Page:The Mabinogion.djvu/87

60 "The three learned ones of the island of Britain, Gwalchmai ab Gwyar, and Llecheu ab Arthur, and Rhiwallon with the broom-bush hair; and there was nothing of which they did not know the elements and the material essence."

William of Malmsbury says, that during the i*eign of William the Conqueror (A.D. 1086) the tomb of Gwalchmai, or Walwen, as he calls him, was discovered on the sea-shore, in a certain province of Wales called Rhôs, which is understood to be that still known by the same name, in the county of Pembroke, where there is a district called in Welsh Castell Gwalchmai, and in English Walwyn's Castle. In the Graves of the Warriors a similar locality is indicated:—

The grave of Gwalchmai is in Pyton,

Where the ninth wave flows."

The Romances make Gawain one of the four sons of King Lot of Orkney, and of Morgawse, sister to King Arthur; and in them the character for courtesy given to him in the Triads is fully maintained. So proverbial, indeed, was he for this quality, that the highest praise the Squier could bestow upon the address of the Knight who rode the "stede of bras" was,

That Gawain with his olde curtesie.

Though he were come agen out of faerie,

Ne coude him not amenden with a word."—line 10410.

—Page 20.

species of honourable dress could only be worn by knights; and, according to Ste. Palaye, was generally the gift of the sovereign, who accompanied it with a palfrey, or, at least, with a horse's bit, either golden or gilded. His words are, "Le manteau long et trainant qui enveloppoit toute la personne, étoit reservé particuliérement au chevalier, comme la plus auguste et la plus noble décoration qu'il pût avoir lorsqu'il nétoit point paré de ses armes .... on I'appeloit le manteau d'honneur."—(I. 287.)

—Page 20.

this is meant for the Earl of Anjou, and was originally written Iarll yr Angyw, the Welsh particle yr, in its contracted form 'r, being by some error of the transcriber incorporated with Angyw, which is the Welsh name for Anjou. What renders this the more likely is, that the Earldom of Anjou, or Angjrw, was