Taliesin
The Bards and Druids of Britain
by David William Nash | 1858 | 113,891 words
A Translation of the Remains of the Earliest Welsh Bards, and an Examination of the Bardic Mysteries....
Chapter V - Of Neo-Druidism and the Druidical Philosophy
The difficulty of maintaining the proposition, that the Welsh Bards of the sixth century had preserved, and were in the practice of proclaiming and celebrating in the midst of a Christian community, the doctrines and traditions of an ancient and apparently extinct superstition, induced the learned author of Britannia after the Romans, to present a new theory to account for such a remarkable phenomenon.
“The separation of the British province from the Empire,”[1] says Mr. Herbert,
“was not merely the case of an effete civilization giving way to irrumpent bardism, such as its other provinces exhibit. But, it was attended by an abandonment of established Christianity, and the rise of a strange and awful apostatic heresy; of which the historical vestiges are rare, but the internal evidences numerous and strong. Symptoms of that change have tinged British history and literature from the separation downwards, to an indefinitely modern point of time. But it had its paroxysms; its times of greater ascendancy and power than others; times of greater publicity and more unreserved avowal. The long and great paroxysm of this mania was the period extending from the revolt against the Gwynethian King-Insular, Gwrtheyrn of the Untoward Mouth, down to the conflict (called) of the Field-of-Iniquity, or Cam-Lan. Its point of extreme exacerbation was from the establishment of that power (known by the name of Arthur) which fell in the Cam-Lan, onto its downfall in that revolution. After which event, the aforesaid power or principle was removed out of sight by the two chief Bards of Britain, and kept alive, from thenceforward, indefinitely in the secrecy of a charmed and magical asylum.”
The period adopted by Mr. Herbert as that in which this substitution of Paganism for Christianity prevailed in Britain, comprises, if taken from the date of the arrival of the Saxons in a.d. 449, to the commonly received date of the battle of Camlan, a.d. 542, about one hundred yean.
According to Mr. Herbert’s view,
“the history of that period is a mere compound of romantic and mythologic imposture. Emiys Wledig, otherwise Ann ap Lleian, Uthyr Pendragon, and Arthur, by whom that poem was filled, were not real persons; but terms expressive of the long rule of fanaticism and of the three sub-periods in which it presented varying aspects; while a number of real men of inferior glory (Nathan Loed, Caradoc, Cawrdav, Maelgwn, &c.) were those that actually performed the brawlings and ruinations of that dismal time .”
The nature and history of this strange and awful apostatic heresy is further developed by Mr. Herbert in a later work upon this subject.[2]
“Paulinus and Agrippa, by tbe conquest of Mona, the slaughter of the Druids in that island, and the (cutting down of the groves that were sacred to their cruel superstitions,' struck a fatal blow to their craft. The three centuries and upwards that intervened between Vespasian and Honorius consigned to silence tbe Druidical system in the Roman provinces of Gaul and Britain—the religion of Rome first, and then that of Christ, being established in them, and the Latin language extensively prevalent. But in the very height of their Roman civilization, when the vicious empire was tottering, a pagan apostasy crept into Gaul and Britain, which ended in establishing in the latter country that Neo-Druidism to which the fables of Ambrosius and Arthur relate. A sort of magical association had grown up in the eastern parts of the Roman dominions, founded upon the doctrines and mysteries of tbe Persian magi. These were the Mithriacs, followers of the ineffable orgies of Mithras. Very early in the Christian era this pagan sect began in a measure to play the part of heretics, and, under their name of Mithriaca, imitated and parodied the rites of Christianity. They worshipped the sun by his Persian title of Mithras, but pretended that it was Christ they worshipped, and that Christ was the spirit of the sun.
“These doctrines were introduced into Britain, a rich and well-civilized island, in which Christianity had been some time established, and Roman manners still longer. We therefore meet with a frequent dissimulation of that heathenism to which the authors of the system were addicted—a disinclination to call the demons of polytheism by their ancient and known titles, or to give them the rank of gods, and a feeble attempt to conciliate their mysteries with the Christian. Manes, whose followers were a very similar class to the Neo-Druids, pursued the same course and honoured the name of Christ, but meant the sun by that name. No more can be understood by the Christ Gwledig of the bards. Their Trindawd is the triad of the Pythagorean cabalism, or theological arithmetic, and should be rendered Supreme Trias, and not Trinity, to express the mind of the primary bards. Some have carelessly^ some affectedly, confounded together the Druidism of the times before the Romans with this modified revival of it in an heretical form. I have studied to keep them distinct by terming the professors of the latter Druidists and Neo-Druids.
“The College of Druids was not re-established by name. The votaries of Belenus in Gaul referred to the Druids as to an extinct race, from whom some of them affected on uncertain grounds to be descendanta. In Britain, that order which was lowest and least important, and which alone was either tolerable to the Romans or compatible with Christianity, viz. the order of Bards, was the only one that flourished. Everything was referred to Bardism; and all the functions of priest, prophet, and magician, all the learning of the country and the right of teaching it and inventing it, was claimed by that order of minstrels.”
The great deity of the Neo-Druidists was Beli:—
“The Beli who presided over Neo-Druidic Bardism is the god of bloodshed and slaughter, the deified sword of Scythia and the Arthur of Britain.”
Instead of attempting to enter upon any farther investigation of this marvellous history, which would lead us beyond the scope of this essay, we will content ourselves with inquiring into the evidence upon which it rests.
This would seem to be a matter of some difficulty, since the Neo-Druids,
“like their pagan predecessors, were bound to strict secrecy. Their doctrine was imparted to the aspirant amidst horrific and intimidating orgies, and under the sanction of a self-imprecated curse binding him to silence.”
“They had barbarous usages to conceal from the eye of civilization, and impious follies from that of Holy Church.”
It is supposed, however, that the remaining works of the Welsh bards contain sufficient indications of these mysterious proceedings enveloped in a kind of technical jargon from which it is yet possible to eliminate the genuine hidden meaning.
The evidence which is to support and give credit to these statements, must necessarily be sought in what remains to us of the writings of the learned, of the period when these doctrines are supposed to have flourished j and, in fact, it is to the works of the Cynveirdd, that is, Taliesin, Aneurin, and Merlin, that Mr. Herbert has recourse for the proof of the theory which he enunciates. The romance of Taliesin, and the song of the “Battle of Gododin,” are the main sources upon which Mr. Herbert draws for the support of his views, without any apparent suspicion of the real date of the former composition, and with a most mistaken notion of the real character and contents of the latter. We have seen that the ballads of which the former are composed contain nothing more mysterious than the ordinary wonders of faëry and magic. We shall now present a ballad which, according to Mr. Herbert, contains the secret doctrines of the worship of the Sun and Fire symbolized under the form of the Horse.
“The Neo-Platonists, or Syncretists,” says Mr. Herbert, referring to this poem,[3] the “Can y Meirch, or Song of the Horses,”
“who in a manner revived the Pythagorical union, were of equal date with the Neo-Magi of Artaxares the Sas-sanide. Then the Mithriac heresy took its grand start, and struck roots which have never been extirpated, and probably never will be till all hidden things are brought forth to judgment. The Sun displacing Mercury from his old superiority over Apollo, became the Gwledig or national Deity of renascent Druidism. Mithras (Melyn) was the son of Oromazdes (Cynvelyn) or the ether, ‘sublime candens,’ quintessentia, or super-elemental fire. The Polyhistor of Solinus, mentions perpetual fires in the temples of Minerva in Britain. Hector Boethius informs us that the fire of dignity was carried before the chief priest of Gael, when their college was established in Man; and though that statement bears a fabulous date, it is really illustrative of the times subsequent to the Roman Conquest, if not to the departure of the Romans. Fire-worship was of the essence of Neo-Druidism; and in it, as in Magianism and Neo-Magianism, a horse was the symbol of that sublime substance. Avaon, son of Taliesin, wrote a “Song of Horses,” from the remains of which it is apparent that the horses are mystical or allegorical, and connected with Pyrolatry.”
Mr. Davies[4] also considered the horses of this poem to be mythological; and naturally enough, according to the views he entertained on these subjects, concluded that the song contains a specimen of Druidical fire-worship, and pertains to the Helio-Arkite superstition.
When, however, we ascertain for ourselves what this poem really contains, we cannot but conclude that all the learning displayed by Mr. Herbert on this subject has been altogether thrown away; for the song, when fairly translated, turns out to be a ballad in which the celebrated horses of personages well known in the Arthurian romances are enumerated. The minstrel commences with the praise of his own horse or that of his patron, Llyr, and compares him with the most famous horses of the story, of whom he declares him to be the equal.
CAN Y MEIRCIL
THE SONG OF THE HORSES.
Bursting his collar,
Trotting actively,
His hoofs high above the ground,
Scatter fire even in the daytime.
High he lifts his rein;
Above all comparison
He is the greatest of animals.
There is none more perfect
Bears the Baddle than Llyr.
Swift is the course of Llyr,
Unequalled in swiftness
From break of day till evening,
In play or in strife,
In all alike,
Spirited in all;
In the four quarters of the world
I extol and adjudge him to be the most worthy,
Strong in battle, deep his hatred;
A sluggish one is not agreeable to me
With his haunch (leaning) on the gate.
I will prove by nine warranties,
Or twelve if desired,
My hand to thy hand,
Of the most celebrated
He is equal in birth.
The horse of Mayawg,
Expeditious in travelling;
The horse of Gwythur,
The horse of Gwarddnr,
The horse of Arthur,
The bold knight-errant;[5]
The horse of Taliesin,
The horse of Uen Lledfegin
And the quick-stepping don horse of Pebyr,
And Crei, the horse of Cunin,
Coman[6] mated (to toil).
The ardent Awyddawc,[7]
And the three cloven-hoofed horses
They have left no issue.
Cethin, the horse of Ceidaw,
With the cloven hoof,[8]
Ysgwyddfrith[9] Ysgodig,
The stately steed of Llemenig,
The bay horse of Rydderch
Of the colour of a stag,
And Llamrai of perfect shape,[10]
And Ffroenfoll[11] the lively
Horse of Sadymin,
And the horse of Constantine,
And others in the poem,
From the land of Germany,
Which of old Mad brought,
The story of Hiraddug.
This is the true termination of the “ Song of the Horses,” which, as we have before stated, was not improbably sung in the course of the recital of the history of Taliesin, at that part where the race between the horses of Elphin and Maelgwn is mentioned. Of the fifteen additional lines, thirteen have no connection with the preceding, but are merely a variation of the common formula repeated in so many of the pieces in the Myvyrian Archæology. They are evidently founded on the reputed changes of form of Gwion before being born of Ceridwen, which appear to have been a favourite subject with the minstrels, and also, no doubt, with the audiences to whom they sung. In this piece the lines run thus:—
I have been a hog, I have been a cow;
I have been clean, I have been a hog;
I have been a woman, I have been a sow;
I have been a gaping giant;
I have been the flood of a cataract;
I have been a wave on the beach;
I remember tbe sprinkling of tbe Deluge.
I have been a spotted-headed cat on a forked tree;
I have been a ball, I have been a head
Of a goat on an elder-tree;
I have been a crane on a wall, a wonderful sight.
Very fierce was the beast of Morial,
Of a good race in the battle-field.[12]
Great is the firmament when it is reached.
The life of man is not over long.
Mr. Herbert commences his translation—
Inimitably bursts forth
The vehement fast-spreading fire.
Him we worship above the earth.
The fire! the fire ! fierce his dawning.
High above the bard’s inspiration,
Higher than every element,
The great one is unequal to him.
The first word of the second line, however, is tuthiawl, “trotting”; and Mr. Herbert has felt compelled to add in a note that the word he has translated “fast-spreading” is literally “fast-trotting,” an epithet which, allowing for any extent of bardic fancy, is very inappropriate to fire. There can, however, be no doubt as to the nature of the poem, which is far more interesting in its real form than when translated into an unintelligible mass of mysterious absurdity.
Another and still more portentous example of the length to which Mr. Herbert has pushed his views on the Neo-Druidical Heresy in Britain, and of the mode of translation and interpretation of the Welsh poetry by which he procures evidence to support his opinions, is to be seen in his observations on the piece entitled “Gofeisws Byd,” i.e. “A Sketch or Memorandum of the World,” but which he calls “The Devised or Contrived World.” This poem is, without doubt, a genuine production of some storiawr or minstrel of the thirteenth or fourteenth century, on a subject which was always one of much interest in the middle ages, the wars and adventures of Alexander the Great. These formed the subject of a romance similar in kind to those of Arthur and Charlemagne, with this difference, that in the romance of Alexander that hero himself appears in the character of a magician, and performs some of the feats attributed by the trouvères of Britanny 'to the enchanter Merlin.
Two other short pieces, one relating to the Macedonian conqueror, the other, having his name prefixed as its title, are contained in the Myvyrian collection.
The piece in question commences abruptly without the usual religious exordium, adopted in similar productions, and is therefore probably only a fragment of the original poem.
Y GOFEISWS BYD.
Bu deu teg ar wlad gwledychyssid
Bu haelof berthaf or Rhianedd
Bu terwyn gwenyn gwae ei gywlad
Ef torres ar Ddar teirgwaith ynghad
Ac ef ni fydd corgwydd i wlad dar plufawr
Pebyr pell athrecwys coed gyrth y godiwawd
Alexander yn hual eurin gwac a garcharer
Ni phell garcharwyd angeu dybu ac lie
Ei cafas ergyr o lu ueb cyuuog ef ni
Ddarchawd myued bed berthrwydd or addwyndawd
Hael Alexander ai cymxnerth yna
Gwlad Syr a Siriol a gwlad Syria
A gwlad Dinifdra a gwlad Dinitra
Gwlad Pers a Mere a gwlad y Cana
Ag Ynyssed Pleth a Pletheppa
A chiwdawd Babilon ag Agascia mawr
A gwlad Galldarus bychan y da
Hyd ydd ymddug y tir tywarch yna
Ac yd wnahon eu bryd wrth eu helya
Y weddont gwystlon i Europa
Ac anrheithio gwladoedd gwissioedd terra
Gwythyr gwenynt gwragedd gorddynt yma
Bron losgedigion gwyledd gwastra
O gadeu afor pan adroddet
Digonynt brein gwndnt pen brithred
Y milwyr mageidawr pan atrodded
Neu wlad ith weisson ti pan ddiflyded
Ny bydd ith esgor esgor lludded
Rhag gofal yr hual ai Agaled
Milcant rhiallua fu farw rhag syched
Eu geu gogwilleu ar eu miled
As gwenwynnwys ei was cyn noi drefred
Cyn no hyn bri gweH digoned
Inn harglwydd gwladlwyd gwlad gogoned
Un wlad lor oror goreu ystlyned
Diwyccwyf digonwyf poed genyt dy gyffred
Ar sawl am clyw poed meu eu huned
Digonwynt hwy fodd Duw eyn gwisg tudwed.
The following is the translation which Mr. Herbert gives of this simple piece, and nothing can more forcibly exhibit the extraordinary fallacies on which his theory of the history of Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries is founded. He gives it the title of
THE DEVISED OR CONTRIVED WORLD.
There were twelve by whom the land was ruled.
There was the most generous and fairest of ladies :
A woe of the ardency of bees was her border;
It burst out upon the oak-trees thrice in battle;
And it shall be our wood-cirde of feathered oak-trees from the land.
Widdy the Mighty One vanquished the wood of overtaking thrust.[13]
In golden fetters of woe is Alexander imprisoned;
Nor was he imprisoned afar: death was near the place.
He sustained an onslaught from the host, none of us being answerable.
The oak enclosed goes to his grave, fair and free by his blessedness.[14]
Generous was Alexander with his fair possessions yonder.[15]
The land of stars and the cheerful, and the land of Syria,
And the land of Dinivdra, and the land of liberation;
The land of Persia and Hersia, and the land of Cana;
And the isles of plaiting, and of the plaiting of the Ape;
And the nation of Babylon, and Agascia the Great;
And the land of the might of Darius, of little avail
Till he brought himself into the sod of the earth there.
And they did their pleasure in their hunting.
They subjected hostages to Europe,
And the plunder of the countries, the raiment of the earth.
Grimly smiled the women that urged them on,[16]
With seared bosoms, casting away modesty.
With battles on the sea in the hoar of retribution,
They satiated ravens; they brought confusion on the head
Of the soldiers of the Chief of Multitudes in the hour of retribution.
Truly, oh land ! when thon art stript of thy young men,
There can be to thee no riddance, no riddance of oppression,
With the anxiety of the fetters and their hardship,
An army of 100,000 died of thirst.
Vagabondish were their arts in pursuing their prey.
The plain poisoned the youth ere he ran to his homestead,[17]
Ere he could become more sufficiently old.
For our land-prospering Lord a land of glory,
Our land of Eternity of excellent communion,
I will adorn, I will prepare. Be with thee the plenitude,
And of whoso hear me be granted to me the repose.
They will make God their happiness ere they put on the earth.[18]
According to Mr. Herbert, this poem exhibits the Crist Celi, or man-god of the mysteries, in his form of Alexander Mawr (the Great), in which, as well as in Ercwlf Mawr (Hercules the Great), his miraculous conception by the Dragon Jove is signified. It likewise introduces the Judaism of those mysteries by identifying the twelve Knights of the Round Table with the twelve tribes of Israel, and these countries with the Holy Land, to which the occupation of Syria and Palestine by Alexander lent a handle.
It must be admitted that, if Mr. Herbert’s translation of the “Gofeisws Byd” is somewhat mysterious, his comments and explanations are far more so. In fact they are, when taken in connection with the plain meaning of the poem, perfectly incomprehensible. All this mystery of the Crist Celi, the Cor of Ambrosius, the Ape of the sanctuary, and the awful crimes and iniquities imputed to them, are the merest fancies of a disordered imagination. This famous Ape, who has been specially created by Mr. Davies, and antiquaries of his school, performs a great part in Mr. Herbert’s Neo-Druidism. He is supposed to he commemorated in a passage in the “Gwawd Lludd of Mawr, or Praise of Lludd the Great,” a poem attributed to Taliesin, which we will presently examine. In the first place, the following is the literal translation of the “Gofeisws Byd,” in which none of the mysteries or hidden doctrines of the Bards or Neo-Druidists have any possible place, and exist only in Mr. Herbert’s and Mr. Davies’s translations.
SKETCH OF THE WORLD.
He was strong and handsome by whom the country was ruled;
He was the most bountiful and most beautiful of princes;
Strong was the poison, woe to his oonntiymen;
He vanquished Darius three times in battle.
But he will not remain supreme in the land of the plume-bearing Darius;
Fever, a farther reaching vanquisher than the thrust of the spear, overtook him.
Alexander in golden fetters—alas \ for the prisoner,
Not remote his imprisonment; death came to the place,
And took away the impulse of the army; no one can be a debtor to him.
Covered up he goes to his grave enriched with glittering ornaments.
Generous Alexander obtained there,
The land of Syr and Siriol, and the land of Syria;
And the land of Dinifdra, and the land of Dinitra;
The land of Persia and Mersia, and the land of Cana;
And the islands of Pleth and Phletheppa;
And the city of Babylon, and Agasria the Great;
And the land of Galldarus, of little worth,
Until much toil is employed on the sod of the earth there.
And they performed their purpose according to their intention,
And subjected hostages in Europe,
And took the spoils of all the known countries of the earth.
Wrathful, lustful, lecherous, they pour over here;
Breasts are burning at beholding their devastation.
Of the battles of Porus when it shall be told,
Satiated were ravels, their heeds were spotted (with blood).
Of the soldiers of the Magician[19] when it shall be told,
Will not thy country be inquiring of thee how it was devastated ?
Will there not be to thee a deliverance from the extreme fatigue?
Through anxiety and toil and hardships
A hundred thousand millions perished with thirst.
Vainly were they searching after their soldiers.
Poisoned was the hero before he could reach his habitation.
Rather than this, it were better he had been contented.
To us there is a beneficent Lord of a glorious land,
The land of Eternity, the region of a great community,
I am content if thou be included in it ;
And whoever shall hear me may his sleep be the better,
They do enough who please God before they are clothed with earth.
This piece speaks for itself, and needs no farther comment. The other fragment relating to Alexander the Great mentions his adventure in the ship of glass, a marvel which belongs to the romance of Merlin the Magician, but was ascribed to Alexander by a Spanish romance of the middle of the thirteenth century, and is, according to Southey, found in a German legend of St. Anna, written at the close of the year 1100. The title given to this fragment by some transcriber is, “The Not-Wonders of Alexander,” displaying that unbelieving and practical turn of mind which has militated against the preservation of similar documents.
ANRHYFEDDODAU ALEXANDER.
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Rhyfeddaf na chiawr Addef nef i lawr O ddyfod rhwyf gawr Alexander mawr Alexander Magidawr Hewys hayamddawn Cleddyfal enwogawn Aeth dan eigiawn Dan eigiawn eithyd I geisiaw celfyddyd Bid o iewin ei fryd |
Eithyd odduch gwynt Rwng deu grifft ar hynt I weled dremynt Dremynt ni weles Present ni chymhes Gweles rhyfeddawd Gorllin gan bysgawd A eiddunwys yn ei fryd A gafas or byd A hdyd o’r ddiwedd Gan Dduw drugaredd. |
THE NOT-WONDERS OF ALEXANDER.
The other piece is called,
LURYG ALEXANDER.
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Ar glawr elfydd Ei gystedlydd Ni ryaned Teir person Dew Un mab addwyn Terwyn trinded Mab ir Dwydid Mab ir dyndid Un mab rhyfedd Mab Duw dinas Mab gwen Mairgwas Mab gwas gwledig Mawr ei ordden |
Mawr Dduw Keen Ran gogened O Hil Adda Ac Abraha yn ryaned O hil Dofydd Dogn ddyfowedydd Liu ryaned Dyddug o eir Drill a byddeir O bob aeled Rac pob anuaus Pob yn ddilis Dinas diffred. |
THE BREASTPLATE OF ALEXANDER.
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On the surface of the earth He was afflicted. Does not God comprehend Three persons, One the blessed son? Son of the Virgin Mary. Son, servant, Lord. Great his destiny, In part begotten Of the race of Adam \nd Abraham, Of the line of David, The skilful speaker, |
Glorious the Trinity. Son of God he is. Son of man he is. One son wonderful, Son of the bountiful God.[20] Variously he sung. He took away by his word From the blind and deaf All their sadness. For all the weak, For all, it is certain, A city of refuge. |
The title of “Breastplate of Alexander” affixed to this song is evidently an accidental mistake, the real piece to which tliat title belongs having been lost. This song, it is unnecessary to say, relates to Christ, and ought to be placed under the head of the “Religious Poetiy.”
We now return to the “Ape of the Sanctuary,” as exhibited in the song entitled “Gwawd Lludd y Mawr, or the Praise of Lludd the Great.” It is probably, however, called “the Great” to distinguish it from another piece with a similar title called “the Less,” as it has no reference to Lludd, or any praise of that personage. This poem, which has given rise to a great deal of misconception, is a collection of fragments which it is very difficult to disentangle. A portion has been represented as pure Hebrew, and the translations given of it most unintelligible. It is, however, a fragment commencing with lines which are intended to satirize and ridicule the monks, the hereditary enemies and rivals of the strolling singers, with whose vocation they interfered, and whose emoluments they intercepted. It commences abruptly and without any exordium, only a portion of it having been preserved.
GWAWD LUDD Y MAWR.
THE PANEGYRIC ON LLUDD THE GREAT.
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They make harsh songs; They note eight numbers. On Monday they will be Prying about. On Tuesday they separate Angry with their adversaries. On Wednesday they drink, Enjoying themselves ostentatiously. On Thursday they are in the choir; Their poverty is disagreeable. Friday is a day of abundance, The men are swimming in pleasures. |
On Saturday . . . . On Sunday certainly, Five legions and five hundred of them, They pray, they make exclamations, “O brithi brithoi Nuoes nuedi Brithi brithanai Sychedi edi euroi.” Like wood-cuckoos In noise they will be, Every one of the idiots Banging on the ground. |
These lines were thus translated by the Rev. E. Davies
“A song of dark import was composed by the distinguished Ogdoad, who assembled on the day of the Moon, and went in open procession. On the day of Mars they allotted wrath to their adversaries; on the day of Mercury they enjoyed their full pomp; on the day of Jove they were delivered from the detested usurpers; on the day of Venus, the day of the great influx, they swam in the blood of men; oil the day of Saturn......; on the day of the Sun there truly assemble five ships and five hundred of those who make supplication, ‘O Brithi, Brithoi, &c.—O son of the compacted wood, the shock overtakes me 1 we all attend on Adonai, on the area of Pwmpai.’”
Where the area of Pwmpai may be we are not informed, but Mr. Davies transforms the lines, “O Brithi, brithoi,” &c. into Hebrew characters, under the impression that they may be vestiges of sacred hymns in the Phoenician language. It is clear that they are meant in mockery of the chants used by the monks at prayers. Another writer[21] has also lately given these lines as Hebrew, with the following interpretation:—
“Rise! woe to ye, and woe to ye,
Briton, Briton, alas!
Thou’rt wanderer of wanderings,
Britons! Britons, alas I
Wake misery and nakedness,
Know yourselves naked.”
As this author, however, conceives the Welsh language to be Hebrew, and explains all names of places and rivers—Oxford, Backs, Thames, Spithead, &c.—out of the latter language, we may be excused from entering further into an investigation of his theory.
The next part of this poem is a prophecy respecting Cad-walader and Cynan, and therefore not earlier than the twelfth century.
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I make a prophecy; Blood (shall be) in abundance, Long the public contention Of Cadwalader and Cynan. The world shall profit little, The heat of the sun vanishing. There is a prophecy, And one not obscure, Of subtle words; I sung it for thee. The overflowing of another land From the bursting of the waters When full to the top. Britons in council With Britons shall be, Men striving greatly After gold and trinkets. The devastation of Mon and Leini, |
And trembling and loss of tranquillity there. The Cymry of four languages Shall change their speech, Until shall come the cow, the spotted cow, Who shall bring a blessing, On a fine day lowing, On a fine night boiling; In the land of the boiler The timid shall be in tranquillity.[22] A song of woe is singing Round the circle of Britain. They are assembling in council To ward off a great disgrace. May the blessed One Be their director! |
The two next lines are obscure, and then follows the passage in which mention is made of the “Ape of the Sanctuary.” The whole passage of four lines,
Heb eppa
Heb henfonfa, heb ofur byd.
Bydd a fydd diffaith dyraid oogeu tynghettor
Hoywedd trwy groywedd,
was translated by Davies,
“Without the ape, without the stall of the cow, without the mundane nunpait, the world will become desolate, not requiring the cuckoos to convene the appointed dance over the green.”
The first part of this translation is adopted by Mr. Herbert, and was originally that of Dr. Owen. But in his Dictionary (ed. 1882) the latter gives a different interpretation. Under the word henfonfa , he gives as the meaning, “the stall of the cow of transmigration;” and for the passage in question,
“Without a monkey, without a milch-cow stall, without a luxury in the world ;”
whence it would appear that a monkey was among the luxuries indulged in by the ancient Druids. In this interpretation “luxury” is substituted for “rampart,” and the whole sense of the passage altered.
But we have very good reason for believing that henfon is not “the cow of transmigration,” but simply a cow, an old cow. There are two adages preserved in which the word henfon occurs, where the cow of transmigration cannot very well have a place:—
Pieufo yr henfon
Aed yn ei chynlfon.Whoso owns the old oow,
Let him go at her tail.
and
Fawb yn lloagwrn ei henfon.
Every man at the tail of his cow.
In which cases Dr. Owen translates “the cow of proceeding, and the cow of procession.” But when once we get rid of the “cow of transmigration,” we can see a very reasonable interpretation of the line,
Heb henfonfa heb ofur byd.
Without the cow-stall there would be no dung-heap.[23]
This line , then, is an adage introduced, as we have before seen in other instances, similar adages introduced into these fragments; and the line, “Heb eppa” belongs to the preceding clause of the passage, in which two other adages or proverbs are contained. We therefore translate it:—
The first share is the full one.
Politeness is natural,
Says the ape.[24]
Without the cow-stall there would be no dung-heap;
The world would be barren,
Vain the call of the cuckoo,
Lively and clear sounding.
The man of little heart is a deceiver,
Very smiling, trotting along,
Talking about baptism.
The knifeman cannot stab the sword-bearing warrior.
It was not with them that I should have desired (to be).
Very violent is the townsman,
And the man who lusts after bloodshed.
Cymry, Angles, Irish, and Britons;
Cymry running together to ruin,
Carrying their boats to the lake.
The North harassed by the foreigners,
Of pale hateful appearance and hateful form,
Of the race of old Adam.
Carrying them a three days’ journey.[25]
The raven soaring above the assembly
Of the sluggish bmtes of Seithin.[26]
On the sea the anchor of the Christian,
Over the sea, over the mountain,
Over the sea to take vengeance,
Wood, field, dale, and hill.
To every discourse,
Every one paying attention,
To reports on every side.
Corn shall be mixed (with rye),
And mnltitndes wandering about,
In inexhaustible misery.
Prepare through ready belief against the vengeance
Intended by the Creator, the powerful Supreme Lord,
A long time before the day of judgment.
The day will come,
It is shown in the reading.[27]
The most violent of lands is the land of Ireland.
To Britain thence shall come an exaltation,
Britons of the stock of Rome.
May I be judged by the merciful God.
Astronomers are predicting
Misfortunes in the land.
Druids are prophesying,
Beyond the sea, beyond Britain,
That the summer shall not be fair.
The nobles shall be broken;
It shall be through want of faith.[28]
And lest I should fall among the lost multitude,
The miserable inhabitants of hell,
I greatly dread the stone covering.
With the Lord, there is a country at the last.
It is unnecessary to make any comment on this collection of fragments, further than to observe on the strange fatality by which so many of these worthless pieces have been preserved, while the more valuable compositions of the flourishing period of Welsh literature, which must have existed in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, have been almost entirely lost.
There are in the Myvyrian collection some pieces which are evidently framed upon the events recorded in the Old Testament —the “Plagues of Egypt,” the “Rod of Moses,” and the “Praise of the Men of Israel.” Even in these a mystery has been found, and a store of hidden allusions to heretic or mythological doctrines.
The extraordinary application which Mr. Herbert has made of his theory to these poems, is best exhibited in the view he takes of the meaning of the poem entitled the “Plagues of Egypt,” a piece attributed to Taliesin.
“The British apostasy,” says Mr. Herbert,
“ was so deeply tinctured with Judaism that it required an Easter more conformable to the Passover of the Jews; and that was furnished by the scheme of Sulpicius. For, according to that scheme, Easter Sunday would fall upon the 14th day of the first month, or strict legal Passover, upon a general average of once in seven years; whereas by the Catholio scheme, which they rejected, it could never fall upon the 14th day. To this difference the British owed the appellation of Quarto-decimans, and St. Adhelm’s imputation of Judaism. Without possessing any evidence of the fact, I ca n not but think that the recurrence of those Paschals in which the Levitical and the Dominical feasts were coincident, must have been an especial festival of the sect.
“But the Passover kept by the true Jews and, anciently, by the Asiatic churches, would have suited their purpose even less than it did the generality of Christians. For their Judaism was that of the Emperor Julian, and those unreal Jews (of the Satanic synagogues) with whom Julian was concerned. Their Jehovah was Oromazdes, and their Moses and Christ were forms oi Mithras. Therefore it was a great point with them, that the hidden things of their Pascha should fall upon that day which, in the new Hermetic week, was dedicated to the Sun.
“The affairs of the new British Easter, whatever they were, doubtless were kept very decent by a Germanus, a Lupus, an Iltutus, and churchmen of that leaven. But when these matters passed out of the hands of false-hearted priests into those of the College of the Bards of Beli (as they did, in a great measure during the Ambrosian, Uthyrian, and Arthurian eras), discretion gave way to frenzy, indiscreet and self-betraying, in the midst of its avowed and boasted cryptography. Those days gave voice to the ‘Song of the Pass-over,’ as we might better entitle that of the ‘Plagues of Egypt.’ It is probably among the most ancient British songs that have come down to us. It announces the approach of the great annual feast of the Jews. And it leads us to suppose that cruelties of several sorts, imitating the ten plagues of Egypt, so far as they were susceptible of imitation, were then inflicted by these raving fanatics on their victims. One of them however, the third , was no imitation of the acts of Moses, but a new and interpolated plague, to find room for which, the third and fourth plagues of Moses were thrown into one, and placed fourth in the list. The remembrance of that mixing up of two plagues was never lost; and the fourth plague is called the mixed plague to this day, even in the authorized Welsh version of Exodus. That important circumstance fixes the Post-Roman British Church with the whole length of the Neo-Druidical heresy, and prevents her advocates from throwing off the blame upon idle minstrels and private secretaries. The lice and flies were mixed together (cymmysg) solely to make place for the Gwyddvedd. Therefore by adopting, so fully as she must have done, the idea of crasis or commixture in the fourth, she virtually recognized the intrusive third plague. That third plague is the awful secret of secrets.”
In his preface to the second volume of Britannia after the Romans, Mr. Herbert states that he has made progress towards the illustration of the Neo-Druidic Heresy in its several branches, among which are “the great mysteries of the Gwyddvedd, and of the Saint Greal or Cauldron of Ceridwen.” In the absence of such illustrations, we may reasonably be excused from withholding our belief in the existence of any such mystery as the Gwynvedd, and in the connection between the Saint Greal of the middle-age romance-writers and the Pair Ceridwen, or fountain of poetic inspiration (the Welsh Helicon), of the same era.
The piece on which Mr. Herbert relies as containing the evidence of these statements is the following:—
PLAEU YR AIPHT.
The mystery in this poem is supposed to exist in the lines which relate to the third and fourth plagues. Mr. Herbert’s translation of the passage is—
“Thirdly the Gwyddvedd
Bold in its precious elevation was prepared.
The fourth to the Devil.
The circumscription of his knowledge
Of winged insects,
And another such that gnawed
The fruit from trees and from fields,
The harvest of flies.”
This is not the true reading of the passage. The poem reads as follows:—
THE PLAQUES OF EGYPT.
Joyous the festival of the children of Israel,
Exalted in courage,
With the number of their followers
Drawing near their deliverance.
God inflicted punishment
On the people of Pharaoh,
Ten plagues of punishment
Before their drowning
In the abyss of the sea.
The first plague, the destruction of the fish
With unaccustomed coldness.
The second plague, an abundance of frogs;
Numerous were they in the kneading troughs,
Houses and utensils,
And cupboards,
And provision closets (larders).
The third (plague) gnats,
Both troublesome and grievous.
The fourth, the affliction,
In my opinion,
Of winged insects
And others gnawing
The fruit of wood and field,
A swarm of flies.
The fifth, the murrain
On all the children
Of the Egyptians:
Destruction it is to the animals,
From the heavy disease.
The sixth, in trnth,
Blister pustules,
(Like) swellings made by emmets.
The seventh, thunder,
And fire, and flame,
And rain therewith,
And a blasting wind
On leaves and trees.
The eighth, locusts,
Broad their ears,
Devouring the blossoms.
The ninth, wonderful,
An unaccustomed marvel—
Overspreading the heavens is
Black darkness;
The countenance not merciful
Of the Egyptians.
The tenth, the night
Very painful
To the people of the family.
Christ Jesu, Christians are (prostrate with fear)
Until they are in safety,
The six hundred thousand men,
Of the Hebrew soldiers.
There can be no donbt that this, in common with the other religious compositions contained in the Myvyrian Archæology, is of the date of the thirteenth or fourteenth century; but even if it could be shown to have been written in the sixth century, a very slight examination of its contents would suffice to demonstrate, that so far from there being any mystery, Druidical or Mithraic, in this poem, it is simply what it purports to be—a metrical version of the Plagues of Egypt, as they are represented in the Hebrew Scriptures.
The third plague described in this poem is not a new and interpolated plague, by which, under the name of “gwydd-bed,” some fearful mystery is concealed; nor is the fourth plague, or cymmysg-bla, the mixed plague, made up by the consolidation of the third and fourth plagues of the Mosaic history, for the purpose of admitting the insertion of the supposed mysterious gwyddbed.
In our English version of the Bible the third plague is interpreted the plague of lice. “And the Lord said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.”
“And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.”[29]
The Hebrew word thus translated lice is kinim, which, in the Septuagint, is rendered σκνίφες, or σκνίπαι. On the true meaning of the word kinim commentators are not agreed, but the better opinion seems to be that it would be best translated by gnats. Philo, in his first book De Vita Mosis, and Origen, describe the σ as winged creatures. Augustine, or the author of the work entitled De convenientia decern preceptorvm et decern Plagarum, describes them as “muscæ minutissimæ, inquietissimæ et inordinate volantes.” This is also the opinion of Gesenius, who translates “gnats,” though the Jews and Josephns interpret the word lice. The Talmadists also use the word kinah in the singular for a louse.
In the Welsh translation of the Bible which was made from the original Hebrew in the reign of Elizabeth, the same reading as in our English version has been followed in this instance, kinim being translated llau, “lice.” But the author of the poem under consideration has adopted the interpretation gnats for the Hebrew kinim and the Greek σκνίφες. His meaning is perfectly clear,—“The third plague was that of ‘gnats,’ gvoyddbed” in which statement there is nothing heretical or mysterious.
But if with Mr. Herbert, in opposition to the plain meaning of the word, we interpret gvoyddbed (not gwyddvedd, as he writes it) to mean “wood sepulchre,” or “sepulchral wood,” then indeed it is necessary to find a place for a plague altogether unknown to the writer of the Hebrew Pentateuch, and all in. terpreters of and commentators on the same.
The author of the poem makes the fourth plague to consist of two kinds of insects: one of winged insects, “edenogion”; the other he probably intends to represent, as without wings, creatures that gnawed the produce of trees and fields.
In the Welsh version of the Bible this fourth plague is called cymmysgbla, “the mixed plague.”
“A dywedodd yr Arglwydd wrth Moses, Cyfod yn fore, a saf ger bron Pharaoh; wele efe a ddaw allan i’r dwfr; yna dywed wrtho, Fel hyn y dywedodd yr Arglwydd; Gollwng yraaith fy mhobl, fel y’m gwasanaethont;
“O herwydd os ti ni ollyngi fy mhobl, wele fi yn gollwng amat ti, ac ar dy weision, ae ar dy bobl ac yth dai, gymmysgbla; a thai yr Aiphtiaid a lenwir o’r gymmysgbla; a’r ddaear hefyd yr boa y maent ami.”
“A’r Arglwydd a wnaeth felly; a daeth cymmysgbla drom i dy Pharaoh, ac i dai ei weision ac i holl wlad yr Aipht; a llygrwyd y wlad gan y gymmysgbla.”
In the authorized English version:—
“And the Lord said onto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh; lo, he cometh forth to the water; and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord; Let my people go that they may serve me.
“Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and npon thy people, and into thy houses; and the houses of the Egyptians 6hali be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are.”
“And the Lord did so; and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt: the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies.”[30]
The marginal reading of the English version gives, as a substitute for “swarm of flies,” a “mixture of noisome beasts,” which is, in fact, the rendering adopted in the Welsh version, and which appears to be a more exact interpretation of the Hebrew than that which has been adopted in. the English translation.
The Hebrew word is 
, κυνόμυια, which the Septuagint translates ν, the dogfly, and the English version “a swarm of flies.” Almost all the Hebrew interpreters understand it to be a collection of noxious beasts, as if a miscellaneous swarm (from arob in the signification of mixing[31]). Thus, Rabbi Selomo calls arob, “every kind of poisonous animals, such as serpents and scorpions.” Aben Ezra believes the word to signify “all kinds of hurtful beasts mixed together—lions, wolves, bears, and leopards.” Jonathan and Josephus equally çdopt the signification of “a mixture of wild beasts,” which has been also employed by the Arabic interpreters of the Pentateuch. All these interpretations are founded on the primary meaning of the root arb, “mix.” There seems to be no authority for the Greek translation, “dog-fly,” though the text requires that the word arob should mean some particular creature. Aquila combined the notion of a mixed collection with that of the specific fly-like nature of the plague, and translated the word πάμμυια, “every kind of fly”; and in this he was followed by St. Jerome and the Vulgate, which latter has “omne genus muscarum.”
The origin of the appellation cymmysgbla, “the mixed plague,” given in the Welsh version of the Pentateuch, to the fourth plague, is therefore clearly made out; and though the compound phrase cymmysg-bla may not be a completely satisfactory interpretation of the Hebrew word arob, it is evident that it is meant to be such, and that the term is not derived from any mixing up of two plagues (the third and fourth) into one, for the mysterious purpose of. making room for some heretical interpolation. The whole theory of the “mystery of the gwyddvedd,” which has been shown to be simply the Welsh (and most probably the true) reading of the third plague as “gnats,” and of the participation of the Post-Roman British Church in the supposed heresy with which that mystery was connected, is the merest fantasy without any kind of real foundation.[32]
A similar misapprehension has led Mr. Herbert to suppose that in the religious poem called the “Wand of Moses,” which is a kind of compendium of Scripture history,
“Hu or the Sun is identified with Christ, Herod with Pharaoh, and Christ with Moses; that the Judaism of the ‘Wand of Moses,’ the Christianity of the Christ Celi, and Neo-Druidism, all resolve themselves into one spiritual energy, viz. the art magic; and what that is or was seems to be very ill concealed.”
The “Wand of Moses,” a very long piece, which it is unnecessary to translate at length, commences as a fragment—
At every return[33]
The crowd of brethren
Meeting together,
Shall be acknowledging
To Christ the Lord
The appropriate praise.
The bright Lord sits
In the lap of Mary, like unto her.
Way of truth,
Perfect Ruler,
Pattern of saints,
Stem of Jesse,
Thy people Judah
Bring together.
Hu gelwir lieu
O luch a letro Er eu pechawd;
which Mr. Herbert translates,
which Mr. Herbert translates,
He is called Hu, the lion,
Of radiance imperfectly given
By reason of their sins
by which it is supposed that Hu, who is represented to be the Solar deity, is intended. But it is impossible that such an exordium can be followed by such an abrupt and uncalled-for piece of heathenism as we are here presented with, and we must suppose that the orthography is corrupt. We see that the rhyme requires the word “lieu” to sound with “letro,” and this at once furnishes us with the true reading; “llo,” a calf, instead of “lieu” a lion.
They called upon the culf
In adoration, and turned back
To their sins:
alluding, of course, to the golden calf, an allusion which is in accordance with the whole of the poem, the substance of which relates to the birth of Christ, with references of various kinds to the children of Israel.
The “Gwawd Gwyr Israel” is another piece of the same kind, of which Mr. Herbert says, that the twelve men of Israel were the twelve knights of the Saint Greal seated at the Arthurian table around the seat Perilous. The reader may judge for himself:—
GWAWD GWYR ISRAEL.
THE PRAISE OF THE MEN OF ISRAEL.
It was the Merciful Trinity
That made the earth;
And after the earth,
Adam very skilfully;
And after Adam,
Made the good Eve.
And the blessed Israel,
He made of mighty spirit,
Strong his intellect,
Handsome his appearance.
The twelve tribes of Israel
Rise up equally great.
The twelve sons of Israel
Also the bountiful God made,
The twelve very blameless;
Three mothers nourished them,
One man begat them,
The Creator made them,
As the Supreme makes all that has been and shall be.
The loving God made the twelve sons of Israel,
As the Lord makes all that has been and shall be.
Remember the twelve tribes of Israel,
Of them was born Jesus.
And there was one father to them and three mothers;
Oi them came grace
And a good progeny.
And (of them) the good Mary was created;
And Christ our strength,
Lord of all fair regions.
And I will call on, and sing of thee every day;
For it has been my desire
To be in friendship with tbee.
It is certainly not necessary to go farther than the Old and New Testament in search of the origin of all the allusions contained in this piece.
Having examined the evidence on which the Neo-Druidic theory of Mr. Herbert, so far as it is derived from the Welsh poems, is founded, we turn to the latest views propounded on on the subject of the mystic lore supposed to be contained in these poems; and here a new surprise awaits us. As though the Druidism, pure and simple, of Mr. Davies, and the Neo-Druidism of Mr. Herbert, were not sufficiently startling when eliminated from works of Christian writers, even if so early a date could be ascribed to them as the sixth century of the Christian era, we are introduced by the Venerable Archdeacon Williams, in a work published in 1854, to a specimen of Egyptian mythology discovered in these same poems.
After stating that the poems in question contain examples of Druidical doctrines blended with the worship of many of the Fagan idols of Greece and Rome, “We also,” says Mr. Williams,[34] “find Apis under the suggestive form of Ap-is, the son of Isis; and I may remark here, that the traditions of Egypt, especially as connected with the worship of the elements, are still traceable among us. In the following passages from an unknown author, the son of Isis and of Mair is singularly confounded with the material sun:—
Cyvoethawg Duw dovydd
Ap-is Lleuver Llawenydd
Hael (“undeb” ) Haul undydd
Eil canwyll cristion
A lewych uch eigion
Lloer viloed vilenyd.
“Translation:—
Powerful and civilizing God,
Ap-is is the light of gladness.
Liberal “unity” the one day sun.
The second lamp of the Christian (is she),
The moon for thousands of years.
“And lower down we have the following expression •.—
Duw vab mair, Ap-is nev ae clvydd.
God the son of Mary, Apis of heaven and the elements.”
If this interpretation of the passages in question be the true one, any attempt to investigate the religious notions contained in the old British poems must be abandoned in despair. The combination of Egyptian traditions and Druidic paganism with Christianity in the sixth century would offer a formidable complication of difficulties, having regard to the scanty materials in our possession. Fortunately there is not a particle of truth in the supposition that the Egyptian form of Osiris under the figure of a bull, or other Egyptian deity whatsoever, is mentioned in any Welsh poem, Druidic or otherwise. Indeed Mr. Williams has not been at the trouble to explain how the word Ap-is, if it mean the son (Ap) of Isis, can also mean Apis, a form of Osiris, the sacred bull of Egypt. The word Apis in the mouth of an Egyptian, or on an Egyptian monument, or in the writings of any Greek author, never meant “the son of Isis.” Even if this ignis fatuus of Apis be rejected, and the word taken as a purely Celtic one—Ap Is, the son of Isis—there is no pretence for asserting its existence with that meaning in the passages above quoted.
The fragment from which these lines are taken is the last in the Myvyrian collection, and is from the oldest known MS. the Black Book of Caermarthen, transcribed, as the editors inform us, letter for letter. The orthography differs somewhat from that of the pieces in the Red Book of Hergest, but presents no difficulty in translation. It is entitled “Awdyl,” a song (properly a particular kind of metre), and is here given exactly as in the original, except that here the lines are arranged not continuously, but according to the rhyme.
AWDYL.
TRANSLATION.
Blessed be the fair yonth of the beautiful kingdom
Of pure nature of bountiful breast.
The name of God is hallowed in all languages.
In the form of man, Mary nursed him;
Good was his bringing forth in a corporeal form,
The form of the child, the hope of mankind.
And the form of the youth was of good aspect;
He was void of reproach in his manhood,
In miracles doing great service.
The Lord was gentle and wise beyond all,
And until the day of judgment may we perform his will.
The race of the bards sing
Of what is in the world:
Of mountain, of wood,
Of the sands of the sea, of the knowledge of the stars;
Adjudged vagabonds, very great is tbeir loquaciousness.
It would be of more service to consider the peculiar traits of the Godhead,
The beneficent King of all shores,
The heir of the great God, praise to thy high pre-eminence.
Blessed is the protection of the King of heaven,
The beneficent God (Duw dovit),
Who has created the shining sun—
Bounteous minister, the sun for the day.
Another candle of Christians,
Which shines above the waters,
The Moon for thousands of years.
And a third marvel
Is the great roaring of the sea,
Its ebbing in the evening,
Its rising and falling,
Its tuitiing over and driving together,
Until it conceals the sky.
At the end of seven years,
Great fear of its overflow;
But it returns again to its place.
Let us give praise to the Virgin,
And the powerful God, the Son of Mary,
Who made heaven and earth.
When thou earnest forth on the evening of the Passover,
From hell to the upper air there was a passage for thee.
Lord of heaven, let thy goodness redeem us.
The human mind must have been very strangely constituted in Wales if the writer of this piece can be imagined to have deliberately introduced an allusion to a Pagan deity.
This poem is not remarkable either for elegance or learning ; but it is undoubtedly the work of a pious man and a Christian, who probably knew no more of Apis or Isis than he did of electric telegraphs. In truth the word Apis, as it is written by Mr. Williams, Ap-is, does not appear in the text of the Myvyrian Archæology. The word is written Ap’is, and is simply a contraction for “a peris,” who made or prepared. The word peris , in the sense of “he created,” is very commonly met with. “Peris Duw dui funnaun,” God created two fountains; “Peris paradwys,” he created paradise, &c .; and there is not a shadow of foundation for the Archdeacon’s assertion, that here or elsewhere, in any Welsh poem, is there any trace of Egyptian mythology.[35]
The piece itself is so manifestly Christian, and, from the way in which the Virgin Mary is mentioned, is not likely to be earlier than the twelfth century,[36] that it is astonishing how any one could have been led to suppose it could contain Paganism or Druidism of any kind. But it is a still more extraordinary circumstance that theVenerable Archdeacon Williams, himself a learned Welshmen, the author of works on these very poems, and the chairman and judge at several Eisteddfodau, should not have been aware that this very “Awdyl,” arranged in lines, though with additions which do not appear in the one he has quoted, is printed at the 187th page of the Myvyrian Archæology, and that the contracted words which he has mistaken for Apis are there written at full length:—
Cyfoetbftuc Dduw Ddofydd
A beris lleufer llewenydd.
And the other line,
Dduw mab Mair a beris new ag elvit.
We may, therefore, confidently state, that the Egyptian mystery is at an end, and that the Venerable Archdeacon has not falsified the inscription on the statue of the goddess, by lifting the veil of a Welsh Isis.
It is unnecessary to follow this author further in his views respecting the mythology of the Welsh poems, than to notice the presence of two personages in one of these pieces who are said to represent “ two myths exactly corresponding with the Castor and Pollux of the Romans, the Dioskouroi and Tyn-daridoi of the Greeks, in their especial character of regulators of the weather in subordination to their mystic father, the god of the electric fluid.”
These two persons are Nyniaw and Pebiaw, who are mentioned in the tale of "Kilhwch and Olwen,” as the two horned oxen whom God turned into oxen on account of their sins. There are other legends concerning them, but nothing that can remind us of any deity of Greece or Rome.
So far, indeed, from Pebiaw representing either Castor or Pollux, he appears really to have been an historical personage, and with his brother in misfortune, Nyniaw, to have been, like almost every other person mentioned in the Triads, a contemporary of King Arthur; for Ritta Gawr, the giant who conquered both Nyniaw and Pebiaw, and employed their beards, as he did those of many other kings, in the lining of his cloak, had the audacity to demand that of Arthur for the same purpose. In fact, the name of King Pebiaw appears in the Liber Landavenm as a benefactor of the church, “being penitent, with an humble heart, and mindful of his evil deeds.”
Hercules is another deity said to have been worshipped by the Welsh in the sixth century, on the strength of the following piece, entitled an “Elegy on Ercwlf.”
MARWNAD ERCWLF.
|
Ymchoeles Elfydd Fal nos yn ddydd O ddyfod clodrydd Ercwlf pen bedydd Ercwlf a ddywedai Angeu nas riuei Ysgwydawr y Mordei Arnaw y torrei Ercwlf sywessyd Ewnin lloer egyd Pedeir colofu cyhyd |
Rhuddeor ar ei hyd Colofu Ercwlf Nis arfeidd bygwl Bygwl nis beiddie Gres heul nis godei Nith aeth ncs i nef Hyd ydd aeth ef Ercwlf mur fossawd As amut tywawd As rhoddwy Trindawd Trugaredd ddydd brawd. |
ELEGY ON ERCWLF.
The two first lines of this piece are unconnected with the rest. They give the answer to the question which constantly recurs in these songs, “Whence come night and day ?” &c. Ercwlf is, no doubt, Hercules, as the mention of the columns shows; but to suppose that this ballad exhibits traces of the worship of the Grecian hero, is altogether unreasonable. Like the “Gofeisws Byd” and the “Anrhyfeddodau Alexander,” this piece is an interesting specimen of the kind of knowledge which was circulating in Wales in the twelfth century.
That Hercules should be styled “chief of baptism” need cause no surprise, since in the middle-age romances the good knight Sir Hercules might have couched a spear against the worthy Sir Hector of Troy, after receiving benediction from Bishop Bedwine, without in the slightest degree shocking the chronological or historical conscience of the reader. Sir Walter Scott has presented us with an amusing example of this confusion of ideas, and of the current legendary knowledge of Scripture history, at the close of the twelfth century, in his novel of Ivanhoe.
One great mistake in these investigations has been the supposing that the Welsh of the twelfth or even of the sixth century were wiser as well as more Pagan than their neighbours. Archdeacon Williams insists that these poems contain a marvellous philosophy, or cosmogony,
“which asserts the unity of the creative and upholding power, and describes the universe as infinite, or at least as not bounded by a material firmament, not even by the ‘flammantia mœnia’ of the Epicurean poet.”
These views are as fantastic in their way as the Helio-Arkite superstitions of Mr. Davies, or the Neo-Druidism of Mr. Herbert. The cosmogony of these poems is derived from the Old and New Testament chiefly, aided by such learning as might be distilled from the monastic laboratory. We see, in fact, in the questions on natural phenomena which abound in these poems, some indications of the struggles of the human mind to pierce the thick cloud of ignorance and darkness which overwhelmed the age; still more, a pretence of learning and a claim to superior attainments evinced in propounding questions which the contending or rival minstrels could not answer, and to which the questioner himself could probably give replies as little satisfactory. The following efiusion appears to be from an anxious inquirer on these subjects:—
CANU Y BYD BYCHAN.
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Kein geneis canaf Byd unddydd mwyaf Lliaws a bwyllaf Ac a Bryderaf Cyfarchafi Feirdd byd Pryd nam dyweid Py gynheil y byd Na syrtb yn eissywyd Neu’r byd pei syrthiei Py ar yd gwyddei Pwy ai gogynbaliai |
Byd mor yw aduant Pan syrth yn diuant Etwa yn geugant Byd mor yw rbyfedd Na syrth yn nnwedd Byd mor yw odid Mor fawr yn sethrid Johannes Matheus Lucas a Marcus Wy a gynneil y byd Trwy rad yr Yspryd. |
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Taliesin a’i cant. |
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THE LITTLE SONG OF THE WORLD.
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The song I have sung, I sing Of the world one day more. Much I reason, And anxiously consider. I address those who are Bards, Seeing that it is not told me What sustains the world, That it does not fall upon the stars: Or, if it were to fall, |
Upon what would it fall, Who would sustain it P The world, great its destruction, When it shall fall into decay; Yet it is certain (to do so). The world, great is the wonder That it does not fall on one side. The world, great its perfection, Very great its motionless condition. |
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Taliesin sung this. |
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The four concluding lines of the poem (written probably by a later hand) give an answer to these questions, which is certainly more pious than satisfactory.
John and Matthew,
Luke and Mark,
It is they who uphold the world
Through the grace of the Holy Spirit.
The following is another of these compositions, which contains precisely the same kind of phrases, and the same amount of philosophy, as are displayed in the song entitled “I’r Gwynt,” and referred to in most of the pieces of the same character:—
CANU Y BYD MAWR.
THE GREATER SONG OF THE WORLD.
| By Taliesin. | |
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I praise my Father, My God, my strength, Who has given me in my head Soul and reason, And has made for my advantage My seven senses, And fire and earth, and water and air, And clouds and flowers, And wind and trees. Other reasoning faculties My Father has endowed me with: One is perceiving, The second is feeling, The third is speaking (?) The fourth is tasting, The fifth is seeing, The sixth is hearing, The seventh is smelling. As before mentioned, Seven firmaments there are High above tbe stars, And three divisions of the sea. The sea is beating on all sides; Tbe sea is very wonderful; It entirely surrounds tbe earth. God made the (firmament) above For tbe planets. He made the sun (Sola); He made the moon (Luna); He made Mars (Marca), And Mercury (Marcarucia); |
He made Venus; He made Venerus; He made Seuerus,[37] And seventhly Saturnus. The good God made Five zones to the earth For as long as it shall last; One is cold, And the second is cold, And the third is hot, And injurious to flowers, Disagreeable and destitute. The fourth is Paradise, The people shall be admitted to it. The fifth is the temperate, The pleasantest part of the universe; It is divided into three parts, Mentioned in song. The one is Asia, The second is Africa, The third is Europe Blest with baptism: It shall last till the day of judgment, And all wickedness shall be judged. Very great is my Muse In praising my King. I am Taliesin, I speak with a prophetic voice, Continuing until the end For the deliverance of Elphin. |
We have seen in the “Canu y Cwrwf,” the “PrifarchTaliesin,” and other pieces already translated, a number of those questions which the Bard propounded to his audience, or the answers to which he professed to be acquainted with. But the great repertory of this lore is the piece entitled, merely because these two words happened to be written with capital initials, “Angar Cyvyndawd.” It is evident that in many instances, as may be seen in the translations above given, the title of the piece is in no wise indicative of its contents, and in some cases is ludicrously inapplicable.
ANGAB CYVYNDAWD.
THE ANGAR CYVYNDAWD.
Is there a Bard here who has not sung a song ?
When tbe song is finished,
If he is a learned person,
There will be from me
No denial of liberality.
According to the saying of Taliesin,
The day was ydlow (waning),
When Kian finished
His numerous songs of praise.
Let my liquor be that which rightly belonged to Afaggdu.
Did be not skilfully bear away
The strains of knowledge ?
Gwiawn, on whom it overflowed,
And he became profound.
He could restore the dead to life.
Though destitute of wealth,
They can make delicious things,
And boil without water;
They can make metals.[38]
In ages of ages,
The day remains concealed,
For praising the profoundly eloquent one.
Not unlovely is concord,
To him who is accustomed to it.
Assembly of harmonious minstrels,
What has paralyzed your tongues ?
Why do you not recite a recitation ?
Give us over the bright liquor
All your penillions.[39]
He will come in the flesh;[40]
From the deep he came in the flesh.
Did he not ascend
On the third day to be our judge?
Thirty years
He bore this earthly nature.
In his infancy wrapped up in swaddling-bands
In the region of the earth.[41]
I have sung without delay,
Before very long importunity.
There is a song on their coming,
A song on their going,
A song from a hundred minstrels;
And it is this they speak of,
The slaughter of the daughter of Uiant.[42]
Little was her pleasure
In gold and silver,
Who is deprived of life
With blood upon tbe breast.
A wonderful reciter,
A great singer of songs of praise,
Am I, Taliesin.
I compose songs in true measure,
Continuing to the end
To uphold Elphin.
Is there not a tribute
Of much gold to be paid ?
When shall be hated and not loved,
Peijury and treachery ?
I have no desire for benefits
By yielding imperfect praise
And salutations of the brotherhood.
Compared with me, no one knows anything.
I am learned in the principal sciences,
And the reasonings of the astrologers
Concerning veins and solvents,[43]
And the general nature of man.
I know the secret of composing songs of praise.
I have sung of the existence of God.
According to the saying of Talhaiam,
For the gifted there shall be a day of judgment,
And a judging of their qualities.
The poetic disposition
Is that which gives the secret virtue
Of a muse above mediocrity.
Seven score muses[44]
There are in tbe inspiration of song;
Eight score in every score
In the great abyss of tranquillity,
In tbe great abyss of wrath,[45]
In the depths below the earth,
In the air above the earth,
There is a recognition of it.
What sorrow there is,
That is better than joy.
I know the blessed gifts
Of the flowing muse;
To me it brings the recompense of skill,
To me happy days,
To me a peaceful life,
And a protection in age.
I am equal to kings, whatever may be their enjoyment,
I am equal with them through redemption.[46]
When the countenance will be animated,
When the sea will be pleasant,
Whence is the growth of the seed,
Whence it grows up high,
Or whence comes the sun ?
What is the covering of the earth ?
How many coverings has the earth ?
How the breath is drawn:
The breath, how is it drawn ?
Whence is the sward green ?
The sward, whence is it green ?
What is the origin of trades?
Of trades what is the origin ?
Do you know what is recorded,
Recorded in books ?
How many winds, how many torrents,
How many torrents, how many winds ?
How many rivers on the journey,
How many rivers there are ?
What is the breadth of the earth,
Or what its thickness ?
I know the . . . .[47]
Revolving round the earth;
I know the regulator
Between heaven and earth.
Whence the echo comes again,
And why its impulse dies away;
Whence the brightness of silver,
And why the valleys are dark;
What is the seat of the breath,
What is the best that has been;
Why the cattle have horns,
Why a woman is fond,
Why milk is white,
Why holly is green,
Why the kid is bearded,
Whence is the growth of the eow-parsnep
In a multitude of places;
Why wine intoxicates,
Why the mallet is made sloping,
Why the little roebuck is spotted,
Wby the sea is salt,
Whence is the briskness of ale,
Why the alder is of a purplish colour,
Why the linnet is green,
Why the berries of the dogrose are red,
Or what is the age of a woman;
Whence is the commencement of night,
What melting-pot must be used to liquefy gold.[48]
No one knows what makes red tbe colour of the sun
On his first rising;
In an hour it goes away.
Why a harp-string is white;
Why the salmon glitters,
What preserves it without fire ;[49]
What Garthan brought,
And Geraint and Garman ;[50]
What brings out tbe polish
On hard-worked stone,
Whence the sweetness of the balm,
Whence the green colour of the young grass.
TaThaiarn is
The greatest of sages.
What is it agitates the wood,
Or fashions the froth (on the water) ?
I know good and evil,
The rising and motion of wreaths of smoke,
And many more equally perfect;
Who it was emptied the bowl,[51]
Where the dawn terminates;
What was preached by
Eli and Eneas.
I know the cuckoos in summer,
And where they will be in the winter.
I will sing a song
Concerning the deep, I will bring it
The common source of the rivers.
I know its depth,
I know whence it diminishes,
I know whence it replenishes,
I know whence it overflows,
I know whence it shrinks,
I know whence the creatures
That are in the sea;
I know all that are like them,
All in their assembly.
How many hours in a day,
How many days in a year,
How many spears in a battle,
How many drops in a shower,
Very delicate its separation.
Excessive praise infers reproach.
A mind with the learning of Gwydion
I know in nobody;
What caused the tide to flow
Over the people of Pharaoh;
Who carried the measuring line
In the presence of the Creator;
What ladder had he
When the heavens were lifted up;
What was the fork set up
From the earth to the sky.
How many peas there are in my pot
With one in my hand.
What is the name of the two shanks
Which cannot be wedged into one pot;
What is the cause of sea-sickness;
Whence is the fat of fishes:
Their flesh will be of sea-food
Until it is transformed,
While the fish contains it.
Why the white swan has black feet,
Why a sharp spear penetrates.
The region of heaven has no limits.
What are the four elements
Whose boundaries are unknown.
Is the pig or the stag of the most vagabond nature?
I ask of you, bigbellied bards,
Are the bones of man made of vapour ?
Do the winds fall down in cataracts ?
I am a reciter of information,
In Efrai, in Efroeg,
In Efroeg, in Efrai,[52]
Laudatum laudate Jessu.
A second time in transformation,
I have been a blue salmon,
1 have been a dog, I have been a stag,
I have been a roebuck in the mountain,
I have been a stump of a tree in a shovel,
I have been an axe in the hand,
I have been the pin of a pair of tongs
A year and a half;
I have been a spotted cock
Along with the hens;
I have been a stallion in action,
I have been a fierce bull,
I have been a yellow buck,
Soft was my nourishment.
I have been a grain springing up;
The reaper came to me,
Thrusting me into a hole,
Rubbing me with the hand
In my afflictions.
A hen became pregnant of me,
With red daws and a cleft crest.
I was necessitated to be nine nights
In her womb as an infant.
I have been a possession of the meritorious,
I baVe been a gift for a king,
I have been dead, I have been alive;
Concealed in the ivy bush,
I have been carried about.[53]
Before I received a gift I was poor.
Another welcome counsel
To me the red-fanged one gave,
A wonderful reciter,
A great composer of hymns
Am I, Taliesin.
I compose songs in true measure,
Continuing to the end
To uphold Elphin.
The end.
Some persons may see a mystery in the assertion of the Bard, that he knows the number of peas in a pot, together with one in his hand, or why milk is white, or the white swan has black feet; we can only give the translation, and must leave comments on its philosophy to clearer-sighted inquirers.
The principal example which Mr. Williams produces of this philosophy derived from the ancient Druids,
“who regarded the sun as the cxuse of all flow or material flux and efflux, whether the imponderables of light, heat, and electricity, or of the ponderable elements, and that without his operations all creation would be cold, dark, and rigid,”
is taken from a poem which has been ascribed to Taliesin, but which the editors of the Myvyrian Ârchæology tell us is supposed to have been written by JonasAthrawor the“Doctor”of Menevia(St.David’s), according to some in the tenth, more likely in the thirteenth or fourteenth, century. It is called a “A Poem of Taliesin,” and is in itself sufficient to set at rest the question of a Druidic origin for this cosmogony. The writer says he obtained it from the Psalms of David, and we ought to give credit to his assertion.
DIYREGWAWD TALIESIN.
Goruchel Dduw golochir ym hob va
Goruchel ei enwau yn hebrea
Eli eloi ac adonai ac o ac alpha
Peryv nev parbans gwrdda
Peris paradwys yn gynnwys i’r rhai da
Ac ufem i’r rhai drwg a gwg i’w diva
Peris ef nef parhaus wrda
Parwydydd elvydd peris privdda
O dan ac awyr a llyr a them
Can ni bwynt un anian tan a therra
Cadwynau dyrys o dir hyd ethera
Pwy namyn cyvrwys ai cyvrwyma
A chynnil a chelvydd yn holi materia
Achymman helis o lemaria
Ganys nid un anwyd ser a therra
Nid maen nid haearn ai cadarna
Nid core nid calav tudded ai cuddia
Nid plwm trwm ei risg ai gorwisga
Nid mettel o waith uvel ai cylchyna
Neus gwisgwys celvydd gwr a dwvr a ia
Traetbadur prophwyd pur ai traetha
Ond oelvyddyd Panton sempiterna
Pan ddywed tad Sely v yn psalmodia
Quis tegit aqua snperiora
Qui legis scriptura
Neus gorwisgwys gwr celvydd nev oi noddva
A syr a sygnau a haul a lluna
Peunydd cylch elvydd haul ai hwylia
Yn ucbel odducbom i lleuvera
Pum gwregys lluniwys Uuniedydd llawndda
Sicut in ccelo et in terra
Llawn yw y ddau eithav o eiry ac ia
A rhag eu hoervel neb nis nesaa
Ail dau a osoded o’r tu isa
Yn llawn o yngres gwres ignisia
Pumed yw y pervedd neb nis cyvannedda
Bbac maint tragwres haul yn ei redegva
Oes na gwydd na dail na neb rhyw anivail
Y ddau o boptu y dyvu tymer da
Gwres oddihwnt ac oervel oddima
Peris Duw ddwy fynnawn cyvlawn eu da
Pynnawn gwres yn awyr a haul yw ei hwylva
A’r ail fynnawn a ddail yr eigiawn yn yma
Peryv nev a peris pob da
A berys present i blant Adda
A beris paradwys yn gynnwys i’r sawl a vo da
Ac fern i’r rhai drwg er ea diva
A beris blwyddynoedd ac oesoedd a secula
Cyntav oes Addav ac oes Eva
Eiloes oes Noe a novies yn archa
Trydedd oes oes Abraham pen fydd pater patriarcha
Pedwaredd oes oes Moesen o Egyptica
A gavas y deuddeg fordd drwy Vari Eubia
A gavas gan geli voddi Pharona
A gavas dengair deddv yn y dirwestva
Mewn dan davl vaen yn mynydd 8ina
Pumed oes oes ddedwydd Davydd propheta
Chweched oes oes Iesu a hyd vrawd y para
A ynddi y proved y prophesia
Dyvod o heppil enwir Eva
Mai y daw o’r drain blodau rosa
Mair wyiy a ddyvu yn mru Anna
Ac Iesu a ddyvu o vru Maria
A’r nos y ganed Iesu gwr a’n iachaa
Y clywid cor engylion nev yn canu gloria
In excelsis Deo et in terra
Dyvynwys elvydd i lawer da
Ac i’r tri brenin seren lucerna
Tra vu Emanuel yn dawel yma
Gwnaeth gwyrthiau lawer a gweithredoedd da
Gwnaeth ar y neithiawr Ieuan yn Galilea
O’r dwvr y gwin melys pan erchis Maria
Ev porthes pum-mil ar y pumtorth bara
Mwy oedd o wargred nog a lewed wrth vwyta
Cyvodes y vorwyn o’r domo clausa
Gy vodes unmab mam extra porta
Y ar ei elorwydd o’i orweddva
Cyvodes Lazar
Y dan y ddaiar
Brawd Mair a Martha
Ev treiddwys tonau
Heb geisio llongau
Hyd y borthva
Ev a vu veddig
I’r parlysedig
Yn ymyl porting piscina
Ev a vu veddig
I’r dav nychedig
A ddoeth attaw hyd y dyrva
Ev gwarawd deillion
Ev diddan cleivion
A charcharorion
O bob devyd a’u gorthryma
Nis cyvriv nebawd
Na’r boll vedysawd
Byth nis traetha
A wnaeth ein rhiau
O anryveddodau
Hyd tra vu yma
O’r diwedd y dyvu
Iacbwyddawl Iesu
Hyd yn Ierosolyma
Y cymmerth crog a chethrau
A frewyllau ar angau
Y cymerth un mab Maria
I obrynu llawer y law Satana
Ev cyvodes y trydydd dydd o’i vedd orweddva
Ac a ddoeth at ei ddisgyblon gwedi bwyta
Gwedi yspaid dieuoedd quadraginta
Neud o mewn nev y daeth pan ddaeth yma
Mewn nev bu mewn y bydd mewn y mae etwa
A dyddbrawd y daw ev attam yma
Ac a ddwg gantaw y sawl ai cofa
Y caif Mihangel y saul a vo da
I obrynu gwlad nev ys ef y sydd dda
Y gethem enwir a adewir yma
Y gethern y sy waeth ni wnaethant ddim da
Y gethern a el i ufern gan Lucifer ydd a
Pwy a wyr pwy ynt pwy a’u oofa
Pwy onid cyvrwys a’u cyvriva
Gwae a gymerth bedydd
A cbred a chrevydd
Ac ni sevis yn dda
Gwae berchenawg tir
Ni chynnalio ei wir
Rhag un traha
Gwae er gwerth gweini
A vo cyd trengi
Oni thrugaraa
Gwae hwynt penaethau
O chwant alavau
A dyr devodau
Ac a’u diva
Gwae ofeiriad byd
Ni angreiftia gwyd
Ni phregetha
Ni warcheidw ei gail
Ac ev yn vugail
Nis areilia
Ni ddifer ei ddevaid
Rhag bleiddiau Rhuveiniaid
A’u fon glopa, &c. &c.
A POEM OF TALIESIN.
Most high is God, prayed to in all lands;
Most high His name in Hebrew,
Eli, Eloi, and Adonai, and Omega and Alpha.
He has created Heaven an abiding-place for good men;
He has created Paradise for the reception of those who are good ;
And Hell for those who are wicked, and wrath shall consume them.
He has created Heaven an abiding-place for the good.
A separation of the elements he caused in the first place;
The fire and water, and sea and earth;
For not of one nature are fire and earth.
An entangled chain from the earth to the sky;
Who but the Skilful One connected them together
With skill and artifioe in all matter,
And collected the salt brine in the place of the seas;
Because not of one nature are the stars and the earth,
Neither stone nor iron makes it strong;
Neither reeds nor straw cover it with a roof,
Nor heavy lead invests it,
Nor metal or the work of fire encircles it.
Has not the Skilful One clothed it with water and ice;
A preacher, a pure prophet has declared it.
Is it not the skill of Panton Sempiteraa,
As says the father of Solomon in Psalmodia,
Quis tegit aqua superiora
Qui legis scriptura.
Has not the Skilful One wonderfully covered over Heaven, his sanctuary,
With stars and signs and sun and moon ?
Daily the sun wheels round the circle of the earth,
On high from above he gives light to
The five zones framed by the all-good Creator.
Sicut in cobIo et in terra.
The two furthest of these are full of snow and ice,
And on account of their great cold no one can go near them.
Other two are placed on the under side (of these),
Full of parching heat and burning fires.
The fifth is the middle one, no one inhabits it
On account of the extreme heat of the sun in his oourse.
The two which come on all sides are of a good temperature;
They receive heat from that side, and cold from this.
God erected two fountains of perfect goodness:
A fountain of heat in the air, the sun revolves in it :
And another fountain which produces the waters of the sea.
He created heaven, and created everything good,
And created the present state for the children of Adam,
And created Paradise as an abiding-plaoe for whoso shall be good,
And Hell for the wicked for their destruction;
And created years, and times, and secula.
The first was the age of Adam and the age of Ever
The second, the age of Noah, who swam in the ark;
The third, the age of Abraham, head of the faith, Pater patriarcha;
The fourth, the age of Moses the Egyptian,
Who obtained a road for tbe twelve through the Bed Sea,
And procured from Heaven the drowning of Pharaoh;
And obtained the ten commandments in fasting,
On two tables of stone in Mount Sinai;
The fifth age was the blessed one of Davydd the Prophet;
The sixth is the age of Jesus, and it shall last till the day of Judgment,
As prophets have prophesied.
He comes indeed of the seed of Eve,
As the coming of the flowers of the rose out of thorns.
The Virgin Mary proceeded from the womb of Anna,
And Jesus from tbe womb of Mary;
In the night Jesus was born for tbe salvation of man,
Was heard the choir of the angels of heaven singing,
Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra,
Summoning the good men of the earth.[54]
And to the three kings the star was a lantern.
Whilst Emanuel was in tranquillity here,
He performed numerous miracles and good works :
At the marriage feast of the young man in Galilee,
He made sweet wine out of water at the request of Maiy;
He fed five thousand with five loaves of bread,
The fragments left were much greater than what had been eaten
He raised up tbe young maid out of domo clausa;
He raised up the only son of his mother, extra porta;
And from his funeral bier in the tomb
He raised up Lazarus,
Who was under the earth.
The brother of Mary and Martha;
He walked on the waves
Without seeking the boat
To tbe landing-place;
He healed
The paralytic
At the edge of the pool;
He healed the sick (woman)
Of a languishing sickness,
Who came to him through the multitude;
He restored the blind,
He comforted tbe sick
And the prisoners
In all the evils which oppressed them.
Nobody can reckon up,
Not in the whole earth
Can it be related,
The number which he did
Of marvellous things
Whilst he was here,
To the end of his being
Jesus, Saviour of all
In Jerusalem.
He received the cross and the nails,
And the scourging and death:
This received the only son of Mary,
He who was full of merit, from the hand of Satan.
He arose the third day from his grave in the sepulchre,
And appeared to his disciples after meat.
After the space of forty days,
Was it not to heaven he went when he went hence ?
In heaven he is, in heaven he will be, in heaven he is still;
And at the day of judgment he will come to us here.
Woe to him who receives baptism
And faith and religion,
And walks not in righteousness;
Woe to the possessor of lands
Who does not protect his people
Against the oppressor;
Woe to the master
Who, until his death,
Is without compassion;
Woe to the chiefs
Who are covetous of riches,
Who heap up possessions
And squander them away;
Woe to the minister
Who does not rebuke vice,
Nor preach,
Nor guards his fold,
Nor over his flock
Keeps watch;
Nor defends his sheep
From the wolves of Rome[55]
With his knotted staff.
Thirty more similar stanzas follow, all fall of excellent religious and moral precepts, and the whole concludes thus:—
I pray the gracious Sou and the good Father,
Mercy of the Trinity in the day of judgment,
Before I go to my grave and my hut resting-place,
Complete repentance before I shall go hence.
For what I have thought,
For what I have done,
Of evil or presumption,
May I obtain mercy and a good end.
To this we may add the “Awdyl Vraith,” or “Diversified Song,” likewise composed by this same Jonas Athraw, but which forms part of the Mabinogi of Taliesin, in the copy from the Red Book of Hergest.
YR AWDYL VRAITH.
THE SONG OF VARIETIES.
The bard then proceeds to assert that he is the only genuine “Wizard of the West” in these words:—
From the sun to the earth, from the ocean to the firmament,
There is no skilful instructor except me, Taliesin.
There are other religious poems of the same age and character in the Myvyrian collection—the Song on the Day of Judgment, the Confession of Taliesin, and the following fragment entitled “The Elegy on Madawg the Bold, and Erof or Herod the Cruel.” There is no apparent connection between this Madawg and Herod, and it is probable that two fragments have been accidentally joined, owing to their having been composed in the same metre.
MARWNAD MAD DDRUD AG EROF GREULON.
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Madawg mur menwyd Madawg cyn bu bedd Bu ddinas Edryssedd 0 gamp a chymwedd Mab Uthr cyn lleas 01 law dy wystlad Dybu Erof greulawn Llewenydd anwogawn Tristydd anwogawn A oryw Erof greulawn Brattau Iesu |
Ag ef yn credu Dayar yn crynnu Ag Elfydd yn gardu A cbyscoc ar byd A bedydd ar gryd Liam anwogawn A goryw Erof greulawn Myned yn y trefn Ymmhlith oer gethern Hyd yngwaelawd Uffern. |
ELEGY ON MADAWG THE BOLD AND HEROD THE CRUEL.
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Madawg (was) very mirthful; Before Madawg was in the grave The city was abounding In games and festivities. Before the son of Uther was slain From his hand was thy pledge. Cruel was Herod, Feeble in joy, Feeble in sorrow; And tbe cruel Herod caused The destruction of Jesus. |
And when He was crucified[56] The earth trembled, And tbe world was in darkness,[57] And there was a quaking of the earth, And the baptised were trembling. Feeble was tbe step Of Herod tbe cruel, When he came in due course Amid the cold fiends In the depths of hell. |
These religious compositions speak for themselves: their philosophy, cosmogony, and theology, are evidently derived from the scriptures only; and nothing but a mistaken though deeply rooted belief in the great antiquity of these poems, could have led to the supposition that they contain evidence of another origin, and of that vague and undefined system of mythology imagined to have been current among the tribes of Britain, under the auspices of a Druid priesthood, at some epoch of unknown antiquity.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
Britannia after the Romans, part ii. p.l.
[2]:
Essay on the Neo-Druidic Heresy in Britannia. 1838.
[3]:
Neo-Druidism, page 106.
[4]:
Mythology of the British Druids, page 533. See the “Remarks upon the Ancient British Coins,” appended to that work.
[5]:
Or, “gold-giver.”
[6]:
He was the horse of the sons of Elifer Gosgorddfawr, and carried Gwrgi, Peredur, Dunawt, and Chynfelyn Drwscyl to the battle of Arderydd.
[7]:
The horse of Cyhoret eil Cynan.
[8]:
Cethin was a corn afiatog, “cloven-footed” horse; perhaps, therefore, “corn avarn” should be read “earn aflawg.” Suetonius relates that the hoofs of Cæsar’s horse were divided like toes.
[9]:
Spotted shouldered.
[10]:
The mare of Arthur.
[11]:
Wide-nostrilled.
[12]:
These two lines seem to belong to the “Song of the Horses.” The horse of Morial is mentioned in the “Song to Gwallawg,” ante. Morial is one of the heroes of the Gododin, according to the Bev. J. Williams’s translation, and is mentioned by Llywarch Hen and in the Englynion y Reddau.
[13]:
Mr. Herbert’s comments upon his translation are as follows:—
“This country (says the poet) was subject to the College of Saint Greal, twelve in number. Ceridwen, the constant theme of the bards, was its patron goddess. Her fanatical votaries, hived within the periphery of her awfìd cìrde, came forth like stinging bees whenever their hive was assailed; thrice did they thus burst forth victorious upon the Maes Beli; and the stone pillars that form her border are the sacred oaks in the Neo-Druidic grove, as the green trees were in the Druidic.”
[14]:
“This passage shows us the Crist Celi, confined, and about to undergo his mysterious death. The oak-enclosed, the dweller of the sanctuary is about to depart. But they who would remove him do not as yet appear aa poisoners. They are an open assailing host. Neither are they foreign enemies.”
[15]:
“The Bard proceeds to recount the glories of his empire, mining the eastern provinces of Alexander, and the Holy Land of the Lord’s miradea, with other strange titles belonging to this country in the days of her madness. Din-ivdra, whatever it may mean, is such. But the islands of plaiting, braiding, or interweaving, are none other than our great Ambrosian sanctuaries of the megalithic architecture, and are so called either from something originally observable in their actual structure, or from their being wood-cirdes representing the entangled shade of the ‘ feathered oak-trees of the land.’ The island of the plaiting or braided texture of Eppa (the Ape) is that one moat famous to which, above all others, Emmrys bequeathed his own name: it is his cor, his gwaith, his dewys vynydd or mount of election, and the go-vur byd in which the sacred Henvonva and the sacred Eppa were supposed to be.”
[16]:
“Here we find the fall of Ambros us mainly ascribed to the fanaticalwomen of the sect.”
[17]:
“We find him poisoned on the great plain in which his cor, the ‘ynys pleth Eppa,’ stood. And, moreover, we obtain the almost conclusive admission that he was cut off not only upon but by the plain which called him ita own; that is to say, by the spiritual iniquities there enthroned and enshrined. ‘As gwenwynwys ei was.’ The Ape of this sanctuary, to whom great sanctity, together with foul crime, deception, and treachery, is ascribed, must signify the mercurial principle, that strange and unexplained disgrace of Paganism. Gwion Gwd, or Gwydion ap Don, into whose knaveries and villanies all that is most sacred and awful in Neo-Druidism seems to resolve itself, must be the Eppa.”
[18]:
“These lines, in which the bard glorifies the object of his poem, and promises to devote himself to preparing the precious communion of the sacred place, do not require any explanation at present. They are general expressions, including in their purport all the terrible and hidden things of Bardism. He concludes with a blessing on his congregation.”
[19]:
Mageidawr. Alexander is called by this name in the next piece given. Mr. Stephens translates it “the nourisher.”
[20]:
Duw dinas. Qu. “daionus.”
[21]:
Suggestions on the Ancient Britons , part i. p. 60. London, 1852.
[22]:
These lines, though unintelligible, are not more so than the prophecies of Merlin in Geoffrey of Monmouth, or those of Thomas the Rhymer.
[23]:
Gofior,(?) a heap or mound.
[24]:
Cyfarch, “mutual salutation;” and cynedd, a natural quality.
[25]:
This line is evidently misplaced. It should come after the line,
Carrying their boats to the lake.
[26]:
Perhaps for Saisin, i.e., Saxons.
[27]:
i.e., the Scriptures.
[28]:
The next three lines are omitted as unintelligible.
[29]:
Exodus viii. 17.
[30]:
Exodus viii. 20, 21, 24.
[31]:
Gesenius, Hebrew Dict. in voce.
[32]:
The only remarkable point in this poem is, that in the description of the first plague there is no mention of the waters having been turned into blood. The destruction of the fish only is noticed.
[33]:
Perhaps of some festival previously mentioned.
[34]:
Gomer , part i. p. 9.
[35]:
Such contractions as that above referred to are in common use in the Irish manuscripts, and have been employed in some printed books in that language, of which a copious account may be seen in Donovan’s and O’Brien’s Irish Grammars. They are in principle, and often in form, the same as those which occur in Latin manuscripts of the middle ages. They are, in fact, a species of shorthand introduced for the purpose of saving time and parchment, which, before the invention of the art of printing, was an object of considerable moment.—Donovan, Grammar of the Irish Language , p. 429.
[36]:
See Rees’s Essay on the Welsh Saints, p. 63, note.
[37]:
Probably for Jouerus, Joverus, Jupiter.
[38]:
These lines clearly mean to speak of the magical powers acquired by Gwion or Taliesin on tasting tbe three charm-bearing drops of the Cauldron of Ceridwen.
No one can refuse to acknowledge the obligations of all Welsh scholars to Dr. Owen Pughe; but it is necessary to point out that his translations are, in numerous instances, most contradictory. The present is one of the most extraordinary.
Under the word “dylid,” in his Dictionary, he translates these lines thus:—
“They would do their commands; they would do their duties for ages of ages.”
Under “telid,” he translates the same lines and the two following ones:—
"Their musicians would produce a fruitless wind without sound; their instruments would ever make, from the effect of vibration, a profound flow of praise.”
[39]:
Stanzas formed according to one of the laws regulating metrical composition. It would be interesting to know the relative antiquity of the term.
[40]:
Here commences a religious portion quite unconnected with what precedes and follows.
[41]:
The interpolated part relating to Christ ends here.
[42]:
Or “the daughter of the flood,” or perhaps "the daughter of theft.”
[43]:
Meaning, probably, veins of metal and the alchemical menstrua.
[44]:
Ogyrwen, or Gogyrwen.
[45]:
Annwfn, the great deep—hell.
[46]:
The poem breaks off here, owing to a defect in the MS. The next feet line seems to belong to the lost passage. I therefore omit it.
[47]:
This line is defective in the Myvyrian Archeology.
[48]:
Dr. Owen translates this line,
What reserve is there in the hour of flowing ?
[49]:
That is, I suppose, the sparkling appearance of the scales; but it is not a satisfactory interpretation.
[50]:
Geraint waa accounted a saint as well as a warrior. Garman, or St. Germanus, played an important part in British affairs in the fifth century, and is the hero of many legends.
[51]:
Alluding, perhaps, to the tale of the Countess of the Fountain.
[52]:
Egroeg, Greek:—
In Hebrew, in Greek; in Greek, in Hebrew;
remarkable accomplishments for the Welsh Druids of the sixth century.
[53]:
Dr. Owen gives this curious translation: —
I have been drunk before a king; I have been a convoy.
[54]:
Or, bringing to the earth an abundance of good.
[55]:
Rhuveiniaid. If this is correct, it would seem to place the date of this portion of the poem after the Reformation.
[56]:
This seems, from the context, to be a necessary correction—“croesu” for “credu.”
[57]:
Yn arddu.