Taliesin also avows his personal acquaintance with the events he narrates :

а

Conspicuously before the sons of Llyr at the outlets of Henvelen;
I saw the oppression of the tumult, and wrath and tribulation :
The weapons glittered on the splendid helmets
Conspicuously before the Lord of Fame in the dales of the Severn,
Before Brochwel of Powys, who loved my muse.

Arch. p. 66.

.
Ceint rac meibion Llyr yn ebyr Henfelen
Gweleis treis trydar ac asar ac anghen
Yd lethrynt lasnawr ar bennawr disgywen
Ceint rhagg udd clodeu yn noleu Hasren
Rhag Brochwel Powys a garwys fy Awen.

TALIESIN, p. 66.
4. Many passages may be noticed in these poems which seem
to have been taken from objects and incidents then really existing,
and which could hardly have occurred to the mind of a fraudulent
impostor, especially in those rude ages, when the artful precautions
of literary deceit were very little understood.

Urien had a sister named Eurddyl. It was natural, that on Urien's assassination, Llywarch, his friend, should think of the grief which the catastrophe would occasion to his sister, and that the bard should mention the circumstance in his elegy on Urien ; accordingly he twice alludes to her feelings:

Eurddyl will be disconsolate to-night,

In Aber Lleu Urien was slain. 1
It seems to me to be likewise a genuine, but not an obvious
circumstance, that in the night after the battle, in which his patron
Cynddylan fell, the bard should feel himself interrupted by the
screams of the birds of prey over their dismal repast." Their cries
recall to his recollection his friend, whose remains were at their
mercy :

Eagle of Eli, thou dost scream loudly to-night;
In the blood of men thou dost eagerly swim
He is in the wood — heavy is my grief, a

ANEURIN, p. 18

Gweleis oedd cynnevin ar dref Fiedegein
A gwyr Nwythion rygodesyn
Gweleis gwyr dullyawr gan aur addevyn

A phen Dyfawal a breich brein ae cnoyn
1 Handid Eurddyl avlawen henoeth,

Yn aber Lleu lladd Urien.
Eryr Eli, gorelwi heno,
Yn ngwaed gwyr gwynnovi ;
Ev yn nghoed, trwm hoed i mi.

LL. Hen, Arch. 105.

Ib. 109.

Llywarch speaks of an event as having happened on the preceding night. This is a phrase which would hardly have been used in a surreptitious poem:

Gwen, by the Llawen watched
Last night, with the shield uplifted -

As he was my son, he did not retreat. ) Is not the following passage the description of a man who had beheld the object he mentions?

When Pyll was slain, gashing was the wound,
And the blood on the hair seemed horrible. ?

There is much natural representation in the passage of his elegy on Urien, of the confused state of his army after their leader's

fall :

On Friday I saw great anxiety
Among the baptized embattled hosts,
Like a swarm without a hive. 3

The account of the pursuit made after Urien's murderer is also very natural :

There is commotion in every region,
In search of Llofan with the detested hand. 4

The real Llywarch, seated in the mansion of Urien, when he wrote his elegy, might allude to it as before him, in the manner he does in the following verses, but the images would hardly have occurred to an impostor :

Many a hunting dog and towering hawk
Have been trained on this floor,
Before Erlleon became polluted.
This hearth - ah! will it not be covered with nettles !
Whilst its defender lived
It was accustomed to petitioners.

LL. HEN, Arch. 116.

Ib. 117.

I Gwen wrth Lawen ydd wyliis

Neithwyr, a'r ysgwyd ar ygnis ;

Can bu mab i mi ni ddiengis.
2 Pan las Pyll oedd tywyll briw

A gwaed or wallt hyll
3 Dyw Gwener gwelais i ddiwyd mawr

Ar vyddinawr bedydd

Haid heb vodrydav hy bydd. 4 Cyrchyniad yn mhob bro

Yn wyse Llovan Llawddifro.

Ib. 105.

Ib. 106.

This hearth, will it not be turned up by swine!
It has been more accustomed to the clamour of men

And the circling horns of the banquet.! The topics of a forger are more general than these, and more remote from individual reality.

The images of a light fall of snow — of the warriors advancing over it to the combat; but of Llywarch staying at home, from age, have the semblance of reality in these lines :

Scarcely has the snow covered the vale.-
The warriors are hast’ning to battle.

I shall not go : infirmity will not let me. 2 In the poems of Taliesin, there are some passages which seem taken from the life. I would refer to the Mead Song already quoted, on this subject, and will also adduce another passage on

his son:

Avagddu, my son, also,
The blessed Lord caused him to be formed.
In the mutual contention of songs,

His wit was superior to mine.3
This seems very natural turn of thought for a parent proud of

his son.

The apostrophe of Aneurin to the son of Clydno, may be also mentioned :

He would slay the ravagers with the swiftest blade :
Like rushes would they fall before his arm.

i Llawer ci geilic a hebawe wryenic

A lithiwyd ar y llawe
Cyn bu Erlleon llawedrawr.
Yr aelwyd hon neus cudd dynad
Tra vu vyw ei gwarcheidwad
Mwy gorddyvnasai eirchiad.
Yr aelwydd hon neus cladd hwch
Mwy gorddyvnasai elwch gwyr
Ac am gyrn cyveddwch.

LL. HEN. 106.
Otid eiry toid ystrad
Dyvrysiant cedwyr i gad
Mi nid av anav ni'm gad.

Ib. 119. 3 Afagddu fy mab innue

Dedwydd Dofydd rhwy goreu
Ynghysamryson cerddeu
Oedd gwell ei synwyr no'r fau'.

Taliesin, 68. The bards frequently contended with each other for pre-eminence, and their patrons adjudged prizes to the superior genius. An instance of these contentions in the twelfth century, was the competition of Cyndelw with Seisyll, for the chair of Madoc, prince of Powys. The poem in the Welsh Archaiology, p. 210., is upon this struggle. In the fifteenth century these contentions were very frequent. In the above passage, Taliesin alludes to those of his times. VOL. III.

R R

Son of Clydno ! of extended fame: I will sing to thee
With praise without bound, without end."

When the same poet, after celebrating the valour of a hero, calls by name on some persons who were present at the battle as witnesses to the truth of his panegyric, it seems to me not to be an artificial thought :

When Caradoc hastened to the conflict,
Like the boar of the wood fiercely he would tear.
The bull of battle — he fell’d them down in the struggle.
He would allure the wild dogs with his hand.
My witness is Owen the son of Eulad,

And Gwrien, and Gwyn, and Gwriat.2 The following account of the escape of the bard from this destructive battle, may be also noticed as an artless indication of the author of the poem being a contemporary and witness of the scene he narrates :

Men went to Cattraeth: they were notorious.
Wine and mead, from gold, were their liquors:
Three heroes, and three hundred and sixty wearing the golden

torques.
They were of those who hastened after excess of liquor.
There escaped only three from the power of their swords.
Two war dogs from Aeron and Cynon,
And I - from my blood-spilling by the value of my blessed

muse.3 From the passage which I shall next cite, it would seem that Cenau, the son of Llywarch Hên, had once released Aneurin from a prison. In mentioning this warrior, it was very natural that the bard's gratitude should remember and record the incident to which he had been so much indebted; but I do not think that the

ANEUR. p. 9.

1 Ef laddei oswydd a llafn llymmaf

Mal brwyn yt gwyddynt rac y adaf
Mab Clytno clothir canaf y ty

Or clot heb or heb eithaf.
2 Pan gryssyei Garadawc y gat

Mal baedd coet trychwn trychiat
Tarw beddin yn trin gomynyat
Ef lithyei wyd gwn oe anghat
Ys vy vhyst Ewein vab Eulat

A Gwrien a Gwyn a Gwriat.
3 Gwyr a aeth Gattraeth buant en wawc

Gwin a med o eur vu eu gwirawd
Blwyddyn yn erbyn wrdyn deawd
Triwyr a thri ugeint a thrichant eurdorchaud
Or saul yt grysiasant uch gormant wiraut
Ny diengei namyn tri o wrhydri ffossawt
Deu gatci Aeron a Chenon dayar awt
A minneu om guaetfreu gwerth vy guennaut.

Ib.

thought would have occurred to a fraudulent impostor, as the author of the Gododin must have been, if he was not an Aneurin :

From the power of the sword, illustrious to protect
From the fierce prison of earth he brought me ;
From the place of death; from an unlovely land,
Cenau, the son of Llywarch, energetic and bold.

The expressions which Aneurin, before this, used concerning the misfortune to which he here alludes, have an appearance of reality unsuitable to imposture :

I am not turbulent, or self-willed;
I will not revenge my destiny -
In the earthy house,
With the iron chain
About the top of my two knees,
From the mead, from the festive horns,
From the host at Cattraeth.2

It would seem, from this passage, that the bard had been taken prisoner at this unfortunate battle.

It would be intruding too long on the patience of the reader, to discuss this subject in its full extent. I will therefore only notice,

5thly, Those allusions which relate to the personal feelings of these bards. Fictitious poems seldom touch on this topic, because it is not easy to counterfeit true feeling. I can still less suspect any one before the twelfth century to have thought of counterfeiting it.

In the poems of Taliesin upon Urien, there is a perpetual expression of gratitude, which is far more likely to be found in a composition addressed to a living patron, whom such sentiments would gratify, than to have been used in forged poetry:

Several of Taliesin's panegyrical odes close with these earnest phrases of attachment. I will cite three:

ANEUR, 8.

I also, Taliesin
May I be blind in age,
! Onerth y cleddyf claer vy hamuc

O garchar anwar daear ym duc
O gyvle angheu o anghar dut

Ceneu vab Llywarch dihafarch drut.
2 Nyt wyf vynawc blin

Ni ddialav vy ordin
Yn y ty deyerin
Catuyn heyernin
Am benn vy deulin
O ved o vuelin
O Gattraeth wnin.

Ib. .