Chapter I - Introduction

The cloud of fable which has settled on the early history of Britain, is with difficulty to be penetrated. Her earliest monuments, rude and unsculptured, afford little assistance to the historian; and her most ancient written documents are composed in a language, sealed to the majority of inquirers. Unfortunately, also, many of those most competent, from a native acquaintance with the still existing dialect of the ancient language of Britain, to undertake the investigation, have suffered themselves to be led into relating as history, the most extravagant fables, and asserting the most unreasonable claims to antiquity.

The romance of Geoffrey of Monmouth, with its line of Trojan-British kings, and the fables of the Welsh Triads, with Hu Gadarn or the Mighty,

“who first conducted the nation of the Cymry from Deffrobani, that is, the place where Constantinople now stands,”

to the Isle of Britain, and Dyfnwal Moelmud, a legislator who lived 400 years before the Christian era, have each in turn been represented as containing genuine historical materials for the history of Ancient Britain.

The opinions generally maintained by the Welsh writers and historians on the subject of the origin of the Cymry, may be summed np in the words of a learned and judicious writer on Welsh literature, Mr. Stephens,^[1]

“that the modern Welsh, or Cymry, are the last remnant of the ‘Kimmeroi’ of Homer, and of the Kymri (Cimbri) of Germany, that great people whose arms struck terror into the Roman legions, and whose virtues Tacitus held up for the imitation of his countrymen. From the Cimbric-Chersonesus (Jutland) a portion of these landed on the shores of Northumberland, gave their name to the county of Cumberland, and in process of time, followed the seaside to their present resting-place, where they still call themselves Cymry, and give their country a similar name. Their history, clear, concise, and authentic, ascends to a high antiquity; their language was embodied in verse, long before the languages now spoken rose into notice; and their literature, cultivated and abundant, lays claim to being the most ancient in modern Europe.”

Without attempting to discuss the merely conjectural part of this statement, the derivation of the modern Cymry or Welsh from the Cimbri or Kimmeroi, or inquiring whether these latter were a Teutonic or Celtic people, or how it happened that they were not known by the name of Cymry to the Roman writers on the affairs of Britain, we may pass to the interesting and important inquiry, the claims of the Welsh to the possession of a cultivated and abundant literature, the most ancient in modem Europe, and to a clear, concise, and authentic history of great antiquity: a history which should of course include the important transactions of the Cymric nation, their rise and fall in Britain—their wars and struggles, with their native, Roman, and Saxon enemies.

If, in order to reduce the difficulty of this inquiry, we abandon any attempt to tread the labyrinth of an antiquity prior to the establishment of the Roman power in this island, and confine ourselves to the more recent period of the two centuries which succeeded the final departure of the Romans from Britain, we find that even this era, though a period full of events of the greatest interest and importance, most deeply and intimately affecting the fortunes of the British nation, is involved in the greatest doubt and obscurity.

This period, from the commencement of the fifth to the close of the sixth century, presents, as it were, a debateable ground between history and romance. It comprises the almost unknown history of the struggles of the wealthy and civilized Roman and Romano-British inhabitants of the great cities and fortified towns of Britain, against the ceaseless inroads of the native tribes, relieved from the pressure of the Roman power, and alike allured by the wealth and attracted by the comparative weakness of the citizens; and the history, little more authentic, of the transactions which resulted in the establishment of the Saxon dominion.

It comprises the drama of Vortigem and Rowena; the story of the fatal advent of Hengist and Horsa in their three ships with their band of Saxon sea-rovers; of the treacherous massacre of Stonehenge; and of all the long series of obstinate combats between the. Christian tribes of Britain and their Fagan invaders. Moreover, it includes the wouderful romance of the renowned Arthur, “begirt with British and Armoric knights,” whose era, commencing with the reign of Aurelius Ambrosius, in the early days of the Saxon invasion, closes with the fatal battle of Camlan, and the destruction of the flower of British chivalry in a.d. 542.

How much of what passes for history in the relation of the important events which mark this era, deserves that title, it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine; for the documentary evidence adduced in its support, affords but little aid in unravelling the tangled web of tradition and fable of which it is composed.

“Our knowledge of the affairs of Britain, previous to the introduction of Christianity among the Anglo-Saxons” (that is, the commencement of the seventh century), says Sir Francis Palgrave,^[2]

“is derived from the most obscure and unsatisfactory evidence. The early Cymric chronicles scarcely even furnish us with the means of computing time. ‘Annus,’ ‘annus’ ‘annus,’ is repeated in succession, but no era is marked. The entire absence of dates baffles all attempts which may be made to regulate their chronology, or to knit their fragments into a consistent story. The Welsh, in the days of Giraldus, easily accounted for the loss of all memorials of King Arthur, by asserting that Gildas cast his ‘authentic history’ of this renowned prince and his nation into the sea; but the same misfortune appears to have fallen on all the British annals of the next three centuries. British history, during this period, is therefore a mere hypothesis; and in this truly Cimmerian darkness, we can neither admit nor deny the assertion, that all the Cymric principalities, from Alcluyd to the mouth of the Severn, were united under the dominion of Einion Urdd, son of Cunedda; nor are we possessed of the data which could enable us to trace the advance of the Saxon power towards the Severn.”

It is again admitted by one of the most competent and learned writers on early Welsh histoiy,^[3] that the interval between the termination of the Roman dominion in Britain, and the close of the seventh century, is a historical blank;

“for it must be confessed that the Welsh, though possessed of a variety of records relating to that time, have not preserved a regular and connected history of their ancestors, who rose into power upon the departure of the Romans, and who, notwithstanding their dissensions, maintained a longer and more arduous struggle against the Saxons, than the continental parts of the empire did upon the irruption of the Goths and Vandals. In the middle ages, these records, to which was added a large store of tradition, attracted the attention of the romance writers, who gradually invested them with a cloud of fable, which at last, when arranged and regularly digested, was suffered to usurp tbe place of history. When the Armorican Chronicle, usually attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth, was brought from Brittany to Wales by Walter de Mapes in the twelfth century, its contents were found to be so flattering to national vanity, that it was soon received as an authentic record of facts, to the disadvantage of other records of a less pretending nature. For a long time, implicit faith was given to the story of the Trojan-British kings, and the superhuman actions of Arthur and his valorous knights commanded the admiration of Europe, few caring to question the truth of tales which suited the taste of the age, and filled their readers with delight. The criticism of later years has, however, determined the race of Trojan-British kings to be a pure fabrication, and most writers are contented to commence the history of Britain with the invasion of Julius Cæsar, following the Latin authorities until the termination of the Roman power in the island, when, for want of more satisfactory information, they are obliged to have recourse to records which they know not when to trust, or, leaving the affairs of the Britons in that darkness which they could not dispel, they have confined their researches to the Saxons.”

Notwithstanding this acknowledged deficiency in the true Bources of history, it is still maintained by the very latest writers on this topic, that there are extant in the Welsh language, compositions as early in date as the sixth century at the least, in which are preserved the traditions if not the history of the Britons, for this obscure period of the fifth and sixth centuries.

“It may be asked,” says the Rev. Archdeacon Williams,^[4]

“how has it come to pass, if great events marked the epoch between the departure of the Romans and the death of Bede, that the whole history is so obscure, and that no literary documents remain to prove the wisdom of the teachers and the docility of the people P The answer is very plain. Such documents do exist: they have been published for more than half a century, but have hitherto wanted an adequate interpreter.”

It has been, moreover, strenuously and repeatedly asserted, that these literary remains of the earliest British writers contain the most distinct and conclusive evidence, of the persistence, down to at least the close of the sixth centuiy, of the doctrines and mysterious lore of the ancient Druidical priesthood, such as it is represented to have existed in Gaul and Britain, by Cæsar, Pliny, and other Roman authors.

It is said by the author above quoted, that in the remains of the early British Bards

“we have ample proof that during the Arthurian period (that is in the fifth and sixth centuries), and probably long before, certainly long after it, there flourished two schools of literature: the one essentially heathenish in creed, although often nominally Christian, and blending with Druidical doctrines, the worship of many of the Pagan idols of Greece and Rome, and of their own peculiar mythology. Specimens of this school are to be found in the remains ascribed to Taliesin, the Caledonian Myrddin, and in certain tales of the Mabino-gion, as well as other anonymous works.”

The opinion that the poems of the celebrated Taliesin and other bards of his era, contain Druidical doctrines and Pagan superstitions of some unknown antiquity, is by no means an uncommon one. It is shared by almost all writers on the early periods of British history. Even Sir Francis Palgrave has been misled by the generally received opinion, to which the difficulty of consulting the original documents, and the audacious misinterpretation of portions of them in support of particular theories, have given a fictitious value.

“Taliesin,” he observes,^[5]

“hardly conceals his belief in the religion of his forefathers; and the Druidical worship, which was still recollected in Strathclyde and Cumbria, was so strong and vigorous on the opposite shores of Deira, that the British inhabitants not only preserved their priesthood, but had induced the Anglo-Saxon conquerors to embrace their faith; for the name of Coifi the Pontiff (in Gaelic, Coivi, Cuimhe, or Coibidh), by whose persuasion   Edwin embraced Christianity in A.D. R27, is no other than the title of the chief of the Druids.”^[6]

The principal source of these opinions is the Rev. Edward Davies, who, in his two monuments of misapplied learning, his Celtic Researches, and the Mythology and Bites of the British Druids, maintained most perseveringly, and certainly not without great erudition, the Druidical character of the works of the British or, rather, Welsh Bards.

“Ancient and authentic documents,” he says (with reference to these poems),

“of the opinions and customs of the old Britons, have been preserved, though long concealed by the shades of a difficult and obscure language.”

“The mystic lore of the Druids, and those songs which are full of their old mythology, were extant and in repute during the ages immediately subsequent to the times of Aneurin, Taliesin, and Merddhin,” and that “the ancient superstition of Druidism, or at least some part of it, was considered as having been preserved in Wales without interruption; and cherished by the Bards to the very last period of the Welsh princes; that these princes were so far from discouraging this superstition, that on the contrary they honoured its professors with their public patronage.”

In fact, according to the statements of this author, this Druidical superstition, which was actually publicly proclaimed and patronized in Wales down to the time of Edward I. in the thirteenth century, was a Helio-Arkite worship, in which the bull, the horse, and the element of firé, were prominent emblems, and King Arthur the representative of Noah; while a certain Hu Gadam, whose history is to be found in the Welsh Historical Triads, was also an impersonation of the Patriarch, deified and worshipped by Welshmen in the thirteenth century of the Christian era. Such astounding assertions naturally induce an inquiry for the proof of their credibility. This proof Mr. Davies is not slow to offer.

“If this be genuine British heathenism” (i.e. the Helio-Arkite worship and the history of Hu Gadarn),

“it will be expected that vestiges of it should be discovered in the oldest Bards which are now extant; and here, in fact,”

says Mr.Davies, “they present themselves in horrid profusion .”

It might be supposed that these views of the Rev. Edward Davies, published as long ago as 1809, had passed, under the influence of increased sources of knowledge, into oblivion; so far from this being the case, we And in a paper, published in the Transactions of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in 1847, a learned philologer, Dr. Meyer, citing the Welsh Triads for the elucidation of British ethnology, and giving a metrical German and a prose English translation of a poem ascribed to Taliesin, as

“one of the most ancient monuments of Welsh literature, a sacrificial hymn addressed to the god Pryd, in his character as god of the Sun.”^[7]

The same views are enunciated in works of even later date. Mr. Herbert, in his Cyclops Christianas, in 1842, the author of the Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Welshmen, in 1852,^[8] and the Ven. Archdeacon Williams in Gomer, in 1854, present the same account of an ancient philosophy and mythology, to be discovered in the writings of Welsh Bards, supposed to be of the date of the sixth century, and especially in those of the celebrated Taliesin.

The ancient Druid is, in fact, the most prominent figure in British archaeology. Clothed in his robe of white, “the emblem of holiness, and peculiarly of truth,” ^[9] with his golden sickle in his hand, he claims dominion over cairn and barrow, stone-circle, cromlech and monolith, yielding an occasional but reluctant place to his almost as mysterious rival the Dane. Poet and philosopher, priest and prophet, legislator and judge, his functions are as uumerous, as the religion he professed and the authority which he exercised, are doubtful and indefinable.

The true social position of the Druid, and the nature of the religious ceremonies in which he officiated as minister, are, even as to Gaul, involved in great obscurity, notwithstanding the information afforded with regard to them by the classical writers. As regards the British Druids, on the other hand, if we accept the statements of numerous modern writers on British antiquity, their social polity, their religious system, and their rites and ceremonies, are as familiarly known as the objects and transactions of any society for the propagation of learning in modern days.

“We have no reason to believe,” says the Archdeacon of Cardigan,

“that the heathen Druids of Gaul and Britain were, when historically known, practically less corrupt than their brethren in other nations.^[10] They however, when struck down and bitterly persecuted by the Roman authorities, found a refuge in Ireland and Scotland for their persons, practices, and doctrines. Hence, when the Britons, after the confusion which immediately followed the overthrow of the Roman power in the island, had gained the ascendance, they resumed the laws, language, and traditions of their ancestors, with the important exception, that they combined with their inherited Christianity the philosophic doctrines of the Druids, which, when stripped of corruptions, represented the primitive religion of the oriental patriarchs. The chief site of the newly established religion seems to have been Gwent and Morganwg, whence it spread with comparative rapidity over all the countries then held by a Celtic population, and also over no small portion of continental Europe.”

The same author professes to have given in an appendix to the same work, a body of evidence from external sources which satisfy him, that long before the commencement of written history, there flourished in this island a civilized community, such as it is described by ancient writers.

He adds,

“nor have I any hesitation in saying, that the language of that community was the Cymraeg, and that a great portion of the lands now held by the church, were once in the possession of the priests and philosophers of that community.”

This body of evidence may be shortly stated, thus: Diodorus Siculus, about the commencement of the Christian era, quotes from Hecatæus the Milesian, who lived about 500 B.C., a statement of the latter concerning the Hyperboreans. The Hyperboreans lived in an island in the ocean over against Celtica, not smaller than Sicily; a fertile land producing two crops in the year. There Latona was born, and on that account Apollo is honoured by them above all other gods.

Among the Hyperboreans were men, priests as it were of Apollo, constantly hymning lyric songs in his praise. Also in that island was a consecrated precinct of great magnificence; a temple of corresponding beauty, in shape spherical, adorned with numerous dedicated gifts; also a city sacred to the god, the majority of its inhabitants harpers, who continually harping in the temple, sang lyrically hymns to the god, greatly magnifying his deeds. The Hyperboreans had a peculiar dialect, and were very friendly disposed to the Hellenes, especially the Athenians and Delians. The moon was not far distant from this island, and clearly showed certain earthly eminences.

Every nineteenth year the god descends into this island. This was the great year of the Hellenes; when the god makes his periodical visit, he both plays the harp and dances during the night, from the vernal equinox to the rising of the Pleiades, taking great delight in his own successful efforts. A family called Boreadæ, descendants of Boreas, were the kings of this city, and superintendents of the temple, succeeding each other by birthright.

“If,” says the Archdeacon,

“Hecatæus derived his information on this important subject from the Phocoean merchants who frequented the court of King Arganthonius (in southern Spain), it is evident that these Hyperboreans were the occupants of Great Britain, which is so accurately described in the above passage, that even one of the earliest editors of Diodorus could not refrain in his index from writing,—‘See whether this cannot be applied to Anglica!’”

Pindar, a contemporary, or nearly so, of Hecatæus, also mentions the Hyperboreans. Amongst other things, he informs us that Perseus visited them, and, having entered their hall, found them sacrificing renowned Hecatombs of Asses, wherein Apollo took incessant and most intense delight, laughing while he viewed the petulance of the restive brutes.

Various other early Greek authors mention the Hyperboreans and their Temple of Apollo. Everything would have been perfectly clear, had not Herodotus, “who was a victim to crotchets,” stepped in and produced confusion, by his “wilful incredulity.” He travelled far, and made every inquiry, but could hear nothing satisfactory of the Hyperboreans, as a real people, and comes to the conclusion, that they were something Kke the one eyed-men of the Scythians—a myth.

The pretensions of the British Druids are fairly stated, in a treatise on the Religion of Ancient Britain,^[11] in terms which place them, at the least, on a level with the philosophers of Athens or Alexandria in point of science, and with the most favoured of the Biblical Patriarchs in point of religious doctrine.

It is asserted by this writer, who may be considered as giving an epitome of the generally received statements on this subject, that there existed in this island of Britain, before and at the time of its invasion by Julius Caesar, a class or caste of persons, who, under the name of Druids, formed a powerful hierarchy; were the depositary of great and extensive learning, and the possessors of civil power; acquainted with letters, arts, and sciences; conversant in the most sublime speculations of geometry, in measuring the magnitude of the earth, and even of the world; philosophers of a sublime and penetrating spirit, adding the study of moral philosophy, to that of physiology; skilled in mechanics, and acquainted with rhetoric and other polite arts.

The people of whom this remarkable class of gifted men were the priests, the judges, and the instructors, were, by no means, observes the same authority, a nation of wild barbarians, or “painted savages;” but a people,

“maintaining regular commercial relations with the most powerful and most polished nations of the world, who were, when they first colonized the island of Britain, possessed of considerable general information brought by them from Asia soon after the dispersion of mankind at the building of the Tower of Babel, and had not at the time of Caesar’s arrival, greatly degenerated from their original condition.”

“Druidism,” says another modern writer,^[12]

“is the term usually employed, to designate the primitive religion of our ancestors; a religion which obtained and flourished in Britain, from the time it was first colonized, down to the period of its first subjugation by the Romans, fifty-four years before the advent of Christ.”

“The following epitome of the religious principles of the primitive Druids of Britain, drawn from their own memorials,^[13] will show their conformity to the religion of Noah and the antediluvians; that the patriarchal religion was actually preserved in Britain under the name of Druidism; and that the British Druids, while they worshipped in groves, and under the oak like Abraham, did really adore the God of Abraham, and trust in his mercy.

1. “They believed in one Supreme Being.^[14]
2. “In the doctrine of Divine Providence, or that God is the Governor of the universe.
3. “In man’s moral responsibility, and considered his state in this world as a state of discipline and probation.
4. “They had a most correct view of moral good and evil.
5. “They offered sacrifices in their religious worship.^[15]
6. “They believed in the immortality of the soul and a state of recompense after death.
7. “They believed in a final or coming judgment.
8. “They believed in the transmigration of the soul.^[16]
9. “They observed particular days and seasons for religious purposes.
10. “Marriage was held sacred among them.

“This sketch is sufficient to show the identity between the religion of Noah and the antediluvians, and that of the Druids in Britain. So exact an identity of thinking and acting, by two people so far remote from each other, in the same epoch of time, cannot be satisfactorily explained, but on the supposition of the latter people having been connected with the former, and deriving their origin and their institutions from them.

“The endowment of this Druidic church, or the immunities to which the Druids as ministers of religion and teachers of the learned arts had been entitled, were, five free acres of land; exemption from personal service in war; permission to pass unmolested from one district to another in time of war as well as of peace; support and maintenance wherever they went; exemption from land-tax; and a contribution from every plough in the district in which they were authorised teachers. These ancient privileges enjoyed by the Druids, were, upon the introduction of Christianity, legally transferred to the Christian priesthood, by King Lucius.”^[17]

Not only have the religious tenets of the ancient Druids been thus accurately ascertained, but also the particulars of the costume, ceremonial of initiation, discipline, and gradual progress through the degrees of -the Druidic order, are detailed with great minuteness by many writers, and have been collected and related as though they were supposed to be true history, as lately as 1853.^[18]

“The three orders of this great institution, were,” says this author,

“Bards, Druids, and Ovates. The Bards were poets. The Druids were priests and judges : august functions, filling to the eye of the stranger the whole field of vision; hence the second order gave a name to the whole three. The Ovates were a mixed class, replenished from the ranks of the people. The cultivators of science and art: these occupied no mean position, though from the nature of their employments they drew to themselves less observation.

“To begin at the lowest step; a Bardic student bore a distinctive title—Awenydd. The indispensable qualifications for a scholar, were noble birth and unimpeachable morals. On matriculation, he bound himself by oath not to reveal the mysteries into which he was about to be initiated. He was, however, seldom initiated into anything of importance, until his understanding, affections, morals, and general character, had undergone severe trials. He was closely observed when he was least aware of it; there was an eye, to him invisible, continually fixed upon him, and from the knowledge thus obtained, an estimate was formed of his principles and abilities.”

“An Awennydd wore a plaid dress of the Bardic colours, blue, green, and white.”

“The candidate who had passed the ordeal was not immediately invested with the full privileges of the Bardic orders he became an Inceptor, or Inchoate Bard, under the title Bardd-Caw, and wore for the first time the band of the order. Not till after he had presided at three Gorseddau or assemblies, was he fully qualified to exercise all the functions of the office. A full Bard could proclaim and hold a Gorsedd, admit disciples and Ovyddion, and instruct youth in the principles of religion and morality. The dress of the Bard was uni-coloured, of sky-blue, án emblem of peace and truth.”

“The Druids were the second order, but it was necessary to pass through the first to reach it. That is to say, a Druid must have been a Bard, though it was by no means required that a Bard should be a Druid.”

“The Druids were priests and judges; this union in their persons of the sacerdotal and judicial functions gave them great weight and authority, and caused their office to be in much request.”

“The place of meeting of the Druids was called Gwyddfa, which, as the name implies, ‘a place of presence,’^[19] was an eminence either natural or artificial, according to the con-veniency of the situation.”

“A white robe emblematic of truth and holiness, and also of the solar light, was the distinguishing dress of the Druids.”

“The judicial habit of the Arch Druid was splendid and imposing. He was clothed in a stole of virgin-white, over a closer robe of the same, fastened by a girdle, on which appeared the crystal of augury encased in gold. Round his neck was the breastplate of judgment, said to possess the salutary but uncomfortable property of squeezing the neck on the utterance of a corrupt judgment.^[20] Below the breastplate was suspended the Glain Neidr, or serpent’s jewel. On his head he had a tiara of gold. On each of two fingers of his right hand he wore a ring; one plain, the other, the chain ring of divination. As he stood beside the stone altar, bis hand rested on the Elucidator, which consisted of several staves called Coelbrenan, omen sticks, on which the judicial maxims were cut; and which, being put into a frame, were turned at pleasure, so that each stave represented a triplet when formed of three sides.

“The third order was the Ovydd or Ovate, to which the candidate could be immediately admitted without being obliged to pass through the regular discipline. The requisite qualifications were, in general, an acquaintance with discoveries in science, the use of letters, medicine, language, and the like. The Ovydd could exercise all the functions of Bardism; and by some particular performance he became entitled to other degrees on the confirmation of a Gorsedd. The candidate for the order of Ovydd, was elected at a Gorsedd, on the previous recommendation of a graduated Bard of any of the three orders who might from his own knowledge, declare that he whom he proposed, was duly qualified. If the candidate were not known to a Bard, the recommendation of a judge or magistrate, or twelve respectable men, could constitute him a candidate; on which he was immediately elected by ballot. The dress of the Ovydd was green, the symbol of learning, as being the colour of the clothing of nature; and it was unmixed with any other, to show that it was uniform, like truth.”

For these “historical” statements, the author in question cites as his authorities, Meyrick’s Costumes of the Ancient Britons; Dr. Giles’s History of the Ancient Britons; Wood’s Ancient British Church; Owen’s Welsh Dictionary, and certain Institutional Triads, in which the opinions and “sermons” of these orders are supposed to be preserved.

They are however, in fact, mainly derived from Dr. Owen’s Essay on Bardism, prefixed to his translation of the poems of Llywarch Hen. That learned Welshman and scholar, appears readily to have credited the fantastic reveries of Edward Williams, otherwise called Iolo Morganwg, and the exaggerations, if not forgeries, with which he pretended to support them.

The Essay on Bardism, published in 1792, was drawn up from the communications, and with the assistance of Edward Williams. The latter claimed to be a regularly graduated Bard of the Island of Britain, president of the Bardic chair of Glamorgan, and a legitimate successor to, and representative of, the ancient Druids.

We shall have occasion to inquire into the value of the assertions of Edward Williams when examining the authorities on the subject of the Druidical Metempsychosis.

All the information which can be obtained respecting the learning and condition of the Bards, and the doctrines, whether Christian or Pagan, which they may have inculcated in their writings prior to the tenth century, must, of course, be extracted from such writings, if any, as are extant of an earlier date. Fortunately for the true understanding of this question, the same materials, in the same, or even a better condition, which were at the disposal of Dr. Owen Pughe and the Rev. Edward Davies, are at command at the present day, and to these we must turn for any satisfactory elucidation of the subject.

References to British poems of the sixth century are so frequently made by writers on these subjects, that it will be well to ascertain, in the first place, what we really possess in the shape of Ancient British literature.

The most ancient manuscripts containing fragments of the Welsh language, according to Zeuss,^[21] are as old as the tenth, possibly as old as the ninth century. They are not, it is true, Druidical, or even Bardic, but simply glosses written by British individuals, probably monastic persons, as marginal or interlinear interpretations or references, on manuscripts still in existence.

The oldest of these is the Oxford Codex, preserved in the Bodleian Library, which contains, among other things:—

1. A portion of the Treatise of Eutychius the grammarian, with interlinear British glosses.
2. A portion of Ovid’s Ars Amatoria, also with interlinear glosses in the same tongue. These remains of the old British language are stated by Zeuss^[22] to be of equal age with the oldest Irish MSS., and to belong to the end of the eighth or the commencement of the ninth century.
3. In the same Codex are two other documents: an alphabet called the alphabet of Nemnivus,^[23] a rude imitation of Runic forms, with the names of the letters attached. Also a fragment of a treatise on Weights and Measures, written partly in British, partly in Latin. These are probably as old, though not as valuable, as the former.
4. The second Oxford Codex, also in the Bodleian Library, contains a vocabulary of Latin words with British interpretations.
5. The Lichfield Codex, Llandaff Gospel, or St. Chad’s Book, in which donations to the church of Llandaff are enumerated, contains many words and sentences in the British tongue, describing the boundaries of the estates given to the church, as old as the commencement of the ninth century.
6. Of the same age is a leaf found attached to the cover of a Codex in the Luxembourg Library.

“All these,” says Zeuss,

“are genuine ancient monuments, preserved in writing, and coeval with the older forms of the Cambric tongue.”^[24]

The Liber Landavensis, the ancient Chartulary or Register Book of the Cathedral of Llandaff, called also the Book of Teilo, which has been published by the Welsh MSS. Society, was, according to Zeuss and the editor of the published work, compiled in the former part of the twelfth century, but from materials of an older date. Charters contained in it relate to grants of lands to the church, professedly by personages of the sixth century.

The laws of Howel Dda, compiled in the tenth century; the oldest MS. is of the date of the twelfth century.

The oldest known manuscript containing the poetical compositions of the Welsh Bards, and the fountain of the supposed Druidic superstitions, is that known by the name of the Llyvr Du o Gaer Vyrdhin, or the Black Book of Caermarthen, in the library of the Vaughans at Hengwrt. It is a quarto of 54 leaves, the first 45 being in a different hand, and apparently older than the rest. The latter portion of the MS. contains an elegy on the death of Madog ab Meredydd, Prince of Powys in the year 1158; and in the former part is an elegy on the death of Howel, in 1104, who was great-grandson of the famous legislator of the tenth century, Howel Dda.^[25]

The oldest known MS. containing poetical compositions is therefore of the twelfth century.^[26] Its title of Book of Caermarthen is supposed to be derived from its having originally belonged to a priory in that town : a very probable account, as many of the early poems have evidently passed through a monastic laboratory.

The contents of the Black Book of Caennarlhen, when examined by Edward Lhuyd about the close of the seventeenth century, were:—

1. The Dialogue between Myrddin and Taliesin.
2. The Beddau Milwyr Ynys Brydain, or Graves of the Warriors of the Island of Britain.
3. The Predictions of Myrddin from his Grave.
4. The Avallenau.
5. The Hoianau, or Porcellanau.
6. The Song of Yscolan.
7. The Song of the Sons of Llywarch Hen.
8. Songs to Gwyddno Garanhir, to Maelgwn, to Gwyn ab Nudd, Gwendoleu, Gwallawg ab Lleenawg, Bran ab Guerydh, Meirig ab Kynele, Lhoegr ab Lhyenog, and the song “which was made when the sea overflowed the Cantref Gwaelod.”
9. The names of the Sons of Llywarch Hen.
10. The Song of Geraint ab Erbin.
11. The Elegy on the Death of Madog ab Meredydd.
12. The Song to the Lord Rhys.

As far, therefore, as the evidence on this subject goes, the greater part of the poems ascribed to Taliesin had not been reduced to writing in the twelfth century. They are found in the Red Book of Hergest, from 100 to 150 years later.

We have also an interval of nearly six hundred years between the time at which they are supposed to have been composed, and the earliest MS. in which they are found.

There is, however, one MS. which is said to be as old as the seventh century. This is the fragment described by Edward Lhuyd in the Archæologia Britannica, who found it written in, as be says, a Gwyddelian hand, on the first leaf of an old copy of Juvencus.

“By the writing, and by a few more words of the same language, I am certain that the book has come from Scotland, and 1 can also compute the age of the manuscript. I know not whether it is the language of the Strathclyde Britons, or of the Piets or old Caledonians ; it is the oldest and strangest British I have yet seen. 1 do not understand the aim and meaning of the lines .”

The next in point of age and importance, is the Llyfr Coch o Hergest, or Red Book of Hergest, in the library of Jesus College, Oxford. It consists of a folio volume containing 721 pages, writlen in double columns, upon vellum.

“At the end of the Llyfr Coch are some poems bearing the name of Lewis Glyn Cothi, who flourished at the dose of the fifteenth century. This circumstance has given rise to the idea that the whole of the MS. (which is said to have been transcribed from one of still more ancient date) is in the handwriting of the Bard himself; but it is more probable, that, like most others of that period, it is from the hand of professed scribes, more parti-cularly, as it bears the appearance of having been written by various persons, and at different times.”^[27]

According to Edward Lhuyd, it was written about the end of the fourteenth century. The poems of Taliesin and Llywarch Hen, were certainly not transcribed in the Red Book at an earlier period, as the poetry begins at the 513th page, while at the 208th page occurs “A Brief Chronology from Adam to a.d. 1318;” and at the 499th page, “A Chronological History of the Saxons, from their first arival to a.d. 1376.”^[28]

According to Taillandier, in his preface to Lepelletier’s Dictionary, the oldest Breton (Armorican) MS. is of the date of a.d. 1450, being a collection of the predictions of a pretended prophet Gwinglaff, the same apparently as the Merddin of the Welsh.

The Bardic compositions, as they are called, certainly comprising the oldest known remains of Welsh literature, were collected and published in 1801, in a work entitled the Myvyrian Archæology of Wales, collected out of ancient manuscripts, edited by Owen Jones, Edward Williams, and William Owen.

This collection is in three volumes. The first volume containing, in the words of the “General Advertisement,” by the editors,

“so much of the ancient poetry of the Britons as fate has bequeathed to us, and comprehending all the remaining compositions from the earliest times to the beginning of the fourteenth century.”

The second and third volumes are in prose, and contain the Triads, Collections of Proverbs, Genealogies of the Saints, the Chronicles of Tysilio and Gruffyd ab Arthur, and the Laws of Howel Dda.

The Barddoniaeth, or poetry, of the first volume of the Myvyrian Archæology is chronologically divided into two series. First, the works of the Cynveirdd, or earliest Bards, from the sixth to the middle of the tenth century, comprising the most celebrated names in the annals of Bardic lore. Secondly, the works of the Gogynveirdd, or later Bards, the Bards of the middle ages, from a.d. 1120 to a.d. 1380.

The Cynveirdd, or Primitive Bards, whose poems have been preserved and are contained in the Myvyrian Archæology, arc Aneurin, Taliesin, Heinin, Llywarch Hen, Myrddin, Llevoed, Golyddan, Meigant, Elaeth, Tysilio, Cuhelyn, Gwyddno, and Gwydion ab Don, with some anonymous pieces of the earliest bards.

Of the 124 compositions comprised in this series, no less than 77, or nearly two-thirds, are attributed to Taliesin, comprehending historical, mystical, philosophical, religious, moral, and satirical pieces. These are the poems which, in conjunction with those attributed to Merlin, form the great storehouse whence the materials have been drawn, in support of the opinion that the learning and philosophy, the myths, traditions, and superstitions of the ancient Druidic hierarchy of Gaul and Britain, are to be found in compositions, none of which are pretended to be of earlier date than the commencement of the sixth century of the Christian era.

That a very considerable number of the works attributed to Taliesin by the transcribers of the MSS. and in the Myvyrian Archæology, could not possibly be ascribed to the sixth, or seventh, eighth, or tenth centuries, is evident on a mere inspection of their contents. The name of this celebrated Bard has, however, been a tower of strength to the majority of the Welsh archaeologists, who have unhesitatingly accepted all that presented itself under this famous superscription, as evidence of the state of literature and philosophy among their countrymen in the sixth century.

The published compositions of the Welsh Bards form but a very small portion of the extant remains of their works. It appears^[29] that the Myvyrian MSS. alone, now deposited in the British Museum, amount to 47 volumes of poetry of various sizes, containing about 4700 pieces of poetry, in 16,000 pages, besides about 2000 englynion or epigrammatic stanzas. There are also in the same collection, 53 volumes of prose, in about 15,300 pages, containing a great many curious documents on various subjects. Besides these, which were purchased of the widow of the celebrated Owen Jones, the editor of the Myvyrian Archaeology, there are a vast number of collections of Welsh MSS. in London, and in the libraries of the gentry of the Principality. Notwithstanding all that has been written about the Cymry—their antiquity, learning, and the love of their native institutions—none of these have been published either by wealthy individuals, or by the numerous literary societies of Wales. It is to the liberality and public spirit of a furrier in Thames Street, that we are indebted for the means of forming an acquaintance with these early British compositions.

It would seem from Edward Lhuyd’s statement in the Archæologia Britannica, that the possessors of Welsh MSS. in his day held the same views as “the Earl of Ashburn-ham, of Asburnham House, near Battle, Sussex,” in 1857, who, according to Mr. Beale Poste,^[30] is in possession of an inedited manuscript copy of the History of Nennius, but “is stated to decline his manuscripts being consulted for literary purposes.” But since the publication of the Mabinogion by Lady Charlotte Guest, and the great interest excited by that work, in consequence of its important bearing upon the history of the Romance literature of Europe, it is to be hoped, that if any literary treasures do exist among those MS. collections, they may be made available to the literary world.^[31]

There being no foundation for the exaggerated and fabulous accounts of the early Welsh Bards, usually entertained, we must endeavour to ascertain their real character from more trustworthy sources, as it would be impossible to comprehend the true nature of their -poems without a knowledge of the manners and customs of the age to which the minstrels who sang, and the audiences who delighted to hear these compositions, belonged.

That bards or persons gifted with some poetic and musical genius existed in Britain, as in every other country in the world at every age, may be conceded, and that among the Celtic tribes, perhaps in an especial manner, the capacity for recording in verse the deeds of warriors and the ancestry of chieftains, was held in high esteem, and the practice an honourable occupation. Strabo said, that “ among the Gauls, three classes are more especially held in veneration—Bards, Ovates, and Druids.

The word “Bardd,” Dr. Owen derives from “bar,” a top or summit, and renders it,—

“One that makes conspicuous; a priest; a philosopher or teacher; and as poetry was a principal requisite, and a vehicle for the spreading of knowledge, he was necessarily a poet.”

This etymology is of a piece with much contained in his truly valuable work, where the better judgment of its author has been obscured by what is perhaps a pardonable enthusiasm on behalf of Welsh antiquity. The word occurs in the Irish language with the ordinary meaning, and may probably be connected with “Cerdd,” a song, an art, or a performance.

What the Bards of Wales really were in the tenth century we learn from an indisputable source—the laws of Howel the Good, enacted about 950.

This celebrated code of laws was compiled by a commission of thirteen of the most learned persons to be found in Wales. We may observe in passing, that there was not either a Bard or a Druid selected on this occasion. Three of them were judges, and their president was Blegwryd, Archdeacon of Llandaff, and Doctor in Civil and Canon Laws. The laws commence with the duties and privileges of the twenty-four officers of the King’s Palace, sixteen of whom were attached to the service of the King, and eight to that of the Queen.

They were:—

1. Master of the household.
2. Domestic chaplain.   
3. Steward of the household.
4. Judge of the palace.
5. Falconer.  
6. Chief groom.   
7. Chief huntsman.   
8. Steward of the household to the Queen.
9. Queen’s chaplain.
10. Domestic bard.
11. Crier.
12. Doorkeeper of the hall.
13. Doorkeeperof thechamber
14. Page of the chamber.
15. Chambermaid.
16. Groom of the rein.
17. Torch-bearer.
18. Butler.
19. Mead-brewer.
20. Officers of the palace.
21. Cook.
22. Foot-holder.
23. Physician.
24. Groom of the rein to the Queen.

In this series the Bard occupies the tenth place, and was one of the superior officers of the Court, since the “ satisfaction for the insult and murder of the Bard, his heriot, and the rank of his daughters, was the same as that of the domestic chaplain, steward of the household, judge of the palace, falconer, chief groom, and page of the chamber. The fine, eric, or were-gild for the murder of the Bard was 909 cows with three advancements.

The functions of the Bard were confined to the exercise of his art. In these laws he is, in the tenth century, neither priest, teacher, nor philosopher; but simply a singer, and most probably a composer of songs. He is to sing at the board of the King, in the common hall, and at the desire of the Queen. If the Queen required a song in her chamber, the Bard was to sing three verses concerning the Battle of Camlan—the battle in which Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table were slain.^[32]

He was to sing a song to the master of the household whenever the latter should direct, and was to pay a fine to the judge of the palace on his appointment.

Amongst the duties of the Bard was that which was retained among the Celtic tribes of Scotland down to the eighteenth century—leading the clan with inspiriting music into battle.

“If there should be fighting,” it is enacted by the laws of Howel,

“the Bard shall sing the ‘Unbenaeth Prydain’ (the Monarchy of Britain) in front of the battle.”

It is to the performance of this duty that Gwalchmai, a Bard of the twelfth century, probably alludes in the lines—

Mi ydwyf eurddeddf diofn yn nhrin
Mi ydwyf llew rag llu lluch fy ngorddin,—

I am of the golden order fearless in battle;
I am a lion in the front of the army ardent in my advance.

In the tenth century, then, even the Royal Bard was a poet and minstrel, and nothing more.

His office was an honourable one, but not the most honourable. He was in an inferior position to the domestic chaplain, and had no authority or occupation as a moral or religious teacher.

The domestic chaplain was one of the chief officers of the court, and of the three indispensable persons with the King; and, with the master of the household and the judge of the palace, was to support the honour of the court in the King’s absence. His satisfaction for insult and murder was higher than that of the Bard.

In the halls of the lesser chieftains the occupation of the Bard was, no doubt, of still higher importance. He was the genealogist, the herald, and to some extent the historian of the family to which he was attached, kept alive the warlike spirit of the clan or tribe, the remembrance of the old feuds or alliances, and whiled away those tedious hours of an illiterate age, which were unemployed in war or in the chase. To some extent a man of letters, he probably fulfilled the office of instructor in the family of his patron or chief.

But, besides these regularly acknowledged family or domestic Bards, there was in Wales, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and from thence downwards, a very numerous class of itinerant minstrels, who, like the Troubadours, Jongleurs, or Gleemen, wandered from place to place, seeking reward for the entertainment they afforded by their musical acquirements, and their recitals of songs and tales for the amusement of all classes, from the hall of the baron to the cabin of the boor.

We know little of the condition of the Welsh Bards from historical sources previous to the tenth century, though it is stated that late in the seventh century, Cadwallader sat in an Eisteddfod, assembled for the purpose of regulating the Bards, taking into consideration their productions and performances, and giving new laws to harmony. From this period no historical notices of the Welsh Bards, or of their music, occurs until the publication of the laws of Howel Dda, in the tenth century.

According to the Welsh accounts, towards the close of the eleventh centuiy,

“ the great Prince Gruffydd ap Oynan invited to Wales some of the best musicians of Ireland; and, being partial to the music of that island, where he was born, and observing with displeasure the disorders and abuses of the Welsh Bards, created a body of institutes for the amendment of their manners and the correction of their arts and practices.

Accordingly I find in an old MS. of Welsh music, in the library of the Welsh School, a curious account of so remarkable a revolution, beginning with these words:—

‘Here follow the four-and-twenty measures of instrumental music, all conformable to the laws of harmony, as they were settled in a congress by many Doctors skilful in that science, Welsh and Irish, in the reign of Gruffyd ap Cynan, and written in books by the order of both parties, princely and principally, and thence copied.’”^[33]

The names of the different measures of music established by the congress of Gruffyd ap Cynan, show both the extent of Irish influence, and the previous existence, of a number of songs in the Welsh language. It appears that some part of the MSS. above alluded to was transcribed in the time of Charles I. by Robert ap Huw, of Bodwigen, in Anglesey, from William Fenllyn’s book. This William Penllyn is recorded among the successful candidates on the harp at an Eisteddfod at Caerwys in 1568, where he was elected one of the chief Bards and teachers of instrumental song.

Dr. Powell also was of opinion that the Welsh instrumental music came hither with Prince Gruflyd’s Irish musicians, or was composed by them afterwards.

This grand reformation of the Bards consisted in dividing them into classes, and assigning to each class a distinct profession and employment. The Bards were thus divided into three grand orders—poets, heralds, and musicians; each of which again branched into subordinate distinctions.

The musicians were of three classes: performers on the harp; players on the crwth, a six-stringed or three-stringed instrument, resembling a violin; and singers whose employment was to sing to the accompaniment of the harper.

According to Mr. Stephens,^[34] the division of the order made by Gruffyd was into Poets, Family Bards, and Migratory Bards. He fixed the scale of remuneration for their labours, and was the first to order the formation of Chairs for the victors in Bardic contests, who were ever after honourably distinguished as Chair Bards.^[35]

About the same period, the patrons of literature in South Wales made an effort for the restoration of the poetic art in their portion of the principality.

But an important fact connected with this revival of the art in North Wales must not be overlooked.

About twenty years before the Eisteddfod at Caerwys, in a.d. 1100, held by Gruffyd ab Cynan, Rhys ab Tewdwr had assumed the sovereignty of South Wales.

“He brought with him from Brittany,” according the Welsh accounts,

“the system of the Round Table, which, at home, had become quite forgotten, and he restored it as it is, with regard to minstrels and bards, as it had been at Caerlleon-upon-Usk, under the Emperor Arthur, in the time of the sovereignty of the race of the Cymry over the island of Britain and its adjacent islands.”^[36]

“Iestyn the son of Gwrgan, took the Roll of the Round Table by force and fraud to Cardiff Castle. Cardiff was taken by Robert Fitzhamon the Norman; and Robert Earl of Gloucester, the patron of Geoffrey of Monmouth, married Mabli, daughter of Robert Fitzhamon, and received the lordship of Glamorgan in right of his wife.”

We here see the introduction of the Arthurian romance from Brittany preceding by nearly one generation the revival of music and poetry in North Wales.

At Christmas, a.d. 1107, Cadwgan abBleddyn, Prince of South Wales, held a great feast at Cardigan Castle, to which he invited the princes and chieftains of all parts of Wales, and all the best Bards, musicians, and singers in all Wales, and set chairs for them, and instituted contests between them, as was the practice at the feasts of King Arthur.^[37]

At Christmas, in the year 1176, Rhys, Prince of South Wales, gave a magnificent entertainment at his castle of Cardigan or Aberteifi, to a great number of illustrious natives and foreigners; notice of which had been given a year and a day before by proclamation through all Britain and Ireland. The musical Bards of North Wales and South Wales, who had been expressly invited to the festival and a poetical contest, were seated in chairs with much ceremony in the middle of the great hall of the castle. In the musical contest which followed, the pre-eminence in poetry was. adjudged to the poetical Bards of North Wales; that in music to the domestic musical Bards of the Prince.

At this feast the Bards were confirmed by the prince’s authority in the franchises and privileges granted them by former statutes. They were also recompensed with fees, settled by prescription, and proportioned to the order of their profession and the degree they had obtained in it.^[38]

From this time to the death of Llywelyn ab Gruffyd, in 1282, is the brightest period of Welsh poetry. During this period, says Mr. Stephens,^[39]

“Wales possessed a series of great men in

Grufíyd ap Cynan,
Owain Gwynedd,
Owain Cyveiliawg,
Gruffyd ab Rhys,
Rhys ab Gruflyd,
Llywelyn ab Jorwerth,
and Llywelyn ab Gruffyd.

Of the Cambrian princes, Llywelyn ab Jorwerth deserves especial mention, as the stability of the country during his reign (from 1194 to 1240) was essentially conducive to its literary eminence. At this period a succession of great men had restored stability and order, and strengthened the regal authority; the elements of convulsion subsided, anarchy ceased, and men, conscious of personal security, could listen with pleasure to the songs of the Bards, who flourished, increased, and improved under the genial influence of regal dominion and public intelligence.”

The regulations made at these congresses in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, give us the meaning of the titles affixed to several of the pieces in the Myvyrian Archæology. Several of the poems ascribed to Taliesin are called Cadair; Cadair Taliesin, Cadair Ceridwen, Cadair Teymon, &c. This is translated, The Chair of Taliesin, The Chair of Ceridwen, &c.; and such, no doubt, is its literal meaning, though a mystic sense has been attached to it by the advocates of the Bardic mysteries.

Other pieces are entitled Colofn, as the religious poem of Jonas Athraw of Menevia, entitled Awdyl Vraith, which is said in the HanesTaliesin to be one of the Four “Colofn Cerdd,” or Pillars of Song.

It appears that certain descriptions of musical composition received among the Welsh technical names as early as the twelfth century.

Jones describes them as—

1. A Cwlwm, a congruous piece of music with words.
2. A Colofn, pillar or fundamental part of metrical quality.
3. A Cydgerdd, music in parts.
4. A Cadair, a masterly piece of music, as Jones conjectures, by the performance of which the Bard rose to the superior degrees, and to the chair; whence it probably took its name.
5. A Caniad, a tune or song.
6. A Gosteg, a prelude or overture.
7. A Difr, a measure or diverting air.
8. A Mwchwl; this famous piece of music, it seems, was only acquired by a Pencerdd, or Doctor of Music of the Harp.

These distinctions are said to have been invented by the commission appointed by Gruffyd ap Cynan in the eleventh century, and to form the basis of the regulations by which the curriculum or course of study of the candidates for degrees in music and poetry was directed.

Thus a graduate probationary student of music was required to know

• ten cwlwms,
• one colofn,
• five cwlwms of cydgerdd,
• one cadair,
• and eight caniads.

The Doctor of Music was obliged to know

• forty cwlwms,
• four colofns,
• twenty cwlwms of cydgerdd,
• four cadairs,
• thirty-two caniads,
• and four gostegs ;

to understand all the laws and modifications of harmony, especially the twenty-four measures of music, with other qualifications.

In calculating the value of these distinctions,

• a cadair was equal to five cwlwms,
• a colofn equal to two cadairs,
• and three noble mwchwls equal to the four colofns.

The three new mwchwls were equal to four cadairs.

The same observation applies to the “gorchan,” which Davies translated “talisman” and which the Yen. Archdeacon of Cardigan still persists in calling a “charm and incantation,” but which is nothing more than a technical term for poetic composition according to fixed rules; there being nine kinds of gorchanau, corresponding to the nine divisions of the colofn.^[40] So one of the twenty-four measures of song is called “Gorchest y Beirdd,” “the great achievement of the Bards.”

The object of these Bardic congresses, held in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, was not only the revival of musical and poetic literature, but also to introduce, if possible, some order among the multitude of professed idlers who, as wandering singers and minstrels, swarmed over the country. The practice of progressing from place to place, from castle to castle, and joining every occasion of festivity, was so lucrative, that the higher class of Bards were anxious to place under restraint the migratory gleemen who elbowed them out of place on such occasions. The spirit of the age would with difficulty permit chieftains of renown or persons of noble birth to refuse the demand for largess, or the boon claimed as the reward of song. The character and reputation of the knight and noble were, moreover, very much dependent on the feme which lived in the mouths of these itinerant minstrels.

In the laws of Howel we see it enacted, that when the Bard shall ask a gift from a prince he shall sing one song; when he asks a baron, let him sing three songs; should he ask a vassal, let him sing until he falls asleep. The poems of the Welsh Bards are full of expressions of requests for favours to be granted, or praise and gratitude for those received.

The custom of petitioning for presents by occasional poems was carried to such excess, and such respect was constantly paid to their requests, that in the time of Gruffyd ap Cynan, in the eleventh century, it became necessary to restrain them by a law which prohibited them from asking for the prince’s horse, hawk, or greyhound, or any other possession beyond a certain price, or that was particularly valued by the owner, or could not be replaced. Many poems of the succeeding centuries are now extant, written to obtain a horse, a bull, a sword, a rich garment, &C.^[41]

An endeavour was made to place these progresses or migrations of the Bards under some regulations, by appointing for them a regular turn once in three years, called “Clera,” a name applied to the wandering minstrels themselves.

It does not seem to have had much effect, since in 1403, in the reign of Henry IV., it was enacted by the “Ordinance de Gales,”

“that the Minstrels, Bards, Rhymers, and Questers, and other Welsh Vagabonds in North Wales, be not henceforth suffered to surcharge the land as now they do; but that they be prohibited therefrom under pain and imprisonment for one year.”

These minstrels were in fact recognised by the arrangements come to at the Congress of Bleddyn ab Cynvan, under the Welsh name of Datceiniad, or those who sung the compositions of others; and it was attempted to enforce the regular graduation of these in a kind of Bardic university. But the public taste and the spirit of the age were too strong for the higher classes of the profession, and the wandering Minstrel, and Storiawr or Reciter of tales and ballads, maintained his ground in spite of Bardic congresses, Eisteddfods, and Acts of Parliament.

The proper appellation of the strolling minstrel was Cler or Clerwr.

Dr. Owen, in his Dictionary, under the word Cler, which he says is a plural aggregate form derived from cy-ller, gives as its meaning,—

“The teachers or learned men of the Druidic order, who, under the primitive Bardic system, were by privilege employed in going periodical circuits to instruct the people, answering the purpose of a priesthood; but in later times, the term implied a society of wanderers; or those bards and musicians who lawfully strolled about, like the English minstrels. These wandering classes of men originated when the priesthood was made a distinct branch of the Bardio system; for the latter then ceased to have sufficient power to support its members; and as a compensation, a law was made, that such as were of this description should have regulated periodical circuits, and receive certain fees according to their degrees, and the quality of those they visited. This ended at the last in mere mendicancy.”

This statement is mere imagination, entirely unfounded. The word cler in Welsh, as cliar in Irish, means a minstrel, poet, or singer. The apparent connection between the word and the Latin clerus is probably merely accidental. The Irish clarsair and clairseoir, a harper, from clar a board, the performer on a board, and clairseach a harp, the seven boards, or board with seven strings, appear to offer the derivation of the word. The estimation in which they came to be held, is evident, among other things, in the secondary meauing of the word cler, “gadflies.”

A very cursory examination of the remains of Welsh poetry contained in the first part of the Myvyrian Archæology, that is, the poems of the Cynveirdd, suffices to assure us, that the pieces therein contained were written down from the mouths of the wandering minstrels, and that these were, as might well be expected, an exceedingly illiterate class of persons. It is this circumstance alone which explains the fact, that the poems ascribed to Taliesin in particular, are for the most part made up of allusions to local, sometimes historical events, references to the Mabinogion, or fairy and romance tales of the Welsh, scraps of geography and philosophy, phrases of monkish Latin, moral and religious sentiments, proverbs and adages, mixed together in wonderful confusion, sometimes all in the compass of one short ballad. They demonstrate most clearly, that, however ancient some of the fragments mixed up with them may be, these ballads were not reduced into writing until long after they had been handed down, by oral transmission, through the recitals of these itinerant minstrels. They furnish the best commentary on the monstrous imposture of Edward Williams and his son Taliesin Williams, and the reveries of Davies and Dr. Owen, on the subject of the Coelbren y Beirdd,^[42] or Bardic letters employed in Britain from the most remote antiquity.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Literature of the Cymry; a Critical Essay on the Language and Literature of Wales during the twelfth and two succeeding centuries: to which was awarded the prize given by H. R. H. the Prince of Wales at the Abergavenny Eisteddfod in 1848.

[2]:

Rise and Progress of lie English Commonwealth, pp. 389-483.

[3]:

Kees, Essay on the Welsh Saints, 1836. Preface, p. vii.

[4]:

Gomer: a Brief Analysis of the Language and Knowledge of the Ancient Cymry. London, 1854.

[5]:

Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth, p. 154.

[6]:

This is a very large conclusion from very slight premises. It is quite dear from the legend that the idol destroyed by the high priest was a Saxon idol, Thor or Woden, and that Coifi himself was a priest of the religion of Odin, who had adopted Christian ideas, and assisted in the conversion of his countrymen.

[7]:

This writer also informs us that the names Ossian and Taliesin are mere mythological concentrations, and personifications of the poetical activity and influence of the interesting Siberian tribe îí-sin, one of the principal tribes of the White Tartars, who are identical with the Irish, Ossian being the representative of the bards who themselves belonged to that tribe; Taliesin representing the bards of a neighbouring nation, who received from the Ua-sin the impulse of their art and inspiration.

[8]:

In the articles, Ceridwen, Amaethon, &c.

[9]:

Owen, Essay on Bardism.

[10]:

Those brethren being, according to the author, the magi of Media, the Chaldeans of Assyria, and the Brahmins of India.

[11]:

Religion of Ancient Britain historically considered. London, 1846.

[12]:

Yeowell’s Chronicles of the Ancient British Church. London, 1847.

[13]:

The author has unfortunately omitted to point out where these memorials are to be found. He probably means the Triads; if so, it is something like citing Virgil to prove the costume of Dido.

[14]:

Cæsar says, that the Druids of Gaul worshipped chiefly Mercury; also Apollo, Mars, and Minerva.

[15]:

According to Cæsar, human sacrifices.

[16]:

Was this a patriarchal doctrine?

[17]:

The Lucius here mentioned is the celebrated Llenawg ab Coel ab Cyllin, called “Lleufer Mawr,” the great light, who, according to the Triads, built the first church at Llandaff, which was the first in the isle of Britain. He held a correspondence with Eleutlierius, Bishop of Rome, about A.D. 180. The statement of the transference by him of the Druidic privileges to the Christian church, implies the existence in Britain of nn endowed Druidic priesthood, in possession of recognised public rights and immunities, more than one hundred years after the proscription of the Druidic priesthood in Gaul, and the destruction of their stronghold in Anglesey by Suetonius Paulinus. This absurd fable is taken from the Welsh Triads.

[18]:

Welsh Sketches , by E. S. Appleyard, A.M. First Series. London, 1853.

[19]:

In Owen’s Dict., gwyddfa, a tumulus or tomb.

[20]:

This statement as to the breastplate of judgment, is taken from the account of the breastplate or collar of the Brehon judges of Ireland, and transferred without comment or authority to imaginary functionaries of the same kind in Britain. See Vallancey, Collect .

[21]:

Grammatica Celtica. Lipsiæ, 1853.

[22]:

Grammatica Celtica. Lipsiæ, 1853 .

[23]:

It is thus prefaced :—“ Nemnivus invented these letters on the occasion of a certain Saxon remarking reproachfully that the Britons had no letters; whereupon Nemnivus at once made these up out of his own invention, and so got rid of the reproach cast upon his nation.”

[24]:

These glosses have been published by Zeuss in an Appendix to his Grammatica Celtica. Several of them had been previously noticed by Edward Lhuyd in his Archæologia Britannica, by Wanley, and Archbishop Usher; but it was reserved for a foreigner to publish these most ancient memorials of the British language, and, after Lhuyd, the only critic a l examination of the Celtic dialects.

[25]:

Villemarqué, Poëmes des Bardes Bretons du 6e Siècle, Introd. p. S, citing the authority of Aneurin Owen. This elegy is not mentioned in the list of the contents of the Llyvr Du given by Lhuyd in the Archæologia.

[26]:

It is said in the preface to the Mabinogion, that there is another MS. in the Hengwrt Library containing the Grnal in Welsh, also of the twelfth century ; and a MS. of the Gododin. on vellum, is said by Mr. Williams ab Ithel to have been transcribed in the year 1200.

[27]:

Preface to Mabinogion, by Lady Charlotte Guest.

[28]:

See Cambro-Briton, vol. ii. p. 107.

[29]:

See Cambro-Briton, vol. iii. p. 443.

[30]:

Britannia Antiqua , p. 46. London, 1857.

[31]:

We may venture to suggest to the Welsh MSS. Society, that it is not necessary to publish English translations of Welsh MSS., a process which involves a large and unnecessary expenditure of time and money. What is wanted is, to have the documents themselves in print: those who wish or are able to make use of them, can supply the translations where requisite.

[32]:

On the authority of the editor of the Cambro-Briton, vol. ii. p. 347. If this is so, the romance of Arthur was current in Wales in the tenth centuiy. But it is probably an addition of later date.

[33]:

Jones’s Hist. Account of the Welsh Bards.

[34]:

Literature of the Kymry, p. 340.

[35]:

But the Bardd Cadeiriawg, or Choir Bard, is mentioned in the laws of liowel Dda in the preceding century.

[36]:

Iolo MSS. page 630.

[37]:

Myvyr. Arch . vol. ii. p. 536.

[38]:

Jones, Hist. Account of the Welsh Bards.

[39]:

Lit. of the Kymry, p. 341.

[40]:

It may be remarked that the term “Gorchan” is not found in Dr. J. D. Rees’s elaborate account of Welsh metre, published in 1592.

[41]:

Jones’s Bardic Relics.

[42]:

The subject of the Coelbren y Beirdd will be further discussed in treating of the Historical Triads and other sources of the ancient history of Britain, in the second part of this essay.