffedd Gwalchmai, Gwalchmai s Delights, there is an appreciation of the charms of nature, the murmuring of brooks, and the songs of birds not unworthy of one of the modern Lake poets. His Arwyrain iOivain is an ode of considerable beauty, and full of vigour in praise of Owain Gicynedd, king of North Wales, on account of his victory of Tal y Moelvre, part of which has been translated by Gray under the name of &quot; The Triumphs cf Owen.&quot; This translation, though not very literal, preserves the terseness and boldness of action of the original. Kynddehv, who lived in the second half of the 12th century, was a contemporary of Gwalchmai, and wrote on a great number of subjects including religious ones; indeed, some of his eulogies have a kind of religious prelude. He had command of words and much skill in versification, but he is pleonastic and fond of complicated metres and of ending his lines with the same syllable. There is a certain obscurity about some of his poems which has given him an importance among the disciples of the Neo-Draidic or bardic philosophy. Among the other poets of the second half of the 12th century may be mentioned Owain Kyveilwg and Hotcel ab Owain Gwynnedd. The first-named was prince of Powys, and was distinguished also as a soldier. The Hirlas, or Drinking Horn, is a rather long poem marked alike by originality and poetic merit. The, prince represents himself as carousing in his hall after a fight; bidding his cup-bearer fill his great drinking-horn, he orders him to present it in turn to each of the assembled warriors. As the horn passes from hand to hand he eulogizes each in a verse beginning Dhvallaw di venestr, &quot; Fill, cup-bearer.&quot; Having thus praised the deeds of two warriors, Tudyr and Moreiddiy, he turns round to challenge them, but suddenly recollecting that they had fallen in the fray, and listening as it were to their dying groans, he bursts into a broken lamentation for their loss. The second was also a prince ; he was the eldest of the many sons of Owain Gwynnedd, and ruled for two years after his father until he fell in a battle between himself and his step-brother David. He was a young man of con spicuous merit, and one of the most charming poets of Wales, his posms being especially free from the conceits, trivial common-places, and complicated metres of the pro fessional bards, while full of gay humour, a love of nature, and a delicate appreciation of woman. Some of his love songs especially are charming. There are two other poets, who, though they lived into the 13th century, belonged perhaps more to the 12th, namely, Llywarch ab Lleicelyn and Gicynvardd firycheiniog. Mr Stephens attributes the Songs of the Pigs to the former, and believes that the poet covertly alludes to the events which occurred in the reign of Lleivelyn ab lomverth, grandson of Owain Gwynedd; but as this poem occurs in the Black Book it can hardly