MODERN WELSH VERSIONS OF THE

ARTHURIAN STORIES

Although works dealing with the Arthurian story in modern times are by no means as numerous as those which cover the earlier periods, yet the student is not left to shift entirely for himself in this field. The books of Professor MacCallum and Professor Maynadier for example give all that the ordinary inquirer needs to know about the English versions of the story down to the time of their publication, and by a small amount of annotating they may be brought down to date. The former, too, devotes considerable space to the French and German versions of the story but neither in these books nor anywhere else have I been able to find any consideration of the modern Welsh treatment of it. Yet in the number of stories written on this subject in recent years the Welsh rank ahead of both the French and the Germans and not far behind the English, and several of the poems are of decided literary merit. It is to give the reader who knows no Welsh some idea of what is being done in that language "Amheus pob anwybod (Everything not known is doubtful)," as the Welsh proverb says-by pointing out the general characteristics of the movement and by giving summaries of some of the more important poems, that I have undertaken the following article."

The Welsh Arthur stories deserve a certain amount of consideration also from the fact that they are one of the manifestations of that racial consciousness that is so strong in the Celt. We are most familiar with it in the political disturbances in Ireland and in certain phases of Anglo-Irish literature, but in the Brythonic countries it is no less active. While both

'The English reader can get some idea of the character of this movement from the poems and plays of Mr. Ernest Rhys who, although he writes in English, is thoroughly saturated with the Welsh spirit.

2 I do not pretend that this list is complete; the meagerness of the Welsh collections available in this country makes that impossible to hope for. I do believe however that the examples I give are representative of the tendencies existing in modern Welsh literature, and that I have included the more important poems dealing with the Arthurian material. For an adequate treatment of the equally interesting subject of the Arthurian stories in Brittany I have not the necessary materials at hand as yet.

Wales and Brittany are desirous of greater freedom in determining their own political and economic affairs, the movement in these countries has been largely linguistic and literary rather than political. Even in Cornwall there have been attempts on the part of some people to join in this movement by reviving the ancient language and poems have been written and speeches made in Cornish, although these are probably intelligible to a far larger number of people in Brittany than in Cornwall itself. But in the two former countries3 there is today a strong and vigorous literature in the native tongue drawing its inspiration either from the past history of the Celt or from the life of the ordinary Welshman or Breton of to-day. In either case the attempt is made to emphasize the fact that the Celts are a race distinct from either Saxon or Gaul; to this purpose the story of Arthur, the Celtic hero, lends itself admirably and it is in this way that it has been used by many of the Welsh writers.

But in Wales the use of the story for this purpose has been complicated by the presence of what some Welsh critics have called "Puritanism" (although in this country that term has lately been applied to something very different), and even to-day that influence has not been wholly eliminated although it is lessened. Until very recently almost the only people in Wales who possessed any book-learning and still kept to the old language were the ministers of the various dissenting churches. They it was who wrote most of the poetry-the novel and the drama were considered improper for Christians to meddle with-and they practically controlled the eisteddfod and dictated the choice of subjects for its competitions. Hence it was that while in England poets were producing The Idylls of the King and The Defence of Guenevere, the Welsh poets were

3 Wales and Brittany are doing much at the present day that is calculated to draw them closer together. The Welsh National anthem Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau has been adopted by the Bretons with words by Taldir (François Jaffrennou) under the title Bro Goz Ma Zadou. A number of Breton poets have been invested at the Welsh eisteddfod, and since 1901 Brittany has had her own Gorsedd and her own eisteddfodau. At the eisteddfod is performed the symbolic "joining of the sword," half of which is kept by each nation, in order to signify that the two peoples are essentially one.

busying themselves with such subjects as Emmanuel, The Destruction of Jerusalem (Awdl Dinystr Ierusalem), or Charity (Elusengarwch). Even in the latter part of last century Eifion Wyn (Eliseus Williams) was denied a prize for his poem on The Shepherd (Y Bugail) because in it he made no mention of any but earthly shepherds. In such an atmosphere as this it was next to impossible to write about King Arthur and his court; the few mentions we do find of him are in pseudo-historical works such as Dewi Wyn's (David Owen) Ode in Praise of the Island of Britain (Awdl Molawd Ynys Prydain) written in 1805, or Cynddelw's (Robert Ellis) Ode on the Race of the Welsh (Awdl Cenedl y Cymry). The former mentions briefly Arthur "whose bright praise shall long endure" (pery yn hir ei glir glôd), his sword Caledfwlch, and Medrod "whose name rots."10 The latter devotes ten lines to Arthur and his defense of Britain, and eleven more to Geraint who fell in the battle of Llongborth." Neither author shows the least feeling for the romantic elements of the story.

The only person of any note to deal with the romantic. portions of the Arthur story during the nineteenth century-for the Can o Hanes y Carwr Trwstan12 (Poem from the Story of Tristan the Lover) of Twm o'r Nant (Thomas Edwards) is hardly Arthurian in spite of its title was that self-satisfied literary rebel Llew Llwyfo (Lewis William Lewis).13 He chose the

Gwilym Hiraethog. Emmanuel; neu Ganolbwngc Gweithredoedd a Llywodraeth Duw. 2 vol. Dinbych, 1861-1867.

Eben Fardd. Gweithiau Barddonol, &c. Bryngwydion [1873], p. 46.

• Blodau Arfon; sef, Gwaith yr Anfarwol Fardd Dewi Wyn. Caerlleon, 1842, p. 73.

'T. Gwynn Jones. Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg y Bedwaredd Ganrif ar Bymtheg. Caernarfon, 1920. p. 33.

8 Blodau Arfon. p. 1.

Barddoniaeth Cynddelw. Caernarfon, 1877. p. 9.

10 Blodau Arfon. p. 25.

11 Barddoniaeth Cynddelw, p. 51.

12 Gwaith Thomas Edwards (Twm o'r Nant) Liverpool, 1874, p. 460. I am using the term ineteenth century" somewhat loosely since this poem was first published in 1790.

13 Gemau wyfo, Utica, N. Y., 1868. T. R. Roberts, in his Eminent Welshmen (p. 310) mentions an edition published in Liverpool in that year, but in view of the very positive statements made in the preface to the Utica edition (Dec. 1868) it seems that this must be an error.

subject of Modred's love for Guinevere and his consequent rebellion against his uncle, Arthur, as the subject for his poem Gwenhwyfarla submitted to the eisteddfod at Merthyr Tydfil in 1859.14 The materials for this poem, a "dramatic epic after the style of those of Goethe (arwrgerdd dramataidd . . . megis Arwrgerddi Goethe)," are taken largely from Geoffrey of Monmouth with the addition of a few details from the triads, but the whole is shaped by the author's own invention. The story briefly is as follows:

Gwenhwyfar, waiting vainly for news of Arthur and his Roman wars, asks Medrawd, in whom she has the utmost confidence, to send ten trusty messengers to different parts of the continent, each with instructions not to return without news from the king. Medrawd instead gets Iddog to forge a letter which he then takes to Gwenhwyfar. It purports to be from Arthur to Medrawd, telling him that since coming to the continent he has fallen in love with another woman and therefore he desires to have Gwenhwyfar put quietly out of the way. Medrawd renews his protestations of love for her and of Arthur's unfaithfulness, but in spite of the letter, which she believes genuine, she rejects him. Medrawd's next step is to introduce Rhitta as a messenger coming from the army. Rhitta tells Gwenhwyfar that in the last battle Arthur was much changed and all laid it to the French woman with whom he had fallen in love. His army was defeated and he himself stopped in the midst of an ignominious flight and committed suicide. Gwenhwyfar is finally won over to marry Medrawd, whom she respects but says she can never love. Meanwhile Arthur, who has defeated the Romans under Lucius and Cotta and is about to cross the Alps to Rome, hears of Medrawd's treachery; he divides his forces, sending Hoel

13 At the International Eisteddfod held in Chicago in 1893 a prize of one hundred dollars was awarded to the Rev. Erasmus W. Jones for a translation of this poem into English. So far as I have been able to discover, this translation has never been printed.

14 Evidently the subject at this eisteddfod was not fixed, as it usually is. See Jones, Llenyddiaeth, p. 30.

15 Gemau Llwyfo, p. 45. The translations throughout are my own. I have tried to make them idiomatic rather than pedantically literal.

with part of the army to attack Rome, while he himself returns with the rest to Britain. On his approach Gwenhwyfar flees to the nunnery at Afallon, while Medrawd prepares to resist. He makes his men drunk to keep up their courage but they are defeated and he himself is killed by Arthur. Iddog however mortally wounds Arthur with an arrow. Arthur is carried to the nunnery at Afallon where he meets Gwenhwyfar, forgives her, and dies in her arms.16 Again in 1866 Llew Llwyfo tried his hand on an Arthurian subject this time in his poem Arthur y Ford Gron1 (Arthur of the Round Table) which won the prize at the eisteddfod in Chester in that year. This poem, as the author says,18 covers the same ground as Gwenhwyfar and is in his opinion better, being less dramatic but more heroic, slower but more dignified (yn fwy arwrol ac yn llai dramataidd yn arafach ond yn fwy urddasol). In several important incidents and in many minor ones this poem differs from the other.

In the beginning Medrawd holds a council, decides on rebellion against Arthur, and tells that as a preparation for it he has sent Celdric back to Germany for additional forces. Arthur meanwhile is encamped in the Alps where, at a banquet of the Knights of the Round Table, Peredur tells the story of Arthur's early battles, his dream, and his fight with the giant much as they are related by Geoffrey of Monmouth. The next morning comes news of Medrawd's treachery, and Arthur returns to Britain with part of his forces. Upon landing he is everywhere received with joy because of the cruelty of Medrawd and the pagans. An example of this cruelty is the plot to kidnap Enid to give her as a bribe to Celdric to keep him contented. She is saved from him only by the fact that his men call him to lead them to the battle and he is forced to leave her. Both armies march to Camlan; Medrawd is entrenched on a hill and waits for Arthur to attack him, which the latter does not wish to do because of a warning dream he has had.

16 Another summary, not particularly flattering, is given by Elphin (R. A. Griffith) in his article on Yr Arurgerdd Gymreig, in Transactions of the Cymmrodorion 1904–05, p. 37.

17 Gemau Llwyfo, p. 120.

18 ibid., p. 119.