Chapter XXXIX: Appendix

THE Triads referred to, as the collection made by Thomas Jones, of Tregaron, (Twm Shon Catty,) are translated from a series in the second volume of the Welsh Archæology, p. 57. The series bear the following title. “These are Triads of the Island of Britain—that is to say, Triads of memorial and record, and the information of remarkable men or things which have been in the Island of Britain; and of the events which befell the Race of the Cymry, from the age of ages.”

To the copy, from which the transcript was made for the London edition, the following note is annexed.

(Translation.) “These Triads were taken from the book of Caradoc of Nantcarvan, and from the book of Jevan Brechva, by me, Thomas Jones, of Tregaron—and those are all I could get of _the three hundred_—1601.”

I. The three pillars of the Race of the Island of Britain.

The first _Hu Gudarn_, who first brought the Race of the Cymry into the Island of Britain; and they came from the land of _Hav_ called _Defrobani_, [where Constantinople stands,] and they passed over Mor Tawch (the German ocean) to the Island of Britain, and to Llydaw where they remained.

The second, _Prydain_, the son of _Aedd-Mawr_, who first established regal government in the Island of Britain. [Before this, there was no equity but what was done by gentleness, nor any law but that of force.]

The third, _Dyfnwal Moelmud_, who first discriminated the laws and ordinances, customs and privileges of the land and nation. [And for these reasons they were called the three pillars of the nation of Cymry.]

II. The three benevolent tribes of the Island of Britain.

The first was the stock of the _Cymry_, who came with Hu Gadarn, into the Island of Britain; for _He_ would not have lands by fighting and contention, but of equity, and in peace.

The second was the race of the Lloegrwys, who came from the land of Gwas-gwyn, and were sprung from the primitive stock of the Cymry.

The third were the Britons. They came from the land of Llydaw, and were also sprung from the primordial line of the Cymry.

[And they are called the three peaceful tribes because they came by mutual consent and permission, in peace and tranquillity. The three tribes descended from the primitive race of the Cymry, and the three were of one language and one speech.

III. Three tribes came, under protection, into the Island of Britain, and by the consent and permission of the nation of Cymry, without weapon, without assault.

The first was the tribe of the Caledonians, in the North.

The second was the Gwyddelian Race, which are now in Alban (Scotland.)

The third were the men of the Galedin, who came in their naked ships (canoes) into the Isle of Wight, when their country was drowned, and had lands assigned them by the Race of the Cymry.

And they had neither privilege nor claim in the Island of Britain, but the land and protection that they granted, under specified limits. And it was decreed, that they should not enjoy the immunities of the native Cymry, before the ninth generation.

IV. Three usurping tribes came into the Island of Britain, and never departed out of it.

The first was the _Coranied_, who came from the land of Pwyl.

The second were the Gwyddelian Fichti, who came into Alban, over the sea of _Llychlyn_ (Denmark).

The third were the Saxons.

[The Corained are _about_ the Humber, and on the shore of Mor Tawch, and the Gwyddelian Finchti are in Alban, on the shore of the sea of Llychlyn. The Coranied united with the Saxons, and being partly incorporated with them, deprived the Lloegrwys of their government, by wrong and oppression; and afterwards, they deprived the Race of the Cymry of their crown and sovereignty. All the Lloegrwys became Saxons, except those who are found in Cornwall, and in the Commot of _Carnobun_, in _Deria_ and _Bernicia_.

The primitive Race of the Cymry have kept their land and their language; but they lost their sovereignty of the Island of Britain, through the treachery of the protected tribes, and the violence of the three usurping tribes.]

V. The three awful events of the Island of Britain.

First, the bursting of the lake of waters, and the overwhelming of the face of all lands; so that all mankind were drowned excepting Dwyvan and Dwyvach, who escaped in a naked vessel, (without sails), and of them the Island of Britain was re-peopled.

The second was the consternation of the tempestuous fire, when the earth split asunder, to Annwn, (lower region,) and the greatest part of all living was consumed.

The third was the scorching summer, when the woods and plants were set on fire, by the intense heat of the sun, and multitudes of men and beasts, and all kinds of birds, and reptiles and trees and plants irrecoverably lost.

VI. The three chief master works of the island of Britain.

The ship of _Nevydd Nav Neivion_, who carried in it a male and a female of all living, when the lake of waters burst forth.

The drawing of the _avanc_ to land out of the lake, by the branching oxen of _Hu Gadarn_, so that the lake burst no more;

And the stones of Gwyddon Ganhebon, on which were read the arts and sciences of the world.

VII. The three great Regulators of the Island of Britain.

Hu Gadarn, bringing the Race of the Cymry out of the land of Hav, which is called Defrobahi into the Island of Britain.

Prydain, the son of Aedd-Mawr, establishing government and law over the Island of Britain.

And Rhitta Gawr, who made himself a robe of the beards of kings, whom he caused to be shaved (reduced to vassalage) for their oppressions and contempt of justice.

VIII. The three happy controllers of the Island of Britain.

Prydain, the son of Aedd-Mawr, suppressing the Dragon tyranny. [This was a tyranny of pillage and contempt of Equity, that sprung up in the Island.]

Caradog, the son of Bran, the son of Llyr, checking the oppression of the Cæsars;

And Rhitta Gawr, controlling the tyranny and pillage of the tumultary kings.

IX. The three benefactors of the Race of Cymry.

The first, Hu Gadarn, who first showed the Race of the Cymry the method of cultivating the ground, when they were in the land of Hav [namely, where Constantinople now stands] before they came into the Island of Britain.

Coll, the son of Coll-Frewi, who first brought wheat and barley into the island of Britain, where, before, there had only been oats and rye;

And Elldyd the knight, [a holy man of Cor Dewdws,] who improved the manner of cultivating the ground, taught the Cymry a better method than had been known before, and showed the art of ploughing which now prevails. [For before the time of Elldyd, land was cultivated only with a mattock and a spade, after the manner of the Gyddelians.]

X. The three primary Sages of the Race of the Cymry.

Hu Gadarn, who first collected the Race of the Cymry, and disposed them into tribes.

Dyvnwal-Molemud, who first regulated the laws, privileges, and institutions of the country and the nation.

And Tydain tad Awen, who first introduced order and method into the memorials and preservation of the Oral art (poetry) and its properties.

And from that order, the privileges and methodical usages of the Bards and Bardism (Druidism) of the Island of Britain, were first devised.

XI. The three primary Bards of the Island of Britain.

Plennydd, Alwan, and Gwron.

These were they who devised the privileges and usages which belong to Bards and Bardism.

[Yet there had been Bards and Bardism before; but they were not completely methodized, and they enjoyed neither privileges nor established customs, but they were obtained through gentleness and civility, and the protection of the country and the nation, before the time of these three.

Some say they were in the time of Prydain, the son of Aedd Mawr, others, that they were in the time of his son, Dyvnwal-Molemud, whom some of the old books call Dyvnvarth, the son of Prydain.

XII. The three elementary masters of Poetry and Memorial, of the Race of the Cymry.

Gwyddon Ganhebon, the first man in the world who composed poetry;

Hu Gadarn, who first adapted poetry to the preservation of records and memorials;

And Tydain Tad Awen, who first developed the art and structure of poetry, and the due disposition of thought.

And, from the labours of these three personages, sprang Bards and Bardism, and the regulation of their privileges and established discipline, by the three primary Bards, Plenvydd, Alwan, and Gwron.

XIII. The three primary baptized (or christian) Bards.

Merddyn Emrys; Taliesin, the chief of the Bards, and Merddin, the son of Madawc Morvyn.

XIV. The three mighty Labours of the Isle of Britain.

Erecting the stone of Ketti. Constructing the work of Emrys. And heaping the pile of _Cyvrangon_.

The three happy astronomers. (_Serenyddion_, _Suronides_) of the _Island_ of _Britain_. _Idris Gawr_. _Gwyddion_ the son of the _Don_. And _Gwyn_ the son of _Nudd_.

So great was their knowledge of the stars, and of their nature and situations, that they could foretell whatever might be desired to be known to the day of doom.

XVI. The three masters of mysterious and secret science, of the _Island_ of _Britain_.

_Math_, the son of _Mothanwy_, and he disclosed his secret to _Gwyndion_ the son of _Don_.

_Mengw_, the son of _Teiagmaedd_, who taught his secret to _Uthyr Bendragon_.

And _Rhuddlwm Gawr_, and he learned his mystery of _Eddic Gor_ and _Coll_, the son of _Coll Frewi_.

XVII. The three great modellers of the _Island_ of _Britain_.

_Corvinwr_, the Bard of _Ceri Hir_ of _Llyngwyn_, who first made a ship, with a sail and a helm, for the race of the _Cymry_.

_Mozdial Gwr Gweilgi_, the architect of _Ceraint_, the son of _Greidial_, who first taught the race of the _Cymry_, the work of stone and lime, [at the time _Alexander the Great_ was subduing the world.]

And _Coll_, the son of _Cylin_, [the son of _Caradawr_, the son of _Bran_,] who first made a mill with a wheel, for the race of _Cymry_.

* * * * *

W. NICHOLSON AND SONS, LIMITED, PRINTERS, WAKEFIELD.

Footnotes

{9a} The truth against the world.

{9b} The English pronunciation of Twm Shon Catty, is Toom Shone Cutty; instead of which the Londoners call it TWIM JOHN KATTY, which seemed doubly ludicrous as the name of a tragedy hero.

{10} A small cup, so called from its contents being able merely to damp the clay of a genuine toper.

{31} In the farce of the Spirit Child.

{50a} The good ale of old Wales.

{50b} Wheat that may have been left out too long unharvested from the prevalence of rain, when found to sprout, is sometimes used in Wales instead of malt in brewing beer.

{55} In addition to the _Gwahoddwr’s_ address, there is another mode prevalent in the present day, of inviting to the Bidding, by a printed circular, which in some parts of the principality supersedes that merry personage altogether, a thing to be regretted, as it deprives the rural Welsh wedding of one of its most pleasing features, and cuts off its alliance with romance, and the manners of _oulden tyme_. The following is a specimen of a Bidding circular.

_October_ 183–.

As we intend to enter the matrimonial state, on Saturday, the 10th
November next, we are encouraged by our friends to make a Bidding on
the occasion, the same day, at the young woman’s house, called
Tynant, at which place, the favour of your agreeable company is most
respectfully solicited; and whatever donation you may be pleased to
bestow upon us then will be thankfully received, and cheerfully
repaid whenever called for on the like occasion.

Your obedient Servants, A. B.
C. D.

*** The parents of the young man, and his brothers and sisters,
desire that all gifts of the above nature due to them, be returned to
the young man on the above day, and will be thankful for all favours
granted. Also, the young woman’s parents and her brothers and
sisters, desire that all gifts of the above nature due to them, be
returned to the young woman on the above day, and will be thankful
for all favours granted.

{58} A large three-legged iron pot used for cooking.

{72} Havod un-nôs, signifies _one summer night_. A poor wandering family pitching their tent on a common, building a hearth, and boiling their pot thereon, in the course of one Summer’s day and night, claimed from ancient usage their right to the spot. Thus a hut so built, was gradually made into a decent cottage; the surrounding ground, from a mere yard of scant dimensions, would become a yard and a garden; and patch after patch being cribbed and inclosed, in the course of a few years a little farm was created, in the midst, or on the margin of a dreary common. These practices were often _winked_ at by the parish, in favour of a poor industrious large family, who were thus provided for, instead of becoming objects of parochial relief. If the intrusion remained unnoticed for sixty years, it became a freehold property!

{140} Anglice, Bessy Blubberlip.

{149} Translated from a very popular Welsh ballad, by John Jones, of Glangors, author of many humorous songs in the same language.

{153} Hob y deri dando signifies “away my herd to the oaken grove.” Mr. Parry, for whose Welsh Melodies the modern words were written, remarks, “There is something very quaint and characteristic in this ancient air, and it is popular in Wales.”

{165} The victim of the sons of Maes-y-velin was Samuel, the son of Rhys Prichard, the celebrated author of “Canwyll y Cymry,” (the Welshman’s candle,) a volume of religious poems, the most popular, and said to have done the most good, of any that ever was printed in the Welsh language. To this favourite son the pious author addressed many of his poems, exhorting and directing him, by name, to the most minute acts in his devotion. On hearing of his murder, the old man is said to have burst out in the wildest strain of prophetic phrenzy, with the following CURSE on the murderers of Maes-y-velin.

Melldith Duw a fyddo’n dilyn
Pob rhyw ach o’ Vaes y Felin,
Am daflu blodeu plwyf Llanddyvri
Ar ei ben i Deifi foddi.

The translation of which runs thus—

May God with heavy curses chase
All Maes-y-velin’s villain race,
Since they have drown’d in Teivy’s tide
Llandovery’s flower—Cymry’s pride!

{203} In the original—

“Nid twyll twyllo twyllwr,
Nid brad bradychu bradwr;
Nid lladrad mi wn yn dda,
Lladrada or ladratwr.”

{210} Should it be asked why this trick (a similar one being related of the Friar of Gil Blas) is attributed to Twm Shon Catty, his Editor can attest that this is not the only incident of the kind that he would willingly have related if he had dared. But as this, and others, have long been on record, both in the memories of the country people, and in the Welsh Jest Books, any omission of incident or anecdote on the score of being property claimable by others, would be scouted, as a poor-spirited compromise of their rights: it being utterly out of the pale of possibility that the said good things could have belonged originally, to any other than their own redoubted Twm Shon Catty! This explanation, once for all, must answer every similar objection on the part of the English reader.

{264} Signifying “_The Poem of Affliction_.” The original Welsh Poem, in recitative measure, of which the above is rather a condensed paraphrase of the late Mr. Jenkins, of Llwynygroes, Cardiganshire.

{269} Between these rivers, before they unite, is an angular slip of lowland, being the last of Cardiganshire; Dinas, and all the interesting height here described, are in Carmarthenshire; while the boundary of Breconshire is about half a mile off. The reader, who if a Welshman, will hence recognize the etymology of Ystrad Fin, which signifies, “The vale of the boundary.”