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THE MISFORTUNES OF ELPHIN. 
 

 
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 RUCH/IRDSTIRNCTT. IU>. 
 LONDON. AD.CCCX CI 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chap. Page 
 
 I. The Prosperity of Gwaelod . . 17 
 
 II. The Drunkenness of Seithenyn . 25 
 
 III. The Oppression of Gwenhidwy . 35 
 
 IV. The Lamentations of Gwvthno . 48 
 V. The Prize of the Weir . . 56 
 
 VI. The Education of Taliesin . . 61 
 
 VII. The Huntings of Maelgon . . 72 
 
 VIII. The Love of Melanghel . . 79 
 
 IX. The Songs of Diganwy . -83 
 
 X. The Disappointment of Rhvn . . 92 
 
 XI. The Heroes of Dinas Vawr . . 96 
 
 XII. The Splendour of Caer Lleon . 106 
 
 XIII. The Ghostliness of Avallon . • 117 
 
 Xrv. The Right of Might . . .127 
 
 XV. The Circle of the Bards . . 135 
 
 XVI. The Judgments of Arthur . . 147 
 
Contents. 
 
 INDEX TO THE POETRY. 
 
 Page 
 
 1. The Circling of the Mead-Horns . . 25 
 
 2. The Song of the Four Winds . . 39 
 
 3. A Lament of Gwythno . . . 52 
 
 4. Another Lament of Gwythno . . 54 
 
 5. The Consolation of Elfin . . -59 
 
 6. The Mead Song . . . .83 
 
 7. The Song of the Wind . . .86 
 
 8. The Indignation of Taliesin with the 
 
 Bards of Maelgon Gwyneth . . 89 
 
 g. Taliesin and Melanghel . . -93 
 
 ID. The War-Song of Dinas Vawr . . 97 
 
 11. The Brilliancies of Winter . . 136 
 
 12. Merlin's Apple-Trees . . .138 
 
 13. The Massacre of the Britons . .140 
 
 14. The Cauldron of Ceridwen . . 143 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ?HE reader of Peacock soon becomes aware 
 that invention is by no means a strong 
 point with him. His plots are usually of 
 the most artless description, and the paucity or im- 
 probability of incident is only redeemed by the 
 fluency and pertinency of wit, satire, and poetry. 
 If " The Misfortunes of Elphin " apparently forms 
 an exception, it is because the incidents are not 
 his own. They were all ready to hand in the 
 ancient traditions of Wales, from which they are 
 taken with hardly any alteration. Such of them as 
 relate to Taliesin, the real hero of the story, may 
 be read in Lady Charlotte Guest's translation of the 
 Mabinogion, although the calamity of Gwythno's 
 inundation is there only mentioned in a note. It 
 is difficult to arbitrate between the rival attractions 
 of the exquisite simplicity of the old stories in their 
 original dress and the rich accretion of the modern 
 writer's humourous and allusive fancy, the deposit 
 of the varied experience of thirteen centuries. 
 
 The writers of the later Greek comedy, aiming 
 at greater richness and variety of incident, fre- 
 
8 Introduction. 
 
 quently combined the plots of two old plays into 
 one. With the same purpose, Peacock has united 
 the legends of Elphin and Taliesin with trans- 
 actions "in the history of Arthur with which they 
 have really no connection, even though Taliesin is 
 said to have been chief bard at Arthur's court, and 
 Elphin figures among the Knights of the Round 
 Table. This is a disadvantage to the story in so 
 far as the centre of interest is shifted in the course 
 of it, but advantageous inasmuch as it enriches the 
 action with a great variety of incident, and in virtue 
 of the satisfactory provision thereby made for that 
 Cambrian Falstaff, Seithenyn, whom, no more 
 than the Fisherman's Genie, would the reader 
 have consented to have left at the botttom of the 
 sea. 
 
 While the history of Taliesin is thus blended with 
 extraneous incidents, it is deprived of its foundation 
 by the omission of the natal, or rather the pre- 
 natal, legend of the hero. It must strike every 
 reader that, until Taliesin's last song in the penulti- 
 mate chapter of the romance, it is not explained how 
 the child found by Elphin in the weir, like Moses 
 in the bulrushes, came to be thus situated. Pea- 
 cock, nevertheless, has manifested sound judgment 
 in omitting both the supernatural explanation given 
 in the Mabinogion, and the more matter-of-fact 
 narrative of Taliesin's biographers. Either would 
 have been an excrescence upon his story, and the 
 former would have introduced an element of the 
 marvellous entirely out of keeping with the charac- 
 
Introduction. 9 
 
 ter which the tale has assumed in his hands. The 
 true version is considerably disfigured even in the 
 song which he puts into the mouth of Taliesin ; 
 and as it is too good to continue latent in the 
 Mabinogion, it shall find a refuge in our preface. 
 After relating the resolution of the witch Ceridwen, 
 " to boil a cauldron of Inspiration and Science " for 
 her ill-favoured son, Morvern (" no one struck him 
 in the battle of Camlan by reason of his ugliness ; 
 all thought he was an auxiliary devil"), that he 
 might be at least endowed with the beauties of the 
 mind, the Mabinogion continues : — 
 
 "She put Gwion Bach (Little Gwion), the son 
 of Gwreang of Llanfair, in Caereinion, in Powys, 
 to stir the cauldron, and a blind man named 
 Morda to kindle the fire beneath it, and she 
 charged them that they should not suffer it to 
 cease boiling for the space of a year and a day. 
 And she herself, according to the books of the 
 astronomers, and in planetary terms, gathered every 
 day of all charm-bearing herbs. And one day to- 
 wards the end of the year, as Ceridwen was culling 
 plants and making incantations, it chanced that 
 three drops of the charmed liquor flew out of the 
 cauldron, and fell upon the finger of Gwion Bach.* 
 
 * It will be remembered that the same incident occurs in 
 the story of the horny Siegfried. A less known version is 
 the legend of the Seeburger See, related by Beddoes in his 
 correspondence. Here the comprehension of the language 
 of animals is obtained by partaking of a snake, " the boiled 
 worm of the tree of knowledge." 
 
10 Introduction. 
 
 And by reason of their great heat, he put his finger 
 to his mouth ; and the instant he put those marvel- 
 working drops into his mouth, he foresaw every- 
 thing that was to come, and perceived that his 
 chief care must be to guard against the wiles of 
 Ceridwen, for vast was her skill. And in very 
 great fear he fled towards his own land. And the 
 cauldron burst in two, because all the liquor within 
 it, except the three charm - bearing drops, was 
 poisonous, so that the horses of Gwyddno Garanhir 
 were poisoned by the water of the stream into 
 which the liquor of the cauldron ran, and the con- 
 fluence of that stream was called the Poison of the 
 Horses of Gwyddno from that time forth. 
 
 " Thereupon came in Ceridwen and saw all the 
 toil of the whole year lost. And she seized a billet 
 of wood and struck the blind Morda on the head 
 until one of his eyes fell out upon his cheek. And 
 he said, ' Wrongfully hast thou disfigured me, for 
 I am innocent. Thy loss was not because of me.' 
 ' Thou speakest truth,' said Ceridwen, ' it was 
 Gwion Bach who robbed me.' 
 
 And she went forth after him, running. And he 
 saw her, and changed himself into a hare and fled. 
 And she changed herself into a greyhound, and 
 turned him. And he ran towards a river, and 
 became a fish. And she in the form of an otter- 
 bitch, chased him under the water until he was fain 
 to turn himself into a bird of the air. She, as a 
 hawk, followed him, and gave him no rest in the sky. 
 And just as she was about to stoop upon him, and 
 
Introduction. 1 1 
 
 he was in fear of death, he espied a heap of win- 
 nowed wheat on the floor of a barn, and he dropped 
 among the wheat, and turned himself into one of 
 the grains,* then she transformed herself into a 
 high-crested black hen, and went to the wheat, and 
 scratched it with her feet, and found him out and 
 swallowed him. And, as the story says, she bore 
 him nine months, and when she was delivered, she 
 could not find it in her heart to kill him, by reason 
 of his beauty. So she wrapped him in a leathern- 
 bag, and cast him into the sea to the mercy of 
 God, on the twenty-ninth day of April. 
 
 "And at that time the weir of Gwyddno was on 
 the strand, between Dyvi and Aberystwyth, near 
 to his own castle, and the value of an hundred 
 pounds was taken in that weir every May eve. 
 And in those days Gwyddno had an only son 
 named Elphin, the most hapless of youths, and 
 the most needy. And it grieved his father sore, 
 for he thought that he was born in an evil hour. 
 And by the advice of his council, his father had 
 granted him the drawing of the weir that year, to 
 see if good luck would ever befall him, and to 
 give him something wherewith to begin the world. 
 
 " And the next day when Elphin went to look, 
 there was nothing in the weir. But as he turned 
 
 * The alternate metamorphosis of pursuer and pursued 
 is one of the most frequent incidents in popular tales, 
 especially those of the South of Europe. The final trans- 
 formation into a grain of corn recalls a similar incident in 
 the story of the Second Calendar in the Arabian Nights. 
 
1 2 Introduction. 
 
 back, he perceived the leathern bag upon a pole 
 in the weir. Then said one of the weir-ward unto 
 Elphin, 'Thou wast never unlucky till now, and 
 now thou hast destroyed the virtues of the weir, 
 which always yielded the value of an hundred 
 pounds every May eve, and to-night there is 
 nothing but this leathern skin within it.' 'How 
 now,' Said Elphin, 'there may be therein the 
 value of an hundred pounds.' Well, they took up 
 the leathern bag, and he who opened it saw the 
 forehead of the boy, and said to Elphin, ' Behold 
 a radiant brow!' 'TaHesin be he called,' said 
 Elphin." 
 
 The reader now understands how Elphin chanced 
 upon Taliesin. According to another account, 
 which claims to be actually historical, Taliesin was 
 of adult age when the adventure occurred, and tutor 
 to another Prince Elphin, the son of King of Urien 
 Rheged of Aberllychror. Having, the story says, 
 escaped in a coracle from captivity among Irish 
 pirates, he was carried by the waves to the weir of 
 Gwythno, which, as in the legend just quoted, is 
 represented as constructed on the strand, and not, 
 as Peacock makes it, upon the river Mawddach. 
 He then became tutor to Gwythno's son, the 
 Elphin of our story, who in yet another version is 
 represented as not the son, but the grandson of 
 Gwythno, and the unacknowledged offspring of 
 Urien Rheged. None of these narratives seem to 
 connect Taliesin's fortunes with the inundation of 
 
Introduction. 1 3 
 
 Gwythno's kingdom, or to allude in any way to 
 the latter event. 
 
 One of the principal beauties in "The Mis- 
 fortunes of Elphin,'' as in Peacock's other novels, 
 is the spirit and grace of the lyrics with which it is 
 interspersed. The most celebrated of these, " The 
 War Song of Dinas Vawr," is original ; the others 
 are chiefly imitated from the Welsh. Literal transla- 
 tions of some of these ancient ditties are given 
 in an appendix, which it is hoped will be found 
 interesting, both as bringing the reader nearer to the 
 spirit of the age delineated, and as enabling him 
 to appreciate the taste and felicity of the adapta- 
 tion. The actual date of the original compositions 
 may still be a matter of controversy, though, after 
 Mr Nash's investigations, few probably now believe 
 that the pieces which pass under Taliesin's name 
 were written by him, or anywhere near his alleged 
 period. There can be little doubt that they are 
 no isolated phenomena, but connected with the 
 general revival of poetry throughout Europe in the 
 twelfth century, though doubtless founded on pre- 
 existent traditions. We might even conjecture 
 that the Thomas ab Einion OfTeiriadd who " col- 
 lected the poems attributed to Taliesin which were 
 in existence before his time, and added others to 
 form the Mabinogi," is the original of the legendary 
 Thomas of Erceldoune, the reputed author of Sir 
 Tristrem. 
 
 Whatever the legends of Gwythno and Seithenyn, 
 Elphin and Taliesin, Arthur and Melvas, may owe 
 
14 Introduction. 
 
 to Thomas ab Einion Offeiriadd, they owe no less 
 to Thomas Love Peacock, who has given them 
 currency in a world-wide tongue, and whose work 
 should be in the hands of every Welshman com- 
 petent to read Enghsh. Its position among the 
 author's novels is unique ; in the charm of romantic 
 incident it surpasses them all; the humour, 
 though less exuberant than where the writer is 
 more thoroughly at home, is still plenteous and 
 Peacockian; its deficiency is in the characters. 
 Apart from such allusions to the topics of the day 
 as the hits at rotten boroughs. Peacock could 
 not this time caricature the modems, and he 
 could at no time revivify the ancients. The only 
 flesh and blood personage is the representative of 
 a type that endures forever, the bibulous Seithenyn 
 ap Saidi, who is painted with the indulgence which 
 men of his stamp never miss at the hands of 
 a genial satirist, which even the stem Carlyle 
 cannot help betraying for " the poor WiUielmus " 
 of " Past and Present." There is, indeed, no 
 slight infusion of wit and sense in the composition 
 of " the venerable, had he been less rubicund and 
 Bacchic " individual, " who could not believe that a 
 man whose favourite saying was ' wine from gold ' 
 could possibly be a disreputable person;" — 
 Seithenyn, Prince Seithenyn, Seithenyn ap Seithin 
 Saidi, Arglwyd Gorwarcheidwad yr Argae Brenin- 
 awl. 
 
THE MISFORTUNES OF ELPHIN. 
 
 Unlooked-for good betides us still, 
 And unanticipated ill : 
 Blind Fortune rules the hours that roll : 
 Then fill with good old wine the bowl. 
 
 Quod non exspectes ex transverso fit, 
 Et suprk nos Fortuna negotia curat : 
 Quare da nobis vina Falerna, puer. 
 
 Petronius Arbiter. 
 
 [First published in 1829.] 
 
THE 
 
 Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE PROSPERITY OF GWAELOD. 
 
 Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway, 
 That, hiish'd in grim repose, expects his evening prey. 
 
 — Grey. 
 
 5N the beginning of the sixth century, when 
 Uther Pendragon held the nominal sove- 
 reignty of Britain over a number of petty 
 kings, Gwythno Garanhir was king of Caredigion. 
 The most valuable portion of his dominions was 
 the Great Plain of Gwaelod, an extensive tract of 
 level land, stretching along that part of the sea 
 coast which now belongs to the counties of Merio- 
 neth and Cardigan. This district was populous 
 and highly cultivated. It contained sixteen forti- 
 fied towns, superior to all the towns and cities of 
 the Cymry, excepting Caer Lleon upon Usk ; and, 
 like Caer Lleon, they bore in their architecture, 
 their language, and their manners, vestiges of 
 
 B 
 
1 8 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 past intercourse with the Roman lords of the 
 world. It contained also one of the three privi- 
 leged ports of the isle of Britain, which was called 
 the Port of Gwythno. This port, we may believe, 
 if we please, had not been unknown to the Phoe- 
 nicians and Carthaginians, when they visited the 
 island for metal, accommodating the inhabitants, 
 in return, with luxuries which they would not 
 otherwise have dreamed of, and which they could 
 very well have done without ; of course, in arrang- 
 ing the exchange of what they denominated equi- 
 valents, imposing on their simplicity, and taking 
 advantage of their ignorance, according to the 
 approved practice of civilised nations ; which they 
 called imparting the blessings of Phoenician and 
 Carthaginian light. 
 
 An embankment of massy stone protected this 
 lowland country from the sea, which was said, in 
 the traditions older than the embankment, to 
 have, in occasional spring-tides, paid short but 
 unwelcome visits to the interior inhabitants, and 
 to have, by slow aggressions, encroached consider- 
 ably on the land. To prevent the repetition of 
 the first of these inconveniences, and to check the 
 progress of the second, the people of Gwaelod 
 had built the stony rampart, which had with- 
 stood the shock of the waves for centuries, when 
 Gwythno began his reign. 
 
 Gwythno, like other kings, found the business 
 of governing too light a matter to fill up the 
 vacancy of either his time or his head, and took 
 
The Prosperity of Gwaelod. 19 
 
 to the more solid pursuits of harping and singing ; 
 not forgetting feasting, in which he was glorious ; 
 nor hunting, wherein he was mighty. His several 
 pursuits composed a very harmonious triad. The 
 chace conduced to the good cheer of the feast, 
 and to the good appetite which consumed it ; the 
 feast inspired the song ; and the song gladdened 
 the feast, and celebrated the chace. 
 
 Gwythno and his subjects went on together very 
 happily. They had little to do with him but to pay 
 him revenue, and he had little to do with them 
 but to receive it. Now and then they were called 
 on to fight for the protection of his sacred person, 
 and for the privilege of paying revenue to him 
 rather than to any of the kings in his vicinity, a 
 privilege of which they were particularly tenacious. 
 His lands being far more fertile, and his people, 
 consequently, far more numerous, than those of 
 the rocky dwellers on his borders, he was always 
 victorious in the defensive warfare to which he 
 restricted his military achievements; and, after 
 the invaders of his dominions had received two 
 or three inflictions of signal chastisement, they 
 limited their aggressions to coming quietly in the 
 night, and vanishing, before morning, with cattle : 
 an herioc operation, in which the pre-eminent glory 
 of Scotland renders the similar exploits of other 
 nations not worth recording. 
 
 Gwythno was not fond of the sea : a moonstruck 
 bard had warned him to beware of the oppression 
 
20 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 of Gwenhidwy ; * and he thought he could best do 
 so by keeping as far as possible out of her way. 
 He had a palace built of choice slate stone on the 
 rocky banks of the Mawddach, just above the 
 point where it quitted its native mountains, and 
 entered the plain of Gwaelod. Here, among green 
 woods and sparkling waters, he lived in festal 
 munificence, and expended his revenue in encour- 
 aging agriculture, by consuming a large quantity of 
 produce. 
 
 Watch-towers were erected along the embank- 
 ment, and watchmen were appointed to guard 
 against the first approaches of damage or decay. 
 The whole of these towers, and their companies of 
 guards, were subordinate to a central castle, which 
 commanded the seaport already mentioned, and 
 wherein dwelt Prince Seithenyn ap Seithyn Saidi, 
 who held the office of Arglwyd Gorwarcheidwad 
 yr Argae Breninawl, which signifies, in English, 
 Lord High Commissioner of Royal Embankment ; 
 and he executed it as a personage so denominated 
 might be expected to do : he drank the profits, 
 and he left the embankment to his deputies, who 
 left it to their assistants, who left it to itself. 
 
 The condition of the head, in a composite, as in 
 a simple body, affects the entire organization to 
 the extremity of/the tail, excepting that, as the tail 
 in the figurative body usually receives the largest 
 
 * Gwen-hudiw, " the white alluring one : " the name of a 
 mermaid. Used figuratively for the elemental power of the 
 sea. 
 
The Prosperity of Gwaelod. 2 1 
 
 share in the distribution of punishment, and the 
 smallest in the distribution of reward, it has the 
 stronger stimulus to ward off evil, and the smaller 
 supply of means to indulge in diversion ; and it 
 sometimes happens that one of the least regarded 
 of the component parts of the said tail will, from 
 a pure sense of duty, or an inveterate love of 
 business, or an oppressive sense of ennui, or a 
 development of the organ of order, or some other 
 equally cogent reason, cheerfully undergo all the 
 care and labour, of which the honour and profit 
 will redound to higher quarters. 
 
 Such a component portion of the Gwaelod High 
 Commission of Royal Embankment was Teithrin 
 ap Tathral, who had the charge of a watch-tower 
 where the embankment terminated at the point of 
 Mochres, in the high land of Ardudwy. Teithrin 
 kept his portion of the embankment in exemplary 
 condition, and paced with daily care the limits of 
 his charge ; but one day, by some accident, he 
 strayed beyond them, and observed symptoms of 
 neglect that filled him with dismay. This circum- 
 stance induced him to proceed till his wanderings 
 brought him round to the embankment's southern 
 termination in the high land of Caredigion. He 
 met with abundant hospitality at the towers of his 
 colleagues, and at the castle of Seithenyn : he was 
 supposed to be walking for his amusement ; he 
 was asked no questions, and he carefully abstained 
 from asking any. He examined and observed in 
 silence ; and when he had completed his obser- 
 vations, he hastened to the palace of Gwythno. 
 
22 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 Preparations were making for a high festival, 
 and Gwythno was composing an ode. Teithrin 
 knew better than to interrupt him in his awen.* 
 
 Gwythno had a son named Elphin, who is cele- 
 brated in history as the most expert of fishers. 
 Teithrin, finding the king impracticable, went in 
 search of the young prince. 
 
 Elphin had been all the morning fishing in the 
 Mawddach, in a spot where the river, having 
 quitted the mountains and not yet entered the 
 plain, ran in alternate streams and pools sparkling 
 through a pastoral valley. Elphin sat under an 
 ancient ash, enjoying the calm brightness of an 
 autumnal noon, and the melody and beauty of the 
 flying stream, on which the shifting sunbeams fell 
 chequering through the leaves. The monotonous 
 music of the river, and the profound stillness of the 
 air, had contributed to the deep abstraction of a 
 meditation into which Elphin had fallen. He was 
 startled into attention by a sudden rush of the 
 wind through the trees, and during the brief 
 interval of transition from the state of reverie to 
 that of perfect consciousness, he heard, or seemed 
 to hear, in the gust that hurried by him, the repeti- 
 tion of the words, " Beware of the oppression of 
 Gwenhidwy." The gust was momentary : the 
 leaves ceased to rustle, and the deep silence of 
 nature returned. 
 
 The prophecy, which had long haunted the 
 
 * The rapturous and abstracted state of poetical inspiration. 
 
The Prosperity of Gwaelod. 23 
 
 memory and imagination of his father, had been 
 often repeated to Elphin, and had sometimes 
 occupied his thoughts, but it had formed no part 
 of his recent meditation, and he could not per- 
 suade himself that the words had not been actually 
 spoken near him. He emerged from the shade of 
 the trees that fringed the river, and looked round 
 him from the rocky bank. 
 
 At this moment Teithrin ap Tathral discovered 
 and approached him. 
 
 Elphin knew him not, and inquired his name. 
 He answered, " Teithrin ap Tathral." 
 
 " And what seek you here ? " said Elphin. 
 
 " I seek," answered Teithrin, " the Prince of 
 Gwaelod, Elphin ap Gwythno Garanhir." 
 
 " You spoke," said Elphin, " as you approached." 
 Teithrin answered in the negative. 
 
 "Assuredly you did," said Elphin. "You re- 
 peated the words, 'Beware of the oppression of 
 Gwenhidwy.' " 
 
 Teithrin denied having spoken the words ; but 
 their mysterious impression made Elphin listen 
 readily to his information and advice; and the 
 result of their conference was a determination, on 
 the part of the prince, to accompany Teithrin ap 
 Tathral on a visit of remonstrance to the Lord 
 High Commissioner. 
 
 They crossed the centre of the enclosed country 
 to the privileged port of Gwythno, near which 
 stood the castle of Seithenyn. They walked to- 
 wards the castle along a portion of the embank- 
 
24 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 ment, and Teithrin pointed out to the prince its 
 dilapidated condition. The sea shone with the 
 glory of the setting sun ; the air was calm ; and 
 the white surf, tinged with the crimson of sunset, 
 broke lightly on the sands below. Elphin turned 
 his eyes from the dazzling splendour of the Plain 
 of Gwaelod; the trees, that in the distance 
 thickened into woods ; the wreaths of smoke rising 
 from among them, marking the solitary cottages, 
 or the populous towns ; the massy barrier of 
 mountains beyond, with the forest rising from their 
 base ; the precipices frowning over the forest ; and 
 the clouds resting on their summits, reddened with 
 the reflection of the west. Elphin gazed earnestly 
 on the peopled plain, reposing in the calm of 
 evening between the mountains and the sea, and 
 thought, with deep feeHngs of secret pain, how 
 much of life and human happiness was entrusted 
 to the ruinous mound on which he stood. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE DRUNKENNESS OF SEITHENYN. 
 
 The three immortal dnmkards of the isle of Britain : 
 Ceraint of Essyllwg; Gwrtheyrn Gwrthenau; and Seithenyn 
 ap Seithyn Saidi. — Triads of the Isle of Britain. 
 
 ^HE sun had sunk beneath the waves when 
 they reached the castle of Seithenyn. 
 The sound of the harp and the song 
 saluted them as they approached it. As they 
 entered the great hall, which was already blazing 
 with torchlight, they found his highness, and his 
 highness's household, convincing themselves and 
 each other, with wine and wassail, of the ex- 
 cellence of their system of virtual superintendence; 
 and the following jovial chorus broke on the ears 
 of the visitors : 
 
 THE CIRCLING OF THE MEAD HORNS. 
 
 Fill the blue horn, the blue buffalo horn : 
 Natural is mead in the buffalo hom : 
 As the cuckoo in spring, as the lark in the morn. 
 So natural is mead in the bufifalo horn. 
 
 As the cup of the flower to the bee when he sips. 
 Is the full cup of mead to the true Briton's lips : 
 From the flower-cups of summer, on field and on tree. 
 Our mead-cups are filled by the vintager bee. 
 
26 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 Seithenyn * ap Seithyn, the generous, the bold, 
 Drinks the wine of the stranger from vessels of gold ; t 
 But we from the horn, the blue silver-rimmed horn. 
 Drink the ale and the mead in our fields that were bom. 
 
 The ale-froth is white, and the mead sparkles bright ; 
 They both smile apart, and with smiles they unite : + 
 The mead from the flower, and the ale from the corn, 
 Smile, sparkle, and sing in the buffalo horn. 
 
 The horn, the blue horn, cannot stand on its tip ; 
 Its path is right on from the hand to the lip : 
 Though the bowl and the wine-cup our tables adorn. 
 More natural the draught from the buffalo horn. 
 
 But Seithenyn ap Seithyn, the generous, the bold. 
 Drinks the bright-flowing wine from the far-gleaming gold : 
 The wine, in the bowl by his lip that is worn. 
 Shall be glorious as mead in the buffalo horn. 
 
 The horns circle fast, but their fountains will last, 
 As the stream passes ever, and never is past : 
 Exhausted so quickly, replenished so soon. 
 They wax and they wane like the horns of the moon. 
 
 Fill high the blue horn, the blue buffalo horn ; 
 Fill high the long silver-rimmed buffalo horn : 
 While the roof of the hall by our chorus is torn, 
 Fill, fill to the brim the deep silver-rimmed horn. § 
 
 Elphin and Teithrin stood some time on the 
 floor of the hall before they attracted the attention 
 
 * The accent is on the second syllable : Seithenyn. 
 
 + Gwin . . . . o eur .... Anburin. 
 
 X The mixture of ale and mead made bradawd, a favourite 
 drink of the Ancient Britons. 
 
 § "The highly-honoured buffalo-horn Hirlas, enriched 
 with ancient silver." — Poem by Prince Owain Kyveiliog. — G. 
 
The Drunkenness of Seithenyn. 27 
 
 of Seithenyn, who, during the chorus, was flourish- 
 ing his golden goblet The chorus had scarcely- 
 ended when he noticed them, and immediately 
 roared aloud, " You are welcome all four." 
 
 Elphin answered, " We thank you : we are but 
 two." 
 
 "Two or four," said Seithenyn, "all is one. 
 You are welcome all. When a stranger enters, the 
 custom in other places is to begin by washing his 
 feet. My custom is, to begin by washing his 
 throat. Seithen3rii ap Seithyn Saidi bids you 
 welcome." 
 
 Elphin, taking the wine-cup, answered, " Elphin 
 ap Gwythno Garanhir thanks you." 
 
 Seithenyn started up. He endeavoured to 
 straighten himself into perpendicularity, and to 
 stand steadily on his legs. He accomplished half 
 his object by stiffening all his joints but those of 
 his ankles, and from these the rest of his body 
 vibrated upwards with the inflexibility of a bar. 
 After thus oscillating for a time, like an inverted 
 pendulum, finding that the attention requisite to 
 preserve his rigidity absorbed aU he could coUect 
 of his dissipated energy, and that he required a 
 portion of them for the management of his voice, 
 which he felt a dizzy desire to wield with peculiar 
 steadiness in the presence of the son of the king, 
 he suddenly relaxed the muscles that perform the 
 operation of sitting, and dropped into his chair like 
 a plummet. He then, with a gracious gesticula- 
 tion, invited Prince Elphin to take his seat on his 
 
28 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 right hand, and proceeded to compose himself 
 into a dignified attitude, throwing his body back 
 into the left corner of his chair, resting his left 
 elbow on its arm, and his left cheek-bone on the 
 middle of the back of his left hand, placing his 
 left foot on a footstool, and stretching out his right 
 leg as straight and as far as his position allowed. 
 He had thus his right hand at liberty, for the 
 ornament of his eloquence and the conduct of his 
 liquor. 
 
 Elphin seated himself at the right hand of 
 Seithenyn. Teithrin remained at the end of the 
 hall : on which Seithenyn exclaimed, " Come on, 
 man, come on. What if you be not the son of a 
 king, you are the guest of Seithenyn ap Seithyn 
 Saidi. The most honourable place to the most 
 honourable guest, and the next most honourable 
 place to the next most honourable guest ; the least 
 honourable guest above the most honourable in- 
 mate ; and, where there are but two guests, be the 
 most honourable who he may, the least honourable 
 of the two is next in honour to the most honour- 
 able of the two, because there are no more but 
 two; and where there are only two, there can 
 be nothing between. Therefore sit, and drink. 
 GwiN o EUR : wine from gold." 
 
 Elphin motioned Teithrin to approach, and sit 
 next to him. 
 
 Prince Seithenyn, whose liquor was " his eating 
 and his drinking solely," seemed to measure the 
 gastronomy of his guests by his own; but his 
 
The Drunkenness of Seithenyn. 29 
 
 groom of the pantry thought the strangers might 
 be disposed to eat, and placed before them a 
 choice of provision, on which Teithrin ap Tathral 
 did vigorous execution. 
 
 " I pray your excuses,'' said Seithenyn, " my 
 stomach is weak, and I am subject to dizziness in 
 the head, and my memory is not so good as it was, 
 and my faculties of attention are somewhat im- 
 paired, and I would dilate more upon the topic, 
 whereby you should hold me excused, but I am 
 troubled with a feverishness and parching of the 
 mouth, that very much injures my speech, and 
 impedes my saying all I would say, and will say 
 before I have done, in token of my loyalty and 
 fealty to your highness and your highness's house. 
 I must just moisten my lips, and I will then 
 proceed with my observations. Cupbearer, fill." 
 
 " Prince Seithenyn," said Elphin, " I have visited 
 you on a subject of deep moment. Reports have 
 been brought to me, that the embankment, which 
 has been so long entrusted to your care, is in a 
 state of dangerous decay." 
 
 "Decay," said Seithenyn, "is one thing, and 
 danger is another. Everything that is old must 
 decay. That the embankment is old, I am free to 
 confess ; that it is somewhat rotten in parts, I will 
 not altogether deny ; that it is any the worse for 
 that, I do most sturdily gainsay. It does its busi- 
 ness well : it works well : it keeps out the water 
 from the land, and it lets in the wine upon the 
 High Commission of Embankment. Cupbearer, 
 
30 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 fill. Our ancestors were wiser than we : they built 
 it in their wisdom ; and if we should be so rash as 
 to try to mend it, we should only mar it." 
 
 "The stonework," said Teithrin, "is sapped 
 and mined : the piles are rotten, broken, and 
 dislocated : the floodgates and sluices are leaky 
 and creaky." 
 
 "That is the beauty of it," said Seithenyn. 
 "Some parts of it are rotten, and some parts of 
 it are sound." 
 
 " It is well," said Elphin, " that some parts are 
 sound : it were better that all were so." 
 
 " So I have heard some people say before," said 
 Seithenyn; "perverse people, blind to venerable 
 antiquity : that very unamiable sort of people, who 
 are in the habit of indulging their reason. But I 
 say, the parts that are rotten give elasticity to those 
 that are sound : they give them elasticity, elasticity, 
 elasticity. If it were all sound, it would break by 
 its own obstinate stiffness : the soundness is checked 
 by the rottenness, and the stiffness is balanced by 
 the elasticity. There is nothing so dangerous as 
 innovation. See the waves in the equinoctial 
 storms, dashing and clashing, roaring and pouring, 
 spattering and battering, rattUng and batthng 
 against it. I would not be so presumptuous as to 
 say, I could build anything that would stand 
 against them half an hour ; and here this immortal 
 old work, which God forbid the finger of modern 
 mason should bring into jeopardy, this immortal 
 work has stood for centuries, and will stand for 
 
The Drunkenness of Seithenyn. 3 1 
 
 centuries more, if we let it alone. It is well : it 
 works well: let well alone. Cupbearer, fill. It 
 was half rotten when I was born, and that is a 
 conclusive reason why it should be three parts 
 rotten when I die." 
 
 The whole body of the High Commission roared 
 approbation. 
 
 "And after all," said Seithenyn, "the worst that 
 could happen would be the overflow of a spring- 
 tide, for that was the worst that happened before 
 the embankment was thought of; and, if the high 
 water should come in, as it did before, the low 
 water would go out again, as it did before. We 
 should be no deeper in it than our ancestors were, 
 and we could mend as easily as they could make." 
 
 "The level of the sea,'' said Teithrin, "is 
 materially altered." 
 
 " The level of the sea ! " exclaimed Seithenyn. 
 " Who ever heard of such a thing as altering the 
 level of the sea ? Alter the level of that bowl of 
 wine before you, in which, as I sit here, I see a 
 very ugly reflection of your very good-looking face. 
 Alter the level of that : drink up the reflection : 
 let me see the face without the reflection, and 
 leave the sea to level itself." 
 
 " Not to level the embankment," said Teithrin. 
 
 " Good, very good," said Seithenyn. " I love a 
 smart saying, though it hits at me. But whether 
 yours is a smart saying or no, I do not very clearly 
 see; and, whether it hits at me or no, I do not 
 very sensibly feel. But all is one. Cupbearer, fill." 
 
32 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 "I think," pursued Seithenyn, looking as in- 
 tently as he could at Teithrin ap Tathral, "I 
 have seen something very like you before. There 
 was a fellow here the other day very like you: 
 he stayed here some time : he would not talk : 
 he did nothing but drink : he used to drink 
 till he could not stand, and then he went walking 
 about the embankment. I suppose he thought it 
 wanted mending ; but he did not say anything. If 
 he had, I should have told him to embank his 
 own throat, to keep the liquor out of that. That 
 would have posed him : he could not have an- 
 swered that : he would not have had a word to 
 say for himself after that." 
 
 " He must have been a miraculous person," said 
 Teithrin, " to walk when he could not stand." 
 
 "All is one for that," said Seithenyn. "Cup- 
 bearer, fill." 
 
 "Prince Seithenyn," said Elphin, "if I was not 
 aware that wine speaks in the silence of reason, I 
 should be astonished at your strange vindication 
 of your neglect of duty, which I take shame to 
 myself for not having sooner known and remedied. 
 The wise bard has well observed, ' Nothing is done 
 without the eye of the king.' " * 
 
 " I am very sorry," said Seithenyn, " that you 
 see things in a wrong light : but we will not 
 quarrel, for three reasons : first, because you are 
 the son of the king, and may do and say what you 
 please without any one having a right to be dis- 
 * El ojo delamo engorda elcaballo. — Spanish Proverb. — G. 
 
The Drunkenness of Seithenyn. 33 
 
 pleased : second, because I never quarrel with a 
 guest, even if he grows riotous in his caps : third, 
 because there is nothing to quarrel about; and 
 perhaps that is the best reason of the three ; or, 
 rather, the first is the b^t, because you are the 
 son of the king ; and the third is the second, that 
 is, the second best, because there is nothing to 
 quarrel about : and the second is nothing to the 
 purpose, because, though guests will grow riotous 
 in their cups, in spite of my good orderly example, 
 God forbid I should say that is the case with you. 
 And I completely agree in the truth of your re- 
 mark, that reason speaks in the silence of wine." 
 
 Seithenyn accompanied his speech with a vehe- 
 ment swinging of his right hand : in so doing, at 
 this jKjint, he droj)j)ed his cup : a sadden impulse 
 of rash volition to pick it dexterously up, before 
 he resumed his discourse, ruined aU his devices 
 for maintaining dignity ; in stooping forward from 
 his chair he lost his balance, and fell prostrate on 
 the floor. 
 
 The whole body of the High Commission arose 
 in simultaneous confusion, each zealous to be the 
 foremost in uplifting his Mien chief. In the 
 vehemence of their uprise, they hurled the benches 
 backward, and the tabl^ forward; the crash of 
 cups and bowls accompanied their overthrow ; and 
 rivulets of liquor ran gurgling through the halL 
 The household wished to redeem the credit of 
 their leader in the eyes of the prince ; but the only 
 service they could render him was to participate in 
 c 
 
34 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 his discomfiture ; for Seithenyn, as he was first in 
 dignity, was also, as was fitting, hardest in skull ; 
 and that which had impaired his equilibrium had 
 utterly destroyed theirs. Some fell, in the first 
 impulse, with the tables and benches ; others were 
 tripped up by the rolling bowls ; and the remainder 
 fell at different points of progression, by jostling 
 against each other, or stumbling over those who 
 had fallen before them. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE OPPRESSION OF GWENHIDWY. 
 
 Nid meddew y dyn a alio 
 Cwnu ei hun a rhodio, 
 Ac yved rhagor ddiawd : 
 Nid yw hyny yn veddwdawd. 
 
 Not drunk is he, who from the floor 
 Can rise alone, and still drink more : 
 But drunk is he who prostrate lies. 
 Without the power to drink or rise. 
 
 SIDE door, at the upper end of the hall, 
 to the left of Seithenyn's chair, opened, 
 and a beautiful young girl entered the 
 hall, with her domestic bard, and her attendant 
 maidens. 
 
 It was Angharad, the daughter of Seithenyn. 
 The tumult had drawn her from the solitude of 
 her chamber, apprehensive that some evil might 
 befall her father in that incapability of self-protec- 
 tion to which he made a point of bringing him- 
 self by set of sun. She gracefully saluted Prince 
 Elphin, and directed the cupbearers (who were 
 bound by their office to remain half-sober till 
 the rest of the company were finished off, after 
 
36 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 which they indemnified themselves at leisure) — 
 she directed the cupbearers to lift up Prince 
 Seithenyn, and bear him from the hall. The cup- 
 bearers reeled off with their lord, who had already 
 fallen asleep, and who now began to play them a 
 pleasant march with his nose, to inspirit their 
 progression. 
 
 Elphin gazed with delight on the beautiful 
 apparition, whose gentle and serious loveliness 
 contrasted so strikingly with the broken trophies 
 and fallen heroes of revelry that lay scattered at 
 her feet. 
 
 " Stranger," she said, " this seems an unfitting 
 place for you : let me conduct you where you will 
 be more agreeably lodged." 
 
 " Still less should I deem it fitting for you, fair 
 maiden," said Elphin. 
 
 She answered, " The pleasure of her father is 
 the duty of Angharad." 
 
 Elphin was desirous to protract the conversa- 
 tion, and this very desire took from him the power 
 of speaking to the purpose. He paused for a 
 moment to collect his ideas, and Angharad stood 
 still, in apparent expectation that he would show 
 symptoms of following, in compliance with her 
 invitation. 
 
 In this interval of silence, he heard the loud 
 dashing of the sea, and the blustering of the wind 
 through the apertures of the walls. 
 
 This supplied him with what has been, since 
 Britain was Britain, the alpha and omega of 
 
The Oppressiofi of Gwenhidwy. 37 
 
 British conversation. He said, " It seems a stormy 
 night." 
 
 She answered, "We are used to storms : we are far 
 from the mountains, between the lowlands and the 
 sea, and the winds blow round us from all quarters." 
 
 There was another pause of deep silence. The 
 noise of the sea was louder, and the gusts pealed 
 like thunder through the apertures. Amidst the 
 fallen and sleeping revellers, the confused and 
 littered hall, the low and wavering torches, Ang- 
 harad, lovely always, shone with single and surpass- 
 ing loveliness. The gust died away in murmurs, 
 and swelled again into thunder, and died away in 
 murmurs again ; and, as it died away, mixed with 
 the murmurs of ocean, a voice, that seemed one 
 of the many voices of the wind, pronounced the 
 ominous words, "Beware of the oppression of 
 Gwenhidwy." 
 
 They looked at each other, as if questioning 
 whether all had heard ahke. 
 
 "Did you not hear a voice?" said Angharad, 
 after a pause. 
 
 "The same," said Elphin, "which has once 
 before seemed to say to me, ' Beware of the op- 
 pression of Gwenhidwy.' " 
 
 Teithrin hurried forth on the rampart : Ang- 
 harad turned pale, and leaned against a pillar of 
 the hall. Elphin was amazed and awed, absorbed 
 as his feelings were in her. The sleepers on the 
 floor made an uneasy movement, and uttered an 
 inarticulate cry. 
 
38 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 Teithrin returned. "What saw you?" said 
 Elphin. 
 
 Teithrin answered, " A tempest is coming from 
 the west. The moon has waned three days, and 
 is half hidden in clouds, just visible above the 
 mountains : the bank of clouds is black in the 
 west; the scud is flying before them; and the 
 white waves are rolling to the shore." 
 
 " This is the highest of the spring-tides," said 
 Angharad, " and they are very terrible in the 
 storms from the west, when the spray flies over 
 the embankment, and the breakers shake the tower 
 which has its foot in the surf." 
 
 "Whence was the voice," said Elphin, "which 
 we heard erewhile ? Was it the cry of a sleeper 
 in his drink, or an error of the fancy, or a warning 
 voice from the elements ? " 
 
 " It was surely nothing earthly," said Angharad, 
 " nor was it an error of the fancy, for we all heard 
 the words, ' Beware of the oppression of Gwen- 
 hidwy.' Often and often, in the storms of the 
 spring-tides, have I feared to see her roll her 
 power over the fields of Gwaelod." 
 
 " Pray heaven she do not to-night," said 
 Teithrin. 
 
 "Can there be such a danger?" said Elphin. 
 
 "I think," said Teithrin, "of the decay I have 
 seen, and I fear the voice I have heard." 
 
 A long pause of deep silence ensued, during 
 which they heard the intermitting peals of the 
 wind, and the increasing sound of the rising sea 
 
The Oppression of Gwenhidwy. 39 
 
 swelling progressively into wilder and more menac- 
 ing tumult, till, with one terrific impulse, the whole 
 violence of the equinoctial tempest seemed to burst 
 upon the shore. It was one of those tempests 
 which occur once in several centuries, and which, 
 by their extensive devastations, are chronicled to 
 eternity ; for a storm that signalises its course with 
 extraordinary destruction, becomes as worthy of 
 celebration as a hero for the same reason. The 
 old bard seemed to be of this opinion; for the 
 turmoil which appalled Elphin, and terrified 
 Angharad, fell upon his ears as the sound of 
 inspiration : the awen came upon him ; and, 
 seizing his harp, he mingled his voice and his 
 music with the uproar of the elements : 
 
 THE SONG OF THE FOUR WINDS.* 
 
 Wind from the north : the young spring day 
 
 Is pleasant on the sunny mead ; 
 
 The merry harps at evening play ; 
 
 The dance gay youths and maidens lead : 
 
 The thrush makes chorus from the thorn : 
 
 The mighty drinker fills his horn. 
 
 * This poem is a specimen of a numerous class of ancient 
 Welsh poems, in which each stanza begins with a repetition 
 of the predominant idea, and terminates with a proverb, 
 more or less applicable to the subject. In some poems, the 
 sequency of the main images is regular and connected, and 
 the proverbial terminations strictly appropriate : in others, 
 the sequency of the main images is loose and incoherent, 
 and the proverbial termination has little or nothing to do 
 with the subject of the stanza. The basis of the poem in the 
 text is in the Englynion of Llwyarch Hen. 
 
40 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 Wind from the east : the shore is still ; 
 The mountain-clouds fly tow'rds the sea ; 
 The ice is on the winter-rill ; 
 The great hall fire is blazing free : 
 The prince's circling feast is spread : 
 Drink fills with fumes the brainless head. 
 
 Wind from the south : in summer shade 
 'Tis sweet to hear the loud harp ring ; 
 Sweet is the step of comely maid, 
 Who to the bard a cup doth bring : 
 The black crow flies where carrion lies : 
 Where pignuts lurk, the swine will work. 
 
 Wind from the west : the autumnal deep 
 Rolls on the shore its billowy pride : 
 He, who the rampart's watch must keep, 
 Will mark with awe the rising tide : 
 The high spring-tide that bursts its mound, 
 May roll o'er miles of level ground. 
 
 Wind from the west : the mighty wave 
 Of ocean bounds o'er rock and sand ; 
 The foaming surges roar and rave 
 Against the bulwarks of the land : 
 When waves are rough, and winds are high. 
 Good is the land that's high and dry. 
 
 Wind from the west : the storm-clouds rise ; 
 The breakers rave : the whirlblasts roar ; 
 The mingled rage of seas and skies 
 Bursts on the low and lonely shore : 
 When safety's far, and danger nigh. 
 Swift feet the readiest aid supply. 
 
 Wind from the west 
 
 His song was cut short by a tremendous crash. 
 The tower, which had its foot in the sea, had long 
 
The Oppression of Gwenhidwy. 41 
 
 been sapped by the waves ; the storm had pre- 
 maturely perfected the operation, and the tower 
 fell into the surf, carrying with it a portion of the 
 wall of the main building, and revealing through 
 the chasm the white raging of the breakers beneath 
 the blackness of the midnight storm. The wind 
 rushed into the hall, extinguishing the torches 
 within the line of its course, tossing the grey locks 
 and loose mantle of the bard, and the light white 
 drapery and long black tresses of Angharad. With 
 the crash of the falling tower, and the simultaneous 
 shriek of the women, the sleepers started from the 
 floor, staring with drunken amazement ; and, shortly 
 after, reeling like an Indian from the wine-rolling 
 Hydaspes,* in staggered Seithenyn ap Seithyn. 
 
 Seithenyn leaned against a pillar, and stared at 
 the sea through the rifted wall with wild and 
 vacant surprise. He perceived that there was an 
 innovation, and he felt that he was injured : how, 
 and by whom, he did not quite so clearly discern. 
 He looked at Elphin and Teithrin, at his daughter, 
 and at the members of his household, with a long 
 and dismal aspect of blank and mute interrogation, 
 modified by the struggling consciousness of puzzled 
 
 * In the fourteenth and fifteenth books of the Dionysiaca 
 of Nonnus, Bacchus changes the river Astacis into wine ; 
 and the multitudinous army of water-drinking Indians, 
 proceeding to quench their thirst in the stream, become 
 frantically drunk, and fall an easy prey to the Bacchic in- 
 vaders. In the thirty-fifth book, the experiment is repeated 
 on the Hydaspes. "Ainsi conqtiesta Bacchus Plnde," as 
 Rabelais has it. 
 
42 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 self-importance, which seemed to require from his 
 chiefship some word of command in this incom- 
 prehensible emergency. But the longer he looked, 
 the less clearly he saw ; and the longer he pon- 
 dered, the less he understood. He felt the rush 
 of the wind ; he saw the white foam of the sea ; 
 his ears were dizzy with their mingled roar. He 
 remained at length motionless, leaning against the 
 pillar, and gazing on the breakers with fixed and 
 glaring vacancy. 
 
 " The sleepers of Gwaelod," said Elphin, " they 
 who sleep in peace and security, trusting to the 
 vigilance of Seithenyn, what will become of them ? " 
 
 " Warn them with the beacon fire," said Teith- 
 rin, " if there be fuel on the summit of the landward 
 tower." 
 
 "That, of course, has been neglected too," said 
 Elphin. 
 
 "Not so," said Angharad; "that has been my 
 charge." 
 
 Teithrin seized a torch, and ascended the eastern 
 tower, and in a few minutes, the party in the hall 
 beheld the breakers reddening with the reflected 
 fire, and deeper, and yet deeper, crimson tinging 
 the whirling foam, and sheeting the massy dark- 
 ness of the bursting waves. 
 
 Seithenyn turned his eyes on Elphin. His re- 
 collection of him was extremely faint, and the 
 longer he looked on him he remembered him the 
 less. He was conscious of the presence of strangers, 
 and of the occurrence of some signal mischief, and 
 
The Oppression of Gwenhidwy. 43 
 
 associated the two circumstances in his dizzy per- 
 ceptions with a confused, but close connection. 
 He said at length, looking sternly at Elphin, " I 
 do not know what right the wind has to blow upon 
 me here ; nor what business the sea has to show 
 itself here ; nor what business you have here : but 
 one thing is very evident, that either my castle or 
 the sea is on fire ; and I shall be glad to know who 
 has done it, for terrible shall be the vengeance of 
 Seithenyn ap Seithyn. Show me the enemy," he 
 pursued, drawing his sword furiously, and flourish- 
 ing it over his head, " Show me the enemy, show 
 me the enemy ! " 
 
 An unusual tumult mingled with the roar of the 
 waves ; a sound, the same in kind, but greater in 
 degree, with that produced by the loose stones of 
 the beach, which are rolled to and fro by the surf. 
 
 Teithrin rushed into the hall, exclaiming, " All 
 is over ! the mound is broken ; and the spring-tide 
 is rolling through the breach ! " 
 
 Another portion of the castle wall fell into the 
 mining waves, and by the dim and thickly-clouded 
 moonlight, and the red blaze of the beacon fire, 
 they beheld a torrent pouring in from the sea upon 
 the plain, and rushing immediately beneath the 
 castle walls, which, as well as the points of the 
 embankment that formed the sides of the breach, 
 continued to crumble away into the waters. 
 
 " Who has done this ? " vociferated Seithenyn. 
 " Show me the enemy." 
 
 " There is no enemy but the sea," said Elphin, 
 
44 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 "to which you, in your drunken madness, have 
 abandoned the land. Think, if you can think, of 
 what is passing in the plain. The storm drowns 
 the cries of your victims ; but the curses of the 
 perishing are upon you." 
 
 "Show me the enemy," vociferated Seithenyn, 
 flourishing his sword more furiously. 
 
 Angharad looked deprecatingly at Elphin, who 
 abstained from further reply. 
 
 " There is no enemy but the sea," said Teithrin, 
 "against which your sword avails not." 
 
 " Who dares to say so ? " said Seithenyn. " Who 
 dares to say that there is an enemy on earth against 
 whom the sword of Seithenyn ap Seith)^ is unavail- 
 ing ? Thus, thus I prove the falsehood." 
 
 And, springing suddenly forward, he leaped into 
 the torrent, flourishing his sword as he descended. 
 
 " Oh, my unhappy father ! " sobbed Angharad, 
 veiUng her face with her arm on the shoulder of 
 one of her female attendants, whom Elphin dexter- 
 ously put aside, and substituted himself as the 
 supporter of the desolate beauty. 
 
 " We must quit the castle," said Teithrin, " or 
 we shall he buried in its ruins. We have but one 
 path of safety, along the summit of the embank- 
 ment, if there be not another breach between us 
 and the high land, and if we can keep our footing 
 in this hurricane. But there is no alternative. 
 The walls are melting away like snow." 
 
 The bard, who was now recovered from his awen, 
 and beginning to be perfectly alive to his own 
 
The Oppression of Gii'cnJtidwy. 45 
 
 personal safety, conscious at the same time that 
 the first duty of his privileged order was to animate 
 the less-gifted multitude by examples of right con- 
 duct in trying emergencies, was the first to profit 
 by Teithrin's admonition, and to make tlie best of 
 his way through the door that opened to the em- 
 bankment, on which he had no sooner set his foot 
 than he was blown down by the wind, his harp- 
 strings ringing as he fell. He was indebted to the 
 impediment of his harp for not being rolled down 
 the moimd into the waters which were rising within. 
 
 Teithrin picked him up, and admonished him to 
 abandon his harp to its fate, and fortify his steps 
 with a spear. The bard murmured objections : 
 and even the reflection that he could more easily 
 get another harp than another life, did not reconcile 
 him to parting with his beloved companion. He 
 got over the difficulty by slinging his harp, cumbrous 
 as it was, to his left side, and taking a spear in his 
 right hand. 
 
 Angharad, recovering from the first shock of 
 Seithenyn's catastrophe, became awake to the 
 imminent danger. The spirit of the C5Tnric female, 
 vigilant and energetic in peril, disposed her and her 
 attendant maidens to use their best exertions for 
 their own preservation. Following the advice and 
 example of Elphin and Teithrin, they armed them- 
 selves with spears, which they took down from the 
 walls. 
 
 Teithrin led the way, striking tlie point of his 
 spear firmly into the earth, and le-oning from it on 
 
46 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 the wind : Angharad followed in the same manner : 
 Elphin followed Angharad, looking as earnestly to 
 her safety as was compatible with moderate care of 
 his own ; the attendant maidens followed Elphin ; 
 and the bard, whom the result of his first experiment 
 had rendered unambitious of the van, followed the 
 female train. Behind them went the cupbearers, 
 whom the accident of sobriety had qualified to 
 march j and behind them reeled and roared those 
 of the bacchanal rout who were able and willing 
 to move ; those more especially who had wives or 
 daughters to support their tottering steps. Some 
 were incapable of locomotion, and others, in the 
 heroic madness of liquor, sat down to await their 
 destiny, as they finished the half-drained vessels. 
 
 The bard, who had somewhat of a picturesque 
 eye, could not help sparing a little leisure from the 
 care of his body, to observe the effects before him ; 
 the volumed blackness of the storm ; the white 
 bursting of the breakers in the faint and scarcely- 
 perceptible moonlight ; the rushing and rising of 
 the waters within the mound ; the long floating 
 hair and waving drapery of the young women ; the 
 red light of the beacon fire falling on them from 
 behind ; the surf rolling up the side of the embank- 
 ment, and breaking almost at their feet j the spray 
 flying above their heads ; and the resolution with 
 which they impinged the stony ground with their 
 spears, and bore themselves up against the wind. 
 
 Thus they began their march. They had not 
 proceeded far, when the tide began to recede, the 
 
Tlie Oppression of Gwenhidwy. 47 
 
 wind to abate somewhat of its violence, and the 
 moon to look on them at intervals through the 
 rifted clouds, disclosing the desolation of the inun- 
 dated plain, silvering the tumultuous surf, gleam- 
 ing on the distant mountains, and revealing a 
 lengthened prospect of their solitary path, that lay 
 in its irregular line like a ribbon on the deep. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE LAMENTATIONS OF GWYTHNO. 
 
 Oi traiffofiai rds Xdpnas 
 MoOffais axr/Karaiuyvis, 
 'B.blara.v ffv^tiylav. — EURIPIDES. 
 
 Not, though grief my age defaces, 
 Will I cease, in concert dear. 
 Blending still the gentle graces 
 With the muses more severe. 
 
 »ING GWYTHNO had feasted joyously, and 
 had sung his new ode to a chosen party 
 of his admiring subjects, amidst their, of 
 course, enthusiastic applause. He heard the storm 
 raging without, as he laid himself down to rest : 
 he thought it a very hard case for those who were 
 out in it, especially on the sea ; congratulated him- 
 self on his own much more comfortable condition ; 
 and went to sleep with a pious reflection on the 
 goodness of Providence to himself. 
 
 He was roused from a pleasant dream by a con- 
 fused and tumultuous dissonance that mingled with 
 the roar of the tempest. Rising with much reluct- 
 ance, and looking forth from his window, he beheld 
 in the moonlight a half-naked multitude, larger than 
 
The Lamentations oj Gwythno. 49 
 
 his palace thrice multiplied could have contained, 
 pressing round the gates, and clamouring for ad- 
 mission and shelter : while beyond them his eye 
 fell on the phenomenon of stormy waters, rolling 
 in the place of the fertile fields from which he 
 derived his revenue. 
 
 Gwythno, though a king and his own laureate, 
 was not without sympathy for the people who had 
 the honour and happiness of victualling his royal 
 house, and he issued forth on his balcony full of 
 perplexities and alarms, stunned by the sudden 
 sense of the half - understood calamity, and his 
 head still dizzy from the effects of abruptly-broken 
 sleep, and the vapours of the overnight's glorious 
 festival. 
 
 Gwythno was altogether a reasonably good sort 
 of person, and a poet of some note. His people 
 were somewhat proud of him on the latter score, 
 and very fond of him on the former ; for even the 
 tenth part of those homely virtues, that decorate the 
 memories of "husbands kind and fathers dear " in 
 every churchyard, are matters of plebeian admira- 
 tion in the persons of royalty ; and every tangible 
 point in every such virtue so located, becomes a 
 convenient peg for the suspension of love and 
 loyalty. While, therefore, they were unanimous 
 in consigning the soul of Seithenyn to a place 
 that no well-bred divine will name to a polite 
 congregation, they overflowed, in the abundance of 
 their own griefs, with a portion of sympathy for 
 Gwythno, and saluted him as he issued forth on 
 P 
 
50 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 his balcony, with a hearty Duw cadw y Brenin, or 
 God save the King, which he returned with a bene- 
 volent wave of the hand ; but they followed it up 
 by an intense vociferation for food and lodging, 
 which he received with a pitiful shake of the 
 head. 
 
 Meanwhile the morning dawned : the green 
 spots, that peered with the ebbing tide above 
 the waste of waters, only served to indicate the 
 irremediableness of the general desolation. 
 
 Gwythno proceeded to hold a conference with his 
 people, as deliberately as the stormy state of the 
 weather and their minds, and the confusion of his 
 own, would permit. The result of the conference 
 was, that they should use their best exertions to 
 catch some stray beeves, which had escaped the 
 inundation, and were lowing about the rocks in 
 search of new pastures. This measure was carried 
 into immediate effect : the victims were killed and 
 roasted, carved, distributed, and eaten, in a very 
 Homeric fashion, and washed down with a large 
 portion of the contents of the royal cellars ; after 
 which, having more leisure to dwell on their losses, 
 the fugitives of Gwaelod proceeded to make loud 
 lamentation, all collectively for home and for 
 country, and severally for wife or husband, parent 
 or child, whom the flood had made its victims. 
 
 In the midst of these lamentations arrived 
 Elphin and Angharad, and her bard and attendant 
 maidens, and Teithrin ap Tathral. Gwythno, after 
 a consultation, despatched Teithrin and Angharad's 
 
Tlu Lamentations of Gwythno. 51 
 
 domestic bard on an embassy to the court of Uther 
 Pendragon, and to such of the smaller kings as lay 
 in the way, to soUcit such relief as their several 
 majesties might be able and willing to afford to a 
 king in distress. It is said that the bard, finding 
 a royal hardship vacant in a more prosperous 
 court, made the most of himself in the market, 
 and stayed where he was better fed and lodged 
 than he could expect to be in Caredigion; but 
 that Teithrin returned, with many valuable gifts, 
 and most especially one from Merlin, being a 
 hamper, which multiplied an hundred-fold by 
 morning whatever was put into it overnight, so 
 that, for a ham and a flask put by in the even- 
 ing, an hundred hams and an hundred flasks were 
 taken out in the morning.* It is at least certain 
 that such a hamper is enumerated among the 
 thirteen wonders of Merlin's art, and, in the 
 authentic catalogue thereof, is called the hamper 
 of Gwythno. 
 
 Be this as it may, Gwythno, though shorn of the 
 beams of his revenue, kept possession of his palace. 
 Elphin married Angharad, and built a salmon-weir 
 on the Mawddach, the produce of which, with that 
 of a series of beehives, of which his princess and 
 her maidens made mead, constituted for some time 
 
 * " The basket of Gwyddno Garanhir ; if food for one 
 man were put into it, when opened it would be found to con- 
 tain food for one hundred. " It is enumerated, however, among 
 the thirteen precious things of the island of Britain, not as 
 one of the thirteen wonders of Merlin's art. — G. 
 
52 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 the principal wealth and subsistence of the royal 
 family of Caredigion. 
 
 King Gwythno, while his son was delving or 
 fishing, and his daughter spinning or making mead, 
 sat all day on the rocks, with his harp between his 
 knees, watching the rolling of ocean over the 
 locality of his past dominion, and pouring forth 
 his soul in pathetic song on the change of his own 
 condition, and the mutability of human things. 
 Two of his songs of lamentation have been pre- 
 served by tradition : they are the only relics of his 
 muse which time has spared. 
 
 GWYDDNAU EI CANT, 
 
 PAN DDOAI y MOR DROS CANTREV Y GWAELAWD. 
 
 A SONG OF GWYTHNO GARANHIR, 
 
 ON THE INUNDATION OF THE SEA OVER THE PLAIN OF 
 GWAELOD.* 
 
 Stand forth, Seithenyn : winds are high : 
 Look down beneath the lowering sky ; 
 Look from the rock : what meets thy sight ? 
 Nought but the breakers rolling white. 
 
 Stand forth, Seithenyn : winds are still : 
 Look from the rock and heathy hill 
 For Gwythno's realm : what meets thy view ? 
 Nought but the ocean's desert blue. 
 
 Curst be the treacherous mound that gave 
 A passage to the mining wave : 
 Curst be the cup with mead froth crowned, 
 That charmed from thought the trusted mound. 
 
 * For a literal version of the original of this lyric, see the 
 Appendix. — G. 
 
The Lamentations of Gwythno. 53 
 
 A tumult, and a cry to heaven ! 
 The white surf breaks ; the mound is riven : 
 Through the wide rift the ocean-spring 
 Bursts with tumultuous ravaging. 
 
 The western ocean's stormy might 
 Is curling o'er the rampart's height : 
 Destruction strikes with want and scorn 
 Presumption, from abundance bom. 
 
 The tumult of the western deep 
 Is on the wind's affrighting sleep : 
 It thunders at my chamber-door. 
 It bids me wake to sleep no more. 
 
 The tumult of the midnight sea 
 Swells inland, wildly, fearfully : 
 The mountain-caves respond its shocks 
 Among the unaccustomed rocks. 
 
 The tumult of the vext sea-coast 
 Rolls inland like an armed host, 
 It leaves, for flocks and fertile land, 
 But foaming waves and treacherous sand. 
 
 The wild sea rolls where long have been 
 Glad homes of men, and pastures green : 
 To arrogance and wealth succeed 
 Wide ruin and avenging need. 
 
 Seithenyn, come : I call in vain : 
 The high of birth and weak of brain 
 Sleeps under ocean's lonely roar 
 Between the rampart and the shore. 
 
 The eternal waste of waters spread 
 Above his unrespected head. 
 The blue expanse, with foam besprent. 
 Is his too gloriotis monument. 
 
54 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 ANOTHER SONG OF GWYTHNO. 
 
 I love the green and tranquil shore ; 
 I hate the ocean's dizzy roar, 
 Whose devastating spray has flown 
 High o'er the monarch's barrier-stone. 
 
 Sad \i2S the feast, which he who spread 
 Is numbered with the inglorious dead ; 
 The feast within the torch-lit hall, 
 While stormy breakers mined the wall. 
 
 To him repentance came too late ; 
 In cups the chatterer met his fate : 
 Sudden and sad the doom that burst 
 On him and me, but mine the worst. 
 
 I love the shore, and hate the deep : 
 The wave has robbed my nights of sleep ; 
 The heart of man is cheered by wine ; 
 But now the wine-cup cheers not mine. 
 
 The feast which bounteous hands dispense, 
 Makes glad the soul, and charms the sense : 
 But in the circling feast I know 
 The coming of my deadliest foe. 
 
 Blest be the rock, whose foot supplied 
 A step to them that fled the tide ; 
 The rock of bards, on whose rude steep 
 I bless the shore and hate the deep. 
 
 "The sigh of Gwythno Garanhir when the 
 breakers ploughed up his land " * is the substance 
 of a proverbial distich, which may still be heard 
 on the coast of Merioneth and Cardigan, to ex- 
 press the sense of an overwhelming calamity. The 
 
 * Ochenaid Gwyddnau Garanhir 
 Pan droes y don dros ei dir. 
 
Tlie Lamentations of Gwythno. 55 
 
 curious investigator may still land on a portion of 
 the ancient stony rampart : which stretches, off 
 the point of Mochres, far out into Cardigan Bay, 
 nine miles of the summit being left dry, in calm 
 weather, by the low water of the spring -tides ; and 
 which is now called Sam Badrig, or St Patrick's 
 Causeway. 
 
 Thus the kingdom of Caredigion fell into ruin : 
 its people were destroyed, or turned out of house 
 and home : and its royal family were brought to 
 a condition in which they found it difficult to 
 get loaves to their fishes. We, who live in more 
 enlightened times, amidst the "gigantic strides 
 of intellect," when offices of public trust are so 
 conscientiously and zealously discharged, and so 
 vigilantly checked and superintended, may wonder 
 at the wicked negligence of Seithenyn ; at the 
 sophisms with which, in his liquor, he vindicated 
 his system, and pronounced the eulogium of his 
 old dilapidations, and at the blind confidence of 
 Gwythno and his people in this virtual guardian 
 of their lives and property : happy that our own 
 public guardians are too virtuous to act or talk 
 hke Seithen)m, and that we ourselves are too wise 
 not to perceive, and too free not to prevent it, if 
 they should be so disposed. 
 
 ^■S^^S^ 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE PRIZE OF THE WEIR. 
 
 Weave a circle round him thrice 
 And close your eyes with holy dread ; 
 For he on honey-dew hath fed, 
 And drank the milk of paradise. 
 
 Coleridge. 
 
 ?RINCE ELPHIN constructed his salmon- 
 weir on the Mawddach at the point where 
 the fresh water met the top of the spring- 
 tides. He built near it a dwelling for himself and 
 Angharad, for which the old king Gwythno gradually 
 deserted his palace. An amphitheatre of rocky 
 mountains enclosed a pastoral valley. The meadows 
 gave pasture to a few cows ; and the flowers of the 
 mountain-heath yielded store of honey to the bees 
 of many hives, which were tended by Angharad 
 and her hand-maids. Elphin had also some sheep 
 which wandered on the mountains. The worst was, 
 they often wandered out of reach ; but, when he 
 could not find his sheep, he brought down a wild 
 goat, the venison of Gwyneth. The woods and 
 turbaries suppHed unlimited fuel. The straggling 
 cultivators, who had escaped from the desolation 
 of Gwaelod, and settled themselves above the level 
 
The Prize of the Weir. 57 
 
 of the sea, on a few spots propitious to the plough, 
 still acknowledged their royalty, and paid them 
 tribute in corn. But their principal wealth was fish. 
 Elphin was the first Briton who caught fish on a 
 large scale, and salted them for other purposes 
 than home consumption. 
 
 The weir was thus constructed : a range of piles 
 crossed the river from shore to shore, slanting up- 
 wards from both shores, and meeting at an angle 
 in the middle of the river. A little down the 
 stream a second range of piles crossed the river 
 in the same manner, having towards the middle 
 several wide intervals with light wicker gates, which, 
 meeting at an angle, were held together by the 
 current, but were so constructed as to yield easily 
 to a very light pressure from below. These gates 
 gave all fish of a certain magnitude admission to a 
 chamber, from which they could neither advance 
 nor retreat, and from which, standing on a narrow 
 bridge attached to the lower piles, Elphin bailed 
 them up at leisure. The smaller fish passed freely 
 up and down the river through the interstices of 
 the piles. This weir was put together in the early 
 summer, and taken to pieces and laid by in the 
 autumn. 
 
 Prince Elphin, one fine July night, was sleepless 
 and troubled in spirit. His fishery had been be- 
 yond all precedent unproductive, and the obstacle 
 ivhich this circumstance opposed to his arrange- 
 ments for victualling his little garrison kept him 
 for the better half of the night vigilant in unprofit- 
 
58 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 able cogitation. Soon after the turn of midnight, 
 when dreams are true, he was startled from an in- 
 cipient doze by a sudden cry of Angharad, who 
 had been favoured with a vision of a miraculous 
 draught of fish. Elphin, as a drowning man 
 catches at a straw, caught at the shadowy promise 
 of Angharad's dream, and at once, beneath the 
 clear light &f the just-waning moon, he sallied forth 
 with his princess to examine his weir. 
 
 The weir was built across the stream of the river, 
 just above the flow of the ordinary tides ; but the 
 spring-tide had opened the wicker gates, and had 
 floated up a coracle * between a pair of them, 
 which closing, as the tide turned, on the coracle's 
 nose, retained it within the chamber of the weir, at 
 the same time that it kept the gates sufficiently 
 open to permit the escape of any fish that might 
 have entered the chamber. The great prize, which 
 undoubtedly might have been there when Angharad 
 dreamed of it, was gone to a fish.t 
 
 Elphin, little pleased, stepped on the narrow 
 bridge, and opened the gates with a pole that 
 terminated piscatorially in a hook. The coracle 
 began dropping down the stream. Elphin arrested 
 its course, and guided it to land. 
 
 In the coracle lay a sleeping child, clothed in 
 splendid apparel. Angharad took it in her arms. 
 The child opened its eyes, and stretched its little 
 
 * A small boat of basketwork, sheathed with leather, 
 t Compare the version of the Mabinoglon, given in our 
 preface. — G. 
 
The Prize of the Weir. 59 
 
 arms towards her with a smile ; and she uttered, 
 in delight and wonder at its surpassing beauty, 
 the exclamation of " Taliesin ! " " Radiant 
 brow ! " 
 
 Elphin, nevertheless, looked very dismal on 
 finding no food,* and an additional mouth j so 
 dismal, that his physiognomy on that occasion 
 passed into a proverb, " As rueful as Elphin when 
 he found Taliesin." t 
 
 In after years, Taliesin, being on the safe side 
 of prophecy, and writing after the event, addressed 
 a poem to Elphin, in the character of the foundling 
 of the coracle, in which he supposes himself at the 
 moment of his discovery to have addressed Elphin 
 as follows : X 
 
 DYHUDDIANT ELFFIN. 
 
 THE CONSOLATION OF ELPHIN. 
 
 Lament not, Elphin : do not measure 
 By one brief hour thy loss or gain : 
 Thy weir to-night has borne a treasure. 
 Will more than pay thee years of pain. 
 
 * ' ' He lifted the boy in his arms, and, lamenting his 
 mischance, he placed him sorrowfully beside him. And 
 he made his horse amble gently, that had before been trot- 
 ting." One of the beautiful traits so frequent in the Celtic 
 romances. — G. 
 
 t Mor drist ac ElfEn pan gavod Taliesin. 
 
 J According to the Mabinogion, Taliesin did compose and 
 deliver this poem on the spot, and this was the first that he 
 ever sang, as well it might be. For a literal translation, see 
 the Appendix. — G. 
 
6o The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 St Cynllo's aid will not be vain, 
 
 Smoothe thy bent brow, and cease to mourn : 
 
 Thy weir will never bear again 
 
 Such wealth as it to-night has borne. 
 
 The stormy seas, the silent rivers, 
 The torrents down the steeps that spring, 
 Alilce of weal or woe are givers, 
 As pleases heaven's immortal king. 
 Though frail I seem, rich gifts I bring, 
 Which in Time's fulness shall appear. 
 Greater than if the stream should fling 
 Three hundred salmon in thy weir. 
 
 Cast off this fruitless sorrow, loading 
 With heaviness the unmanly mind : 
 Despond not ; mourn not ; evil boding 
 Creates the ill it fears to find. 
 When fates are dark, and most unkind 
 Are they who most should do thee right, 
 Then wilt thou know thine eyes were blind 
 To thy good fortune of to-night. 
 
 Though small and feeble, from my coracle 
 To thee my helpless hands I spread, 
 Yet in me breathes a holy oracle 
 To bid thee lift thy drooping head. 
 When hostile steps around thee tread, 
 A spell of power my voice shall wield. 
 That, more than arms with slaughter red, 
 Shall be thy refuge and thy shield. 
 
 Two years after this event, Angharad pre- 
 sented Elphin with a daughter, whom they named 
 Melanghel. The fishery prospered ; and the pro- 
 gress of cultivation and population among the 
 more fertile parts of the mountain districts brought 
 in a little revenue to the old king. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE'EDUCATION OF TALIESIN. 
 
 The three objects of intellect : the true, the beautiful, and 
 the beneficial. 
 
 The three foundations of wisdom ; youth, to acquire 
 learning ; memory, to retain learning ; and genius, to illus- 
 trate learning. — Triads of Wisdom. 
 
 The three primary requisites of poetical genius ; an eye 
 that can see nature ; a heart that can feel nature ; and a 
 resolution that dares follow nature. — Triads of Poetry, 
 
 jS Taliesin grew up, Gwythno instructed 
 him in all the knowledge of the age, 
 which was of course not much, in com- 
 parison with ours. The science of political economy 
 was sleeping in the womb of time. The advantage 
 of growing rich by getting into debt and paying 
 interest was altogether unknown : the safe and 
 economical currency which is produced by a man 
 writing his name on a bit of paper, for which other 
 men give him their property, and which he is 
 always ready to exchange for another bit of paper, 
 of an equally safe and economical manufacture, 
 being also equally ready to render his own person, 
 at a moment's notice, as impalpable as the metal 
 which he promises to pay, is a stretch of wisdom 
 
62 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 to which the people of those days had nothing to 
 compare. They had no steam-engines, with fires 
 as eternal as those of the nether world, wherein 
 the squalid many, from infancy to age, might be 
 turned into component portions of machinery 
 for the benefit of the purple-faced few. They 
 could neither poison the air with gas, nor the 
 waters with its dregs : in short, they made their 
 money of metal, and breathed pure air, and drank 
 pure water, like unscientific barbarians. 
 
 Of moral science they had Mttle ; but morals, 
 without science, they had about the same as we 
 have. They had a number of fine precepts, partly 
 from their rehgion, partly from their bards, which 
 they remembered in their liquor, and forgot in their 
 business. 
 
 Political science they had none. The blessings 
 of virtual representation were not even dreamed 
 of; so that, when any of their barbarous metaUic 
 currency got into their pockets or coffers, it had a 
 chance to remain there, subjecting them to the 
 inconvenience of unemployed capital. Still they 
 went to work politically much as we do. The 
 powerful took all they could get from their subjects 
 and neighbours ; and called something or other 
 sacred and glorious, when they wanted the people 
 to fight for them. They repressed disaffection by 
 force, when it showed itself in an overt act ; but 
 they encouraged freedom of speech, when it was, 
 like Hamlet's reading, " words, words, words." 
 
 There was no liberty of the press, because there 
 
The Education of Taliesiv. 63 
 
 was no press ; but there was liberty of speech to 
 the bards, whose persons were inviolable, and the 
 general motto of their order was y Gwir yn erbyn 
 Y Byd : the Truth against the World. If many of 
 them, instead of acting up to this splendid pro- 
 fession, chose to advance their personal fortunes 
 by appealing to the selfishness, the passions, and 
 the prejudices of kings, factions and the rabble, 
 our free press gentry may afford them a little 
 charity out of the excess of their own virtue. 
 
 In physical science, they supplied the place of 
 knowledge by converting conjectures into dogmas ; 
 an art which is not yet lost. They held that the 
 earth was the centre of the universe ; that an im- 
 mense ocean surrounded the earth ; that the sky 
 was a vast frame resting on the ocean ; that the 
 circle of their contact was a mystery of infinite 
 mist ; with a great deal more of cosmogony and 
 astronomy, equally correct and profound, which 
 answered the same purpose as our more correct 
 and profound astronomy answers now, that of 
 elevating the mind, as the eidouranion lecturers 
 have it, to sublime contemplation. 
 
 Medicine was cultivated by the Druids, and it 
 was just as much a science with them as with us ; 
 but they had not the wit or the means to make it 
 a flourishing trade ; the principal means to that end 
 being women with nothing to do, articles which 
 especially belong to a high state of civilisation. 
 
 The laws lay in a small compass : every bard 
 had those of his own community by heart. The 
 
64 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 king, or chief, was the judge; the plaintiff and 
 defeiidant told their own story ; and the cause 
 was disposed of in one hearing. We may well 
 boast of the progress of light, when we turn from 
 this picture to the statutes at large, and the Court 
 of Chancery ; and we may indulge in a pathetic re- 
 flection on our sweet-faced myriads of "learned 
 friends," who would be under the unpleasant 
 necessity of suspending themselves by the neck, 
 if this barbaric "Practice of the Courts" were 
 suddenly revived. 
 
 The religion of the time was Christianity grafted 
 on Druidism. The Christian faith had been very 
 early preached in Britain. Some of the Welsh 
 historians are of opinion that it was first preached 
 by some of the apostles : most probably by St 
 John. They think the evidence inconclusive with 
 respect to St Paul. But, at any rate, the faith had 
 made considerable progress among the Britons at 
 the period of the arrival of Hengist; for many 
 goodly churches, and, what was still better, richly- 
 endowed abbeys, were flourishing in many places. 
 The British clergy were, however, very contuma- 
 cious towards the See of Rome, and would only 
 acknowledge the spiritual authority of the Arch- 
 bishopric of Caer Lleon, which was, during many 
 centuries, the primacy of Britain. St Augustin, 
 when he came over, at a period not long subse- 
 quent to that of the present authentic history, to 
 preach Christianity to the Saxons, who had, for 
 the most part, held fast to their Odinism, had also 
 
The Education of Taliesin. 65 
 
 the secondary purpose of making them instruments 
 for teaching the British clergy submission to Rome : 
 as a means to which end, the newly-converted 
 Saxons set upon the monastery of Bangor I scoed, 
 and put its twelve hundred monks to the sword. 
 This was the first overt act in which the Saxons 
 set fortli their new sense of a religion of peace. 
 It is alleged, indeed, that these twelve hundred 
 monks supported tliemselves by the labour of their 
 own hands. If they did so, it was, no doubt, a 
 gross heresy; but whether it deserved the casti- 
 gation it received from St Augustin's proselytes, 
 may be a question in polemics. 
 
 As the people did not read the Bible, and had 
 no religious tracts, tlieir religion, it may be as- 
 sumed, was not very pure. The rabble of Britons 
 must have seen little more than the superficial 
 facts that the lands, revenues, privileges, and so 
 forth, whicli once belonged to Druids and so forth, 
 now belonged to abbots, bishops, and so forth, who, 
 like their extruded precursors, walked occasionally 
 in a row, chanting unintelligible words, and never 
 speaking in common language but to exhort the 
 people to fight; having, indeed, better notions 
 than their predecessors of building, apparel, and 
 cookery; and a better knowledge of the means 
 of obtaining good wine, and of the final purpose 
 for which it was made. 
 
 They were observant of all matters of outward 
 form, and tradition even places among them per- 
 sonages who were worthy to have founded a 
 
 E 
 
66 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 society for the suppression of vice. It is recorded 
 in the Triads that " Gwrgi Garwiwyd killed a male 
 and female of tbe Cymry daily, and devoured 
 them ; and on the Saturday he killed two of each, 
 that he might not kill on the Sunday." This can 
 only be a type of some sanctimonious hero who 
 made a cloak of piety for oppressing the poor. 
 
 But, even among the Britons, in many of the 
 least populous and most mountainous districts, 
 Druidism was still struggling with Christianity. 
 The lamb had driven the wolf from the rich 
 pastures of the valleys to the high places of the 
 wilderness, where the rites and mysteries of the 
 old religion flourished in secrecy, and where a 
 stray proselyte of the new light was occasionally 
 caught and roasted for the glory of Andraste. 
 
 Taliesin, worshipping nature in her wildest soli- 
 tudes, often strayed away for days from the dwell- 
 ing of Elphin, and penetrated the recesses of 
 Eryri,* where one especial spot on the banks of 
 Lake Ceirionydd became the favourite haunt of 
 his youth. In these lonely recesses he became 
 familiar with Druids, who initiated him in their 
 mysteries, which, like all other mysteries, consisted 
 of a quantity of allegorical mummery, pretending to 
 be symbolical of the immortality of the soul, and 
 of its progress through various stages of being ; 
 interspersed with a little, too literal, ducking and 
 singeing of the aspirant, by way of trying his 
 metal, just enough to put him in fear, but not in 
 risk, of his life. 
 
 * Snowdon. 
 
TJie Education of Taliesin. 67 
 
 That Taliesin was thoroughly initiated in these 
 mysteries is evident from several of his poems, 
 which have neither head nor tail, and which, 
 having no sense in any other point of view, must 
 necessarily, as a learned mytliologist has demon- 
 strated, be assigned to the class of theology in 
 which an occult sense can be found or made for 
 them, according to the views of the expounder. 
 One of them, a shade less obscure than its com- 
 panions, unquestionably adumbrates the Druidical 
 doctrine of transmigration. According to this poem, 
 Taliesin had been with the cherubim at the fall of 
 Lucifer, in Paradise at the fall of man, and with 
 Alexander at the fall of Babylon ; in the ark with 
 Noah, and in the milky way with Tetragrammaton ; 
 and in many other equally marvellous or memor- 
 able conditions : showing that, though the names 
 and histories of the new religion were adopted, its 
 doctrines had still to be learned; and, indeed, in 
 all cases of this description, names are changed 
 more readily than doctrines, and doctrines more 
 readily than ceremonies. 
 
 When any of the Romans or Saxons, who invaded 
 the island, fell into the hands of the Britons, before 
 the introduction of Christianity, they were handed 
 over to the Druids, who sacrificed them, with pious 
 ceremonies, to their goddess Andraste. These 
 human sacrifices have done much injury to the 
 Druidical character amongst us, who never practise 
 them in the same way. They lacked, it must be 
 confessed, some of our light, and also some of our 
 
68 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 prisons. They lacked some of our light, to enable 
 them to perceive that the act of coming, in great 
 multitudes, with fire and sword, to the remote 
 dwellings of peaceable men, with the premedi- 
 tated design of cutting their throats, ravishing their 
 wives and daughters, killing their children, and 
 appropriating their worldly goods, belongs, not to 
 the department of murder and robbery, but to that 
 of legitimate war, of which aU the practitioners are 
 gentlemen, and entitled to be treated like gentle- 
 men. They lacked some of our prisons, in which 
 our philanthropy has provided accommodation for 
 so large a portion of our own people, wherein, if 
 they had left their prisoners alive, they could have 
 kept them from returning to their countrymen, and 
 being at their old tricks again immediately. They 
 would also, perhaps, have found some difficulty in 
 feeding them, from the lack of the county rates, by 
 which the most sensible and amiable part of our 
 nation, the country squires, contrive to coop up, 
 and feed, at the public charge, all who meddle 
 with the wild animals of which they have given 
 themselves the monopoly. But as the Druids could 
 neither lock up their captives, nor trust them at 
 large, the darkness of their intellect could suggest 
 no alternative to the process they adopted, of 
 putting them out of the way, which they did with 
 all the sanctions of religion and law. If one of 
 these old Druids could have slept, hke the seven 
 sleepers of Ephesus, and awaked, in the nineteenth 
 century, some fine morning near Newgate, the ex- 
 
The Education of Taliesin. 69 
 
 hibition of some half-dozen fanipendulous forgers 
 might have shocked the tender bowels of his 
 humanity, as much as one of his wicker baskets of 
 captives in the flames shocked those of Caesar ; and it 
 would, perhaps, have been difficult to convince him 
 that paper credit was not an idol, and one of a 
 more sanguinary character than his Andraste. The 
 Druids had their view of these matters, and we 
 have ours ; and it does not comport with the steam- 
 engine speed of our march of mind to look at more 
 than one side of a question. 
 
 The people hved in darkness and vassalage. 
 They were lost in the grossness of beef and ale. 
 They had no pamphleteering societies to demon- 
 strate that reading and writing are better than 
 meat and drink ; and they were utterly destitute 
 of the blessings of those "schools for all," the 
 house of correction, and the treadmill, wherein the 
 autochthonal justice of our agrestic kakistocracy 
 now castigates the heinous sins which were then 
 committed with impunity, of treading on old foot- 
 paths, picking up dead wood, and moving on the 
 face of the earth within the sound of the whirr 
 of a partridge. 
 
 The learning of the time was confined to the 
 bards. It consisted in a somewhat complicated 
 art of versification; in a great number of pithy 
 apophthegms, many of which have been handed 
 down to posterity under the title of the Wisdom of 
 Catog ; in an interminable accumulation of Triads, 
 in which form they bound up all their knowledge, 
 
70 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 physical, traditional, and mythological ; and in a 
 mighty condensation of mysticism, being the still- 
 cherished relics of the Druidical rites and doctrines. 
 
 The Druids were the sacred class of the bardic 
 order. Before the change of religion, it was by 
 far the most numerous class ; for the very simple 
 reason, that there was most to be got by it : all 
 ages and nations having been sufficiently enlight- 
 ened to make the trade of priest more profitable 
 than that of poet. During this period, therefore, 
 it was the only class that much attracted the notice 
 of foreigners. After the change of religion, the 
 denomination was retained as that of the second 
 class of the order. The Bardd Braint, or Bard of 
 Presidency, was of the ruling order, and wore a 
 robe of sky-blue. The Derwydd, or Druid, wore a 
 robe of white. The Ovydd, or Ovate, was of the 
 class of initiation, and wore a robe of green. The 
 Awenyddion, or disciples, the candidates for ad- 
 mission into the Bardic order, wore a variegated 
 dress of the three colours, and were passed through 
 a very severe moral and intellectual probation. 
 
 Gwythno was a Bardd Braint, or Bard of Presi- 
 dency, and as such he had full power in his own 
 person, without the intervention of a Bardic Con- 
 gress, to make his Awenydd, or disciple, Taliesin, 
 an Ovydd, or Ovate, which he did accordingly. 
 Angharad, under the old king's instructions, pre- 
 pared the green robe of the young aspirant's 
 investiture. He afterwards acquired the white 
 robe amongst the Druids of Eryri. 
 
The Education of Talicsin. 7 1 
 
 In all Bardic learning, Gwythno was profound. 
 All that he knew he taught to Taliesin. The youth 
 drew in the draughts of inspiration among the 
 mountain forests and the mountain streams, and 
 grew up under the roof of Elphin, in the perfection 
 of genius and beauty. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE HUNTINGS OF MAELGON. 
 
 Aiei t6 fi^v f^, rd 5^ fiedlffTO/raL Kaxdv, 
 
 Td S' &7r^0))cey dunV ^f opx^s viov, — EURIPIDES. 
 
 One ill is ever clinging ; 
 One treads upon its heels ; 
 A third, in distance springing, 
 Its fearful front reveals. 
 
 jWYTHNO slept, not with his fathers, for 
 they were under the sea, but as near to 
 them as was found convenient, within 
 the sound of the breakers that rolled over their 
 ancient dwellings. Elphin was now king of Care- 
 digion, and was lord of a large but thinly-peopled 
 tract of rock, mountain, forest, and bog. He held 
 his sovereignty, however, not, as Gwythno had 
 done during the days of the glory of Gwaelod, by 
 that most indisputable sort of right which consists 
 in might, but by the more precarious tenure of the 
 absence of inclination in any of his brother kings 
 to take away anything he had. 
 
 Uther Pendragon, like Gwythno, went the way 
 of all flesh, and Arthur reigned in Caer Lleon, as 
 king of the kings of Britain. Maelgon Gwyneth 
 
The Huntings of Maelgon. 73 
 
 was then king of that part of North Wales which 
 bordered on the kingdom of Caredigion. 
 
 Maelgon was a mighty hunter, and roused the 
 echoes of the mountains with horn and with hound. 
 He went forth to the chace as to war, provisioned 
 for days and weeks, supported by bard and butler, 
 and all the apparel of princely festivity. He 
 pitched his tents in the forest of Snowdon, by the 
 shore of lake or torrent ; and, after hunting all the 
 day, he feasted half the night. The light of his 
 torches gleamed on the foam of the cataracts, and 
 the sound of harp and song was mingled with their 
 midnight roar. 
 
 When not thus employed, he was either feasting 
 in his Castle of Diganwy, on the Conway, or fight- 
 ing with any of the neighbouring kings who had 
 anything which he wanted, and which he thought 
 himself strong enough to take from them. 
 
 Once, towards the close of autumn, he carried 
 the tumult of the chace into the recesses of Meirion. 
 The consonance, or dissonance, of men and dogs, 
 outpealed the noise of the torrents among the 
 rocks and woods of the Mawddach. Elphin and 
 Teithrin were gone after the sheep or goats in the 
 mountains ; Taliesin was absent on the borders of 
 his favourite lake; Angharad and Melanghel were 
 alone. The careful mother, alarmed at the un- 
 usual din, and knowing by rumour of what materials 
 the Nimrods of Britain were made, fled, with her 
 daughter and hand-maids, to the refuge of a deeply- 
 secluded cavern, which they had long before noted 
 
74 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 as a safe retreat from peril. As they ascended the 
 hills that led to the cavern, they looked back, at 
 intervals, through the openings of the woods, to 
 the growing tumult on the opposite side of the 
 valley. The wild goats were first seen, flying in 
 all directions, taking prodigious leaps from crag 
 to crag, now and then facing about, and rearing 
 themselves on their hind legs, as if in act to butt, 
 and immediately thinking better of it, and spring- 
 ing away on all fours among the trees. Next, the 
 more rare spectacle of a noble stag presented 
 itself on the summit of a projecting rock, pausing 
 a moment to snuff the air, then bounding down the 
 most practicable slope to the valley. Next, on the 
 summit which the stag had just deserted, appeared 
 a solitary huntsman, sitting on a prancing horse, 
 and waking a hundred echoes with the blast of his 
 horn. Next rushed into view the main body of 
 the royal company, and the two-legged and four- 
 legged avalanche came thundering down on the 
 track of the fljdng prey : not without imminent 
 hazard of broken necks ; though the mountain-bred 
 horses, which possessed by nature almost the sure- 
 footedness of mules, had finished their education 
 under the first professors of the age. 
 ' The stag swam the river, and stood at bay before 
 the dwelling of Elphin, where he was in due time 
 despatched by the conjoint valour of dog and man. 
 The royal train burst into the solitary dwelling, 
 where, finding nothing worthy of much note, 
 excepting a large store of salt salmon and mead, 
 
Tlu Huntings of Maelgon. 75 
 
 they proceeded to broil and tap, and made fearful 
 havoc among the family's winter provision. Elphin 
 and Teithrin, returning to their expected dinner, 
 stood aghast on the threshold of their plundered 
 sanctuary. Maelgon condescended to ask them 
 who they were ; and, learning Elphin's name and 
 quality, felt himself bound to retmiri his in- 
 voluntary hospitality by inviting him to Diganwy. 
 So strong was his sense of justice on this 
 head, that, on Elphin's declining the invitation, 
 which Maelgon ascribed to modesty, he desired 
 two of his grooms to take him up and carry 
 him ofiEl 
 
 So Elphin was impressed into royal favour, and 
 was feasted munificently in the castle of Diganw)-. 
 Teithrin brought home the ladies from the cavern, 
 and, during the absence of Elphin, looked after the 
 sheep and goats, and did his master's business as 
 well as his own. 
 
 One evening, when the royal "nowle" was 
 " tottie of the must," while the bards of Maelgon 
 were singing the praises of their master, and of all 
 and everything that belonged to him, as the most 
 eximious and transcendent persons and things of 
 the superficial garniture of the earth, Maelgon said 
 to Elphin, " My bards say that I am the best and 
 bravest of kings, that my queen is the most beauti- 
 fiil and chaste of women, and that they themselves, 
 by virtue of belonging to me, are the best and 
 wisest of bards. Now what say you on these 
 heads?" 
 
^6 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 This was a perplexing question to Elphin, who, 
 nevertheless, answered : " That you are the best 
 and bravest of kings I do not in the least doubt ; 
 yet I cannot think that any woman surpasses my 
 own wife in beauty and chastity ; or that any bard 
 equals my bard in genius and wisdom.'' 
 
 " Hear you him, Rhiln ? " said Maelgon. 
 
 "I hear," said RhUn, "and mark." 
 
 Rhfln was the son of Maelgon, and a worthy 
 heir-apparent of his illustrious sire. Rhdn set out 
 the next morning on an embassy very similar to 
 Tarquin's, accompanied by only one attendant. 
 They lost their way and each other, among the 
 forests of Meirion. The attendant, after riding 
 about some time in great trepidation, thought he 
 heard the sound of a harp, mixed with the roar of 
 the torrents, and following its indications, came at 
 length within sight of an oak-fringed precipice, on 
 the summit of which stood Taliesin, playing and 
 singing to the winds and waters. The attendant 
 could not approach him without dismounting j 
 therefore, tying his horse to a branch, he ascended 
 the rock, and, addressing the young bard, inquired 
 his way to the dwelling of Elphin. Taliesin, in 
 return, inquired his business there ; and, partly by 
 examination, partly by divination, ascertained his 
 master's name, and the purport of his visit. 
 
 Taliesin deposited his harp in a dry cavern of 
 the rock, and undertook to be the stranger's guide. 
 The attendant remounted his horse, and Taliesin 
 preceded him on foot. But the way by which he 
 
The Huntings of Maelgon. "j"] 
 
 led him grew more and more rugged, till the 
 stranger called out, " Whither lead you, my friend ? 
 My horse can no longer keep his footing." " There 
 is no other way," said Taliesin. " But give him to 
 my management, and do you follow on foot." The 
 attendant consented. Taliesin mounted the horse, 
 and presently struck into a more practicable track ; 
 and immediately giving the horse the reins, he dis- 
 appeared among the woods, leaving the unfortunate 
 equerry to follow as he might, with no better guide 
 than the uncertain recollection of the sound of his 
 horse's heels. 
 
 Taliesin reached home before the arrival of 
 Rhfin, and warned Angharad of the mischief that 
 was designed her. 
 
 RhUn, arriving at his destination, found only 
 a housemaid dressed as Angharad, and another 
 officiating as her attendant. The fictitious princess 
 gave him a supper, and everything else he asked 
 for ; and, at parting in the morning, a lock of her 
 hair, and a ring which Angharad had placed on her 
 finger. 
 
 After riding a short distance on his return, Rh<ln 
 met his unlucky attendant, torn, tired, and half- 
 starved, and cursing some villain who had stolen 
 his horse. Rhto was too happy in his own success 
 to have a grain of sympathy for his miserable 
 follower, whom he left to find his horse and his 
 way, or either, or neither, as he might, and returned 
 alone to Diganwy. 
 
 Maelgon exultingly laid before Elphin the proofs 
 
78 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 of his wife's infidelity.* Elphin examined the lock 
 of hair, and listened to the narration of Rhto. 
 He divined at once the trick that had been put 
 upon the prince ; but he contented himself with 
 saying, " I do not believe that Rhun has received 
 the favours of Angharad ; and I still think that no 
 wife in Britain, not even the queen of Maelgon 
 Gwyneth, is more chaste or more beautiful than 
 mine." 
 
 Hereupon Maelgon waxed wroth. Elphin, in a 
 point which much concerned him, held a belief of 
 bis own different from that which his superiors in 
 worldly power required him to hold. Therefore 
 Maelgon acted as the possessors of worldly power 
 usually act in similar cases ; he locked Elphin up 
 within four stone walls, with an intimation that he 
 should keep him there till he pronounced a more 
 orthodox opinion on the question in dispute. 
 
 * According to the Mabinogion, Rhun brought away not 
 only the attendant's ring, but her little finger, which Elphin 
 demonstrated could not be his wife's, inasmuch as the nail had 
 not been pared for a month, and it had been kneading rye- 
 dough within three days. — G. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE LOVE OF MELANGHEL. 
 
 AXXa reois ira^a/irjai imxfiiiova Bvpirov deipon', 
 AWepos &fya fii^ov iwel Aios Sip-^porros &vM] 
 on ae TTovwv Airavevde dedi^ertu' ovd^ trot "Qpai 
 M^M &e$\ev(ravTi iriXas ireToffOxni' 'OXi/arov. 
 
 Grasp the bold thyrus ; seek the field's array ; 
 
 And do things worthy of ethereal day : 
 
 Not without toil to earthbom man befalls 
 
 To tread the floors of Jove's immortal halls : 
 
 Never to him, who not by deeds has striven, 
 
 Will the bright Hours roll back the gates of heaven. 
 
 Iris to Bacchus, in the lyh Book of the 
 
 DiONYSIACA OF NONNUS. 
 
 ?HE household of Elphin was sufficiently 
 improsperous during the absence of its 
 chief. The havoc which Maelgon's visita- 
 tion had made in their winter provision, it required 
 the utmost exertions of their collective energies to 
 repair. Even the young Princess Melanghel sallied 
 forth, in' the garb of a huntress, to strike the deer, 
 or the wild goat, among the wintry forests, on the 
 summits of the bleak crags, or in the valleys of the 
 flooded streams. 
 
 Taliesin, on these occasions, laid aside his harp, 
 
8o The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 and the robe of his order, and accompanied the 
 princess with his hunting-spear, and more succinctly 
 apparelled. 
 
 Their retinue, it may be supposed, was neither 
 very numerous nor royal, nor their dogs very 
 thoroughbred. It sometimes happened that the 
 deer went one way, the dogs another ; the attend- 
 ants, losing sight of both, went a third, leaving 
 Taliesin, who never lost sight of Melanghel, alone 
 with her among the hills. 
 
 One day, the ardour of the chase having carried 
 them far beyond their ordinary bounds, they stood 
 alone together on Craig Aderyn, the Rock of Birds, 
 which overlooks the river Dysyni. This rock 
 takes its name from the flock of birds which have 
 made it their dwelling, and which make the air 
 resonant with their multitudinous notes. Around, 
 before, and above them, rose mountain beyond 
 mountain, soaring above the leafless forests, to lose 
 their heads in mist ; beneath them lay the silent 
 river, and along the opening of its narrow valley, 
 they looked to the not-distant sea. 
 
 "Prince Llywarch," said Taliesin, "is a bard 
 and a warrior ; he is_,the son of an illustrious line. 
 Taliesin is neither prince nor warrior; he is the 
 unknown child of the waters." 
 
 " Why think you of Llywarch ? " said Melanghel, 
 to whom the name of the prince was known only 
 from Taliesin, who knew it only from fame. 
 
 " Because," said Taliesin, " there is that in my 
 soul which tells me that I shall have no rival among 
 
The Love of Melanghel. 8 1 
 
 the bards of Britain : but if the princes and warriors 
 seek the love of Melanghel, I shall know that I am 
 but a bard, and not as Llywarch." 
 
 " You would be Prince Taliesin," said Melanghel, 
 smiling, "to make me your princess? Am I not 
 a princess already ? and such an one as is not on 
 earth, for the land of my inheritance is under the 
 sea, under those very waves that now roll within 
 our view; and, in truth, you are as well qualified 
 for a jirince as I am for a princess, and have about 
 as valuable a dominion in the mists and the clouds 
 as I have under the waters." 
 
 Her eyes sparkled with affectionate playfulness, 
 while her long black hair floated loosely in the 
 breeze that pressed the folds of her drapery against 
 the matchless symmetry of her form. 
 
 " Oh, maid ! " said Taliesin, " what shall I do to 
 win your love ? " 
 
 " Restore me my father," said Melanghel, with a 
 seriousness as winning as her playfulness had been 
 fascinating. 
 
 " That will I do," said Taliesin, " for his own 
 sake. What shall I do for yours ? " 
 
 " Nothing more," said Melanghel, and she held 
 out her hand to the youthful bard. Taliesin seized 
 it with rapture, and pressed it to his lips ; then, 
 still grasping her hand, and throwing his left arm 
 round her, he pressed his lips to hers. 
 
 Melanghel started from him, blushing, and looked 
 at him a moment with something like severity ; but 
 he blushed as much as she did, and seemed even 
 F 
 
82 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 more alanned at her displeasure than she was at 
 his momentary audacity. She reassured him with 
 a smile ; and, pointing her spear in the direction 
 of her distant home, she bounded before him 
 down the rock. 
 
 This was the kiss of Taliesin to the daughter of 
 Elphin, which is celebrated in an inedited triad, as 
 one of " the Three Chaste Kisses of the island of 
 Britain." 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE SONGS OF DIGANWY. 
 
 Three things that will always swallow, and never be 
 satisfied: the sea; a burial ground ;| and a king. — Triads 
 of Wisdom. 
 
 pHE hall of Maelgon Gwyneth was ringing 
 with music and revelry, when Taliesin 
 stood on the floor, with his harp, in the 
 midst of the assembly, and, without introduction 
 or preface, struck a few chords, that, as if by magic, 
 suspended all other sounds, and fixed the attention 
 of all in silent expectation. He then sang as 
 follows : — 
 
 CANU Y MEDD.* 
 
 THE MEAD SONG OF TALIESEN. 
 
 The King of kings upholds the heaven, 
 And parts from earth the billowy sea : 
 By Him all earthly joys are given ; 
 He loves the just, and guards the free. 
 Round the wide hall, for thine and thee, 
 With purest draughts the mead-horns foam, 
 Maelgon of Gwyneth ! Can it be 
 That here a prince bewails his home ? 
 
 * For the original of this song, see the Appendix. — G. 
 
84 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 The bee tastes not the sparkling draught 
 Which mortals from his toils obtain ; 
 That sends, in festal circles quaffed, 
 Sweet tumult through the heart and brain. 
 The timid, while the horn they drain. 
 Grow bold ; the happy more rejoice ; 
 The mourner ceases to complain ; 
 The gifted bard exalts his voice. 
 
 To royal Elphin life I owe. 
 Nurture and name, the harp and mead : 
 Full, pure, and sparkling be their flow. 
 The horns to Maelgon's lips decreed ; 
 For him may horn to horn succeed. 
 Till, glowing with their generous tire, 
 He bid the captive chief be freed, 
 Whom at his hands my songs require. 
 
 Elphin has given me store of mead, 
 Mead, ale, and wine, and fish and corn ; 
 A happy home ; a splendid steed, 
 Which stately trappings well adorn. 
 To-morrow be the auspicious morn 
 That home the expected chief shall lead ; 
 So may King Maelgon drain the horn 
 In thrice three million feasts of mead. 
 
 " I give you," said Maelgon, " all the rights of 
 hospitality, and as many horns as you please of 
 the mead you so well and justly extol. If you be 
 Elphin's bard, it must be confessed he spoke truth 
 with respect to you, for you are a much better bard 
 than any of mine, as they are all free to confess : I 
 give them that hberty." 
 
 The bards availed themselves of the royal in- 
 dulgence, and confessed their own inferiority to 
 
The Songs of Diganwy. 85 
 
 Taliesin,* as the king had commanded them to do. 
 Whether they were all as well convinced of it as 
 they professed to be, may be left to the decision of 
 that very large class of literary gentlemen who are 
 in the habit of favouring the reading public with 
 their undisguised opinions. 
 
 " But," said Maelgon, " your hero of Caredigion 
 indulged himself in a very unjustifiable bravado 
 with respect to his queen ; for he said she was as 
 beautiful and as chaste as mine. Now Rh1ln 
 has proved the contrary, with small trouble, and 
 brought away trophies of his triumph; yet still 
 Elphin persists in his first assertion, wherein he 
 grossly disparages the queen of Gwyneth; and 
 for this I hold him in bondage, and will do, till 
 he make recantation." 
 
 " That he will never do," said Taliesin. " Your 
 son received only the favours of a hand-maid, who 
 was willing, by stratagem, to preserve her lady from 
 violence. The real Angharad was concealed in a 
 cavern." 
 
 Taliesin explained the adventure of Rhfln, and 
 pronounced an eulogium on Angharad, which put 
 the king and prince into a towering passion. 
 
 RhQn secretly determined to set forth on a 
 second quest; and Maelgon swore by his mead- 
 horn he would keep Elphin till doomsday. 
 Taliesin struck his harp again, and, in a tone 
 
 * The Mabinogion says that Taliesin had cast a charm 
 upon the bards, which " caused the king to wonder and 
 to deem within himself that they were drunk with many 
 liquors." — G. 
 
86 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 of deep but subdued feeling, he poured forth 
 the 
 
 SONG OF THE WIND.* 
 
 The winds that wander far and free, 
 Bring whispers from the shores they sweep ; 
 Voices of feast and revelry ; 
 Murmurs of forests and the deep ; 
 
 Low sounds of torrents from the steep 
 Descending on the flooded vale ; 
 And tumults from the leaguer'd keep, 
 Where foes the dizzy rampart scale. 
 
 The whispers of the wandering wind 
 Are borne to gifted ears alone ; 
 For them it ranges unconfined. 
 And speaks in accents of its own. 
 
 *This poem has little or nothing of Taliesin's Canu y 
 Gwynt, with the exception of the title. That poem is ap- 
 parently a fragment ; and, as it now stands, is an incoherent 
 and scarcely-intelligible rhapsody. It contains no distinct or 
 explicit idea, except the proposition that it is an unsafe booty 
 to carry off fat kine, which may be easily conceded in a case 
 where nimbleness of heel, both in man and beast, must have 
 been of great importance. The idea from which, if from 
 anything in the existing portion of the poem, it takes its 
 name, that the whispers of the wind bring rumours of war 
 from Deheubarth, is rather implied than expressed. [Pea- 
 cock would seem to have mistaken the Can y Gwynt in the 
 Myvyrian Archaeology for the I'r Gwynt, by which Taliesin 
 actually raised the wind and accomplished the liberation of 
 Elphin. A translation. of this poem will be found in Nash's 
 Taliesin, p. 171 ; it contains no allusion to DeheubSrt^, or to 
 the inexpediency of driving off fat cattle. — G.] 
 
T]ie Songs of Diganwy. 87 
 
 It tells me of Deheubarth's throne ; 
 The spider weaves not in its shield : * 
 Already from its towers is blown 
 The blast that bids the spoiler yield. 
 
 Ill with his prey the fox may wend. 
 
 When the young lion quits his lair ; 
 
 Sharp sword, strong shield, stout arm, should tend 
 
 On spirits that unjustly dare. 
 
 To me the wandering breezes bear 
 The war-blast from Caer Lleon's brow ; 
 The avenging storm is brooding there 
 To which Diganwy's towers shall bow. 
 
 " If the wind talks to you," said Maelgon,' " I 
 may say, with the proverb, you talk to the wind ; 
 
 *The spider weaving in suspended armour, is an old 
 emblem of peace and inaction. Thus Bacchylides, in his 
 fragment on Peace : 
 
 'By Sk nSapoSiTOis irbprira^iv 
 M0S.V dpayyav Ipya ireKovrai. 
 Euripides, in a fragment of Erectheus : 
 
 Kcladia Sopv /uoi /dTov a/jupiirXiKeiv 
 'Apaxcais. 
 And Nonnus, whom no poetical image escaped (Dionysiaca, 
 L. xxxviii. ) : 
 
 Oi 001'os, oi Tore dijpis' ^Keiro S^ Tq\66i, x^Pl^il^ 
 BaKX'as i^aeTTipos apaxviooxra ^oelr). 
 And Beaumont and Fletcher, in the Wife for a Month : 
 " And would'st thou live so long, till thy sword hung by, 
 And lazy spiders filled the hilt with cobwebs t '' 
 
 A Persian poet says, describing ruins : 
 
 " The spider spreads the veil in the palace of the Caesars.'' 
 And among the most felicitous uses of this emblem, must 
 never be forgotten Hogarth's cobweb over the lid of the 
 charity-box. 
 
88 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 for I am not to be sung, or cajoled, or vapored, or 
 bullied out of my prisoner. And as to your war- 
 blasts from Caer Lleon, which I construe into a 
 threat that you will stir up King Arthur against 
 me, I can tell you for your satisfaction, and to 
 spare you the trouble of going so far, that he has 
 enough to do with seeking his wife, who has been 
 carried off by some unknown marauder, and with 
 fighting the Saxons, to have much leisure or in- 
 clination to quarrel with a true Briton, who is one 
 of his best friends, and his heir-presumptive ; for, 
 though he is a man of great prowess, and more- 
 over, saving his reverence and your presence, a 
 cuckold, he has not yet favoured his kingdom 
 with an heir-apparent. And I request you to 
 understand, that when I extolled you above my 
 bards, I did so only in respect of your verse and 
 voice, melody and execution, figure and action, 
 in short, of your manner ; for your matter is naught ; 
 and I must do my own bards the justice to say 
 that, however much they may fall short of you in 
 the requisites aforesaid, they know much better 
 than you do, what is fitting for bards to sing, and 
 kings to hear." 
 
 The bards, thus encouraged, recovered from the 
 first shock of Maelgon's ready admission of Taliesin's 
 manifest superiority, and struck up a sort of con- 
 secutive chorus, in a series of pennillion, or stanzas, 
 in praise of Maelgon and his heirship presumptive, 
 giving him credit for all the virtues of which the 
 reputation was then in fashion ; and amongst the 
 
The Songs of Diganwy. 89 
 
 rest, they very loftily celebrated his justice and 
 magnanimity. 
 
 Taliesin could not reconcile his notions of these 
 qualities with Maelgon's treatment of Elphin. He 
 changed his measure and his melody, and pro- 
 nounced, in impassioned numbers, the poem, which 
 a learned Welsh historian calls " The Indignation 
 of the Bards," though, as the indignation was 
 Taliesin's,'and not theirs, he seems to have made 
 a small mistake in regard to the preposition. 
 
 THE INDIGNATION OF TALIESIN WITH THE 
 BARDS OF MAELGON GWYNETH.* 
 
 False bards the sacred fire pervert, 
 Whose songs are won without desert ; 
 Who falsehoods weave in specious lays, 
 To gild the base with virtue's praise. 
 
 From court to court, from tower to tower. 
 In warrior's tent, in lady's bower, 
 For gold, for wine, for food, for fire, 
 They tune their throats at all men's hire. 
 
 Their harps re-echo wide and far 
 With sensual love, and bloody war. 
 And drunkenness, and flattering lies : 
 Truth's light may shine for other eyes. 
 
 In palaces they still are found. 
 At feasts, promoting senseless sound : 
 He is their demigod at least, 
 Whose only virtue is his feast. 
 
 * For the original of this lyric, see the Appendix. 
 
90 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 They love to talk ; they hate to think ; 
 All day they sing ; all night they drink : 
 No useful toils their hands employ ; 
 In boisterous throngs is all their joy. 
 
 The bird will fly, the fish will swim, 
 The bee the honied flowers will skim ; 
 Its food by toil each creature brings, 
 Except false bards and worthless kings. 
 
 Learning and wisdom claim to find 
 Homage and succour from mankind ; 
 But learning's right, and wisdom's due, 
 Are falsely claimed by slaves like you. 
 
 True bards know truth, and truth will show ; 
 Ye know it not, nor care to know : 
 Your king's weak mind false judgment warps ; 
 Rebuke his wrong, or break your harps : 
 
 I know the mountain and the plain ; 
 I know where right and justice reign ; 
 I from the tower will Elphin free ; 
 Your king shall learn his doom from me. 
 
 A spectre of the marsh shall rise, 
 With yellow teeth, and hair, and eyes 
 From whom your king in vain aloof 
 Shall crouch beneath the sacred roof. 
 
 He through the half-closed door shall spy 
 
 The Yellow Spectre sweeping by ; 
 
 To whom the punishment belongs 
 
 Of Maelgon's crimes and Elphin's wrongs. 
 
 By the name of the Yellow Spectre, Taliesin 
 designated a pestilence, which afterwards carried 
 off great multitudes of the people, and, amongst 
 them, Maelgon Gwyneth, then sovereign of Britain, 
 who had taken refuge from it in a church. 
 
The Songs of Diganwy. 91 
 
 Maelgon paid little attention to Taliesin's 
 prophecy, but he was much incensed by the 
 general tenor of his song. 
 
 " If it were not," said Maelgon, " that I do not 
 choose to add to the number of the crimes of 
 which you so readily accuse me, that of disregard- 
 ing the inviolability of your hardship, I would send 
 you to keep company with your trout-catching king, 
 and you might amuse his salmon-salting majesty 
 with telling him as much truth as he is disposed 
 to listen to ; which, to judge by his reception of 
 Rhdn's story of his wife, I take to be exceedingly 
 little. For the present, you are welcome to depart ; 
 and, if you are going to Caer Lleon, you may 
 present my respects to King Arthur, and tell him, 
 I hope he will beat the Saxons, and find his wife ; 
 but I hope, also, that the cutting me off with an 
 heir-apparent will not be the consequence of his 
 finding her, or (which, by-the-bye is more likely) of 
 his having lost her." 
 
 Taliesin took his departure from the hall of 
 Diganwy, leaving the bards biting their lips at his 
 rebuke, and Maelgon roaring with laughter at his 
 own very excellent jest. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE DISAPPOINTMENT OF RHt>^N. 
 
 Ilapffhe, Tus /xeTa/Mei^as ipevBoK^v aio /Jt.optprii' ; 
 ^lapivTjv 5'&KTLVa ris ^a^ecre ado irpotxdnrov ; 
 OvK^TL ffuv p,ekiit3v 6.fxapTj(7(7eTai &pyv(ps &iy\7j* 
 QiKiri S', us to irpbcBe, real ycKooKTiv dironral. 
 
 Sweet maid, what grief has changed thy roseate grace, 
 And quenched the vernal sunshine of thy face ? 
 No more thy light form sparkles as it flies. 
 Nor laughter flashes from thy radiant eyes. 
 
 Venus to Pasithea, in the 33^ Book of the 
 
 DiONYSIACA OF NONNUS. 
 
 |ALIESIN returned to the dwelling of 
 Elphin, auguring that, in consequence of 
 his information, Rh<ln would pay it 
 another visit. In this anticipation he was not 
 mistaken, for Rh<ln very soon appeared, with a 
 numerous retinue, determined, apparently, to carry 
 his point by force of arms. He found, however, 
 no inmate in the dwelling but Taliesin and Teithrin 
 ap Tathral. 
 
 Rhdn stormed, entreated, promised, and menaced, 
 without success. He perlustrated the vicinity, and 
 found various caverns, but not the one he sought. 
 He passed many days in the search, and, finally, 
 
The Disappointment of RMn. 93 
 
 departed ; but, at a short distance, he dismissed all 
 his retinue, except his bard of all work, or laureate 
 expectant, and accompanied by this worthy, re- 
 turned to the banks of the Mawddach, where they 
 resolved themselves into an ambuscade. It was 
 not long before they saw Taliesin issue from the 
 dwelling, and begin ascending the hill. They 
 followed him at a cautious distance ; first up a 
 steep ascent of the forest-covered rocks ; then along 
 a small space of densely-wooded tableland to the 
 end of a dingle ; and, again, by a slight descent, 
 to the bed of a mountain stream, in a spot where 
 the torrent flung itself, in a series of cataracts, 
 down the rift of a precipitous rock, that towered 
 high above their heads. About half way up the 
 rock, near the base of one of these cataracts, was 
 a projecting ledge, or natural platform of rock, 
 behind which was seen the summit of the opening 
 of a cave. Taliesin paused and looked around 
 him, as if to ascertain that he was unobserved ; 
 and then, standing on a projection of the rock 
 below, he mingled, in spontaneous song, the full 
 power of his voice with the roar of the waters. 
 
 Taliesin. 
 Maid of the rock ! though loud the flood, 
 My voice will pierce thy cell : 
 No foe is in the mountain wood, 
 No danger in the dell : 
 The torrents bound along the glade ; 
 Their path is free and bright ; 
 Be thou as they, oh, mountain maid ! 
 In liberty and light. 
 
94 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 Melanghel appeared on the rocky platform, and 
 answered to the song of her lover : 
 
 Melanghel. 
 
 The cataracts thunder down the steep ; 
 
 The woods all lonely wave : 
 
 Within my heart thy voice sinks deep 
 
 That calls me from my cave. 
 
 The voice is dear, the song is sweet, 
 
 And true the words must be : 
 
 Well pleased I quit the dark retreat. 
 
 To wend away with thee. 
 
 Taliesin. 
 
 Not yet ; not yet ; let nightdews fall, 
 
 And stars be bright above, 
 
 Ere to her long-deserted hall 
 
 I guide my gentle love. 
 
 When torchlight flashes on the roof. 
 
 No foe will near thee stray. 
 
 Even now his parting courser's hoof 
 
 Rings from the rocky way. 
 
 Melanghel. 
 
 Yet climb the path and comfort speak, 
 
 To cheer the lonely cave. 
 
 Where woods are bare, and rocks are bleak. 
 
 And wintry torrents rave. 
 
 A dearer home my memory knows, 
 
 A home I still deplore ; 
 
 Where firelight glows, while winds and snows 
 
 Assail the guardian door. 
 
 Taliesin vanished a moment from the sight of 
 Rhfin, and almost immediately reappeared by the 
 side of Melanghel, who had now been joined by 
 her mother. In a few minutes she returned, and 
 Angharad and Melanghel withdrew, 
 
The Disappointment of RMn. 95 
 
 Rhfin watched him from the dingle, and then 
 proceeded to investigate the path by which he had 
 gained the platform. After some search, he dis- 
 covered it, ascended the platform, and rushed into 
 the cavern. 
 
 They here found a blazing fire, a half-finished 
 dinner, materials of spinning and embroidering, 
 and other signs of female inhabitancy; but they 
 found not the inhabitants. They searched the 
 cavern to its depth, which was not inconsiderable, 
 much marvelling how the ladies had vanished. 
 While thus engaged, they heard a rushing sound, 
 and a crash on the rocks, as of some ponderous 
 body. The mystery of this noise was very soon 
 explained to them, in a manner that gave an 
 unusual length to their faces, and threw a deep 
 tinge of blue into their rosy complexions. A 
 ponderous stone, which had been suspended like 
 a portcullis at the mouth of the cavern, had been 
 dropped by some unseen agency, and made them 
 as close prisoners as Elphin. 
 
 They were not long kept in suspense as to how 
 this matter had been managed. The hoarse voice 
 of Teithrin ap Tathral sounded in their ears from 
 without, " Foxes, you have been seen through, and 
 you are fairly trapped. Eat and drink. You shall 
 want nothing but to get out ; which you must 
 want some time ; for it is sworn that no hand but 
 Elphin's shall raise the stone of your captivity." 
 
 " Let me out," vociferated Rhlln, " and on the 
 
 word of a prince " But before he could finish 
 
 the sentence, the retreating steps of Teithrin were 
 lost in the roar of the torrent. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE HEROES OF DINAS VAWR. 
 
 L'ombra sua torna ch'era dipartita. — Dante. 
 While there is life there is hope. — English Proverb. 
 
 fRINCE RHUN being safe in schistous 
 bastile,* Taliesin commenced his journey 
 to the court of King Arthur. On his 
 way to Caer Lleon, he was received with all 
 hospitality, entertained with all admiration, and 
 dismissed with all honour, at the castles of several 
 petty kings, and, amongst the rest, at the castle of 
 Dinas Vawr, on the Towy, which was then 
 garrisoned by King Melvas, who had marched 
 With a great force out of his own kingdom, on the 
 eastern shores of the Severn, to levy contributions 
 in the country to the westward, where, as the 
 pleasure of his company had been altogether un- 
 locked for, he had got possession of a good portion 
 of movable property. The castle of Dinas Vawr 
 presenting itself to him as a convenient hold, he 
 had taken it by storm ; and having cut the throats 
 
 * Conveys him to enchanted castle, 
 There shuts him fast in wooden bastile 
 
 — Hudibras, — G. 
 
The Heroes of Dinas Vawr. 97 
 
 of the former occupants, thrown their bodies into 
 the Towy, and caused a mass to be sung for the 
 good of their souls, he was now sitting over his 
 bowl with the comfort of a good conscience, enjoy- 
 ing the fruits of the skill and courage with which 
 he had planned and accomplished his scheme of 
 ways and means for the year. 
 
 The hall of Melvas was full of magnanimous 
 heroes, who were celebrating their own exploits in 
 sundry choruses, especially in that which follows, 
 which is here put upon record as being the quint- 
 essence of all the war-songs that ever were written, 
 and the sum and substance of all the appetencies, 
 tendencies, and consequences of military glory : 
 
 THE WAR-SONG OF DINAS VAWR. 
 
 The mountain sheep are sweeter, 
 But the valley sheep are fatter ; 
 We therefore deemed it meeter 
 To carry off the latter. 
 We made an expedition ; 
 We met an host and quelled it ; 
 We forced a strong position, 
 And killed the men who held it. 
 
 On Dyfed's richest valley, 
 
 Where herds of kine were browsing, 
 
 We made a mighty sally, 
 
 To furnish our carousing. 
 
 Fierce warriors rushed to meet us ; 
 
 We met them, and o'erthrew them : 
 
 They struggled hard to beat us ; 
 
 But we conquered them, and slew them, 
 
 e 
 
98 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 As we drove our prize at leisure, 
 The king marched forth to catch us : 
 His rage surpassed all measure, 
 But his people could not match us. 
 He fled to his hall-pillars ; 
 And, ere our force we led off, 
 Some sacked his house and cellars, 
 While others cut his head off. 
 
 We there, in strife bewildering. 
 Spilt blood enough to swim in : 
 We orphaned many children, 
 And widowed many women. 
 The eagles and the ravens 
 We glutted with our foemen ; 
 The heroes and the cravens, 
 The spearmen and the bowmen. 
 
 We brought away from battle. 
 
 And much their land bemoaned them, 
 
 Two thousand head of cattle, 
 
 And the head of him who owned them : 
 
 Ednyfed, King of Dyfed, 
 
 His head was borne before us ; 
 
 His wine and beasts supplied our feasts. 
 
 And his overthrow, our chorus. 
 
 As the doughty followers of Melvas, having sung 
 themselves hoarse with their own praises, subsided 
 one by one into drunken sleep, Taliesin, sitting 
 near the great central fire, and throwing around a 
 scrutinizing glance on all the objects in the hall, 
 noticed a portly and somewhat elderly personage, 
 of an aspect that would have been venerable, if it 
 had been less rubicund and Bacchic, who continued 
 plying his potations with undiminished energy, while 
 
The Heroes of Dinas Vawr. 99 
 
 the heroes of the festival dropped round him, like 
 the leaves of autumn. This figure excited Taliesin's 
 curiosity. The features struck him with a sense of 
 resemblance to objects which had been somewhere 
 familiar to him ; but he perplexed himself in vain 
 with attempts at definite recollections. At length, 
 when these two were almost the sole survivors of 
 the evening, the stranger approached him with a 
 golden goblet, which he had just replenished with 
 the choicest wine of the vaults of Dinas Vawr, and 
 pronounced the oracular monosyllable, " Drink ! " 
 to which he subjoined emphatically, " Gwin o eur : 
 Wine from gold. That is my taste. Ale is well ; 
 mead is better; wine is best. Horn is well ; silver 
 is better ; gold is best." 
 
 Taliesin, who had been very abstemious during 
 the evening, took a golden goblet and drank, to 
 please the inviter, in the hope that he would 
 become communicative, and satisfy the curiosity 
 his appearance had raised. 
 
 The stranger sat down near him, evidently in 
 that amiable state of semi-intoxication which inflates 
 the head, warms the heart, lifts up the veil of the 
 inward man, and sets the tongue flying, or rather 
 tripping, in the double sense of nimbleness and 
 titubancy. 
 
 The stranger repeated, taking a copious draught, 
 " My taste is wine from gold." 
 
 "I have heard those words," said Taliesin, "Gwin 
 o EUR, repeated as having been the favourite saying 
 of a person whose memory is fondly cherished by 
 
100 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 one as dear to me as a mother, though his name, 
 with all others, is the by-word of all that is dis- 
 reputable." 
 
 "I cannot believe," said the stranger, "that a 
 man whose favourite saying was Gwin o eur could 
 possibly be a disreputable person, or deserve any 
 other than that honourable remembrance which 
 you say only one person is honest enough to 
 entertain for him." 
 
 " His name," said Taliesin, " is too unhappily 
 notorious throughout Britain by the terrible cata- 
 strophe of which his ' Gwin o eur ' was the cause." 
 
 " And what might that be ? " asked the stranger. 
 
 " The inundation of Gwaelod," said TaHesin. 
 
 " You speak, then," said the stranger, taking 
 an enormous potation, "of Seithenyn, Prince 
 Seithenyn, Seithenyn ap Seithin Saidi, Arglwyd 
 Gorwarcheidwad yr Argae Breninawl." 
 
 " I seldom hear his name," said Taliesin, " with 
 any of those sounding additions; he is usually 
 called Seithenyn the Drunkard." 
 
 The stranger goggled about his eyes in an attempt 
 to fix them steadily on Taliesin, screwed up the 
 comers of his mouth, stuck out his nether lip, pursed 
 up his chin, thrust forward his right foot, and ele- 
 vated his golden goblet in his right hand ; then, in 
 a tone which he intended to be strongly becoming of 
 his impressive accent and imposing attitude, he 
 muttered, " Look at me ! " 
 
 Taliesin looked at him accordingly, with as much 
 gravity as he could preserve. 
 
The Heroes of Dinas Vawr. loi 
 
 After a silence, which he designed to be very 
 dignified and solemn, the stranger spoke again : 
 " I am the man." 
 
 " What man ? " said Taliesin. ' 
 
 "The man," replied his entertainer, "of whom 
 you have spoken so disparagingly; Seithenyn ap 
 Seithyn Saidi." 
 
 "Seithenyn," said Taliesin, "has slept twenty 
 years under the waters of the western sea, as King 
 Gwythno's Lamentations have made known to all 
 Britain." 
 
 "They have not made it known to me," said 
 Seithenyn, " for the best of all reasons, that one 
 can only know the truth ; for, if that which we 
 think we know is not truth, it is something which 
 we do not know. A man cannot know his own 
 death ; for, while he knows anything he is alive ; 
 at least, I never heard of a dead man who knew 
 anything, or pretended to know anything : if he 
 had so pretended, I should have told him to his 
 face he was no dead man." 
 
 " Your mode of reasoning," said Taliesin, " un- 
 questionably corresponds with what I have heard 
 of Seithenyn's : but how is it possible Seithenyn 
 can be living ? " 
 
 " Everything that is, is possible, says Catog the 
 Wise," answered Seithenyn, with a look of great 
 sapience. "I will give you proof that I am not a 
 dead man ; for, they say dead men tell no tales : 
 now, I will tell you a tale, and a very interesting 
 one it is. When I saw the sea sapping the tower, 
 
102 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 I jumped into the water, and just in the nick 
 of time. It was well for me that I had been 
 so provident as to empty so many barrels, and 
 that somebody, I don't know who, but I sup- 
 pose it was my daughter, had been so provident 
 as to put the bungs into them, to keep them 
 sweet; for the beauty of it was that, when 
 there was so much water in the case, it kept 
 them empty ; and when I jumped into the sea, the 
 sea was just making a great hole in the cellar, and 
 they were floating out by dozens. I don't know 
 how I managed it, but I got one arm over one, and 
 the other arm over another : I nipped them pretty 
 tight ; and though my legs were under water, the 
 good liquor I had in me kept me warm. I could 
 not help thinking — as I had nothing else to think 
 of just then that touched me so nearly — that if I 
 had left them full, and myself empty, as a sober 
 man would have done, we should all three — that 
 is, I and the two barrels, have gone to the bottom 
 together, that is to say, separately; for we should 
 never have come together, except at the bottom, 
 perhaps, when no one of us could have done the 
 other any good ; whereas they have done me much 
 good, and I have requited it ; for, first, I did them 
 the service of emptying them ; and then they did me 
 the service of floating me with the tide, whether 
 the ebb, or the flow, or both, is more than I can 
 tell, down to the coast of Dyfed, where I was 
 picked up by fishermen ; and such was my sense 
 of gratitude that, though I had always before de- 
 
The Heroes of Dinas Vawr. 103 
 
 tested an empty barrel, except as a trophy, I swore 
 I would not budge from the water unless my two 
 barrels went with me; so we were all marched 
 inland together, and were taken into the service of 
 King Ednyfed, where I stayed till his castle was 
 sacked, and his head cut off, and his beeves marched 
 away with, by the followers of King Melvas, of 
 whom I killed two or three; but they were too 
 many for us : therefore, to make the best of a bad 
 bargain, I followed leisurely in the train of the 
 beeves, and presented myself to King Melvas, with 
 this golden goblet, saying, ' Gwin o eur.' He was 
 struck with my deportment^ and made me his chief 
 butler ; and now my two barrels are the two pillars 
 of his cellar, where I regularly fill them from affec- 
 tion, and as regularly empty them from gratitude, 
 taking care to put the bungs in them, to keep them 
 sweet." 
 
 "But all this while," said Taliesin, "did you 
 never look back to the Plain of Gwaelod, to your 
 old king, and, above all, to your daughter ? " 
 
 " Why, yes," said Seithenyn, " I did in a way ! 
 But as to the Plain of Gwaelod, that was gone, 
 buried under the sea, along with many good 
 barrels, which I had been improvident enough to 
 leave full : then, as to the old king, though I had 
 a great regard for him, I thought he might be less 
 likely to feast me in his hall, than to set up my 
 head on a spike over his gate; then, as to my 
 daughter — " 
 
 Here he shook his head, and looked maudlin j 
 
104 T^he Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 and dashing two or three drops from his eye, he 
 put a great many into his mouth. 
 
 "Your daughter," said TaUesin, "is the wife of 
 King Elphin, and has a daughter, who is now as 
 beautiful as her mother was." 
 
 "Very likely," said Seithenyn, "and I should 
 be very glad to see them all ; but I am afraid King 
 Elphin, as you call him (what he is king of, you 
 shall tell me at leisure), would do me a mischief. 
 At any rate, he would stint me in liquor. No ! 
 If they will visit me, here I am. Fish, and 
 water, will not agree with me. I am growing 
 old, and need cordial nutriment. King Melvas 
 will never want for beeves and wine ; nor, indeed, 
 for anything else that is good. I can tell you 
 what," he added, in a very low voice, cocking his 
 eye, and putting his finger on his lips, " he has got 
 in this very castle the finest woman in Britain." 
 
 "That I doubt," said Taliesin. 
 
 " She is the greatest, at any rate," said Seithenyn, 
 "and ought to be the finest." 
 
 " How the greatest ? " said Taliesin. 
 
 Seithenyn looked round, to observe if there were 
 any listener near, and fixed a very suspicious gaze 
 on a rotund figure of a fallen hero, who lay coiled 
 up like a maggot in a filbert, and snoring with 
 an energy that, to the muddy apprehensions of 
 Seithenyn, seemed to be counterfeit. He deter- 
 mined, by a gentle experiment, to ascertain if his 
 suspicions were well founded ; and proceeded, with 
 what he thought great caution, to apply the point 
 
The Heroes of Dinas Vawr. 105 
 
 of his foot to the most bulging portion of the fat 
 sleeper's circumference. But he greatly miscal- 
 culated his intended impetus, for he impinged his 
 foot with a force that overbalanced himself, and 
 hurled him headlong over his man, who instantly 
 sprang on his legs, shouting " To arms ! " Numbers 
 started up at the cry ; the hall rang with the din of 
 arms, and with the vociferation of questions, which 
 there were many to ask, and none to answer. 
 Some stared about for the enemy ; some rushed 
 to the gates ; others to the walls. Two or three, 
 reeling in the tumult and the darkness, were 
 jostled over the parapet, and went rolling down 
 the precipitous slope of the castle hill, crashing 
 through the bushes, and bellowing for some one to 
 stop them, till their clamours were cut short by a 
 plunge into the Towy, where the conjoint weight 
 of their armour and their liquor carried them at 
 once to the bottom. The rage which would have 
 fallen on the enemy, if there had been one, was 
 turned against the author of the false alarm ; but, 
 as none could point him out, the tumult subsided 
 by degrees, through a descending scale of impreca- 
 tions, into the last murmured malediction of him 
 whom the intensity of his generous anger kept 
 longest awake. By this time, the rotund hero 
 had again coiled himself up into his ring ; and 
 Seithenyn was stretched in a right line, as a 
 tangent to the circle, in a state of utter incapacity to 
 elucidate the mystery of King Melvas's possession 
 of the finest woman in Britain, 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE SPLENDOUR OF CAER LLEON. 
 
 The three principal cities of the isle of Britain : Caer 
 Llion upon Wysg in Cymru ; Caer Llundain in Lloegr ; and 
 Caer Evrawg in Deifr and Brynaich.* — Triads of the isle of 
 Britain. 
 
 pHE sunset of a bright December day was 
 glittering on the waves of the Usk, and 
 on the innumerable roofs, which, being 
 composed chiefly of the glazed tiles of the Romans, 
 reflected the light almost as vividly as the river ; 
 when Taliesin descended one of the hills that 
 border the beautiful valley in which then stood 
 Caer Lleon, the metropolis of Britain, and in 
 which now stands, on a small portion of the self- 
 same space, a little insignificant town, possessing 
 nothing of its ancient glory but the unaltered name 
 of Caer Lleon. 
 
 The rapid Usk flowed then as now, under the 
 walls : the high wooden bridge, with its slender 
 piles, was then much the same as it is at this day : 
 it seems to have been never regularly rebuilt, but 
 
 * Caer Lleon upon Usk in Cambria : London in Loegria : 
 and York in Deira and Bernicia. 
 
The Splendour of Caer Lleon. 107 
 
 to have been repaired, from time to time, on the 
 original Roman model. The same green and 
 fertile meadows, the same gently-sloping wood- 
 covered hills, that now meet the eye of the tourist, 
 then met the eye of Taliesin; except that the 
 woods on one side of the valley were then only 
 the skirts of an extensive forest, which the nobility 
 and beauty of Caer Lleon made frequently re-echo 
 to the clamours of the chase. 
 
 The city, which had been so long the centre of 
 the Roman supremacy, which was now the seat of 
 the most illustrious sovereign that had yet held 
 the sceptre of Britain, could not be approached 
 by the youthful bard, whose genius was destined to 
 eclipse that of all his countrymen, without feelings 
 and reflections of deep interest. The sentimental 
 tourist (who, perching himself on an old wall, works 
 himself up into a soliloquy of philosophical pathos, 
 on the vicissitudes of empire- and the mutability 
 of all sublunary things, interrupted only by an occa- 
 sional peep at his watch, to ensure his not over- 
 staying the minute at which his fowl, comfortably 
 roasting at the nearest inn, has been promised to be 
 ready), has, no doubt, many fine thoughts, well 
 worth recording in a dapper volume ; but Taliesin 
 had an interest in the objects before him too deep 
 to have a thought to spare, even for his dinner. 
 The monuments of Roman magnificence, and of 
 Roman domination, still existing in comparative 
 freshness ; the arduous struggle, in which his 
 countrymen were then engaged with the Saxons, 
 
io8 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 and which, notwithstanding the actual triumphs of 
 Arthur, Taliesin's prophetic spirit told him would 
 end in their being dispossessed of all the land of 
 Britain, except the wild region of Wales (a result 
 which political sagacity might have apprehended 
 from their disunion, but which, as he told it to his 
 countrymen in that memorable prophecy which 
 every child of the Cymry knows, has established 
 for him, among them, the fame of a prophet) ; the 
 importance to himself and his benefactors of the 
 objects of his visit to the city, on the result of 
 which depended the liberation of Elphin, and the 
 success of his love for Melanghel; the degree in 
 which these objects might be promoted by the 
 construction he had put on Seithenyn's imperfect 
 communication respecting the lady in Dinas Vawr; 
 furnished, altogether, more materials for absorbing 
 thought, than the most zealous peregrinator, even 
 if he be at once poet, antiquary, and philosopher, 
 is likely to have at once in his mind, on the top of 
 the finest old wall on the face of the earth. 
 
 Taliesin passed, in deep musing, through the gates 
 of Caer Lleon ; but his attention was speedily drawn 
 to the objects around him. From the wild solitudes 
 in which he had passed his earlier years, the transi- 
 tion to the castles and cities he had already visited, 
 furnished much food to curiosity : but the ideas of 
 them sunk into comparative nothingness before the 
 magnificence of Caer Lleon. 
 
 He did not stop in the gateway to consider the 
 knotty question, which has since puzzled so many 
 
The Splendour of Caer Lleon. 109 
 
 antiquaries, whether the name of Caer Lleon signi- 
 fies the City of Streams, the City of Legions, or the 
 City of King Lleon ? He saw a river filled with 
 ships, flowing through fine meadows, bordered by 
 hills and forests; walls of brick, as well as of stone; 
 a castle, of impregnable strength ; stately houses, 
 of the most admirable architecture ; palaces, with 
 gilded roofs ; Roman temples, and Christian 
 churches ; a theatre, and an amphitheatre. The 
 public and private buildings of the departed 
 Romans were in excellent preservation ; though 
 the buildings, and especially the temples, were no 
 longer appropriated to their original purposes. 
 The king's butler, Bedwyr, had taken possession 
 of the Temple of Diana, as a cool place of deposit 
 for wine : he had recently effected a stowage of 
 vast quantities therein, and had made a most 
 luminous arrangement of the several kinds ; under 
 the judicious and experienced superintendence -of 
 Dyvrig, the Ex-Archbishop of Caer Lleon; who 
 had just then nothing else to do, having recently 
 resigned his see in favour of King Arthur's uncle, 
 David, who is, to this day, illustrious as the St 
 David in whose honour the Welshmen annually 
 adorn their hats with a leek. This David was a 
 very respectable character in his way : he was a 
 man of great sanctity and simphcity; and, in order 
 to eschew the vanities of the world, which were 
 continually present to him in Caer Lleon, he re- 
 moved the metropolitan see, from Caer Lleon, to 
 the rocky, barren, woodless, streamless, meadow- 
 less, tempest-beaten point of Mynyw, which was 
 
1 10 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 afterwards called St David's. He was the mirror 
 and pattern of a godly life ; teaching by example, 
 as by precept ; admirable in words, and excellent 
 in deeds ; tall in stature, handsome in aspect, noble 
 in deportment, affable in address, eloquent and 
 learned, a model to his followers, the life of the 
 poor, the protector of widows, and the father of 
 orphans. This makes altogether a very respectable 
 saint ; and it cannot be said, that the honourable 
 leek is unworthily consecrated. A long series of 
 his Catholic successors maintained, in great mag- 
 nificence, a cathedral, a college, and a palace ; 
 keeping them all in repair, and feeding the poor 
 into the bargain, from the archiepiscopal, or, when 
 the primacy of Caer Lleon had merged in that of 
 Canterbury, from the episcopal, revenues : but 
 these things were reformed altogether by one of 
 the first Protestant bishops, who, having a lady that 
 longed for the gay world, and wanting more than 
 all the revenues for himself and his family, first 
 raised the wind by selling off the lead from the 
 roof of his palace, and then obtained permission to 
 remove from it, on the plea that it was not water- 
 tight. The immediate successors of this bishop, 
 whose name was Barlow, were in every way worthy 
 of him ; the palace and college have, consequently, 
 fallen into incurable dilapidation, and the cathedral 
 has fallen partially into ruins, and, most impartially, 
 into neglect and defacement.* 
 
 To return to Taliesin, in the streets of Caer 
 * This, which was true in 1829, is true no longer. — G, 
 
The Splendour of Caer Lleon. 1 1 1 
 
 Lleon. Plautus and Terence were not heard in 
 the theatre, nor to be heard of in its neighbour- 
 hood ; but it was thought an excellent place for an 
 Eisteddfod, or Bardic Congress, and was made the 
 principal place of assembly of the bards of the 
 island of Britain. This is what Ross of Warwick 
 means, when he says there was a noble university 
 of students in Caer Lleon. 
 
 The mild precepts of the new religion had 
 banished the ferocious sports to which the Romans 
 had dedicated the amphitheatre, and, as Taliesin 
 passed, it was pouring forth an improved and 
 humanized multitude, who had been enjoying the 
 pure British pleasure of baiting a bear. 
 
 The hot baths and aqueducts, the stoves of 
 "wonderful artifice," as Giraldus has it, which 
 diffused hot air through narrow spiracles, and many 
 other wonders of the place, did not all present 
 themselves to a first observation. The streets were 
 thronged with people, especially of the fighting 
 order, of whom a greater number flocked about 
 Arthur than he always found it convenient to pay. 
 Horsemen, with hawks and hounds, were returning 
 from the neighbouring forest, accompanied by 
 beautiful huntresses in scarlet and gold. 
 
 TaUesin, having perlustrated the city, proceeded 
 to the palace of Arthur. At the gates he was 
 challenged by a formidable guard, but passed by 
 his bardic privilege. It was now very near Christ- 
 mas, and when Taliesin entered the great hall it 
 was blazing with artificial light, and glowing with 
 the heat of the Roman stoves. 
 
112 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 Arthur had returned victorious from the great 
 battle of Badon Hill, in which he had slain with 
 his own hand four hundred and forty Saxons ; and 
 was feasting as merrily as an honest man can be 
 supposed to do while his wife is away. Kings, 
 princes, and soldiers of fortune, bards and prelates, 
 ladies superbly apparelled, and many of them sur- 
 passingly beautiful; and a most gallant array of 
 handsome young cupbearers, marshalled and well 
 drilled by the king's butler, Bedwyr, who was him- 
 self a petty king, were the chief components of the 
 illustrious assembly. 
 
 Amongst the ladies were the beautiful Tegau 
 Eurvron; Dywir, the Golden-haired j Enid, the 
 daughter of Yniwl ; Garwen, the daughter of Henyn ; 
 Gwyl, the daughter of Enddaud; and Indeg, the 
 daughter of Avarwy Hir, of Maelienydd. Of these, 
 Tegau Eurvron, or Tegau of the Golden Bosom, 
 was the wife of Caradoc, and one of the Three 
 Chaste Wives of the island of Britain. She is the 
 heroine who, as the lady of Sir Cradock, is distin- 
 guished above all the ladies of Arthur's court in 
 the ballad of the Boy and the Mantle. 
 
 Amongst the bards were Prince Llywarch, then 
 in his youth, afterwards called Llywarch Hen, or 
 Llywarch the Aged ; Aneurin, the British Homer, 
 who sang the fatal battle of Cattraeth, which laid 
 the foundation of the Saxon ascendency, in heroic 
 numbers, which the gods have preserved to us, and 
 who was called the Monarch of the Bards, before 
 the days of the glory of Taliesinj and Merddin 
 
The Splendour of Caer Lleon. 1 1 3 
 
 Gwillt, or Merlin the Wild, who was so deep in the 
 secrets of nature, that he obtained the fame of a 
 magician, to which he had at least as good a title 
 as either Friar Bacon or Cornelius Agrippa. 
 
 Amongst the petty kings, princes, and soldiers 
 of fortune, were twenty-four marchawg, or cavaliers, 
 who were the counsellors and champions of Arthur's 
 court. This was the heroic band, illustrious, in 
 the songs of chivalry, as the Knights of the Round 
 Table. Their names and pedigrees would make a 
 very instructive and entertaining chapter; and would 
 include the interesting characters of Gwalchmai 
 ap Gwyar the Courteous, the nephew of Arthur; 
 Caradoc, " Colofn Cymry," the Pillar of Cambria, 
 whose lady, as above noticed, was the mirror of 
 chastity ; and Trystan ap Tallwch, the lover of the 
 beautiful Essyllt, the daughter, or, according to 
 some, the wife of his uncle March ap Meirchion ; 
 persons known to all the world, as Sir Gawain, Sir 
 Cradock, and Sir Tristram. 
 
 On the right of King Arthur sate the beautiful 
 Indeg, and on his left the lovely Garwen. Taliesin 
 advanced, along the tesselated floor, towards the 
 upper end of the hall, and, kneehng before King 
 Arthur, said, " -What boon will King Arthur grant 
 to him who brings tidings of his wife?" 
 
 "Any boon," said Arthur, "that a king can 
 give." 
 
 "Queen Gwenyvar," said Taliesin, "is the 
 prisoner of King Melvas, in the castle of Dinas 
 Vawr." 
 
114 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 The mien and countenance of his informant 
 satisfied the king that he knew what he was saying ; 
 therefore, without further parlance, he broke up 
 the banquet, to make preparations for assailing 
 Dinas Vawr. 
 
 But, before he began his march. King Melvas 
 had shifted his quarters, and passed beyond the 
 Severn to the isle of Avallon, where the marshes 
 and winter floods assured him some months of 
 tranquillity and impunity. 
 
 King Arthur was highly exasperated on receiv- 
 ing the intelligence of Melvas's movement ; but he 
 had no remedy, and was reduced to the alternative 
 of making tbe best of his Christmas with the ladies, 
 princes, and bards who crowded his court. 
 
 The period of the winter solstice had been 
 always a great festival with the northern nations, 
 the commencement of the lengthening of the days 
 being, indeed, of all points in the circle of the 
 year, that in which the inhabitants of cold countries 
 have most cause to rejoice. This great festival was 
 anciently called Yule; whether derived from the 
 Gothic Ida, to make merry; or from the Celtic 
 Hiaul, the sun ; or from the Danish and Swedish 
 Hiul, signifying wheel or revolution, December 
 being Hiul-month, or the month of return ; or from 
 the Cimbric word 01, which has the important 
 signification of Ale, is too knotty a controversy to 
 be settled here ; * but Yule had been long a great 
 
 * The Rev. Richard Garnett, in his Philological Essays, 
 compares yule with the Persian sheb yelda — the longest 
 night of the year. — G. 
 
The Splendour of Caer Lleon. 1 1 5 
 
 festival, with both Celts and Saxons; and, with 
 the change of religion, became the great festival 
 of Christmas, retaining most of its ancient charac- 
 teristics while England was Merry England ; a 
 phrase which must be a mirifical puzzle to any 
 one who looks for the first time on its present 
 most lugubrious inhabitants. 
 
 The mistletoe of the oak was gathered by the 
 Druids with great ceremonies, as a symbol of the 
 season. The mistletoe continued to be so gathered, 
 and to be suspended in halls and kitchens, if not 
 in temples, implying an unlimited privilege of 
 kissing; which circumstance, probably, led a 
 learned antiquary to opine that it was the forbidden 
 fruit. 
 
 The Druids, at this festival, made, in a capa- 
 cious cauldron, a mystical brewage of carefully 
 selected ingredients, full of occult virtues, which 
 they kept from the profane, and which was typical 
 of the new year and of the transmigration of the 
 soul. The profane, in humble imitation, brewed 
 a bowl of spiced ale, or wine, throwing therein 
 roasted crabs ; the hissing of which, as they 
 plunged, piping hot, into the liquor, was heard 
 with much unction at midwinter, as typical of the 
 conjunct benignant influences of fire and strong 
 drink. The Saxons called this the Wassail-bowl, 
 and the brewage of it is reported to have been 
 one of the charms with which Rowena fascinated 
 Vortigem. 
 
 King Arthur kept his Christmas so merrily, that 
 
1 16 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 the memory of it passed into a proverb : * "As 
 merry as Christmas in Caer IJeon." 
 
 Caer Lleon was the merriest of places, and was 
 commonly known by the name of Merry Caer 
 Lleon; which the English ballad-makers, for the 
 sake of the smoother sound, and confounding 
 Cambria with Cumbria, most ignorantly or auda- 
 ciously turned into Merry Carlisle; thereby em- 
 boldening a northern antiquary to set about 
 proving that King Arthur was a Scotchman; ac- 
 cording to the old principles of harry and foray, 
 which gave Scotchmen a right to whatever they 
 could find on the English border ; though the 
 English never admitted their title to anything 
 there, excepting a halter in Carlisle. 
 
 The chase, in the neighbouring forest; tilting 
 in the amphitheatre ; trials of skill in archery, in 
 throwing the lance and riding at the quintain, and 
 similar amusements of the morning, created good 
 appetites for the evening feasts ; in which Prince 
 Cei, who is well known as Sir Kay, the seneschal, 
 superintended the viands, as King Bedwyr did 
 the liquor ; having each a thousand men at com- 
 mand, for their provision, arrangement, and dis- 
 tribution ; and music worthy of the banquet was 
 provided and superintended by the king's chief 
 harper, Geraint, of whom a contemporary poet 
 observes, that, when he died, the gates of heaven 
 were thrown wide open, to welcome the ingress of 
 so divine a musician. 
 
 * Mor Uawen ag Ngdoligyn Nghaerlleon. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE GHOSTLINESS OF AVALLON. 
 
 Poco piu, poco meno, tutti al mondo vivono d'impostura : 
 e chi e di buon gusto, dissimula quando occorre, gode quando 
 puo, crede quel che vuole, ride de' pazzi, e figura un mondo 
 a sue gusto. — GOLDONI. 
 
 [HERE is the young bard," said King 
 Arthur, after some nights of Christmas 
 had passed by, "who brought me the 
 news of my queen, and to whom I promised a 
 boon, which he has not yet claimed ? " 
 
 None could satisfy the king's curiosity. Taliesin 
 had disappeared from Caer Lleon. He knew the 
 power and influence of Maelgon Gwyneth j and he 
 was aware that King Arthur, however favourably 
 he might receive his petition, would not find 
 leisure to compel the liberation of Elphin, till he 
 had enforced from Melvas the surrender of his 
 queen. It occurred to him that her restoration 
 might be effected by peaceable means ; and he 
 knew that, if he could be in any degree instru- 
 mental to this result, it would greatly strengthen 
 his claims on the king. He engaged a small 
 fishing-vessel, which had just landed a cargo for 
 
1 1 8 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 the Christmas feasts of Caer Lleon, and set sail for 
 the isle of Avallon. At that period, the spring- 
 tides of the sea rolled round a cluster of islands, 
 of which Avallon was one, over the extensive 
 fens, which wiser generations have embanked and 
 reclaimed. 
 
 The abbey of Avallon, afterwards called Glaston- 
 bury, was, even then, a comely and commodious 
 pile, though not possessing any of that magnifi- 
 cence which the accumulated wealth of ages 
 subsequently gave to it. A large and strongly 
 fortified castle, almost adjoining the abbey, gave to 
 the entire place the air of a stronghold of the 
 church militant. King Melvas was one of the 
 pillars of the orthodoxy of those days : he was 
 called the Scourge of the Pelagians ; and extended 
 the shield of his temporal might over the spiritual 
 brotherhood of Avallon, who, in return, made it a 
 point of conscience not to stint him in absolutions. 
 
 Some historians pretend that a comfortable 
 nunnery was erected at a convenient distance from 
 the abbey, that is to say, close to it ; but this 
 involves a nice question in monastic antiquity, 
 which the curious may settle for themselves. 
 
 It was about midway between nones and vespers 
 when Taliesin sounded, on the gate of the abbey, 
 a notice of his wish for admission. A small trap- 
 door in the gate was cautiously opened, and a face, 
 as round and as red as the setting sun in November, 
 shone forth in the aperture. 
 
 The topographers who have perplexed them- 
 
The Ghostliness of Avallon. 119 
 
 selves- about the origin of the name of Ynys 
 Avallon, "the island of apples," had not the 
 advantage of this piece of meteoroscopy : if they 
 could have looked on this archetype of a Norfolk 
 biffin, with the knowledge that it was only a sample 
 of a numerous fraternity, they would at once have 
 perceived the fitness of the appellation. The 
 brethren of Avallon were the apples of the church. 
 It was the oldest monastic establishment in Britain ; 
 and consequently, as of reason, the most plump, 
 succulent, and rosy. It had, even in the sixth 
 century, put forth the fruits of good living, in a 
 manner that would have done honour to a more 
 enlightened age. It went on steadily improving in 
 this line till the days of its last abbot, Richard 
 Whiting, who built the stupendous kitchen, which 
 has withstood the ravages of time and the Reforma- 
 tion ; and who, as appears by authentic documents, 
 and, amongst others, by a letter signed with the 
 honoured name of Russell, was found guilty, by a 
 right worshipful jury, of being suspected of great 
 riches, and of an inclination to keep them ; and 
 was accordingly sentenced to be hanged forthwith, 
 along with his treasurer and sub-treasurer, who were 
 charged with aiding and abetting him in the safe 
 custody of his cash and plate ; at the same time 
 that the Abbot of Peterborough was specially 
 reprieved from the gallows, on the ground that he 
 was the said Russell's particular friend. This was 
 a compendium of justice and mercy according to 
 the new light of King Henry the Eighth. The 
 
I20 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 abbot's kitchen is the most interesting and perfect 
 portion of the existing ruins. These ruins were 
 overgrown with the finest ivy in England, till it 
 was, not long since, pulled down by some Vandal, 
 whom the Society of Antiquaries had sent down to 
 make drawings of the walls, which he executed 
 literally, by stripping them bare, that he might 
 draw the walls, and nothing else. Its shade no 
 longer waves over the musing moralist, who, with 
 folded arms, and his back against a wall, dreams 
 of the days that are gone; or the sentimental 
 cockney, who, seating himself with much gravity 
 on a fallen column, produces a flute from his 
 pocket, and strikes up " I'd be a butterfly." 
 
 From the phenomenon of a blushing fruit that 
 was put forth in the abbey gate of Avallon issued a 
 deep, fat, gurgling voice, which demanded of 
 Taliesin his name and business. 
 
 " I seek the Abbot of Avallon," said TaUesin. 
 
 " He is confessing a penitent," said the ghostly 
 brother, who was officiating in turn as porter. 
 
 " I can await his leisure," said Taliesin, " but I 
 must see him." 
 
 "Are you alone?" said the brother. 
 
 " I am," said Taliesin. 
 
 The gate unclosed slowly, just wide enough to 
 give him admittance. It was then again barred 
 and barricaded. 
 
 The ghostly brother, of whom Taliesin had now 
 a full view, had a figure corresponding with his 
 face, and wanted nothing but a pair of horns and 
 
77^1? Ghostliness of Avallon. 121 
 
 a beard in ringlets to look like an avatar of Bacchus. 
 He maintained, however, great gravity of face, and 
 decorum of gesture, as he said to Taliesin, " Hos- 
 pitality is the rule of our house ; but we are obliged 
 to be cautious in these times, though we live under 
 powerful protection. Those bloody Nimrods, the 
 Saxons, are athirst for the blood of the righteous. 
 Monsters that are born with tails." 
 
 Taliesin had not before heard of this feature of 
 Saxon conformation, and expressed his astonish- 
 ment accordingly. 
 
 "How?" said the monk. "Did not a rabble 
 of them fasten goats' tails to the robe of the blessed 
 preacher in Riw, and did he not, therefore, pray 
 that their posterity might be born with tails ? And 
 it is so. But let that pass. Have they not sacked 
 monasteries, plundered churches, and put holy 
 brethren to the sword ? The blood of the saints 
 calls for vengeance." 
 
 "And will have it," said Taliesin, "from the 
 hand of Arthur." 
 
 The name of Arthur evidently discomposed the 
 monk, who, desiring Taliesin to follow him, led the 
 way across the hall of the abbey, and along a short 
 wide passage, at the end of which was a portly 
 door. 
 
 The monk disappeared through this door, and, 
 presently returning, said, "The abbot requires 
 your name and quality." 
 
 "Taliesin, the bard of Elphin ap Gwythno 
 Garanhir," was the reply. 
 
122 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 The monk disappeared again, and returning, 
 after a longer pause than before, said, " You may 
 enter." 
 
 The abbot was a plump and comely man, of 
 middle age, having three roses in his complexion ; 
 one in full blossom on each cheek, and one in bud 
 on the tip of his nose. 
 
 He was sitting at a small table, on which stood 
 an enormous vase and a golden goblet; and op- 
 posite to him sat the penitent of whom the round- 
 faced brother had spoken, and in whom Taliesin 
 recognised his acquaintance of Dinas Vawr, who 
 called himself Seithenyn ap Seithyn. 
 
 The abbot and Seithenyn sat with their arms 
 folded on the table, leaning forward towards each 
 other, as if in momentous discussion. 
 
 The abbot said to Taliesin, "Sit;" and to his 
 conductor, " Retire, and be silent." 
 
 "Will it not be better," said the monk, "that I 
 cross my lips with the sign of secrecy ? " 
 
 " It is permitted," said the abbot. 
 
 Seithenyn held forth the goblet to the monk, 
 who swallowed the contents with much devotion. 
 He then withdrew, and closed the door. 
 
 " I bid you most heartily welcome," said Seith- 
 enyn to Taliesin. " Drink off this, and I will tell 
 you more. You are admitted to this special sitting 
 at my special instance. I told the abbot I knew 
 you well. Now I will tell you what I know. You 
 have told King Arthur that King Melvas has 
 possession of Queen Gwenyvar, and, in con- 
 
The Ghostliness of A vallon, 123 
 
 sequence, King Arthur is coming here, to sack 
 and raze the castle and abbey, and cut every throat 
 in the isle of Avallon. I have just brought the 
 abbot this pleasant intelligence, and, as I knew it 
 would take him down a cup or two, I have also 
 brought what I call my little jug, to have the 
 benefit of his judgment on a piece of rare wine 
 which I have broached this morning : there is no 
 better in Caer Lleon. And now we are holding 
 council on the emergency. But I must say you 
 abuse your bardic privilege, to enjoy people's 
 hospitality, worm out their secrets, and carry the 
 news to the enemy. It was partly to give you this 
 candid opinion, that I have prevailed on the abbot 
 to admit you to this special sitting. Therefore 
 drink. GwiN o eur : Wine from gold." 
 
 " King Arthur is not a Saxon, at any rate," 
 sighed the abbot, winding up his fainting spirits 
 with a draught. " Think not, young stranger, that 
 I am transgressing the laws of temperance : my 
 blood runs so cold when I think of the blood- 
 thirsty Saxons, that I take a little wine medicinally, 
 in the hope of warming it ; but it is a slow and 
 tedious remedy." 
 
 " Take a little more," said Seithenyn. " That is 
 the true quantity. Wine is my medicine ; and my 
 quantity is a little more. A little more." 
 
 " King Arthur," said Taliesin, " is not a Saxon ; 
 but he does not brook injuries lightly. It were 
 better for your abbey that he came not here in 
 arms. The aiders and abettors of Melvas, even 
 
1 24 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 though they be spiritual, may not carry off the 
 matter without some share of his punishment, 
 which is infallible." 
 
 "That is just what I've been thinking," said 
 Seithenyn. 
 
 "God knows," said the abbot, "we are not 
 abettors of Melvas, though we need his temporal 
 power to protect us from the Saxons." 
 
 " How can it be otherwise ? " said Taliesin, 
 " than that these Saxon despoilers should be in- 
 solent and triumphant, while the princes of Britain 
 are distracted with domestic broils : and for what ? " 
 
 " Ay," said Seithenyn, " that is the point. For 
 what ? For a woman, or some such rubbish." 
 
 " Rubbish, most verily," said the abbot. " Women 
 are the flesh which we renounce with the devil." 
 
 " Holy father," said Taliesin, " have you not 
 spiritual influence with Melvas, to persuade him to 
 surrender the queen without bloodshed, and, re- 
 newing his allegiance to Arthur, assist him in his 
 most sacred war against the Saxon invaders ? " 
 
 "A righteous work," said the abbot; "but 
 Melvas is headstrong and difficult." 
 
 "Screw yourself up with another goblet," said 
 Seithenyn; "you will find the difficulty smooth 
 itself off wonderfully. Wine from gold has a sort 
 of double light, that illuminates a dark path 
 miraculously." 
 
 The abbot sighed deeply, but adopted Seith- 
 enyn's method of throwing light on the subject. 
 
 " The anger of King Arthur," said Taliesin, " is 
 
The Ghostliness of Avallon. 125 
 
 certain, and its consequences infallible. The anger 
 of King Melvas is doubtful, and its consequences 
 to you cannot be formidable." 
 
 " That is nearly true," said the abbot, beginning 
 to look resolute, as the rosebud at his nose-tip 
 deepened into damask. 
 
 "A little more," said Seithenyn, "and it will 
 become quite true." 
 
 By degrees the proposition ripened into absolute 
 truth. The abbot suddenly inflated his cheeks, 
 started on his legs, and stalked bolt upright out of 
 the apartment, and forthwith out of the abbey, fol- 
 lowed by Seithenyn, tossing his goblet in the air, 
 and catching it in his hand, as he went. 
 
 The round-faced brother made his appearance 
 almost immediately. " The abbot," he said, " com- 
 mends you to the hospitality of the brotherhood. 
 They will presently assemble to supper. In the 
 meanwhile, as I am thirsty, and content with what- 
 ever falls in my way, I will take a simple and 
 single draught of whatever happens to be here." 
 
 His draught was a model of simplicity and 
 singleness ; for, having uplifted the ponderous vase, 
 he held it to his lips till he had drained it of the 
 very copious remnant which the abrupt departure 
 of the abbot had caused Seithenyn to leave in it. 
 
 Taliesin proceeded to enjoy the hospitality of 
 the brethren, who set before him a very comfort- 
 able hot supper, at which he quickly perceived, 
 that, however dexterous King Elphin might be at 
 catching fish, the monks of Avallon were very far 
 
126 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 his masters in the three great arts of cooking it, 
 serving it up, and washing it down; but he had 
 not time to profit b} their skill and experience in 
 these matters, for he received a pressing invita- 
 tion to the castle of Melvas, which he obeyed 
 immediately. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE RIGHT OF MIGHT. 
 
 The three triumphs of the bards of the isle of Britain : the 
 triumph of learning over ignorance ; the triumph of reason 
 over error ; and the triumph of peace over violence.— TVzai^ 
 of Bardism. 
 
 JRIEND Seithenyn," said the abbot, 
 when, having passed the castle gates, 
 and solicited an audience, he was pro- 
 ceeding to the presence of Melvas, " this task to 
 which I have accinged myself, is arduous, and in 
 some degree awful ; being in truth, no less than to 
 persuade a king to surrender a possession, which 
 he has inclination to keep for ever, and power to 
 keep, at any rate, for an indefinite time." 
 
 " Not so very indefinite," said Seithenyn ; "for 
 with the first song of the cuckoo (whom I mention 
 on this occasion as a party concerned), King 
 Arthur will batter his castle about his ears, and, in 
 all likelihood, the abbey about yours." 
 
 The abbot sighed heavily. 
 
 "If your heart fail you," said Seithenyn, 
 " another cup of wine will set all to rights." 
 
 "Nay, nay, friend Seithenyn," said the abbot, 
 
128 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 " that which I have already taken has just brought 
 me to the point at which the heart is inspirited 
 and the wit sharpened, without any infraction of 
 the wisdom and gravity which become my char- 
 acter, and best suit my present business." 
 
 Seithenyn, however, took an opportunity of 
 making signs to some cupbearers, and, when they 
 entered the apartment of Melvas they were followed 
 by vessels of wine and goblets of gold. 
 
 King Melvas was a man of middle age, with a 
 somewhat round, large, regular-featured face, and 
 an habitual smile of extreme self-satisfaction, which 
 he could occasionally convert into a look of terrific 
 ferocity, the more fearful for being rare. His 
 manners were, for the most part, pleasant. He 
 did much mischief, not for mischief's sake, nor yet 
 for the sake of excitement, but for the sake of 
 something tangible. He had a total and most com- 
 placent indifference to everything but his own will 
 and pleasure. He took what he wanted wherever 
 he could find it, by the most direct process, and 
 without any false pretence. He would have dis- 
 dained the trick which the chroniclers ascribed to 
 Hengist, of begging as much land as a bull's hide 
 would surround, and then shaving it into threads, 
 which surrounded a goodly space. If he wanted a 
 piece of land, he encamped upon it, saying, " This 
 is mine." If the former possessor could eject him, 
 so ; it was not his : if not, so ; it remained his. 
 Cattle, wine, furniture, another man's wife, what- 
 ever he took a fancy to, he pounced upon and 
 
The Right of Might. 1 29 
 
 appropriated. He was intolerant of resistance, 
 and, as the shortest way of getting rid of it, and 
 not from any blood-thirstiness of disposition, or, as 
 the phrenologists have it, development of the organ 
 of destructiveness, he always cut through the resist- 
 ing body, longitudinally, horizontally, or diagonally, 
 as he found most convenient. He was the arch- 
 marauder of West Britain. The abbey of Avallon 
 shared largely in the spoil, and they made up 
 together a most harmonious church and state. He 
 had some respect for King Arthur; wished him 
 success against the Saxons; knew the superiority 
 of his power to his own ; but he had heard that 
 Queen Gwenyvar was the most beautiful woman in 
 Britain ; was, therefore, satisfied of his own title to 
 her, and, as she was hunting in the forest, while 
 King Arthur was absent from Caer Lleon, he seized 
 her, and carried her off. 
 
 "Be seated, holy father," said Melvas; "and 
 you also, Seithenyn, unless the abbot wishes you 
 away." 
 
 But the abbot's heart misgave him, and he 
 assented readily to Seithenyn's stay. 
 
 Melvas. — Now, holy father, to your important 
 matter of private conference. 
 
 Seithenyn. — He is tongue-tied, and a cup too low. 
 
 The Abbot. — Set the goblet before me, and I will 
 sip in moderation. 
 
 Melvas. — Sip, or not sip, tell me your business. 
 
 The Abbot. — My business, of a truth, touches 
 the lady your prisoner, King Arthur's queen. 
 I 
 
1 30 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 Melvas. — She is my queen, while I have her, 
 and no prisoner. Drink, man, and be not afraid. 
 Speak your mind: I will listen, and weigh your 
 words. 
 
 The Abbot. — This queen — 
 
 Seithenyn. — Obey the king: first drink, then 
 speak. 
 
 The Abbot. — I drink to please the king. 
 
 Melvas. — Proceed. 
 
 The Abbot. — This queen, Gwenyvar, is as beauti- 
 ful as Helen, who caused the fatal war that ex- 
 pelled our forefathers from Troy : and I fear she 
 will be a second Helen, and expel their posterity 
 from Britain.* The infidel Saxons, to whom the 
 cowardly and perfidious Vortigern gave footing in 
 Britain, have prospered even more by the disunion 
 of her princes than either by his villany or their 
 own valour. And now there is no human hope 
 against them but in the arms of Arthur. And 
 how shall his arms prosper against the common 
 enemy, if he be forced to turn them on the children 
 of his own land for the recovery of his own 
 wife? 
 
 Melvas. — What do you mean by his own ? That 
 which he has is his own : but that which I have is 
 
 * According to the " British Chronicles," Brutus, the 
 great grandson of yEneas, having killed his father, Silvius, 
 to fulfil a prophecy, went to Greece, where he found the 
 posterity of Helenus, the son of Priam ; collected all of the 
 Trojan race within the limits of Greece ; and, after some 
 adventures by land and sea, settled them in Britain, which 
 was before uninhabited, "except by a few giants." 
 
The Right of Might. 1 3 1 
 
 mine. I have the wife in question, and some of 
 the land. Therefore, they are mine. 
 
 The Abbot. — Not so. The land is yours under 
 fealty to him. 
 
 Melvas. — As much fealty as I please, or he can 
 force me to give him. 
 
 The Abbot. — His wife, at least, is most lawfully 
 his. 
 
 Melvas. — The winner makes the law, and his law 
 is always against the loser. I am so far the winner, 
 and, by my own law, she is lawfully mine. 
 
 The Abbot. — There is a law above all human law, 
 by which she is his. 
 
 Melvas. — From that it is for you to absolve me : 
 and I dispense my bounty according to your 
 indulgence. 
 
 The Abbot. — There are limits we must not pass. 
 
 Melvas. — You set up your landmark, and I set 
 up mine. They are both movable. 
 
 The Abbot. — The Church has not been niggardly 
 in its indulgences to King Melvas. 
 
 Melvas. — Nor King Melvas in his gifts to the 
 Church. 
 
 The Abbot. — But setting aside this consideration, 
 I would treat it as a question of policy. 
 
 Seithenyn. — Now you talk sense. Right without 
 might is the lees of an old barrel, without a drop 
 of the original liquor. 
 
 The Abbot — I would appeal to you. King 
 Melvas, by your love to your common country, by 
 your love of the name of Britain, by your hatred 
 
132 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 of the infidel Saxons, by your respect for the char- 
 acter of Arthur ; will you let your passion for a 
 woman, even though she be a second Helen, 
 frustrate, or even impede, the great cause of driving 
 these spoilers from a land in which they have no 
 right even to breathe ? 
 
 Melvas. — They have a right to do all they do, 
 and to have all they have. If we can drive them 
 out, they will then have no right here. Have not 
 you and I a right to this good wine, which seems 
 to trip very merrily over your ghostly palate ? I 
 got it by seizing a good ship, and throwing the 
 crew overboard, just to remove them out of the 
 way, because they were troublesome. They dis- 
 puted my right, but I taught them better. I taught 
 them a great moral lesson, though they had not 
 much time to profit by it. If they had had the 
 might to throw me overboard, I should not have 
 troubled myself about their right any more, or at 
 any rate, any longer, than they did about mine. 
 
 Seithenyn. — The wine was lawful spoil of war. 
 
 The Abbot. — But, if King Arthur brings his might 
 to bear upon yours, I fear neither you nor I shall 
 have a right to this wine, nor to anything else that 
 is here. 
 
 Seithenyn. — Then make the most of it while you 
 have it. 
 
 The Abbot. — Now, while you have some months 
 of security before you, you may gain great glory by 
 surrendering the lady ; and, if you be so disposed, 
 you may, no doubt, claim from the gratitude of 
 
The Right of Might. 1 3 3 
 
 King Arthur, the fairest princess of his court to 
 wife, and an ample dower withal. 
 
 Melvas. — That offers something tangible. 
 
 Seithenyn. — Another ray from the golden goblet 
 will set it in a most luminous view. 
 
 The Abbot. — Though I should advise the not 
 making it a condition, but asking it as a matter of 
 friendship, after the first victory that you have 
 helped him to gain over the Saxons. 
 
 Melvas. — The worst of those Saxons is, that they 
 offer nothing tangible, except hard knocks. They 
 bring nothing with them. They come to take; 
 and lately they have not taken much. But I will 
 muse on your advice ; and, as it seems I may get 
 more by following than rejecting it, I shall very 
 probably take it, provided that you now attend 
 me to the banquet in the hall. 
 
 Seithenyn. — Now you talk of the hall and the 
 banquet, I will just intimate that the finest of all 
 youths, and the best of all bards, is a guest in the 
 neighbouring abbey. 
 
 Melvas. — If so, I have a clear right to him, as a 
 guest for myself. 
 
 The abbot was not disposed to gainsay King 
 Melvas's right. Taliesin was invited accordingly, 
 and seated at the left hand of the king, the abbot 
 being on the right. Taliesin summoned all the 
 energies of his genius to turn the passions of 
 Melvas into the channels of anti-Saxonism, and 
 succeeded so perfectly that the king and his whole 
 
134 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 retinue of magnanimous heroes were inflamed with 
 intense ardour to join the standard of Arthur ; and 
 Melvas vowed most solemnly to Taliesin that 
 another sun should not set before Queen Gwenyvar 
 should be under the most honourable guidance on 
 her return to Caer Lleon. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE CIRCLE OF THE BARDS. 
 
 The three dignities of poetry : the union of the true and 
 the wonderful; the union of the beautiful and the wise; 
 and the union of art and nature. — Triads of Poetry. 
 
 5MONGST the Christmas amusements of 
 Caer Lleon, a grand Bardic Congress 
 was held in the Roman theatre, when the 
 principal bards of Britain contended for the pre- 
 eminence in the art of poetry, and in its appropriate 
 moral and mystical knowledge. The meeting was 
 held by daylight. King Arthur presided, being 
 himself an irregular bard, and admitted on this 
 public occasion, to all the efficient honours of a 
 Bard of Presidency. 
 
 To preside in the Bardic Congress was long a 
 peculiar privilege of the kings of Britain. It was 
 exercised in the seventh century by King Cad- 
 wallader. King Arthur was assisted by twelve 
 umpires, chosen by the bards, and confirmed by 
 the king. 
 
 The Court, of course, occupied the stations of 
 honour, and every other part of the theatre was 
 crowded with a candid and liberal audience. 
 
136 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 The bards sate in a circle on that part of the 
 theatre corresponding with the portion which we 
 call the stage. 
 
 Silence was proclaimed by the herald ; and after 
 a grand symphony, which was led oif in fine style 
 by the king's harper, Geraint, Prince Cei came 
 forward, and made a brief oration, to the effect 
 that any of the profane who should be irregular 
 and tumultuous, would be forcibly removed from 
 the theatre, to be dealt with at the discretion of 
 the officer of the guard. Silence was then a second 
 time proclaimed by the herald. 
 
 Each bard, as he stood forward, was subjected 
 to a number of interrogatories, metrical and 
 mystical, which need not be here reported. Many 
 bards sang many songs. Amongst them. Prince 
 Llywarch sang — 
 
 GORWYNION V GAUAV. 
 
 THE BRILLIANCES OF WINTER. 
 
 Last of flowers, in tufts around 
 Shines the gorse's golden bloom : 
 Milkwhite lichens clothe the ground 
 'Mid the flowerless heath and broom : 
 Bright are holly-berries, seen 
 Red, through leaves of glossy green. 
 
 Brightly, as on rocks they leap. 
 Shine the sea-waves white with spray ; 
 Brightly, in the dingles deep, 
 Gleams the river's foaming way ; 
 Brightly through the distance show 
 Mountain summits clothed ip snow, 
 
The Circle of the Bards. 137 
 
 Brightly where the torrents bound, 
 Shines the frozen colonnade, 
 Which the black rocks, dripping round, 
 And the flying spray have made : 
 Bright the ice-drops on the ash 
 Leaning o'er the cataract's dash. 
 
 Bright the hearth, where feast and song 
 Crown the warrior's hour of peace, 
 While the snow-storm drives along, 
 Bidding war's worse tempest cease ; 
 Bright the hearth-flame flashing clear 
 On the up-hung shield and spear. 
 
 Bright the torch-light of the hall 
 When the wintry night-winds blow ; 
 Brightest when its splendours fall 
 On the mead-cup's sparkling flow : 
 While the maiden's smile of light 
 Makes the brightness trebly bright. 
 
 Close the portals ; pile the hearth ; 
 Strike the harp ; the feast pursue ; 
 Brim the horns : fire, music, mirth. 
 Mead and love are winter's due. 
 Spring to purple conflict calls 
 Swords that shine on Winter's walls. 
 
 Llywarch's song was applauded, as presenting 
 a series of images with which all present were 
 familiar, and which were all of them agreeable. 
 
 Merlin sang some verses of the poem which is 
 called — 
 
138 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 AVALLENAU MYRDDIN. 
 
 MERLIN'S APPLE-TREES. 
 
 Fair the gift to Merlin given. 
 Apple-trees seven score and seven ; 
 Equal all in age and size ; 
 On a green hill-slope that lies 
 Basking in the southern sun, 
 Where bright viraters murmuring run. 
 
 Just beneath, the pure stream flows ; 
 High above, the forest grows ; 
 Not again on earth is found 
 Such a slope of orchard ground : 
 Song of birds, and hum of bees. 
 Ever haunt the apple-trees. 
 
 Lovely green their leaves in spring ; 
 Lovely bright their blossoming : 
 Sweet the shelter and the shade 
 By their summer foliage made : 
 Sweet the fruit their ripe boughs hold, 
 Fruit delicious, tinged with gold. 
 
 Gloyad, nymph with tresses bright, 
 Teeth of pearl, and eyes of light. 
 Guards these gifts of Ceidio's son, 
 Gwendol, the lamented one, 
 Him, whose keen-edged sword no more 
 Flashes 'mid the battle's roar. 
 
 War has raged on vale and hill : 
 
 That fair grove was peaceful still. 
 
 There have chiefs and princes sought 
 
 Solitude and tranquil thought : 
 
 There have kings, from courts and throngs, 
 
 Turned to Merlin's wild-wood songs. 
 
The Circle of the Bards. 139 
 
 Now from echoing woods I hear 
 Hostile axes sounding near : 
 On the sunny slope reclined, 
 Feverish grief disturbs my mind, 
 Lest the wasting edge consume 
 My fair spot of fruit and bloom. 
 
 Lovely trees, that long alone 
 In the sylvan vale have grown, 
 Bare, your sacred plot around. 
 Grows the once wood-waving ground : 
 Fervent valour guards ye still ; 
 Yet my soul presages ill. 
 
 Well I know, when years have flown, 
 Briars shall grow where ye have grown : 
 Them in turn shall power uproot ; 
 Then again shall flowers and fruit 
 Flourish in the sunny breeze, 
 On my new-born apple-trees. 
 
 This song was heard with much pleasure, es- 
 pecially by those of the audience who could see, 
 in the imagery of the apple-trees, a mystical type 
 of the doctrines and fortunes of Druidism, to which 
 Merlin was suspected of being secretly attached, 
 even under the very nose of St David. 
 
 Aneurin sung a portion of his poem on the 
 battle of Cattraethj in which he shadowed out 
 the glory of Vortimer, the weakness of Vortigem, 
 the fascinations of Rowena, the treachery of 
 Hengist, and the vengeance of Emrys. 
 
140 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 THE MASSACRE OF THE BRITONS. 
 
 Sad was the day for Britain's land, 
 
 A day of ruin to the free, 
 
 When Gorthyn * stretched a friendly hand 
 
 To the dark dwellers of the sea.f 
 
 But not in pride the Saxon trod, 
 Nor force nor fraud oppressed the brave, 
 Ere the gray stone and flowery sod 
 Closed o'er the blessed hero's grave. J 
 
 The twice-raised monarch § drank the charm, 
 The love-draught of the ocean-maid : |1 
 Vain then the Briton's heart and arm, 
 Keen spear, strong shield, and burnished blade. 
 
 " Come to the feast of wine and mead," 
 Spake the dark dweller of the sea : IT 
 " There shall the hours in mirth proceed ; 
 There neither sword nor shield shall be." 
 
 Hard by the sacred temple's site. 
 Soon as the shades of evening fall. 
 Resounds with song and glows with light 
 The ocean-dweller's rude-built hall. 
 
 The sacred ground, where chiefs of yore 
 
 The everlasting fire adored, 
 
 The solemn pledge of safety bore. 
 
 And breathed not of the treacherous sword. 
 
 * Gwrtheyrn : Vortigem. 
 
 t Hengist and Horsa. 
 
 X Gwrthevyr : Vortimer : who drove the Saxons out of 
 Britain. 
 
 § Vortigem : who was, on the death of his son Vortimer, 
 restored to the throne from which he had been deposed. 
 
 II Ronwen : Rowena. 
 
 IT Hengist. 
 
The Circle of the Bards. 141 
 
 The amber wreath his temples bound ; 
 His vest concealed the murderous blade ; 
 As man to man, the board around, 
 The guileful chief his host arrayed. 
 
 None but the noblest of the land. 
 The flower of Britain's chiefs, were there : 
 Unarmed, amid the Saxon band, j 
 They sate, the fatal feast to share. 
 
 Three hundred chiefs, three score and three. 
 Went, where the festal torches burned 
 Before the dweller of the sea : 
 They went ; and three alone returned. 
 
 Till dawn the pale sweet mead they quaffed : 
 The ocean-chief unclosed his vest ; 
 His hand was on his dagger's haft, 
 And daggers glared at every breast. 
 
 But him, at Eidiol's * breast who aimed, 
 The mighty Briton's arm laid low : 
 His eyes with righteous anger flamed ; 
 He wrenched the dagger from the foe ; 
 
 And through the throng he cleft his way, 
 
 And raised without his battle cry ; 
 
 And hundreds hurried to the fray. 
 
 From towns, and vales, and mountains high. 
 
 But Britain's best blood dyed the floor 
 Within the treacherous Saxon's hall ; 
 Of all, the golden chain who wore, 
 Two only answered Eidiol's call. 
 
 Then clashed the sword ; then pierced the lance ; 
 Then by the axe the shield was riven ; 
 Then did the steed on Cattrae'th prance. 
 And deep in blood his hoofs were driven. 
 
 Eidiol or Emrys : Emrys Wledig : Ambrosius. 
 
142 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 Even as the flame consumes the wood, 
 So Eidiol rushed along the field ; 
 As sinks the snow-bank in the flood, 
 So did the ocean-rovers yield. 
 
 The spoilers from the fane he drove ; 
 He hurried to the rock-built tower, 
 Where the base king,* in mirth and love. 
 Sate with his Saxon paramour.* 
 
 The storm of arms was on the gate. 
 The blaze of torches in the hall, 
 So swift, that ere they feared their fate, 
 The flames had scaled their chamber wall. 
 
 They died : for them no Briton grieves ; 
 No planted flower above them waves ; 
 No hand removes the withered leaves 
 That strew their solitary graves. 
 
 And time the avenging day brought round 
 That saw the sea-chief vainly sue : 
 To make his false host bite the ground 
 Was all the hope our warrior knew. 
 
 And evermore the strife he led. 
 Disdaining peace, with princely might. 
 Till, on a spear, the spoiler's t head 
 Was reared on Caer-y-Cynan's height. 
 
 The song of Aneurin touched deeply on the 
 sympathies of the audience, and was followed by a 
 grand martial symphony, in the midst of which 
 Taliesin appeared in the Circle of Bards. King 
 Arthur welcomed him with great joy, and sweet 
 smiles were showered upon him from all the 
 beauties of the court. 
 
 * Vortigern and Rowena. t Hengist. 
 
The Circle of t fie Bards. 143 
 
 Taliesin answered the metrical and mystical 
 questions to the astonishment of the most pro- 
 ficient ; and, advancing, in his turn, to the front of 
 the circle, he sang a portion of a poem which is 
 now called Hanes Taliesin, The History of 
 Taliesin ; but which shall be here entitled 
 
 THE CAULDRON OF CERIDWEN. 
 
 The sage Ceridwen was the wife 
 Of Tegid Voel, of Pemble Mere : 
 Two children blest their wedded life, 
 Motvran and Creirwy, fair and dear : 
 Morvran, a son of peerless worth, 
 And Creirwy, loveliest nymph of earth : 
 But one more son Ceridwen bare, 
 As foul as they before were fair. 
 
 She strove to make Avagddu wise ; 
 She knew he never could be fair : 
 And, studying magic mysteries, 
 She gathered plants of virtue rare : 
 She placed the gifted plants to steep 
 Within the magic cauldron deep, 
 Where they a year and day must boil, 
 Till three drops crown the matron's toil. 
 
 Nine damsels raised the mystic flame ; 
 Gwion the Little near it stood : 
 The while for simples roved the dame 
 Through tangled dell and pathless wood 
 And, when the year and day had past. 
 The dame within the cauldron cast 
 The consummating chaplet wild. 
 While Gwion held the hideous child. 
 
144 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 But from the cauldron rose a smoke 
 
 That filled with darkness all the air : 
 
 When through its folds the torchlight broke, 
 
 Nor Gwion, nor the boy, was there. 
 
 The fire was dead, the cauldron cold, 
 
 And in it lay, in sleep unrolled, 
 
 Fair as the morning-star, a child. 
 
 That woke, and stretched its arms, and smiled. 
 
 What chanced her labours to destroy. 
 
 She never knew ; and sought in vain 
 
 If 'twere her own misshapen boy, 
 
 Or little Gwion, bom again : 
 
 And, vext with doubt, the babe she rolled 
 
 In cloth of purple and of gold. 
 
 And in a coracle consigned 
 
 Its fortunes to the sea and wind. 
 
 The summer night was still and bright. 
 The summer moon was large and clear, 
 The frail bark, on the springtide's height, 
 Was floated into Elphin's weir. 
 The baby in his arms he raised : 
 His lovely spouse stood by, and gazed. 
 And, blessing it with gentle vow, 
 Cried " Taliesin ! " " Radiant brow ! " 
 
 And I am he : and well I know 
 Ceridwen's power protects me still ; 
 And hence o'er hill and vale I go, 
 And sing, unharmed, whate'er I will. 
 She has for me Time's veil withdrawn : 
 The images of things long gone, 
 The shadows of the coming days, 
 Are present to my visioned gaze. 
 
The Circle of the Bards. 145 
 
 And I have heard the words of power, 
 By Ceirion's solitary lake, 
 That bid, at midnight's thrilling hour, 
 Eryri's hundred echoes wake. 
 I to Diganwy's towers have sped. 
 And now Caer Lleon's halls I tread. 
 Demanding justice, now, as then. 
 From Maelgon, most unjust of men. 
 
 The audience shouted with delight at the song 
 of Taliesin, and King Arthur, as President of the 
 Bardic Congress, conferred on him, at once, the 
 highest honours of the sitting. 
 
 Where Taliesin picked up the story which he 
 told of himself, why he told it, and what he meant 
 by it, are questions not easily answered. Certain 
 it is, that he told this story to his contemporaries, 
 and that none of them contradicted it. It may, 
 therefore, be presumed that they believed itj as 
 any one who pleases is most heartily welcome to 
 do now. 
 
 Besides the single songs, there were songs in 
 dialogue, approaching very nearly to the character 
 of dramatic poetry ; and pennillion, or unconnected 
 stanzas, sung in series by different singers, the 
 stanzas being complete in themselves, simple as 
 Greek epigrams, and presenting in succession moral 
 precepts, pictures of natural scenery, images of war 
 or of festival, the lamentations of absence or 
 captivity, and the complaints or triumphs of love. 
 This pennillion-singing long survived among the 
 Welsh peasantry almost every other vestige of 
 bardic customs, and may still be heard among 
 K 
 
146 The Misfortunes of Elf kin. 
 
 them on the few occasions on which rack-renting, 
 tax - collecting, common - enclosing, methodist- 
 preaching, and similar developments of the light 
 of the age, have left them either the means or 
 inclination of making merry. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE JUDGMENTS OF ARTHUR. 
 
 Three things to which success cannot fail where they shall 
 justly be : discretion, exertion, and hope. — Triads of Wisdom. 
 
 »ING ARTHUR had not long returned to 
 his hall, when Queen Gwenyvar arrived, 
 escorted by the Abbot of Avallon and 
 Seithenyn ap Seithyn Saidi, who had brought his 
 golden goblet, to gain a new harvest of glory from 
 the cellars of Caer Lleon. 
 
 Seithenyn assured King Arthur, in the name of 
 King Melvas, and on the word of a king, backed 
 by that of his butler, which, truth being in wine, is 
 good warranty even for a king, that the queen 
 returned as pure as on the day King Melvas had 
 carried her off. 
 
 "None here will doubt that," said Gwenvach, 
 the wife of Modred. Gwenyvar was not pleased 
 with the compliment, and, almost before she had 
 saluted King Arthur, she turned suddenly round 
 and slapped Gwenvach on the face, with a force 
 that brought more crimson into one cheek than 
 blushing had ever done into both. This slap is 
 recorded in the Bardic Triads as one of the Three 
 
148 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 Fatal Slaps of the Island of Britain. A terrible 
 effect is ascribed to this small cause ; for it is said 
 to have been the basis of that enmity between 
 Arthur and Modred, which terminated in the 
 battle of Camlan, wherein all the flower of Britain 
 perished on both sides : a catastrophe more 
 calamitous than any that ever before or since 
 happened in Christendom, not even excepting 
 that of the battle of Roncesvalles ; for, in the 
 battle of Camlan, the Britons exhausted their own 
 strength, and could no longer resist the progress 
 of the Saxon supremacy. This, however, was a 
 later result, and comes not within the scope of the 
 present veridicous narrative. 
 
 Gwenvach having flounced out of the hall, and 
 the tumult occasioned by this little incident having 
 subsided. Queen Gwenyvar took her ancient seat 
 by the side of King Arthur, who proceeded to 
 inquire into the circumstances of her restoration. 
 The Abbot of Avallon began an oration, in praise 
 of his own eloquence, and its miraculous effects on 
 King Melvas ; but he was interrupted by Seithenyn, 
 who said, " The abbot's eloquence was good and 
 well timed ; but the chief merit belongs to this 
 young bard, who prompted him with good counsel, 
 and to me, who inspirited him with good liquor. 
 If he had not opened his mouth pretty widely when 
 I handed him this golden goblet, exclaiming Gwin 
 o EUR, he would never have had the heart to open 
 it to any other good purpose. But the most 
 deserving person is this very promising youth, in 
 
The Judgments of Arthur. 149 
 
 whom I can see no fault, but that he has not the 
 same keen perception as my friend the abbot has 
 of the excellent relish of wine from gold. To be 
 sure, he plied me very hard with strong drink in 
 the hall of Dinas Vawr, and thereby wormed out 
 of me the -secret of Queen Gwenyvar's captivity ; 
 and, afterwards, he pursued us to Avallon, where 
 he persuaded me and the abbot, and the abbot 
 persuaded King Melvas, that it would be better 
 for all parties to restore the queen peaceably : and 
 then he clenched the matter with the very best 
 song I ever heard in my life. And, as my young 
 friend has a boon to ask, I freely give him all 
 my share of the merit, and the abbot's into the 
 bargain." 
 
 " Allow me, friend Gwm o eur," said the abbot, 
 " to dispose of my own share of merit in my own 
 way. But, such as it is, I freely give it to this 
 youth, in whom, as you say, I can see no fault, but 
 that his head is brimful of Pagan knowledge." 
 
 Arthur paid great honour to Taliesin, and placed 
 him on his left hand at the banquet. He then 
 said to him, "I judge, from your song of this 
 morning, that the boon you require from me 
 concerns Maelgon Gwyneth. What is his trans- 
 gression, and what is the justice you require ? " 
 
 Taliesin narrated the adventures of Elphin in 
 such a manner as gave Arthur an insight into his 
 affection for Melanghel ; and he supplicated King 
 Arthur to command and enforce the liberation of 
 Elphin from the stone tower of Diganwy. 
 
150 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 Before King Arthur could signify his assent, 
 Maelgon Gwyneth stalked into the hall, followed 
 by a splendid retinue. He had been alarmed by 
 the absence of Rh<ln, had sought him in vain on 
 the banks of the Mawddach, had endeavoured to 
 get at the secret by pouncing upon Angharad and 
 Melanghel, and had been baffled in his project by 
 the vigilance of Teithrin ap Tathral. He had, 
 therefore, as a last resort, followed Taliesin to 
 Caer Lleon, conceiving that he might have had 
 some share in the mysterious disappearance of 
 Rhiin. 
 
 Arthur informed him that he was in possession 
 of all the circumstance, and that Rhdn, who 
 was in safe custody, would be liberated on the 
 restoration of Elphin. 
 
 Maelgon boiled with rage and shame, but had 
 no alternative but submission to the'will of Arthur. 
 
 King Arthur commanded that all the parties 
 should be brought before him. Caradoc was 
 charged with the execution of this order, and, 
 having received the necessary communications and 
 powers from Maelgon and Taliesin, he went first 
 to Diganwy, where he liberated Elphin, and then 
 proceeded to give effect to Teithrin's declaration, 
 that " no hand but Elphin's should raise the stone 
 of Rhfin's captivity. Rhdn, while his pleasant 
 adventure had all the gloss of novelty upon it, and 
 his old renown as a gay deceiver was consequently 
 in such dim eclipse, was very unwilling to present 
 himself before the ladies of Caer Lleon; but 
 
The Judgments of A rthur. 151 
 
 Caradoc was peremptory, and carried off the crest- 
 fallen prince, together with his bard of all work, 
 who was always willing to go to any court, with 
 any character, or none. 
 
 Accordingly, after a moderate lapse of time, 
 Caradoc reappeared in the hall of Arthur, with 
 the liberated captives, accompanied by Angharad 
 and Melanghel, and Teithrin ap Tathral. 
 
 King Arthur welcomed the new comers with a 
 magnificent festival, at which all the beauties of 
 his court were present, and, addressing himself to 
 Elphin, said, "We are all debtors to this young 
 bard : my queen and myself for her restoration to 
 me ; you for your liberation from the Stone Tower 
 of Diganwy. Now, if there be, amongst all these 
 ladies, one whom he would choose for his bride, 
 and in whose eyes he may find favour, I will give 
 the bride a dowry worthy of the noblest princess 
 in Britain." 
 
 Taliesin, thus encouraged, took the hand of 
 Melanghel, who did not attempt to withdraw it, 
 but turned to her father a blushing face, in which 
 he read her satisfaction and her wishes. Elphin 
 immediately said, " I have nothing to give him 
 but my daughter; but her I most cordially give 
 him." 
 
 Taliesin said, "I owe to Elphin more than I 
 can ever repay : life, honour, and happiness." 
 
 Arthur said, " You have not paid him ill ; but 
 you owe nothing to Maelgon and Rhlin, who are 
 your debtors for a lesson of justice, which I hope 
 
152 The Misfortunes of Elphin. 
 
 they will profit by during the rest of their lives. 
 Therefore Maelgon shall defray the charge of your 
 wedding, which shall be the most splendid that has 
 been seen in Caer Lleon." 
 
 Maelgon looked exceedingly grim, and wished 
 himself well back in Diganwy. 
 
 There was a very pathetic meeting of recognition 
 between Seithenyn and his daughter ; at the end 
 of which he requested her husband's interest to 
 obtain for him the vacant post of second butler to 
 King Arthur. He obtained this honourable office ; 
 and was so zealous in the fulfilment of its duties, 
 that, unless on actual service with a detachment of 
 liquor, he never was a minute absent from the 
 Temple of Diana. 
 
 At a subsequent Bardic Congress, Taliesin was 
 unanimously elected Pen Beirdd, or Chief of the 
 Bards of Britain. The kingdom of Caredigion 
 flourished under the protection of Arthur, and, in 
 the ripeness of time, passed into the hands of 
 Avaon, the son of Taliesin and Melanghel. 
 
 '*i?^^»^ 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 The following are literal translations of the 
 Welsh songs from which several of the lyrics in 
 " The Misfortunes of Elphin " are imitated. When 
 not otherwise stated, they are taken from Mr 
 Nash's "Taliesin; or, The Bards and Druids of 
 Britain," 1858. 
 
 THE LAMENTATION OF GWYTHNO (p. 52). 
 [Lady Charlotte Guest's Mabinogion, p. 502.] 
 
 Stand forth Seithenyn and behold the dwelling of heroes — 
 the plain of Gwyddno the ocean covers ! 
 
 Accursed be the sea-guard who, after his carousal, let 
 forth the destroying ocean of the raging deep 1 
 
 Accursed be the watcher who, after his drunken revelry, 
 loosed the fountain of the desolating sea ! 
 
 A cry from the sea arises above the ramparts ; even to 
 heaven does it ascend. After the fierce excess comes the long 
 cessation. 
 
 A cry from the sea ascends above the ramparts ; even to 
 heaven does the supplication come. After the excess there 
 ensues restraint. 
 
 A cry from the sea awakens me this night ! 
 
 A cry from the sea arises above the winds ! 
 
 A cry from the sea impels me from my place of rest this 
 night ! 
 
 After excess comes the far extending death ! 
 
I $6 Appendix. 
 
 THE CONSOLATION OF ELPHIN (p. 59). 
 
 Fair Elphin, cease to lament. 
 
 Let no one be dissatisfied with his own. 
 
 To despair will bring no advantage. 
 
 No man sees what supports him. 
 
 The prayer of Cynllo will not be in vain, 
 
 God will not violate his promise. 
 
 Never in Gwyddno's weir 
 
 Was there such good luck as this night. 
 
 Fair Elphin, dry thy cheeks ! 
 
 Being too sad will not avail, 
 
 Although thou thinkest thou hast no gain. 
 
 Too much grief will bring thee no good ; 
 
 Nor doubt the miracles of the Almighty ; 
 
 Although I am but little I am highly gifted. 
 
 From seas and from mountains 
 
 And from the depths of rivers, 
 
 God brings wealth to the fortunate man. 
 
 Elphin of lively qualities, 
 
 Thy resolution is unmanly ; 
 
 Thou must not be over sorrowful : 
 
 Better to trust in God than to forebode ill. 
 
 Weak and small as I am, 
 
 On the foaming beach of the ocean. 
 
 In the day of trouble I shall be 
 
 Of more service to thee than three hundred salmon 
 
 Elphin of notable qualities. 
 
 Be not displeased at thy misfortune ; 
 
 Although reclined thus weak in my bag. 
 
 There lies a virtue In my tongue . 
 
 While I continue thy protector 
 
 Thou hast not much to fear ; 
 
 Remembering the name of the Trinity, 
 
 None shall be able to harm thee. 
 
Appendix. 157 
 
 THE MEAD SONG (p. 83). 
 
 I pray the Lord, the ruler of every place, 
 
 He who sustains the heavens, the Lord over all, 
 
 He vfho made the water and all things good, 
 
 He who bestows every gift and all prosperity. 
 
 A giver of mead is Maelgwyn of Mona, and at his mead -board 
 
 His mead-horns circulate mead of the right colour. 
 
 The bee has collected it, and has not used it. 
 
 For the distilling of the luscious mead, praised be it above all 
 
 The numerous creatures that the earth has produced. 
 
 God made it as a gift to man. 
 
 The wise and the foolish enjoy it. 
 
 Some wild, some tame, God has made them. 
 
 They produce good clothing. 
 
 Intreat the prince, the chief of a peaceful land. 
 
 For the return of Elphin from banishment. 
 
 He who has given me wine and ale and mead, 
 
 And large powerful horses of beautiful shape. 
 
 And would give me anything at my request. 
 
 By the will of God, if set free through respect 
 
 (There shall be) five times five hundred festivals in perfect 
 
 peace. 
 Should Elphin, the keen warrior, possess thy confidence. 
 
 THE INDIGNATION OF TALIESIN WITH THE 
 BARDS OF MAELGON GWYNETH (p. 89). 
 
 [This poem, as it appears in " The Misfortunes of Elphin,'' 
 is a compound of two poems, " The Spite of the Bards," and 
 an untitled address appended to this piece (Fustl y Beirdd) in 
 the Myvyrian Archeology. Of the former Nash says, " It 
 is astonishing that this piece should ever have been con- 
 sidered to be a composition of the sixth century. It is an 
 attack upon the Cler, or strolling minstrels. The whole 
 
158 Appendix. 
 
 style of the piece is of the fourteenth century, and it is now 
 recognised as the production of Jonas Athraw, a monk of St 
 David's." It and its companion are thus translated by Mr 
 Nash.] 
 
 Strolling minstrels are addicted to evil habits. 
 
 Immoral songs are their delight. 
 
 In a tasteless manner they rehearse the praises of heroes. 
 
 Falsehood at all times they use. 
 
 The commandments and ordinances of God they break. 
 
 Married women they lay hold of. 
 
 With evil intentions, they are very deceiving. 
 
 The fair virgins of Mary they corrupt. 
 
 Those who put trust in them they bring to shame, 
 
 And true men they laugh to scorn. 
 
 And times and seasons they spend in vanities. 
 
 At night they get drunk, by day they sleep. 
 
 In ease without work they support themselves. 
 
 The church they hate, the tavern they frequent. 
 
 With false thieves they associate. 
 
 Halls and banquets they seek after. 
 
 All kinds of senseless stories they relate. 
 
 All kinds of mortal sin they praise. 
 
 Through every village, town, and country they stroll. 
 
 All filthy vanities they indulge in. 
 
 The ordinances of the Trinity they deny ; 
 
 Neither on holidays nor on Sundays do they worship. 
 
 Of the day of death they think not. 
 
 From all kinds of gluttony they do not refrain. 
 
 Fond of excess in eating and drinking. 
 
 Tithes and household offerings they do not pay. 
 
 Legally appointed persons they mock at. 
 
 Birds fly, and bees collect honey ; 
 
 Fish swim, and worms crawl ; 
 
 All creatures are journeying after food, 
 
 Except minstrels and idle fellows, and manifest thieves. 
 
 Do not disparage mixed learning or minstrelsy, 
 
Appendix. i $9 
 
 For God has given us (enough of) pain and sorrow ; 
 But those who put them to a bad use 
 In blaspheming Jesus and His service. 
 
 Be silent, unlucky, mistaken, catechising Bards, 
 
 Ye know not how to judge between truth and falsehood. 
 
 If ye are chief bards of the work of the Lord, 
 
 Tell your king what will be his fate. 
 
 I am a diviner and an impartial chief Bard, 
 
 And I know every door-post in the land of your king. 
 
 I will liberate Elphin from the cavern of the tower of stone. 
 
 And I will tell to your king something that will trouble him. 
 
 There shall come a wonderful worm from the sea marsh of 
 
 Rhianedd, 
 To take vengeance for iniquity upon Maelgwyn Gwynedd. 
 His hair, his teeth, his eyes of a golden form. 
 And he shall take vengeance on Maelgwyn Gwynedd. 
 
 TURNEUI-L AXD SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH. 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PR 5162.M6 1891 
 
 The misfortunes of Eiphin; 
 
 3 1924 013 534 148