Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

thoughts, which must, as I conceive, when applied to all works of nature, arrive at one incontrovertable conclusion, namely, the goodness of Providence; how wisely has the Deity implanted instinct in his creatures! This phalarope is the fifth which is recorded to have been shot in the British Isles. Where could the little wanderer come from? who guided its solitary course over the distant tractless ocean? who could tell it that there was land, perhaps, many thousands of miles over the waters, suitable to its habits and necessities; and sustain it on its course, in the day, over the glittering expanse, or in the moon-lit night, or during the life-destroying hurricane? who could do this but the Almighty Maker of it, and us, and of all the world? Surely the wavering and irresolute need no stronger proof of Omnipotence and Mercy than the safe arrival, from distant countries, to our shores, of the delicate but beautiful little phalarope.

WHEN THE SUN HAS SET.

[FROM S. R. JACKSON'S UNPUBLISHED POEMS.]

WHEN the sun has set,

And the stars have met,

And the moon is with them shining;

When the wind sighs through those locks of jet,

Round that fair forehead twining

I'll come to thee, then think of me,

Nay droop not that we sever;

Ere yonder star sinks in the sea
We meet again, or never.

I'll come to thee, when midnight sleeps
Upon the mist-clad mountain,

Ere morn's cold eye its dew-drop weeps,
At Winefreda's fountain.

Then think of me, I'll think of thee,

Nor droop because we sever;

Ere yonder star sinks in the sea

We'll meet again, or never.

THE MABINOGI OF TALIESIN.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

IN selecting the romance here submitted to your readers, as a farther specimen of the ancient tales I have it in contemplation to publish, I have been principally swayed by these two considerations; the bringing forward a tale whose composer or adapter, and the period at which he flourished, are known,—and the elucidation of the era of some poetical pieces, which have been generally ascribed to Taliesin.

In these respects I deem this performance of interest; for no other work of this description, that has come under my observation, can be appropriated with certainty to any determinate period; nor can a more satisfactory clue to the reasons for composing poems in the names of celebrated characters be required.

The compiler, Hopkin Thomas Phillip, wrote this piece, about the year 1370. He lived in Morganwg, or Glamorgan; and his language is an interesting specimen of the Gwentian dialect, and an elegant model for prose composition. I, however, have reason to suspect that some of the poetical parts of this romance have been taken by him from some previous work of the same description, as the style and language would induce us to ascribe them to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; and some of them are attributed to Jonas Mynyw, or Jonas of Menevia, who appears to have lived at a period anterior to our author.

That this species of composition prevailed in Wales for many centuries we are well assured; and we have an appropriate parallel to our present inquiry, in the declared intention of Geofry of Monmouth to embody the vaticinations of Merddin (Merlin) in a romance, which intention he afterwards relinquished, and published them in a poetical form, without the connecting narrative which he previously contemplated.

It is not unlikely some romance based upon the history of Taliesin, similar to the one under consideration, may have been known at the period of the first Norman lords of Glamorgan, and the language, by the lapse of time, may have become too obsolete for the facile comprehension of all classes; and Hopkin Thomas Phillip may have modernized

the narrative prose, and given the best version of the poetry he could procure. This surmise is strengthened by the very numerous copies we possess of these poetical pieces, some of which greatly differ from each other, apparently taken down from oral delivery of the tale by various reciters, and which could not well occur if the composition was the entire work of a person so late as the conclusion of the fourteenth century. (The Gaelic sgeulachds, or scholia, which accompany the old Gaelic poems attributed to Ossian, and described as containing the achievements of Fingal, &c., appear to have been similar in composition to tales of this description.)

Of the narrative part but one version exists, and therefore it requires no observation. Of the poetical portion, I have selected those readings which appeared to be the best, and admitted of the most consistent translation. Many of these poetical compositions have long been known and admired as most happy efforts in the Welsh language; and the author, though unknown, as it is not consistent with probability to attribute them to any person anterior to the twelfth century, nor so late as the close of the fourteenth, must rank high among those gifted men who have been the most successful votaries of the British awen, (poetical inspiration.) These pieces, beautiful as they are, we must arrange in their proper rank, reject them as historical documents, and discard them as the genuine compositions of Taliesin, the bard of Urien Reged and Rhun.

The editors of the Myvyrian Archaiology were bound to give to the world all the pieces, whatever their origin, which were ascribed to the poets whose works were comprised in that collection, leaving it to the critic to elucidate the various styles, and pronounce upon the authenticity of the productions-this department was not within the scope of their undertaking, but it would afford a highly interesting inquiry, judiciously to investigate our ancient remains, as far as possible ascribe them to their proper era, and discriminate between the materials of sober history and splendid fiction.

With these introductory remarks, I enclose for your pages a translation of the Mabinogi, or tale of Taliesin. IDRISON.

THE MABINOGI TALE OF TALIESIN.

THERE was a nobleman in former times, of Penllyn, who was called Tegid the Bald, and his patrimony was in the middle of the lake of Tegid ;* and his married wife was called Keridwen,t and of that wife a son was born named Morvran ab Tegid, and a daughter named Creirvyw, who was the fairest damsel in the world, and a brother of theirs was the ugliest person among men, and this was Avagddu.

Then Keridwen, the mother of Avagddu, considered it as not likely that he should have reception among the nobility, from his being so ugly, unless he were endowed with some preeminent gifts or sciences; for this was at the commencement of the era of Arthur and the round table.

And thereupon, by having recourse to books of chemistry, she prepared to concoct a cauldron of genius and sciences for her son, so that his reception might be more honourable, on account of his sciences, and his knowledge in respect to the future state of the world.

GWR BONEDDIG oedd gynt yn Mhenllyn à elwid Tegid Voel, ac ei drevtad oedd yn nghanol Llyn Tegid: ac ei wraig briawd á elwid Ceridwen; ac o'r wraig hòno y ganid mab à elwid Morvran ab Tegid, a merç à elwid Creirvyw, a thecav merç o'r byd oedd hòno, a brawd iddynt hwy oedd y dyn hacrav, sev Avagddu.

Ac yna Ceridwen mam Avagddu á veddyliai nad oedd ev debyg o gael ei gynnwys yn mhlith boneddigion rhag ei hacred, oni byddai arno ryw gampau neu wybodau wrddasawl : canys yn neçreuad Arthur ac y bwrdd crwn oedd hyny.

Ar hyny y trevnai hi, trwy gelvyddyd llyvrau feryllt, verwi pair o awen a gwybodau i'w mab, mal y byddai urddaseç ei gymeriad am ei wybodau ac ei gelvyddyd am y byd à ddelai rhag blaen.

* This lake is near the town of Bala, in Meirion.

The fair procreator: in the bardic mythology, an epithet for the first woman; and she was feigned to be the mother of Morvran ab Tegid, who escaped from the battle of Camlan, owing to his hideous form; and Sandde, of angel aspect, escaped by a way being made from his being taken for an angel; and Glewlwyd of the mighty grasp, escaped, as no foe dared to stand in his way. These three were the representatives of ugliness, beauty, and strength.

So she began to boil the cauldron, the which, after it should be made to boil, could not be suffered to leave off boiling until the end of a year and a day, so that three blessed drops should be obtained through the grace of the spirit. And little Gwion, the son of a yeoman of Llanvair Caereinion, in Powys, was placed by her to attend the cauldron, and a blind man named Morda to keep up the fire under it, with a command not to suffer the boil to break until a year and a day should elapse; and she also, through the books of the astronomers, and by the hours of the planets, being daily collecting of such various herbs as had some peculiar virtue.

And on a certain day, as Keridwen was collecting herbs, and the end of the year drawing near, three drops of the pure water flew out of the cauldron, and lighted upon the finger of little Gwion; and, from its being so hot, at the instant he put those three precious drops into his mouth, and no sooner had he done so, than he obtained a knowledge of every thing that might occur in future; and he was thus forewarned that his principal care must be to avoid the wiles of Keridwen, for her inventive powers were great, and out of extreme fear he fled towards his own country; and the cauldron was broken in two, because the whole of the steel was of a deleterious nature, except those three precious drops, and thus the steeds of Gwyddno Longshank were poisoned by drinking of the water from the brook into which the cauldron ran, and

XVIII.

Yna y daçreuai hi verwi y pair, yr hwn wedi decreuid ei verwi nid ellid tòri y berw dàn ben undydd a blwyddyn, hyd oni gefid tri devnyn gwyrthvawr o rad yr Yshryd. A Gwion baç, mab gwreang o Lanvair Caereinion yn Mhowys à osodes hi i ammodi y pair, a dall á elwid Morda i gynneu y tan dàn y pair, â gorçymyn na adawai y berw i dòri hyd pan ddelai undydd a blwyddyn; a hithau trwy lyvrau seryddiaeth ac wrth oriau y planedau yn llysieua beunydd o bob amryveilion lysiau rhinweddawl.

Ac vàl yr oedd Ceridwen ddiwrnod yn llysieua, ac yn gorçvanu yn agaws i benç y vlwyddyn, y damweiniai neitiaw a disgyn o dri devnyn o'r dwvr rhinweddawl o'r pair àr vys Gwion baç; a rhag eu bryted ev á darewis y devnynau gwerthvawr hyny yn ei ben; ac yn gyttrym ag y gwnelai hyny eve á wyddai bob peth à ryddelai rhag llaw ac eve a adnabu yn hysbys mai mwyav goval oedd iddo ystryw Ceridwen; canys mawr oedd ei gwybodau; a rhag dirvawr ovn eve á foes parth tua ei wlad. Ac y pair á dòres yn ddau hanner; herwydd y dur i gyd oedd wenwynig, eithr y tri devnyn rhinweddawl hyny, mål y gwenwynes veirç Gwyddno Garanhir am yved y dwvr o'r aber y rhedai y pair iddi; ac am hyny y gelwir yr aber o hyny allan Gwenwyn Meirç Gwyddno. Ac àr hyny Cer

P

« ПредишнаНапред »