Many of the poems ascribed to Aneurin are shown to be spurious by modern criticism, but that entitled The Gododin,' bears very strong marks of authenticity. Aneurin was one of the northern Britons of Strath Clyde, who have left to that part of the district they inhabited the name of Cumberland, in token that it was once in possession of a section of the Cyrury. In this poem he laments the defeat of his countrymen by the Saxons at the battle of Cattraeth, in consequence of their having partaken too freely of the mead before joining in combat. He commemorates many obscure chieftains who fell on the occasion in language which seems dictated by the freshness of grief. A portion of this poem has been translated by Gray ; a version of the whole was inserted by the Rev. Edward Davies in his ' Mythology of the Druids ;' and a translation of the whole works of Ancurin, ' The Gododin' and the Odes of the Months,' was published in 1820 by Mr. Probert. A fresh translation of • The Gododin' was published in 1858, by the Rev. John Williams ap Ithel, the editor of the Cambrian Journal.' It may be taken as a proof of the authen ticity of the original that the translators have had an opportunity of disputing, not only about the meaning of several of the passages, but even of the whole poem. The Rev. Edward Davies maintains that it relates not to the battle of Cattraeth, but to the massacre of the Welsh chieftains by order of Hengist at a banquet at Stonehenge.
"The Heroic Elegies and other Pieces of Llywarch Hen, Prince of the Cumbrian Britons, with a literal translation by William Owen,' were published in 1792. Llywarch Hen, like Aneurin, was one of the warriors of Strath Clyde, and, like him, was driven to Wales by the successes of the Saxons. His poems are by far the finest of those ascribed to the primitive bards. Southey, who remarks that "their authenticity has been proved by Mr. Turner ; and they are exceedingly curious, and some of the oldest remains of Celtic poetry," observes, in the notes to his ' Sir Thomas Mere,' that their " general strain is as melancholy as it is rude." According to Welsh tradition Llywarch Hen, or Llywarch the Old, lived to the age of a hundred and fifty. His four-and-twenty Sons and three daughters all died before him, as was natural in that case, but in bie Elegy on Old Age and the Loss of hie Sons,' he enumerates many who had perished in war, and accuses himself of having caused their destruction. The staple of his poetry is bitter complaint of the woes of age. " Those that loved me once now love me not," he exclaims. " Ah death, why will he not befriend me 1 I sm outrageous I I am loathsome 1 I am old." Some ' Lines to the Cuckoo in the Vale of Cuawg ' which are now ascribed to a certain Mabclaf ap Llywarch, who lived towards the close of the 14th century, arc in precisely the same impressive strain.
Some of the remaining poems in the Myvyrian Archaiology; are ascribed to two Merddyns, who have been amalgamated and made into the Merlin of romance. The same work contains a considerable number of anonymous pieces ascribed to the earliest bards ; but the language is sufficient to show that their genuineness is more than doubtful.
Strange to say, the only collection that has yet been published of the primitive bards of Britain, with a translation and explanatory and/ critical notes, is that by a Frenchman, the Count Hersart de la Villemarque, Peemes des Bardes Bretons du sieele, traduits pour la premiere foie avec le texts en regard,' Paris, 1850. The ingenious critic, himself a Breton, and the first collector of the ballads of Brittany, has unfortunately adopted the singular idea of printing his Welsh text neither according to the ancient nor the modern Welsh spelling, but according to the system proposed for the Breton by Legonidec, and the result is that it requires a separate study to decipher a line of his text. His prefaces and notes are written in a strain of hyperbolic enthusiasm, but have a foundation of good sense. He omits almost all of the poems of Taliesin as spurious, and he quotes the names of the French critics Fauriel, Ampere, and Magnin as concurring in the opinion that those which he gives are authentic.
The earliest monument of Welsh prose would, if it were genuine, be the " Wisdom of Cadog the Wise," a collection of proverbs ascribed to St. Cadog, who is said to have lived in the 6th century, and to have been the friend and instructor of Taliesin, and one of the ornaments of the court of King Arthur. They are printed iu the 31yvyrian Archaio]ogy,' and in the lobo MSS. there is a collection of fables and tales ascribed to the same St. Cadog. One of the tales is the story of the man who hastily slew his faithful dog from the erroneous supposition that it had killed his child, whom it had in reality defended from a serpent. This story, which is told by St. Cadog, without name of person or place, is now the most popular legend of Wales, and sheds an additional charm over the scenery of Bedd Gelert, but the Gelcrt of the modern tradition, and of Spencer's ballad, is 'The gift of royal John' to Llewelyn ab Jorwerth,. who married a daughter of King John of England. There can be no doubt that the language of the narrative in the Jobe MSS. is nearer to the time of Llewelyn ab Jorwerth than to that of St. Cadog, but unfor tunately the original of the story is to be found in Sanskrit.