“Present, ere he spoke, was carried with the arms.” (Dict. Voce Breichiawl.)
That in the other Gorchan of Maelderw, page 85, may be rendered,
Present narrates that he was carried with the arms.
[113a] Lit. “Three heroes and three score and three hundred, wearing the golden torques.”
[113b] If “ffosawd” ever bears the meaning assigned to it by Dr. Pughe, it must have derived it from the practise of fighting in the fosse of a camp, (which would be peculiarly gashing) for on his own showing the word has no other etymon than that of “ffos,” a ditch, a trench. From the same root Merddin gives it the sense of burial—defossio.
“A hyt vraut yth goffaaf
Dy ffossaut trallaut trymmaf.” (Myv. Arch. vol. i. p. 149.)Until doom will I remember
Thy interment, which was a most heavy affliction.
Likewise Taliesin;—
“Hyd ydd aeth ef
Ercwlf mur ffosawd
As arnut tywawd.” (Myv. Arch. i. p. 69.)Until he, Ercwlf,
Descended into the fosse of the rampart,
And was covered with sand.
[114a] Their names are given in “Gwarchan Cynvelyn.” (Myv. Arch. vol. i. page 60. Davies’s Mythology, page 622.)
Three warriors and three score and three hundred,
To the conflict of Cattraeth went forth;
Of those who hastened from the mead of the cup-bearers,
Three only returned,
Cynon and Cadreith, and Cadlew of Cadnant,
And I myself from the shedding of blood.—