appended for the purpose of recording the opinion of ages long gone by, as to the probable time in which Bardism became first established as a national Institution; and it has its use as will presently appear. Both Prydain and Dyfvnwal Moelmud were great legislators and benefactors of their country, but as the latter flourished only 400 years before the Christian era, it is very probable that Plennydd, Alawn, and Gwron, lived at a more remote period and were contemporaries of Prydain, who is supposed to have lived above a thousand years before Christ; and of whom the following notices occur in the Historical Triads. "The three overruling counter-energies of the Isle of Britain :First, Hu the Mighty, &c. "Second, Prydain the son of Aedd the Great, who organized the nation, and established a jury over the Isle of Britain."-Triad 54. Again, 'The three Beneficial Harassers of the Isle of Britain :-First, Prydain the son of Aedd the Great, harassing the dragon of oppression, which was the oppression of pillage and lawlessness, engendered in the Isle of Britain.”—Triad 55. The assistance which Prydain derived on this occasion from the influence and interposition of the regular Bards, who were invariably the promoters of peace, in suppressing the turbulence and confusion that had arisen between the different tribes, is supposed by the Author of the Celtic Researches to have been the principal circumstance which led Prydain to invest the Bards with civil power, and constitute them the Judges of the land, with an authority and jurisdiction to determine all disputes: and that from their definitive sentence there should be no appeal. This conjecture is not without some appearance of truth, as the preservation of peace is declared in the laws of the Institution to have been one of the three ultimate intentions of Bardism : But that was not the sole intention, nor the primary one. Institutional Triads the design of Bardism is thus stated, In the The three ultimate objects of Bardism :-To reform morals and customs, to secure peace, and to praise all that is good and excellent." With this correspond the names of the three first Institutional Bards, Plennydd, Alawn, and Gwron: for among the Ancient Britons, as among the Eastern Patriarchs, it was customary to impose such names as were in their import either descriptive of some prominent quality, or commemorative of some important event, and the Bards were never without their Bardic names, assumed on becoming members of the order, in addition to those which belonged to them from their infancy. Plennydd, Alawn, and Gwron, signify, light, harmony,-and energy or virtue,-intimating that the great and leading objects of Bardism as a national Institution were to enlighten the understanding,-to promote harmony in Society,-and to encourage energy of character and virtue. This will appear still more clearly from the following laws or institutes of the Bardic Order. 1. "The three joys of the Bards of the Isle of Britain: the increase of knowledge ;—the reformation of manners;—and the triumph of peace over devastation and pillage. 2. "The three splendid honours of the Bards of the Isle of Britain: the triumph of learning over ignorance ;—the triumph of reason over irrationality;—and the triumph of peace over depredation and plunder. 3. "The three attributes (or necessary and congenial duties) of the Bards of the Isle of Britain: to manifest truth and diffuse the knowledge of it;-to perpetuate the praise of all that is good and excellent ;—and to make peace prevail over disorder and violence. 4. "The three necessary, but reluctant duties, of the Bards of the Isle of Britain: secresy for the sake of peace and public good ;— invective lamentation required by justice;—and the unsheathing of the sword against lawlessness and depredation. 5. There are three avoidant injunctions on a Bard: to avoid sloth, because he is a man given to investigation;—to avoid contention, because he is a man given to peace ;—and to avoid folly, because he is a man of discretion and reason."-Institutional Triads. How excellent! how noble! how divine the leading maxims on which Bardism was founded as a national Institution! How worthy of the profound attention of Christian Britain in the nineteenth century-Britain that delights in War! Oh for a mighty band of those ancient Bards from the dead to reprove Christian Britain for the inroads she makes daily on the territories of other nations in the East and West, and the atrocities she commits in Australia-exterminating the natives for daring to defend their own! Is it no crime to sacrifice innocent human beings there? O Christian Britain hide thy face, and weep! We cannot withhold our unqualified approbation of all the principles involved in the preceding maxims. They prove beyond all doubt that there has been an era when religion and science shed their brightest lustre on the primitive inhabitants of this Islandwhen liberty, peace, and happiness prevailed to an extent hardly equalled in this country at any subsequent period. And that was the time when the Bards inculcated peace-made truth manifest-diffused knowledge—promoted learning,—dispelled ignorance—praised all that was good and excellent—abstained from invectives—set their faces against disorder, plunder, and violence—and promoted by every means the reformation of morals among the people. And these Bards be it remembered were all Druids, that is, they were all competent to teach the people and officiate as Priests in the Sacred places at the time of public worship, and on their solemn festivals. They were in fact the same class of men that we have previously described under the name of Druids, and might with great propriety be termed DRUIDICAL BARDS, or BARDIC DRUIDS. No sooner had song or rhyme become the established rule of public instruction and traditionary record, than the name of Druids was for a time entirely merged in that of Bards: for the Druids were all Bards, though some of the Bards at a later period did not officiate as Druids. Indeed the Druids never existed in Britain but as Bards from the time that Hu the Mighty adopted poesy as the best and most effectual method of imparting religious knowledge to the multitude, and transmitting to posterity the wisdom of the Ancients. It became from that time as indispensably necessary for a Druid or Priest to be a Poet, as it is for Ministers of religion in these times to be able to read and write. Hence Bards and Druids are not unfrequently used as synonymous terms; and Bardism is the word almost invariably employed in the ancient British Records to designate the Theology and maxims of the Druids. This promiscuous use of these terms is perfectly just so long as we speak of the era that preceded the introduction of Christianity. After that the terms Bards and Bardism alone apply. THE BARDIC SCIENCE OF ORAL TRADITION. The Druids and Bards of ancient Britain-both one and the same people, are no where represented as Inventors. They were the jealous Conservators of early and primitive discipline, doctrines, customs, and opinions: And they studied the art of memory to an extent unknown in any other country of which we have any knowledge. ORAL TRADITION was reduced into a systematic science. The principal methods they adopted to render it so, are mentioned in the following Triad. The three memorials (or mediums of memory) of the Bards of the Isle of Britain: memorial of song,-memorial of conventional recitation,—and the memorial of established usage."—Institutional Triads. Each of these demands some notice separately. 1. "Memorial of Song." The original implies memory by means of song, or that song was adopted as a medium of perpetuating the memory of all knowledge. Songs skilfully composed on historical and religious subjects were learned with avidity, and soon became popular. They were easily transmitted without the aid of letters, from one person, time, or place, to another though ever so remote. The Bardic Druids having thus adapted song to traditionary purposes and religious instruction from the remotest ages, poetry in Britain became consecrated as the vehicle of truth, whilst other nations had generally consigned it to the ornament of fiction. "Hence it is," observes the venerable Bard of Glamorgan, "that all the Kimbric or Welsh fabulous writings, Romances, and works of Popish Superstition, &c. are in prose, nothing of the kind appearing in verse until the close of the fourteenth, or beginning of the fifteenth centuries. Song or poesy was in the hands of the Druidical Bards well guarded from falsehood and fiction, which they would by no means admit into their compositions, or in any measure tolerate; and the public would never countenance what their much esteemed Bards rejected. It was in vain therefore to attempt the propagation of falsehood in Verse." Their motto was, "TRUTH AGAINST THE WORLD." The most ancient metre employed by the Druidical Bards is supposed to be that which is now generally termed The Warrior's triplet. It is a stanza composed of three lines, each line consisting of seven syllables, and rhyming in the last. In the first two lines the Druid described either some objects that were visible in nature, or actions that were well known to every one, and in the third introduced a precept of morality, which, connected with one or two undoubted facts stated before, laid hold of the understanding, and fixed itself immovably in the mind or memory. This kind of composition was artfully contrived to engage the mind to receive the truth of the moral or religious maxim as equally clear and established as the fact with which it was coupled. We subjoin a few examples. Eiry mynydd, gwyn pob ty; Ni ddaw da o dra chysgu. "Eiry mynydd, gwyn frig gwrysg; "Eiry mynydd, gwynt a'i tawl; "Eiry mynydd, glas gwyddfyd; Translation by Mr. Samwell. "See the forest white with snows! "Fair the moon's resplendent bow, "'Mid the snow green woodbines rise, All are bound by nature's ties- This translation does not give the full meaning of the original, nor the repetition at the commencement of each stanza, but is merely an attempt to convey to the English reader an idea of the nature and construction of the Druidical triplet. |