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alluded to was brought from Brittany to Wales by Walter de Mapes in the twelfth century, its contents were found to be so flattering to national vanity, that it was soon received as an authentic record of facts, to the disadvantage of other records of a less pretending nature. For a long time implicit faith was given to the story of Trojan-British kings, and the superhuman actions of Arthur and his valorous knights commanded the admiration of Europe, few caring to question the truth of tales which suited the taste of the age and filled their readers with delight. The criticism of later years has however determined the race of Trojan-British kings to be a pure fabrication, and most writers are contented to commence the history of Britain with the invasion of Julius Cæsar, following the Latin authorities until the termination of the Roman power in the island, when, for want of more satisfactory information, they are obliged to have recourse to records which they know not where to trust, or leaving the affairs of the Britons in that darkness which they could not dispel, they have confined their researches to the Saxons.

It is but right to state, that the substance of several of the fables in the Armorican chronicle was known in Wales before the time of Walter de Mapes, a fair specimen of which may be seen in the works of Nennius; but the Welsh were also possessed of records of another and a different kind; these were a collection of poems, triads, and genealogies, preserved by the bards and written in the national tongue. The information to be derived respecting the Britons of the fifth and two following centuries may, therefore, be divided into the bardic and the legendary. The latter kind, which was preserved by the monks or clergy, was written principally in Latin, and consists of the History of Nennius and the lives of several Welsh saints. The genuineness and authenticity of the works attributed to Gildas are questionable, and yet as

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they are undoubtedly ancient they are deserving of some attention. But it is remarkable that in all the records of the Britons, both in Welsh and Latin, before the twelfth century, historical allusions abound, which are at variance with the narrative of the Armorican chronicle; even the most extravagant tales in Nennius are more limited than those of the later fabulist; and the various ways in which the same tales are related by the former, prove that in his time they had not reached the consistency of history, whereas in the latter there is no hesitation, but every story is told as positively as if the writer were an eye-witness.

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The amount of information, or rather tradition, preserved by the Welsh relative to the Britons before the invasion of Cæsar and during the sojourn of the Romans, is small, and that little is intimately blended with bardic mythology. But it may be asked, whether it is possible, discarding entirely the Armorican chronicle and its followers, to construct, out of the beforementioned older materials, a history, which shall supply the hiatus between the departure of the Romans and the beginning of the eighth century, where the authentic chronicles commence. The present is the first attempt, upon such a system, to supply the deficiency. The attempt, however, is but a partial one; for as the purpose of this Essay was to treat of the Welsh saints or founders of churches, national affairs are only noticed incidentally. Whatever success therefore may attend the present undertaking, it is hoped that if the idea be approved, a more extended research may employ some maturer judgment and an abler pen. The result of an accumulation of the most authentic notices that can be collected, would be the production of a history, displaying indeed many of those moral features which distinguished the Welsh at a later time, but bearing a very slight resemblance to its representation in the pages of Geoffrey.

In groping through this period of darkness, some glimmerings of light may be borrowed from Bede, the contemporary writers of Gaul, and perhaps from the Irish historians; and in compiling such a history, where authorities of the legendary kind must be consulted, a simple rule may be observed, which, if does not always elicit the truth, will produce the nearest approximation to it, namely to take the story of the oldest writer, which also is generally found to be the most limited. The character of fable is progressive, and a story, which originally was true, is in most cases repeated with additions. This rule has been established with great clearness by the author of "Europe in the Middle Ages," (in Lardner's Cyclopædia, vol. iv. p. 67:) observing the manner in which Nennius has been amplified by Geoffrey, he adds :-" There is no greater difference between Geoffrey of Monmouth and Nennius, than between Nennius and Gildas. This fact is very instructive; it may enable the judicious investigator into the antiquities of ancient Britain, and of Britain even in the Anglo-Saxon period, to steer his way through the darkest path ever traversed by historian."

The learned writer, whose words are quoted, regrets that he had not access to the ancient relics subsisting in the Welsh language, which he supposed must contain stores of information but little known to the public. Those relics, so far as they have been printed, form the principal materials of the following dissertation; and meagre as they may seem, they strongly confirm the presumption of their antiquity by the circumstance, that they are frequently at variance with the legendary authorities; and wherever they appear to agree, their statements are more circumscribed than those of the latter, presenting as it were the germs out of which subsequent fables have sprung. An examination of the bardic records, therefore, if it will not discover authentic materials of history, will

at least be of service in tracing the origin of romance, and in this respect may tend to elucidate a large portion of the literature of Europe.

Leaving the task of demonstrating the progress of fable to the general writer, the business of the antiquary, whose object is the history of his country, is to search after the oldest authorities that can be procured, and afterwards to consider them by themselves, divested of the misconceptions and exaggerations of later ages. By this mode of proceeding, many statements which receive current belief, will be found to rest

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a slight foundation; and much of the remainder, being placed in a new light, will assume a different character. The operation of this rule is the cause why many assertions, which have hitherto been credited, are rejected in the following pages; but wherever such cases occur, the particular reason is added, and the reader must decide according to his own judgment upon its validity. It will be observed that even the Welsh records are not allowed to pass without a scrutiny; many of their positions, which are shown to be untenable, are surrendered; and that mistakes should have been committed, can by no means be surprising, when the remoteness of the times to which they refer is considered, as well as the neglect under which they have been suffered to remain,

The documents, for the possession of which Wales has long been celebrated, and to which of late years little attention has been paid, are its genealogies. Of these a large store is preserved in manuscript, and though from their minuteness of detail they must necessarily contain inaccuracies, yet, as the pedigrees are numerous, they may be rectified upon comparison with each other. An attempt is now made to render them available for the purpose of history, by arranging them so as to construct an artificial chronology. In endeavouring to connect the Roman period with the eighth century, such a

plan was absolutely necessary, for in the lapse of three hundred years very few dates occur upon which any reliance may be placed; and without attention to this arrangement, the events reported present only a mass of confusion. It is however satisfactory to learn, that the few dates that have been ascertained, agree undesignedly with the arrangement of the pedigrees, and so far confirm their correctness. The dates, collected by Archbishop Usher in his "Britannicarum Ecclesarum Primordia," and which he perpetually shows to be confused and contradictory, belong to chroniclers of the Armorican school, and are of little value: the work of the Archbishop however contains, amidst much irrelevant matter, a fund of valuable information, for which the present writer is greatly indebted. The reason why the pedigrees have been neglected is their intricacy, and at first sight they are certainly unpromising, but as they are interspersed with historical notices they are deserving of attention; and it should not be forgotten that for many ages the only historians whom the Welsh possessed were their genealogists.

Localities are a very powerful auxiliary in forming a constructive history. In this respect the Armorican chronicle is exceedingly deficient; for the few localities mentioned in it are certain towns and places which were well known and flourishing at a late period, proving, not only that the record was recent, but also that it was compiled in a distant country. The scene of the fable is laid down in Britain, but the places introduced are such as were of sufficient celebrity to be known abroad. The events of history do not always occur at distinguished towns, and it might be expected that places, which were celebrated in past ages, had afterwards become obscure. National traditions often refer to a spot, it may be the summit of a hill or a pass between mountains, which, but for those traditions, might have possessed nothing remarkable. The

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