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Celtic Literature: TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
THE STUDY OF CELTIC LITERATURE
I.
II.
III.
IV.
For acuteness and valour, the Greeks, For excessive pride, the Romans, For dulness, the creeping Saxons; For beauty and amorousness, the Gaedhils.
V.
. . . Gallois sont tous, par nature, Plus fous que betes en pasture -
VI.
. . . nor sometimes forget Those other two equal with me in fate, So were I equall’d with them in renown, Blind Thamyris and blind Maeonides -
The grave of March is this, and this the grave of Gwythyr; Here is the grave of Gwgawn Gleddyfreidd; But unknown is the grave of Arthur.
That is by no eminent hand; and yet a Greek epitaph could not show a finer perception of what constitutes propriety and felicity of style in compositions of this nature. Take the well-known Welsh prophecy about the fate of the Britons:-
O my crutch! is it not autumn, when the fern is red, the water. flag yellow? Have I not hated that which I love?
Or, again:-
How evil was the lot allotted to Llywarch, the night when he was brought forth -
As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night -
What little town, by river or seashore -
Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead, By paved fountain or by rushy brook, Or in the beached margent of the sea -
Es bildet ein Talent sich in der Stille, Sich ein Character in dem Strom der Welt -
’Twas mirk, mirk night, and the water bright Troubled and drumlie flowed -
Footnotes:-{0a} See p.