Early English Hero Tales

, there are two doors which when thrown open we may enter, but where our English would not be understood. They both admit us to the poems and prose of families of the same race-a race called C

oors, would not be at all the same palace if it were not for these two li

coast on the west of the island. There they lived among the mountains, holding fast to their customs and to their songs and poetry. And by and by, when it was time for this miracle to happen, the little golden door

historic" which accurately describes some of these stories known as Mabinogion, which means, literally, Tales for the Children, or Little Ones. This famous book was tran

or over which is written Cy

here lived a man whose name was Tegid Voel. His wife was called Caridwen. And

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the world, she was much troubled. Therefore she decided to boil a caldron of Inspiration and S

three drops of Inspiration had been distilled from it. Gwion Bach she put to stirring the caldron, and Morda, a blind man, was to ke

of Gwion Bach, who was stirring the liquid. It burnt him, and he put his finger in his mouth. Because of the magic of

of Gwion Bach, was poisonous, and therefore the caldron burst. When Caridwen saw the work of her who

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me wrongfully," he sai

she replied; "it was

t forth after Gw

yhound into an otter, and chased little Gwion under the water. So close was the chase that he had to turn himself into a bird of the air. Whereupon Caridwen became a hawk and followed him and gave him no rest in the sky. She was just swooping down upon him, and little Gwion thought that the hour of his death had come, when he saw a heap of winnowed wheat on the floor o

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little Gwion appeared in the world again, entering it as a beautiful child. And even Caridwen, because of his beauty, could n

e most unlucky, and his name was Elphin. This year Gwyddno had told Elphin that he might have the drawing of the weir on May Eve. Usually the fish they drew from the weir were

o look, there was nothing in the weir e

w hast thou destroyed the virtue of the weir.

ere may be in this bag the

Pg 14] Elphin opened it, and as he opened

" cried Elphin. "Talies

ambling horse. Suddenly the little boy began to sing a song in which he told Elphin that the

ad fled in many shapes from Caridwen; as a frog, as a crow, as a chain, as a rose entangled in a thicket, as a wolf cub, as a thrush, as a fox, as a martin, as a squirrel, as a stag's antler, as iro

said Gwyddno t

-a poet," the

will he pr

than the weir has ever profi

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ant-browed boy began

sharp-pointed; Who is hard like flint; Who is salt like

Thus Elphin did, and the King set the day and the time for the race at the place called the Marsh of Rhia

n's horse. He told this youth to let all the King's horses get ahead of him; but as he overtook one horse after the other he was to take one of the burnt twigs of holly and strike the horse over the crupper, th

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es of linked gold on their heads, and gold saddles upon their backs. And the racing horses with their shell-formed hoofs cast up

ed and where the youth had thrown down his cap as he had been told. Elphin did as Taliesin bade him and put workmen t

for having taken me out of the weir and the leathern bag!

ight tell you the story of Pryderi, too, and how Pryderi found a castle where no castle had ever been, how he entered[Pg 17] it and saw "In the center of the castle floor ... a fountain with marble-work around it, and on the margin of the fountain a golden bowl on a marble slab, and chains hanging from